BATTERY RECHARGE

The three of us, that is, all of AVA, taken at the Santuari de Nostra Senyora dels Angels in the hills outside of Girona, Spain, last week. We all enjoy cycling, and the gravel and dirt roads in Catalonia offer to us ample bandwidth to recharge our batteries, which include:

design

cultural

culinary

physical

As we explore the areas outside of Girona, architecture is always on our minds.  What we find most compelling are the vernacular buildings.  Our rides would be a lot shorter if we didn’t stop to take photos of these buildings, which we do all the time.   

If you look closely at the white gable facade above, you will see that the door, and the circular window above the door, are centered on the gable.   However, we have found this centeredness to be uncommon. The  photo below is a more typical example, in which the door, the religious niche and the round window are not centered on the gable.   While this off centeredness is pretty much unthinkable in Upstate New York (can you imagine what historical review boards would say if we presented a gable elevation with off centered windows??…the horror!!!), it’s all cool here.

RIADS IN MOROCCO

In our recent travel to Morocco, we had the great experience of staying in two riads.   A riad is characterized by a center courtyard, around which all of the rooms and spaces are organized.  This traditional house typology is typically found in Morocco, and also Andalusia.   Generally two or more stories, the interior courtyard is open to the sky.  And this roof opening is the only significant aperture in the entire exterior fabric.  There are generally no windows on the exterior walls.   The interior central space is typically provided with greenery and water: two symbols of paradise in Islam.  

I did these two sketches of the riads, one in Tangier, and the other in Chefchaouen.  All I really wanted to notate was how the riad form admits and controls light.   As many of our clients know, we are fond of drawing the sun in our sketches, and we do so with kindergarten yellow.   The yellow on these sketches depicts the controlled admittance of harsh, clear, direct, and universal sunlight from above.   It was a peaceful experience to see the light serve as a unification of our perception.

Girona.