It’s been a while! I’ve kept busy at work this past month with some exciting changes. The team I was first placed with for a competition project wrapped up and submitted mid-March and I have begun to help out with a new project and team. It has been a great learning experience thus far, the first project being mainly the structural reuse and extension of an existing office building – a type of programming I haven’t really worked on before.
While it was good to dive into and learn about new sides of architecture and programming requirements, I’m excited to really get into this new project as it pertains to building design in a community/neighborhood master plan scale. While I love focusing on architecture, it’s fun to draw on my previous education in urban planning when thinking about new projects as well as more community-centered design considerations in contrast with the previous office and commercial competition work.
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| Cute houses in Ronne |
Since we had Thursday and Friday off this past week for Easter, I took off Monday through Wednesday as well to make it a whole week of vacation. Some coworkers and I then booked an Airbnb on the island Bornholm for three nights, last Sunday through Wednesday, which was super fantastic! We first thought the weather might be gloomy the whole time but while the Sunday was overcast with a sprinkle of rain, it cleared up for us on Monday and we had a great time exploring the many sights around the island. Our Airbnb was located in a small, forested area outside the town of Hasle, just 250 meters from the beach. We took the night ferry across from Køge
on Saturday evening and arrived Sunday morning. After checking in to our Airbnb and taking a much-needed nap, we went to explore Hasle as well as walk along the beach. Although most things are still closed due to Covid, it was still really fun walking around and exploring the local architecture.
On Monday, we drove up and around, making a loop of the north portion of the island, walking through Hammershus Castle Ruins dating back to around 1200, Opal Lake (an old granite quarry-turned swimmable lake with walking trails), Hammeren Lighthouse, the Town of Gudhjem and finally Østerlars Kirke, the largest of four round churches on the island built in the 12th and 13th centuries. I was especially interested in the ties used on all the churches (as well as lots of the old houses in town) we saw all over the island somehow involved with the beams inside but I will have to dig a little deeper to learn more.
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| Hasle Harbour Bath by White Arkitekter |
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| Hammershus Castle Ruins |
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| Gudhjem |
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| Østerlars Kirke |
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| Opal Lake |
Tuesday was spent on the south half of the island exploring a beautiful beach just south of Arnager before continuing down to Dueodde Strand on the southern tip of the island. Ranked the third best beach in the Nordic region, the beach did not disappoint! We spent a good while enjoying the white sand dunes and sun with very few other visitors before checking out two concrete WWII bunkers built during German occupation of the island in the forest just beyond the dunes. For a late lunch, we enjoyed smoked fish and fishcakes from Nexø Gammel Røgeri with a nice view over the water from a picnic bench outside town. In the evening back at the summerhouse, we walked to the local beach to watch the sunset and then again after dark to catch some stars.
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| Boardwalk back from the beach |
After checking out of our Airbnb in the morning, we drove to the main port town of Ronne where we walked around town and enjoyed some falafel and fries from a street food truck. Walking in to a ceramics shop, I had a great chat with the woman working who was a glass artist and years earlier had visited Seattle to tour Dale Chihuly’s glass workshop as well as do an artist residency on Bainbridge Island. So cool! We then sunbathed on a small beach by the marina while we waited for our ferry back home. What a great, relaxing and productive vacation!
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