…(which was commissioned by Tate Modern in 2007) before heading to the airport for a flight to Istanbul, was a happy diversion (situated at the corner of Webber and Lancaster in Southwark, just around the corner from where I am staying) where I discovered the garden going gang-busters (as my aunt Kay says) with towering ..
…is the subtitle of the upcoming London Animal Estates HQ project (which I am in town preparing for) coming to the world headquarters of to Arup (the massive global firm of designers, planners, engineers, consultants, and technical specialists with 10,000 employees and 92 offices in 37 countries) as a new temporary public division of their ..
…opened tonight in the middle of London’s Ridley Road Market in Dalston – which I visited with my London Animal Estates collaborator Benjamin Reichen (of the super design collective Åbäke) whose former students had masterminded the project – alas, we were to early to eat, but were at least able to see the structure, seating, ..
…is what our flight from Italy descended into this afternoon, arriving into London City airport from Brindisi, and after ten days of constant summer heat and sun with barely a cloud in my memory I have been looking forward to an autumnal rainy chill here (as I settle in for five days to prepare for ..
…which seems to be a very tranquil town during the day, surprised me last night when the very designy chic bars and lounges spilled out on the the ancient whitewashed pedestrian streets, and the whole town (crying babies, rambunctious kids, cool teens, strolling couples, shuffling elderly) turned out to fill the Piazza San Oronzo and ..
…was the order of the day, as I finally departed Lecce, continuing my Puglian journeys gradually making my way west then north on the slow side roads through countryside and small towns with no final destination in mind, stopping off in the ceramics center of Grottaglie, the pretty hilltop town of Locorotondo, the trulli village ..
…in super baroque style are intricately carved into local honey Lecce limestone covering every available square millimeter of each billboard-like neighborhood church facade, and parts of almost all of the pallazzi, announcing the style, taste and riches of the local sponsoring noble family – is the visual pleasure of the city to be enjoyed at every ..
…are what have drawn me to this place more than anything, such as the dry-stone conical domes of the trulli, modest shelters or residences found mostly in the central Valle D’Itria (around Locorotondo, Alberbello, Martina Franca, Ceglie Messapica); the fortified farmhouse complexes of the masserie; and the primitive storehouses and temporary shelters dotting the landscape ..
…is something I have had an intense architectural crush on since first reading about them last year (a fortified farmhouse unique to Puglia, often with a series of connecting vaulted spaces made of local stone on the ground level for animals and farm workers around a central protected courtyard overseen by more comfortable castle-like quarters ..
…this evening were just pulling back into the docks where crowds of locals were waiting to receive them…and why I wondered, was it their families? was it a ritual? had they been away for weeks? but no, they were just waiting to inspect the day’s catch and pick up something fresh f..
…at the masseria I visited late this afternoon near Nardo’ must be the coolest thing I have seen on my Puglia adventures so far – an Animal Estate of the most sophisticated and monumental sort, which from the outside seems to be a fortified castle tower, only to reveal a surprising very contemporary-seeming interior lined ..
…with a dreamy baroque historic center where old men bike around aimlessly and gather on benches with friends you imagine they grew up with on that same block, was once a rival to Lecce, it’s larger neighbor to the north, is the general area of Puglia (or Salento, as locals would hastily/testily correct you, referring ..
…the beautiful beach cove, I had read about and dreamt about while researching Puglia last winter, which is isolated in a nature preserve just north of Galipoli and west of Nardo’ – is where I just happened upon a small B&B sign (Villa Chiara) that was the happy serendipitous answer to the 3pm question ‘where ..
…never happened this year since it would cost the farmers more to harvest them than they could then sell them for – leading to some sad but beautiful fields of rotting watermelons as far as you can see – one of many local agricultural anecdotes, aspects, stories, visions which have brought me here to the ..
…is a pleasure the way all Italian markets are, where you are given an instant taste of the precise season, climate, weather, landscape, culture, economy, history, habits, and personalities of the region, and this morning it was mushrooms, mushrooms, mushrooms – all gorgeous varieties – being cleaned and prepared by expert knife-wielding hands at my ..
…the Italian town I have been curious about and yet to visit was conveniently on my way from Aix-en-Provence to Brindisi, so after a long windy scenic train ride along the French Riviera with front row seats to the late August bikini-clad bathing French masses, I arrived in this pretty but rough around the edges port ..
…the 1734 mossy mossy mossy green fountain on Cours Mirabeau in Aix-en-Provence where everyone is welcome to enjoy a peaceful primitive moment (despite it’s unfortunate current circumstance as the center of a miniature traffic circle), makes you feel fresh just looking at it, even though it is fed by hot springs – cool, I really ..
…my next stop this afternoon as I gradually make my way by train south from meetings in the Netherlands to a long awaited pilgrimage to Italy’s mysterious heel of Puglia (before continuing on to autumn obligations for projects and talks in Istanbul, London, Den Haag, Reno, Philadelphia, Princeton, New York, Budapest, Sofia, Lodz) – and ..
…the simple casual homey delicious macrobiotic Marais cafe established in 1980, where you feel like you are dropping by your very cool exotic earthy French aunt and uncle’s place for a fresh vegan homemade lunch (bus your own dishes!) – is my Parisian culinary salvation at whose front door I was hungrily waiting at noon ..
…on Canal St. Martin in my new favorite Paris neighborhood of Bellevue is a welcome find this afternoon – again biking my way to all corners of town – where contemporary art, design, photography materials are a welcome jolt of inspiration in a town otherwise shuttered for the month, and I wish every neighborhood had ..
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