the brick of Siena

Siena emerges from out of the hillside… a deliberate and improbable city… a city of hydraulics and fountains… a city of walls and portals… a city of brick and good government. Lorenzetti's masterpiece, an allegory of the effects of good and bad government, (one of the first monumental secular fresco cycles) rests quietly at the heart of this rich city. A city forever held by the last fingers of the Medieval period… a city that only reluctantly stepped into the Renaissance (Pope Pius II and the rest of the Piccolomini family introduced Humanist principles and city palnning). The black death brought a halt to the construction of the Duomo just as Siena sought to expand its beautiful cathedral. The unfinished nave, now part of the Piazza del Duomo, testifies to the ambitions and struggle to reach beyond the earthly limitations of the 1300's.

In Siena I find some of the most beautiful urban spaces. Perhaps this is also due to its situation on between three ridges and valleys… vistas across the city alternate with the intimacy of its streets – woven brickwork vessels. The steps that connect the Piazza del Duomo with the Piazza San Giovanni captivate the architect in his search for the ideal.

The cafeteria in the store window begins and ends the day: a miniature city – which, perhaps if I take it apart and then rebuild it – setting again the pieces in patterns, I might find the secret of these streets and these bricks. More I cannot say.