I finally got to visit the passage tombs at Newgrange and Knowth. What a brilliant day!
Category / Architecture & Urban Design
Amazing Sights of Lisbon
The Spanish architect Santiago Calatrava has designed some of the world’s finest train stations and bridges. The station in Lisbon reflects the care and precision of Calatrava’s design work.
Lisbon is a glorious city.
I was truly blessed to spend five glorious days in this place–the capital of Portugal–as part of the Fulbright Inter-Country Lecturing Program. I will never forget my time there, the places I visited, or the people I got to know.
I’ve attached a few of the iPhone photos snapped during my stay. (Copyright Shannon Chance, 2013.)
This Art Noveau Metro entry must have been moved to Lisbon from Paris.
Lisbon is a sea port…
…home to some of history’s most accomplished navigators.
The Jerónimos Monastery…
…is an architectural delight…
…inside and out.
It has been described as Manueline, Plateresque, Renaissance architecture.
The train station…
…designed by Santiago Calatrava…
…is an architectural and structural marvel.
Around Aveiro
Modernist architecture abounds in Portugal. This is particularly true on college campuses, since most were built after the mid 1970s.
Although the population is just 10.6 million, there are 24 schools of architecture!
I’ve included a few photos of buildings at the University of Aviero campus below.
Here’s a view of downtown Aveiro.
Jose gave a me a grand tour of the campus of the University of Aveiro.
It has many modernist buildings….
arranged around a central courtyard.
All with tropical modernist flair.
Our drive to Agueda was also full of sites, because bird nesting is encouraged along the highway here.
Student-Centered and Urban: Architectural Education at IST
The second stop of my Fulbright Inter-Country Lecturing visit was to the Instituto Superior Técnico (IST). One of the organizers of the day, José Figueiredo, explained to me that IST “is the biggest and oldest engineering school in Portugal.”
Professor Teresa Heitor lined up all kinds of fascinating events for me. The 60 first year architecture students presented their work to me (in English!). Then, they came along as their professors gave me a tour of all the architecture studios. We got a glimpse of what these particular students will encounter in the coming years, as they progress through the five-year architecture program at IST.
Their architectural education will be structured very, very much like ours in the USA.
Their design assignments will be quite similar as well, although the projects students encounter here do tend to have more of an urban focus than most programs I’ve visited in the US. (I serve on architectural accrediting teams and have visited many different schools in the US through conferences as well as accreditation visits. I have to say, however, that my home institution–Hampton University–has done a noteworthy job over the past decade of integrating urbanism into the curriculum. Of that, I have been proud.)
At IST, I was particularly impressed with what I learned from the first year professors. They’re doing a great job overcoming what I see as a big weakness in architectural education today. So many teachers around the globe focus on teaching students to make “signature buildings” and “modernist masterpieces” that other architects will love.
These teachers, instead, endeavor to draw out their students’ unique interests and abilities. Unlike the many teachers who seemingly want to “wipe the slate clean”, these professors seek to help students draw from the wealth of experience and knowledge they bring to the first year design studio.
They do lots of collaborative design at IST…
…every year they have a week-long design event where teams of students work together to create a design like this…
…teams for that include one student from each year (1-5).
The first year architecture instructors here…
…do a great job implementing “student-centered” approaches to teaching…
…they try hard to avoid instilling their own aesthetic values in students.
On the other hand, they do instill values regarding urbanism…
…and urban design problems happen in each year of this architecture program.
The second year includes some classic assignments of analysis…
…and more intimately (i.e., smaller) scaled design problems.
In fifith year, students can do either an individual thesis, or an organized design studio (as shown here).
Here’s a project for third year where students analyzed famous buildings.
I also had the chance to meet with the many architecture PhD students at IST.
And learn about the research projects they are doing.
This student was fascinated by the beehive roofs in the town she spent holidays as a child…
…and today she is studying this topic for her dissertation.
At the end of the day, I delivered a lecture/workshop on research paradigms and group learning…
…to architecture and engineering teachers and doctoral-level students.
International Lecture Tour
In less than two days, I fly out of Dublin for a two-week “lecture tour”. I’m being sponsored though Fulbright Portugal next week and Fulbright Belgium the week after. This is part of the larger Fulbright Inter-Country Lecturing program.
We have an exciting, action-packed schedule outlined.
In addition to speaking and learning about how other people teach architecture, engineering, and education, I’ve also got a heavy load of homework to carry along.
While I’m away, I’ll hopefully find time to write three conference abstracts, finalize and submit a funding proposal, and prepare for the class I’m co-teaching in May.
