Project Week: London Design + Engineering, Day 5

Saturday, March 9, 2019

London Design + Engineering, Day 5

Saturday, March 9th 2019

Exploring London's Architecture and having some fun!

The weather was brilliant by London standards as the group took off to visit the Olympic Park. As we got off from Stratford Station and walked through the Westfield mall, the London Stadium, home to West Ham United, presented itself over the bridge and marked our entrance to where London held the 2012 summer Olympics. While making our way to the London Aquatics Center designed by Pritzker winning architect Zaha Hadid, a huge red tower structure caught the group’s eye with the potential slide ride marked 114.5m tall. During the visit to the London Acquatics Center, part of the group visited the interior pools and studies the design while the rest enjoyed their game of the trip – Uno. Moving on, the group decided to check out the Arcelormittal Orbit, or the red tower with slides. Unfortunately, the slide was sold out, but as the skies of London cleared out the group enjoyed a windy view from the very top and was entertained by huge mirrors installed to walls at a curve. Coming down from the tower, our project leader Christopher Fridlington introduced a brief architecture overview on the park before getting back on the Tube to central London.
br> Reaching central London, the group pushed through the bustling London Bridge and made it across to the London eye. After a quick break for lunch, the group waited in line to board the London Eye, the 135m tall observation wheel. At this time, London has cleared up through strong winds leaving clouds dotting the blue sky. The group over looked the entire city of London, including the Palace of Westminster, the Big Ben under construction, the Shard and other land marks of London. Having taken the 30 minute ride on the wheel, we walked back to West London for a boat ride on the Thames River while the other part of the group resided to a peaceful park while also toured the area walking.

With the group reunited roughly an hour later, we took the tube once again and visited the Design Museum which held two exhibitions. One of them revolved around future furniture where it exhibited furniture that took cutting edge designs and showcased futuristic imagination of furniture by designers in the past. The other exhibition presented architectural models where the rooms elaborated on the process and concept behind the buildings. We then returned to the hotel for two hours before dinning at a legit Italian restaurant across from the Design Museum. Unable to spell or pronounce any of the dishes, all I have to say was it was absolutely amazing. As for what happened at the end of the day, London rained like any evening.