the busy work of designing and building
the playground bridge and dam
a bigger project than the panama canal.
—
“i’m in an agreeable state: busy, enthusiastic, curious.”
-isabelle adjani
May27
Tag Archives: building
Jan5
gather here.
when grandie v and i
have finished building our indoor winter fairy village
with jewels and feathers and sparkles, a flower vine swing, love tape, and puff ball beds
it is very important to write about it and invite them to move in tonight.
—
“when I sound the fairy call, gather here in silent meeting,
chin to knee on the orchard wall, cooled with dew and cherries eating.
merry, merry, take a cherry, mine are sounder, mine are rounder,
mine are sweeter for the eater, when the dews fall, and you’ll be fairies all.”
-emily dickinson
Dec26
the village.
the old mill, a boarding house, the glass lake, the stone bridge,
santa and his team, pine cone evergreens and the christmas tree
at my cottage 2016
—
once again
i was so excited to put out
the remaining pieces
of the tiny village that my irish grandfather built
way back in the depression
when had become an american citizen
he was an architect by trade
as was his father
he built this village by hand to exact scale
using
tiny stones
and
little sticks
and
heavy papers
with
incredible attention to every detail
all built
to share with us at the family christmas
i have very early and very fond mémories
of it placed on a big white board
with penciled in numbers for placement
so that every piece was in its place
beneath our christmas tree
with lights installed underneath
each building lit up inside
when it got dark outside
a train ran around the village
it was covered in sparkly cotton snow
it was so wonderful
i thought it would come to life at christmastime forever
then it was lost for a long, long while
i didn’t see it anymore
until
one day i saw its box out by the curb
waiting to go out with the trash
during a very bad divorce between my parents
i would recognize its box anywhere
i was lucky that i rescued it just in time
only a few buildings and a few accessories remained intact
my siblings and i divided up what was salvageable
now i love to set up my own little section of his village each year
i think of how magical it was to see it all together as a child
i wonder what inspired him to create this wonderful village
i wonder where he got the ideas for each building
i wonder how many buildings there were once upon a time
one of my buildings has the number 9 written inside in pencil
in my ‘umpa’s’ very neat and precise handwriting
i wish i knew more of the story of the village
i wish i could ask him
no one remains who knows these answers
a couple of old photographs of parts of the village that i found in the original box
“i call architecture frozen music.”
-johann wolfgang von goethe
Dec7
interlocking.
a couple of enterprising 5-year olds
create the raised walkway
many 3s, 4s and 5s
try it out
for quality control
offering their suggestions
when
they
or
the boards
fall down
rebuilding as they go.
—
“in most vital organizations, there is a common bond of interdependence,
mutual interest, interlocking contributions, and simple joy.”
—max depree
Oct19
cups runneth over.
lots of cups and lots of ideas
—
“building art is a synthesis of life in materialised form.
we should try to bring in under the same hat not a splintered way of thinking,
but all in harmony together.”
-alvar aalto
May21
build.
“the scientist and engineers who are building the future
need the poets to make sense of it.”
-jason silva
Mar19
stones.
the palais idéal in hauterives, france is a unique structure. it is made entirely out of stones that postman, ferdinand cheval collected on his mail route.
one night, cheval dreamed about building a palace. he thought nothing of this dream for years, until one day in the spring of 1879, when his foot caught on an unusual-looking rock during his postal route. the rock was so fascinating to cheval that he took it home to admire it. it also gave him an idea.
for the next 33 years, cheval continued picking up more stones during his postal route, first putting them in his pockets, then graduating to a basket, and finally using a wheelbarrow. each one of the stones was hand-selected by cheval to play a part in the construction of his dream palace.
for more than three decades, cheval spent his nights building his home by the light of an oil lamp, and his days delivering the mail. he completed work on the palace in 1912.
today, the palace is a protected landmark and is open to visitors. though cheval wished to be buried in his palace when he died, this was illegal at the time, so he spent an additional eight years building a mausoleum for himself in the town cemetery. he finished just in time, too; cheval passed away on august 19, 1924, approximately one year after completing the mausoleum, which remains his final resting place.
—
whenever we witness art in a building,
we are aware of an energy contained by it.
– arthur erickson
—
credits: jenny morrill, mental floss uk
Feb28
whatever good things we build end up building us. – jim rohn
kinders’ fairy castle
they all worked on it
‘for days’ = (2 hours)
used
cardboard
tape
paper
sparkles
markers
coffee cup trays
egg crates
ribbons
imaginations
creativity
problem solving skills
engineering
balance
music
tippy stools
teamwork
laughter
flags
noise
to
create a masterpiece.
now they go inside
with
flashlight
and
books
and
magically
can read.
—
a great building must begin with the unmeasurable,
must go through measurable means when it is being designed
and in the end must be unmeasurable.
– louis kahn
May2
being in the same room with people and creating something together is a good thing. – robin williams
the kinders create
Mar31
it is easier to build strong children than to repair broken men. – Frederick Douglass
it was building day in kindergarten and all kinds of things were being built.
both those one could easily see and proudly carry home, and those one could carry inside forever.
I personally believe we were put here to build and not to destroy.
Red Skelton
——
image credits: j. kurtz
I didn't have my glasses on.... 