July 14, 2010

The Greatest Italian Architects in Korea!

MotoElastico: Marco Bruno, Jihyun, Minji, and Simone Carena. Photo via MotoElasticoThis summer is an inspirational one...Inspiration on a Ducati!

Amanda has been interning at THE GREATEST Italian architectural firm in Korea...MotoElastico. Run by Simone Carena and Marco Bruno of Torino, Italy, MotoElastico is bubbling with espresso and creativity. One of their landmark achievements is a fusion style hanok (Korean house) built in what is left of the old part of Seoul (Samcheong dong, Bukchon dong, Anguk dong). Check out the New York Times article on the house...


Simone with his wife Jihye, and son Felice

However, I think the article missed an opportunity. A house does not make a home...but Felice can! The house is simply fantastic...but Simone and family give it life. And Felice is the spice of life!

...But I digress, Amanda is now getting an early taste of creativity at one of the coolest places on earth...MotoElastico!


Photo via MotoElastico

VAROOOOM!!! An Italian Architect has to have a Ducati...no question about it.


“Forget about it Adam! ...and wipe your drool off the tank!”

“Keep beaming Amanda, ’cuz this is the closest you are going to get to guys on motorcycles!”


Amanda walking up the narrow stairway complete with a MotoElastico trap door...

BTW...architects are on the top of the design food chain. They don’t just design tall buildings...

Photo via MotoElastico

...They create all sorts of awesome projects for themselves...How do you like this master piece? I mean the chair...and quite comfortable considering that I am sitting on several 4 inch diameter holes.

July 10, 2010

One in a Billion...


Alexandria and Amanda at the Seoul Foreign School (Thanks for the tour, Ben!)

Amanda is aspiring to be an architect and is diligently preparing for college admission. She has been getting awesome grades...3.9 average...and putting together a great sketch book and portfolio. During the school year, Amanda took a tour to IIT in Chicago. Though she is worried about her SAT and ACT, Amanda is thinking she might follow in the footsteps of alumni like Mies van der Rohe and Helmut Jahn.


Professor 이건표 (Kun-pyo Lee), Dean of the Industrial Design Program, KAIST, South Korea.
Photo via KAIST, HCIDL


Amanda is looking at other schools too, RISD, McGill, etc. ...earlier this summer we took a trip to KAIST, here in Korea. There, she had the honor of meeting the Dean of Industrial Design, Professor 이건표 (Kyun-pyo Lee) (a distinguished alumni of the Institute of Design at IIT). He was gracious enough to take Amanda to lunch and give her some words of wisdom. He is not only a great design champion, but a great human being as well. Professor Lee really did not have extra time to meet us, but as he told us, he believes there are billions of people on this earth and meeting Amanda was a once in a billion opportunity. I believe he is correct...we really should treat everyone we meet like a one in a billion chance...

I expect great things will happen for Professor Lee. What an inspiration...I hope Amanda will look back on this summer as a turning point in her life.