world of wonders – soul of place

 what is a place of wonder? why are some places full of wonder. what makes a place wonder full? 

treasure cave - cliffs of taktsang monastery, bhutan

which is more full of wonder – the creations of humanity or natural wonders? how would you choose only seven?

great buddha at kotoku-in temple, kamakura, japan

how do some places capture the essence of a culture,  an era, a civilization, an empire?

great wall of china

do places of wonder hold the power of the dreams, the collective spirit of a people?

holding sun and ocean

where are the energy lines, the intersections of spiritual resonance, epicenters of power?

borobudur and mount merapi - java, indonesia

are there places where your dreams are entwined with those that have come before?

humayun's tomb - delhi, india

i’m wandering in the world of wonders, looking for the soul of place, seeking the spirit held within our dreams.

bamboo forest - kyoto, japan

the scent of place

how do we create captivating places that hold in our memories – that draw us back over and over, that linger in our minds, pulling us to them again?  in the design of places, i’ve been thinking about captivation and memory.  why places draw my attraction or repulsion, why places pull me in – and what is striking about the nature of memorable places?  

rose window

 

 

the power of the link between memory and scent deepens the connection to the experience of place.  the more i’ve explored the idea, my experience is heightened – like smelling in technicolor.  many of my most powerful memories of places can be triggered by scent.  

last summer, i met lorenzo villoresi in his atelier in florence – surrounded by thousands of essences he has collected from travels all over the world, i asked him about the idea of scent in architecture or place, rather than the personal fragrance that he is most known for creating.  he shared this book with me “invisible architecture, experiencing places through the sense of smell”, a wonderful exploration of this concept.  

lorenzo villoresi - florence, italy

 

in the hills above florence we explored one of the few iris farms dedicated to the production of the essence.  as he explained, the iris essence is nearly 10 times the cost of most essences “notes” as the nose calls them.  the rare iris essence is extracted from iris bulbs – the flower has no scent.  the bulbs are re-planted after shaving off the bottom two-thirds, macerating, drying and powderizing.  

iris bulb harvest - tuscany

 

iris collection arbor - tuscany

 

dried iris bulbs - tuscany

 

 i still remember being stricken by memory through scent when i picked up an old perfume bottle from a friend’s dresser, and was overwhelmed with the memory of my babysitter from preschool years, whom i hadn’t seen or thought of for more than 10 years – her presence was powerfully evoked to that moment through her fragrance.  it wasn’t dragon’s blood – i don’t even know the name of that perfume, but i know that i can recognize that scent again 20 years later. 

dragon's blood - pharmacia in florence, italy

 

i gravitate toward the scent of wood, wet fir, earth, leaves and tangled underbrush from the misted forests of my early childhood – those scents transport me back to the earth in my mouth and leaves in my hair as i tumbled down a fern-covered ravine.

forest path

 

about six months before i travelled to bhutan, bertrand duchaufour created a fragrance for l’artisan, the french perfumer - named dzongkha - that is the national language of bhutan. this fragrance he created was based upon his travels in bhutan - when i found this fragrance i was very intrigued.  dark, smoky, woody – scents that i love, gave me a preview of what i was to experience in the himalayan temples of this small buddhist kingdom.  i fell in love, with both the fragrance, and the place.  i’ve kept that fragrance close since that journey, and it transports me there.

bhutan temple

 

i’ve been imagining a place – a new project, a building made of materials selected based upon their embodied scent. no drywall, no paint, no glues – beyond non-toxic.  pure materials, and their response to wind, sunlight, chill, and rain – the changing of the seasons, the climate, the cycles of day to night.  would that place be memorable? 

a sense of time

spinning prayer wheels - bhutan

architecture is design in at least four dimensions.  there are more dimensions i wonder about, that physicists theorize on – 10, maybe 11 dimensions - though they are not physically evident.  translating the others into concrete, or even words, is an obscured, mystical and magical act –  like the infusion of spiritual and magical powers into layered metals in the making of the keris blade. 

this master keris maker – a national treasure of java (who passed away only months after our time together), told of the final fusion - made during days, maybe weeks of meditation – no eating, no sleeping – a trance-like state where the spirit and magic of the blade is evoked.  it is physically manifest in the intricate layered metal patterns on the finished blade, and serves as powerful protection to the family for whom it is made - it takes about one year to complete the process of folding and fusing metals in the creation of one blade.

javanese keris master - national treasure

keris maker's workshop - java

what dimension is this?  on a neverending exploration into realms only glimpsed, returning to the fourth dimension seems simple.  time is powerfully and clearly the fourth dimension that is embodied in architecture – and when not considered as essential to the foundation of a design – it is powerfully and tragically missing.  architecture defines the passing of the day - dawn to dusk to midnight, the passing of the season – heat, wind, rain, snow, the passing of eras, the rise of empires, the dissolution of cultures. 

