…are sweetly mowing the lawn on a chilly afternoon in front of the garden house of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe which he used as a Summer retreat after his Italian journeys (previously mentioned here) and where he died in 1832 – but today I am in town for a talk at the invitation of Christine ..
…is a massive Corbusian housing block designed by a team of Italian architects and built in 1972 in the southwestern outskirts of Rome – and I have recently become fascinated by stories of how residents have been gradually customizing and occupying it in unexpected ways – but departing from Fiumicino today I actually flew right ..
…was where I studied architecture from 1990-91 and did my thesis with Aldo Rossi – and today (a typical cold rainy lovely mess) it was my special pleasure to go back and give a lecture at that place I had once been such a young eager foreigner – and the students today seem so much ..
…in the Venice sestiere of Cannaregio where I lived from 1990-91, was the highlight of my day, involving a visit back to my old street, Calle Riello, only to find that the lady who sold us fruits and vegetables around the corner was still there selling fruits and vegetables – so of course I introduced ..
…was really the only highlight for me this year – part of Archizoom, co-founder of the Domus Academy, provocative thinker, writer, philosopher, designer, activist and architect in the broadest sense, and in a way that just does not exist anymore, and perhaps only ever really emerged in Italy during a short post-war golden age of ..
…at least 500 years old, southeast of Florence, just up the hills of Bagno a Ripoli, right after the tiny village La Fonte is where I lived from 1993-94, and it is where I went today with my old Italian friend who I first met there, Katia, with her energetic six year old son Ottavio ..
…is beginning to pop up – obviously enjoying the alternating sunny and rainy weather we have been having – and creating brilliant contrasts between the raw wood crates containing the colorful graphic wrapped cartons with their shiny silver interiors holding the bright spring gre..
…is the cute, rustic, and homespun exception to my otherwise ‘trashy’ (in the best sense) garden of exclusively found, salvaged, and recycled goods with all of the plants growing in the random empty containers I have gathered around the Academy – but those potatoes are really looki..
…also known as ‘vermicoltura’ around here, is going well up on the Roman rooftop and the little red worms are reproducing quickly, eating their daily kitchen scraps, turning it into fertile worm castings, and all the while smelling just great – ‘che bel profumo!’ we say as we stick our noses in – and their ..
…which first came out in 1982, and was pretty much the only published resource out there on the topic when I first started the Edible Estates project in 2005, is so important to me that when I saw on my caller ID that Ros was actually calling me out of the blue in 2006 I ..
…and their welcome colors are something I am admiring on the rails from Chiusi to Roma Trastevere this rainy ..
…of Southern Tuscany, the austere sensuous rolling terrain marked with cypress lines and clusters is one of my favorite all-time landscapes which even seems sacred and mystical speeding..
…are on fire right now in the most spectacular spectrum of shades from bright yellows to gaudy pinks and deep magentas which are also all to be found on one pixelated leaf. (more on ..
…is a medieval village (circa 1200) on a hill near Buonconvento in the province of Siena on Via Francigena, the historic pilgrimage route from Canterbury to Rome, that has found new life as a very comfortable retreat – where I have the pleasure of retreating, hiking, reading, and being cozy inside on rainy days during ..
…was an unexpectedly fun communal post-lunch social event signaled by the alarm bells and then culminating with the entire American Academy in Rome community gathered around a welcome campfire – serving as an emergency extinguishing demonstration – on a chilly Fall ..
…are being made for the kids, and some of the adults, at the Academ..
…at the American Academy in Rome tonight (over the delightful food prepared in the kitchen she revolutionized, and presided over by the indomitable indefatigable Mona Talbott) was a highlight of autumnal Rome for me , as we sat for 3 hours absorbed in conversation about food, art, gardens, and culture occasionally interrupted by animated stories ..
…presents a lovely bounty in basket and on head as you enter the back gardens as Villa Borghese, though the original now sits back in New York at the Metropolitan Muse..
…is at version 3.0 with small revisions every day, and now my worm compost bin is outside too, so the worms can get a little ..
…is something that I recently came across (at gardenpool.org) where a whole subterranean productive animal/vegetable realm is created within empty backyard swimming cavities in which kitchen garden plants, chicken, fish, and moving water is brought together under a translucent canopy to let in the sun and retain the heat and I’m wondering if there anything ..
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