Le Celle

If architecture begins with speculation about our mode and place of dwelling, then Le Celle Monastery offers definite insight into architecture. It is, at once, a sorting out of a definite order of stone and hillside, of water and earth, of solid and void… and also an attempt to find a material equivalent to an Order that lies outside of this realm and that can only be glimpsed in passing. The Franciscan's sought a harmony in their lives of poverty, chastity, and obedience. And it is through their work – that remains to this day – a form of prayerful thought, that they have offered us insight into the complex weave of place, architecture and nature…

On the way back to Cortona, Giorgio Vasari's Santa Maria Nuovo spoke to us with a voice at once rational and poetic…

We ate pizza and sketched the earth and the sky…

four architects speculate on the nature of the street

Cortona… two visits in two weeks.
Only a few kilometers away – a short bus ride from Castiglion Fiorentino.
On the first visit, Norma and I were joined by Logan, an architect from Texas A&M, and Chum, his inquisitive graduate assistant. Between our arrival at Piazza Garibaldi and our destination, Le Celle – the Franciscan Monastery 2.5 km outside of the town, we passed this city under our shoes, speculating about the nature of the street and the origin of the City itself.
The second visit was an optional field trip for italia20.10… another trip through the town and beyond its walls to Le Celle… Ah! but the sun was shining. We could have converted to the Franciscan Order…
Peaceful and sublime!

cities and the sky

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Cities and the Sky…
Assisi
the rose colored limestone reflecting its many moods

Beyond Cimabue, Giotto, and Lorenzetti, italia20.10 discovered other cities somehow held in this rich landscape.

Firenze… a second excursion

italia20.10 engages the Uffizi Museum… a dialogue of sorts: a necessary introduction to the shift of thought between the 1100s and the 1400s. With the change in perspective of where we are in the Cosmos, comes a dynamic change in how we imagine ourselves and the world. Art comes into focus as an attempt to name this world… to seek our place within it. Laura conducted a rich tour of the Uffizi – a remarkable collection that, at times, spoke directly to us. Giotto… Lippi… Botticelli… the world changes, and with it, ourselves. We pause, before we return to Castiglion Fiorentino.


On the way to a didactic appointment with the Uffizi, italia20.10 steps into Piazza Limbo (named after the cemetery for babies who died prior to baptism) to find the remarkable basilica of SS Apostoli. The piazza afforded a quiet retreat from the busy streets of Florence. We walked the periphery of the piazza, measuring its plan, its orientation, calculating the angles of its walls – to attempt to understand its character, its quality of space, its proportion… And inside, a beautifully preserved basilica dating from 1100s – a preamble to our Uffizi tour to follow.


The Mercado Nuova still offers its loggia to house a thriving leather market. ("Made in Italy" is almost meaningless…)

And the sky! The rains of spring again subside to reveal, in the sharp delineation of shadow, the depth of the wall.