"The Welcome of European Cities and Towns"
Photo essay by Kathy Kurtak

In July 2004, I was fortunate enough to travel to France through a Lion's Club Youth Exchange program.  My French professor, Dr. Angelini, brought the opportunity to my attention and helped me set up an independent study and Honors project to obtain university credit.  I spent the first week with my host family (Lion's Club members themselves). They shared their lives and culture with me; taking me from architectural sight to historical sight, feeding me everything from snails to ostrich, and helping me learn French.  The next two weeks were spent with students from all over the world (Indonesia, Bulgaria, Finland), touring the area and learning about French history, art, culture, agriculture, etc.  At the end of the program, I visited friends in Stockholm and London.

As an architecture student I was naturally interested in the architecture in all these cities.  One thing I always noticed is how comfortable the surroundings were.  For my Honors project, I documented my observations and tried to pull apart some of the elements that make a European city so pleasant to be in.  The overiding things I noticed were that the scale of the buildings and their details were smaller, the streets were always pedestrian friendly, there were plenty of public spaces,  there were always events and activities going on in these public spaces, there were always landmarks to orient yourself to, and the old buildings and new buildings have been layers and woven together.  These observations were documented and presented here as a photo essay.

  IV. Public Activities

  VI. Layers of Old and New