Delft's Oude Kerk and Niewe Kerk in Pictures

 Vermeer's grave in the Oude Kerk

View of Oude Kerk from Niewe Kerk Tower

 

View of Center Square from Niewe Kerk Tower

Caryssa

View of Delft from Niewe Kerk Tower

Interior of Niewe Kerk

The saga continues...

 My vegetative walls when through some more modifications last week.  I've been having problems with my effluent, specifically a lack of effluent in some of my columns.  The water goes in the top and doesn't seem to come out the bottom at least not the way I want it to.  In attempt to solve this problem I added some plastic inserts to the bottom of my panels.  Hopefully they will sort of keep the panel from absorbing the influent and channel it out of the soil.  So far it hasn't been as successful as I would like but I'll keep my fingers crossed.

*Update* As of Tuesday I had effluent from 7 of 8 columns a significant improvement over my previous 5 of 8.

You can see at the bottom there are white pieces of plastic extending from the bottom.  I also added some rope to stabilize the whole panel.  There was a incident on Friday...

Here you can see more clearly the plastic.  It goes up a few centimeters into the panel to prevent water spreading from the soil to the rock wool.

Suzie

Flying high in Paris

So We went to Paris last weekend. I'd like to thank so much to the NSF IRES program for giving us a great chance to do research here and also  to experience the European cultures.

1. ..2...prepare to take off

and flying

 

flying

high and wow so high ^_^

Eiffel tower

We flew from Arc de triomphe to Eiffel tower (on the second level of Eiffel Tower)

 

Floating Perceptions

It's easy to hear a concept like "floating buildings" and think of it as just that, a concept. However, there are many examples in the Netherlands that are occupied and in use. I feel that there is a major difference between reading about floating buildings and experiencing them.

Floating Pavilion currently in Rotterdam - a free-floating structure.  It's easily moveable too!

A common first thought is that a floating structure will act like a boat, moving up and down with every wave. Site visits show that this is not the case.

I don't feel a thing...

Giant moorings keep it from drifting away

Both the floating pavillion and floating neighborhood look like they have no movement at all and feel like being on solid ground.  Each uses a different method for floatation. The floating pavilion in Rotterdam sits on FlexBase, an EPS material. The material provides the buoyancy for the structure. The neighborhood at Ijburg uses open concrete boxes to float.

It's kind of like a basement... an extremely leak-resistant basement

Being inside a floating structure makes you realize it's more than feasible.

One of two walkways to reach the pavilion
Why two?
They make the pavilion accesible at varying tidal levels

-Caryssa

Paris, Je t'aime

Anh, Anton, and I took a weekend trip to the most wonderful of places. It went by so quickly that it seems like it was just a dream.

view from the top

 La Tour Eiffel

 Montmartre

Basilique du Sacre-Coeur

Arc de Triomphe

-MIG

Happy 4th of July!!

We decided to celebrate July 4th in style with a picnic outside of Mina. We ate some barbecue, coca cola, potato salad, watermelon, and Suzie's famous oatmeal cookies. We were only missing the fireworks. Hooray!!

-MIG

Postcards from Brugge, Belgium

Zand Square Fountain

Breakfast in Brugge. My first belgian waffle in Belgium!

 Mari

Dated building in beautiful historic Brugge.

 Church of Our Lady in the background.

Rooftop view from Huisbrouwerij De Halve Maan (Half Moon Brewery).

 Me (Kristen) on the roof.

 Belfry Tower.

Most of the sidewalks and roads are made of stones like this.



I'll drink to that

I came to the Netherlands a non coffee drinker.  It was an acquired taste I never bothered to acquire.  But it is everywhere here and I could not escape it.  The Netherlands is one of the greatest consumers of coffee in the world (I'm pretty sure the Dutch bleed coffee).  Besides being extremely available it is also fairly inexpensive to go out for coffee.  You can easily get a cappuccino for between 2 and 3 euro ($3-4.50).  Then of course at IHE there is the free coffee machine so it’s hard to say no there.  I think the real appeal though is that sometimes when you buy a coffee they give you either chocolate or a cookie with it.  I’m still not convinced coffee tastes good but a cookie dipped in coffee is delicious.  So I’ll drink the coffee just for that.

This was actually my third cup on Saturday...

Suzie

De Hoge Veluwe National Park

I am not sure if there is any better way to enjoy a Sunday in the Netherlands then going to De Hoge Veluwe National Park.

Grab yourself a white bicycle (free for visitors of the park) and ride parts or all of the 23 km bike trail.We ended up riding the whole trail, and below are some of the things we saw.

Anton on his white bicycle.

Jean Deuffet's Jardin d'email (1974) located in the sculpture garden at the Kroller-Muller Museum, which can be found right in the middle of the park. The museum houses many contemporary art pieces.

Anton and Kristen climbing fallen trees in the sand dunes just off of the bike trail.