bursa mosque

 

bhutan - rammed earth structure

when i look at buildings i see time – forgotten or treasured.  i see the evidence of time – through the weathered patina of materials, the craft and construction of the culture, the purpose of the structure reflecting the industry of its time.  i see the line and wave of people moving from one place to another, mixing across cultures and landscapes - the alchemic mix of east and west, islam and christian, buddhist and animist, merchant and shintoist, dutch farmer and frontier settler… 

skagit valley barn

i see strata of time, layered one over another. of one time, re-made anew, or left to dissolve..

essaouira morocco

palouse agricultural outpost

as we draw, we can move from left to right (width), forward and backward (depth), and upward and downward (height).  in time, we can only be in the present, being taken toward our future.  in our minds, we go back – our memories – in our minds, we go forward – our dreams. 

in studying the sufi concept of time – it’s beyond the inevitable past, present and future line – it’s the whirling, cycling, spiraling continuum, no beginning, no end…it is a connection from the infinite to the present, from the present to the infinite – that is the hand, upward, the body, whirling, the feet, grounded.

whirling dervish - istanbul

my son reminds me that everything we see in the present moment is actually in the past – due to the fractional amount of time it takes for light to move through space.  the idea that our reality is not real – that is well proven – our brains are designed for survival, not reality – and our perception of reality is limited by the capacity of our senses along with the contained past experiences our brain has stored - which means even with the aid of telescopes and microscopes we can still only percieve less than 25% of what actually exists. 

infinite invocation

as we create buildings, we reference what has been known, and anticipate what will be – the act of architecture is fusion of the past, present, and future.  memories, senses, and dreams – together.  if we take great care in that orchestration, it can be beautiful.  it can be perfectly imperfect, wabi sabi, impermanent, organic, cyclic,  temporally ambiguous, time shifting, both of the past and the future.  transformational.

sinan's bath - istanbul

seeking beauty, always.

bhutan architecture

haa farmhouse

In advance of my recent journey through Bhutan, in all the imagining of exploring the spirituality, culture, landscape, and connecting to the people, one of the great attractions I strongly felt in preparing for this journey was the stunning imagery I had studied of Bhutanese architecture.

nuns of kilagompa

I’ve been on a longer journey all over the world, always seeking to learn more about the spirit of buildings, and how they represent the vision, dreams, and imagination of the cultures that create and use them.

I was not disappointed. I was captivated, mesmerized, my eyes tried to soak in the perfect proportions, the graceful angled walls, the gently sloping, dramatically extended eaves floating overhead, the earthen and stone and solid massing and textures, the deep scents of wood, earth and smoke, the beams of light streaming through gracefully carved windows, the perfectly orchestrated rhythm and layering of fenestration, framed in stunningly intricate trimmings and woodcarvings, and the rich and effusively colored layers of decorative patterns and endlessly detailed artwork and paintings on walls, columns, eaves, doorways, friezes, the rich heavy timbered, polished and leaf-dyed floors – where I spent much time prostrating to the deities and relics held within.

monastery window

There were many indescribably deep experiences, in this country full of richness – this land focused on holding on to its prized conception of gross national happiness.

Cliff-hung meditation huts, monasteries, nunneries, pristine rock filled riverbeds, endless tree-covered ridges, full with an amazing array of trees, plants, animals, insects, roadside water-wheels and mills, fluttering prayer flags casting hopes in the wind, terraced hillsides green with diverse crops, simple farm houses seemingly growing out of the earth.

So many wonderful connections with honest, open, warm and welcoming people – professionals, villagers, farmers, nuns, monks, lamas, schoolchildren.

The family who invited us to join their annual breakfast ritual at Taktshang, as we were the first visitors of that auspicious day, the Lama Kunzang Dorjee and his story about the animals who appeared to him in need of rescue.

The tireless, caring, articulate ministrations of our guide Tsewang Nidup, and the final coincidental flight delay which allowed us to receive a blessing from H.H. Je Khenpo.

chhoeling palace, thimphu

Still, to me, the architecture captures the spirit of Bhutan with the most powerful and permanent impact.

It has stood over generations, holds the treasures and contains the rituals of the people and their spirituality, represents the highest expression of culture in arts and crafts, embodies the energy of the collective culture, through time.

As I walked in awe of the highest level Dzong structures and the most well-cared for temples, I was also captivated by the simplest of structures woven from bamboo, to the earthen ruins or slowly dissolving farm houses which become part of the landscape.

bumthang village

I remember the boiling pots over the kitchen firebox, the soft warmth of polished wood-timber floors, sliding window shutters opening to pastoral views of farmland and green hillsides. Bhutanese architecture embodies the spirit of the people – that is a unique and valuable asset to treasure and celebrate.

 In my work around the world and in developing countries I’ve seen the other future – of drive to modernization unmanaged, the extinguishing of the heart and spirit of the people and their relationship to their land, their environment, their collective culture. The modernization of Bhutan will require more time and care in designing and building new structures, or renovate existing ones, in creating infrastructure – time and energy invested to insure the future of Bhutan is truly happy, and remains truly Bhutan.