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…