Wish me luck!
Lisbon (photo downloaded from Cunard Cruise line)
PORTUGAL
Wednesday, April 10
Visit to Escola Superior de Tecnologia do Barreiro of the Instituto Politécnico de Setúbal.
Thursday, April 11
Round-table talk at Setubal Polytechnic Institute (IPS).
Friday, April 12
Presentation on Tools for Assessing Design Students’ Cognitive Development to Architecture PhD students at Instituto Superior Técnico (IST).
Monday, April 15
Presentation on The Use of Staff Learning Groups to Transform Engineering Education at the Dublin Institute of Technology to the Department of Education at the University of Aveiro and engineers from the Polytechnic School of Águeda. I’ll also meet some of the students and teachers using Problem-Based Learning at the Polytechnic School in Aveiro and/or Águeda (25km away).
Tuesday, April 16
Meet with engineering teachers at the Universidade do Minho engineering campus in Guimarães.
Leuven (photo downloaded from KU-Leuven website)
BELGIUM
Wednesday, April 17
Meet with the president of the European Society of Engineering Educators (SEFI), an engineering professor at Katholic University of Leuven who also directs KU-Leuven’s Teaching and Learning Department.
Thursday, April 18
Deliver a presentation 7-9 PM on Research Paradigms: Filtering What We See and Know to the architecture school (I will discuss major research paradigms and then provide examples of studies I’ve done that used methods aligned with positivism, interpretivism, constructivism, and critical realism. Presentation includes examples of work I’ve done in Africa).
Monday, April 22
Presentation on Tools for Assessing Design Students’ Cognitive Development to members of the LESEC (the Teaching and Learning Department) at KU-Leuven.
Tuesday, April 23
Interview with Fulbright Belgium for use on their websites.
Fulbright Positions in Architecture
I received email notification about exciting Fulbright opportunities in Architecture.
I am writing to inform you of exciting U.S. Fulbright Scholar grant opportunities in Europe and Eurasia in the field of architecture. Applications for the 2014-15 academic year are currently being accepted from all levels of faculty and professionals, including early career.
We are soliciting applications for a broad range of awards in your field, including but not limited to:
Finland #4197 Fulbright-Aalto University Distinguished Chair (Finland)
United Kingdom #4368 Fulbright-Scotland Visiting Professorship at the Glasgow Urban Lab
Kosovo #4266 Theory and Practice of Restoration of Cultural Heritage Monuments
Turkey #4388 Social Sciences and Humanities
Bulgaria #4169 Pure and Applied Sciences
Applicants must be U.S. citizens and hold a Ph.D. or appropriate professional/terminal degree at the time of application. The application deadline is August 1, 2013.
In addition, All Disciplines awards are available in all countries in Europe and Eurasia and can be a good option if no discipline-focused award matches your expertise. Please visit the 2014-15 Catalog of Awards at http://catalog.cies.org/index.aspx to learn more about the opportunities available in this year’s competition. For most awards, English is sufficient for teaching and foreign language proficiency is only needed to the extent required by the proposed research project, if applicable.
For eligibility factors, detailed application guidelines and review criteria, please follow the link http://www.cies.org/us_scholars/us_awards. You may also wish to register for one of our webinars at http://www.cies.org/Webinar/ or join our online community, My Fulbright, a resource center for applicants interested in the program.
Please feel free to share this message with members of your listservs, newsletters or social media. For further information about specific awards, please contact the program staff listed in the award description.
Best wishes,
Europe/Eurasia Staff
EuropeEurasia@iie.org
202-686-4000
Fulbright Scholar Program
1400 K Street NW, Suite 700
Washington, DC 20005
If you wish to be removed from this group’s mailing list, click here
Dublin Castle and Chester Beatty
None of my guest have been able to get into Dublin Castle, although I had the chance to see it last September, on Culture Night. I’ve finally figured out why it’s closed to tourists. This year Ireland is the president of the EU. The Castle is being used for all sorts of formal ceremonial event. Therefore, it’s closed to the public until June 30.
A tourist to Dublin will find the best view of the castle from the mort side, looking south from the garden in the front of the Chester Beatty Library.
The Chester Beatty is still open and offers one of the most fascinating places to visit in Dublin. To access it, you have to go around the west wall of the castle and through the side gate.
