Construction Day 1 Croatia Day 15

First day of construction. 0 injuries reported. We started demo, cut and fill, and setting up batter boards for our posts. Cut and Fill SUCKS! Especially with huge rocks in the soil. So day one resulted in us spray painting our layout.

Day 1 completed

pics from the first night @ Plivics Lakes

After a the long drive from the coast to the mountains we got off the bus and settled in. We stayed in an apartment and I had to share a room with Nick and Myles. 1 queen and 1 twin bed was the set up. That night we also had our welcoming dinner which was a 2 km walk from our apartment. It was good to get out of the dorm have a couple of Karlovacko beers and have food not from the cafeteria.

Weekend Trip

Design/Build Recap Day 9-16

Design? Check. Build? Check. Have an awesome trip to a magical place between designing and building? Check. The past week has been crazy. We presented our proposed designs to the head person of the dorm, the priest, instructors, housekeeper and students from the eco-group at the dorm last Friday (Oct. 13). Then we packed and headed out that afternoon to Plitvice Lakes. It was a beautiful place. It was much needed and it was awesome. Just imagine going on vacation right after a review and in a huge natural set of detention ponds! The drive was along the coast of the Adriatic Sea and into the mountains. Check out some of the pics. The first pic was of three landscape arch students and one civil engineer student being confused by grading and drainage! and the second pic is us enjoying the weekend! haha. We were welcomed to homemade "plum brandy" that our hostess Anna gave us. Good times.

mini motivational quote of the day

The road to success is dotted with many tempting parking spaces.
- Will Rogers

Design anyone?

These are some pics of a redesign for the dormitory entrance. THe design teams consists of Nick, Nicole and myself. We are designing for the high school and college students who stay at the dorm. A teen culture of smoking cigarettes!

Eco-Village

We checked out an Eco-Village in Hula (sp.) This was a community in the Croatian boonies that lived off the principles of sustainability and permaculture. There were rain water collection systems, compostable toilets, wind+solar power, straw bale construction and a native american sweat lodge. It was pretty incredible to see how someone can live without some of the comforts we take for granted. The people there also believe in a "Fairy" forests which we didn't get a chance to check out.