In this post- we’re having a short break in the next couple of weeks – I would like to speculate on connections between the architect Carlo Scarpa’s and the garden architect Fernando Caruncho’s use of water.
This is prompted by an interesting post by an architecture student at Curtin University, Australia, blogging at architecture moves us. I am indebted to him for the use of the images below:
courtesy yang@yangsquare
Here is his quote:
Born as Venetian, water is one of the greatest elements of Carlo Scarpa’s architecture. The cemetery is carved with a series of everflowing canals; sometimes flowing aside the path and sometimes within a pond surrounding the steps and pavillion.
This put me in mind of Caruncho’s equally impressive, but more positive and sundrenched water parterres, large and reflecting to Scarpa’s minimal but exquisitely detailed.
S’Agao garden
Caruncho garden
And in turn, there is something about how both these men imagine and build with water which reminds me of Calvino’s meanderings in recollecting the city of venice…
“Kublai Khan does not necessarily believe everything Marco Polo says when he describes the cities visited on his expeditions, but the emperor of the Tartars does continue listening to the young Venetian with greater attention and curiosity than he shows any other messenger or explorer of his.” So begins Italo Calvino’s compilation of fragmentary urban images. As Marco tells the khan about Armilla, which “has nothing that makes it seem a city, except the water pipes that rise vertically where the houses should be and spread out horizontally where the floors should be,” the spider-web city of Octavia, and other marvelous burgs, it may be that he is creating them all out of his imagination, or perhaps he is recreating details of his native Venice over and over again, or perhaps he is simply recounting some of the myriad possible forms a city might take.
Quote from review for Invisible Cities, amazon.com
Happy summer break, see you at the beginning of September.
We have recently been asked to advise on developing a zen garden for a residential client.
Esterni’s philosophy and ‘look’ is grown out of the rugged, dry country of the Maremma, in southern Tuscany, and this project, at first glance, is quite removed; for those of you who have been exploring our blog, we posted some time ago a link to a great book, The Modern Japanese Garden (right hand column), and so we are bringing some research images in this post.
Co-incidentally I was sent a picture of a friend’s walking holiday exploring Japanese landscapes, so I include that here as it is, I think, nature at its best….
The East/West connection I am working with is based on a similar regard for elements that stand against time and the seasons, stone, water and evergreen planting: while in Italy these elements are used to suggest coolness and shade, in Japan they re-inforce the mysterious, hidden, wet glades of an enclosed and secretive nature. Granite is prevalent in Japan, found naturally as large stones, or beautifully and soulfully carved by skilled craftsmen. Stones can be laid in many metaphorical patterns: my favourite is a concentric configuration called ‘fallen petals’.
Bamboos and camelias replace the large box and laurel hedges of the renaissance garden, but are similarly used to define space, bring structure and stillness to the garden and be a strong visual presence in the winter months.
Water is silent, not the playful, tall arcs of fountains, but contemplative, large and mainly still ponds.
After these ruminations..enjoy the images, all gratefully borrowed from the Modern Japanese Garden.
And finally, a walk through long grass….
Research, new ideas, understanding of the issues facing the landscape design sector are key to how we want to develop the portfolio and design ethos of our company. Last week one half of the Esterni Design Partnership attended an excellent talk at the Winchester Discovery Centre, Hampshire, UK. The speaker was Kim Wilkie, a distinguished and respected local landscape architect. The speaker identified a relationship between history, intended as the traces left on the landscape by human habitation over the centuries, and his practice’s design philosophy and work.
Historical landscapes
Hampshire has a tradition of grand homes with large green parks that are now being updated, in some cases re-working original plans by Capability Brown. One of the private estates described was a particularly good interpretation of how we can adapt our present needs and aesthetic with frameworks inherited from the past.
Enjoy the green , green pictures of subtly structured landscape forms in this approach to sculpting the landscape.
Landscape architecture by Kim Wilkie Associates
Hampshire Landscape architecture by Kim Wilkie Associates
Hampshire Landscape architecture by Kim Wilkie Associates
Hampshire Landscape architecture by Kim Wilkie Associates
Hampshire Landscape architecture being built by Kim Wilkie Associates