Patty, Kitty Lee, and I visited the Chester Beatty Library and saw fragments of the Bible that date back to 150 AD. These are some of the oldest pieces of the document in existence in the world. While at the Beatty Library, we also saw a temporary exhibition of paintings including one that Patty has always admired, The Gleaners. It was painted by Jules Adolphe Aimé Louis Breton in 1854. It’s from the period when artists were trying to record the daily life of laborers and the hard reality they faced in the mid-1800s. We could have spent much longer in the exhibits as we had very little time in the non-Christian collections on this particular visit.
The Library’s website explains:
Described by the Lonely Planet as not just the best museum in Ireland, but one of the best in Europe, the Chester Beatty Library, Dublin is an art museum and library which houses the great collection of manuscripts, miniature paintings, prints, drawings, rare books and some decorative arts assembled by Sir Alfred Chester Beatty (1875-1968). Its rich collections from countries across Asia, the Middle East, North Africa and Europe opens a window on the artistic treasures of the great cultures and religions of the world. Chester Beatty Library was named Irish Museum of the year in 2000 and was awarded the title European Museum of the Year in 2002.
Egyptian papyrus texts, beautifully illuminated copies of the Qur’an, the Bible, European medieval and renaissance manuscripts are among the highlights of the collection. In its diversity, the collection captures much of the richness of human creative expression from about 2700 BC to the present day.
Admission to the Chester Beatty Library is free!
This beautiful garden is nestled between Dublin Castle and the Chester Beatty Library.
This is the back side of Dublin Castle. It’s best view most visitors to Dublin will get this year since the Castle is closed.
Kitty Lee, Patty, and I caught a glimpse of it on our way to see the exhibits at the Chester Beatty Library.
The Impressive National Library of Ireland
You’ll recall that the National Library was on the blog post I made for Kitty Lee. It was among the things I wanted to see but hadn’t yet.
My recent visitor, Pam Eddy, used to enjoy going there when she was a Fulbright scholar to Ireland in the spring of 2009. She knew the ropes of getting in and around the place, and that made it easier for me to jump in and enjoy being there. (I’ll admit I’d been a bit intimidated by the place before going there with her.)
We viewed an exhibition of W. E. B Yeats, stowed our bags in the handy (all glass) lockers, and proceeded into the grand reading hall. I’ve posted a host of images to show you the grandeur or the hall and the entry procession leading to it.
Photos outside the National Library show the exact same scene a century ago.
Pam and I signed in…
…and looked around the formal reading room.
It doesn’t look so different today…
…than in this old photograph.
The ceiling is beautiful and the space filled with natural light.
The furnishing are from days past…
…the clock…
…and word work from a time when craft was highly valued.
Pam and I…
…collected memories…
…enjoyed the space…
…admired the materials…
…and then found our way back to the door. Perhaps next time we’ll bring some work to do in the stillness of this grand place.
Irish Roots
Image of Cobh downloaded from the Visit Cobh website.
Recently, I’ve uncovered more and more roots to my family tree in Ireland.
For me, it starts with my great grandmother, Teresa Neenan. She was a smart, spry, and energetic woman who was a dear part of my early life. We called her “Nanny” and spent a number of holidays with her. I vividly recall images from an Easter she spent in Staunton, Virginia (my parents’ home town).
My great grandmother was born in Astee and christened in Ballybunnion (in Co. Kerry) in 1890. She left Cobh (in Co. Cork) in 1912. Like so many others, my great grandmother left Ireland when times were very hard, and opportunities limited.
Nanny left Ireland as Bridget Neenan and emerged from Ellis Island as Teresa Neenan. (There seems to be a data entry error in the records at Ellis Island, as someone translated the into n into an M somewhere along the way. Fortunately, it’s spelled properly on the wall at Ellis Island.)
In the States, Teresa married “Beppie” O’Mara who owned a taxicab company in Millburn, New Jersey. They had four girls, including my grandmother Alice who was born in 1916. That was a pivotal year in history when Ireland began its final quest for independence….
I visited Cobh recently and saw the breathtaking neo-Gothic cathedral that marks the summit of the town. I have enjoyed my visits to Cobh immensely. It’s amazing to realize that this Fulbright scholarship brought me back to Nanny’s homeland. It’s a land that has become my spiritual home. The welcome I have received here has been inspiring and heartwarming. I hope Nanny would be proud.
My mom and I look forward to visiting our “cousins” in Kerry in May. We’ll get to retrace more of our roots then and meet even more family!
More Palace Bar
These pictures are from our evening downstairs at the Palace Bar:
I love the architecture of the place.
The evening we went there was a rugby game on the tele…
..and even we were mesmerized!
Palace Bar downstairs.
Ireland by Chance 