Stone Poems

“Architecture is form placed between the ground and the sky.”

--Eero Saarinen

No design aspect of architecture is more fundamental
than how a building meets the ground—the relationship the builder
establishes between architecture and the land.
Building is intrinsically a disruptive act, an incursion which strips the vegetation,
ravages the earth surface, redefines contours, and
modifies the natural surroundings to fit people’s needs.
Nature is irrevocably modified and man’s will is imposed.
Land is changed forever.
Yet through this act, culture is established
and a step in history is taken.
Humankind claims the land as its own and “civilization” follows.
What was once a natural setting
becomes a canvas for the built environment
—shelters, farmlands, buildings, villages, towns and cities—
physical manifestations which reflect the needs and values
of the people who created them.
These cultural values include not only social, political and religious tenets,
but also attitudes toward art, beauty and aesthetics
—and, ironically, values concerning land and nature as well.
And so it is that, from the inevitable act of destroying nature,
nearly every culture develops artists and poets and architects
who seek to build on the land and re-establish a harmony with nature.

Stone Poems explores and celebrates worldwide architectural works
which exemplify the very best in Culture/Nature, Architecture/Land relationships.
It illustrates issues of design with nature, of sustainability, of integrity
in architecture, and of materiality and time.
The original images are selected from a personal archive of
vernacular and historic architecture for their ability to illustrate
how some cultures around the world have, through time,
established principles of design that honor nature,
how some cultures have found a balance between what they take from the land
and what they return to it.
The images are provocative visuals intended to stimulate thought
among the educated public as well as to
challenge process and product among today’s design professionals.