Goddag Archinect! It's great to finally be blogging - I've anticipated this for awhile. I feel like I know most of you regulars... I've been posting for a few months, now! Anyways, for those of you who don't know me, I'll briefly introduce myself.

I'm a 4th year Architecture student at the University of Cincinnati, and I'm currently in Copenhagen (DK) enrolled in the Danish Institute for Study Abroad (D.I.S.) architecture program. I'll be taking a Scandinavian architectural history course and participating in an architecture studio with perhaps 75+ other American students from all across the States. I've met people from Pratt, RISD, and Harvard, to people from UOregon and Sandiego - though I must say that the contingent from UC is the largest (~35 students).

Anyways, I'll be sharing what life and studio is like in Copenhagen for Archinect's benefit, as well as interested 2nd year students back in Cincinnati.

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[6/30]

So! I left the states about 2 weeks ago, and hit up London, Rotterdam, and Amsterdam before coming to Copenhagen. Whole 'nother story - check FB for some photos.

After arriving at CPH yesterday we were collected by some friendly DIS staff, and taken to the city center for some orientation stuff. After being shuttled to our kollegium (student housing, not unlike dormitories), we chilled and got settled in, then eventually hit the sack.

[7/1]

Today was the first REAL day of class. After meeting downtown we took some DIS buses to Christianshavn, a district on the eastern edge of the main Copenhagen canal.





After congregating in the Danish Arch. Academy, we went through some welcome and introduction speeches and kicked off the quarter with a dope performance by a Danish string quartet. We had some time to kill after that, so we walked around the corner to check out Copenhagen's Opera House, done by Danish architects Henning Larsen and Mærsk Mc-Kinney Møller.







Apparently there was some controversy between them regarding some design decisions with the opera house cladding... can anyone shed light on that? I couldn't understand our tour guide. >_
After some lunch, we sat down for a stimulating lecture on Copenhagen's historic to current day city sprawl, touching on different periods. Given by Erik Skoven, who's a practicing Danish architect and graduate from the Royal Academy of Fine Arts. I think he's prof'd at UC Berkeley and UOregon, too.

Then, we went for a canal tour! It was a beautiful (albeit hot) afternoon, and luxuriating on a boat was a fine conclusion to the day. Here's an image from one of Christianshavn's canals.





All in all, I'm really psyched about the next 7 weeks. We'll be taking some study tours to Stockholm and Helsinki, and I've heard talk of an unofficial expedition to Oslo to see Snøhetta's opera house.

Yea, that's about it for today. I'll check back in this weekend and give you guys a sense of what studio's like, and what our project will be. I'll be sure to include some Danish life-in-general stuff, too. I took some more photos of Copenhagen, and will continually be adding to them, so check up on those via my Facebook.

Hej hej!