Roofs touch lightly the glazed surround of a courtyard swimming pool, not unlike Andre Breton’s “angels who at certain times fold their wings low over the suburbs,” mindful of architectural precedents of the client’s childhood in Chile.
“Lashed to the mast, the wind and the seas tearing at his face, Odysseus boldly withstood the seductive beckoning of the sirens. Their ears filled with wax, his crew heard not those wonderful sounds of temptation, and with dedication to their purpose were not compromised by the visions of beauteous figures before them – mermaids on the crest of the waves or diaphanous forms hovering above the rocks.
The metaphorical conditions of painted landscape afford opportunities for access and intervention. Spaces are perceived as we move through them, views are framed, and transitions are mediated.
The folds of the enclosure create an interior free from structure, with views to the lush growth of the gardens and to the seemingly infinite expanse of the horizon of the waters of Lake Ontario.
The day begins with the sun rising in the east, the eagle is the messenger; the eagle is not only the illumination of wisdom and understanding, but a symbol of strength and power. And so, the building rests upon the earth, a field of prairie grass blowing in the winds of each of the four quarters.
The post tensioned, brick clad concrete structure of a forty unit luxury condominium stands at the valley edge with panoramic views of the parkland of the North Saskatchewan River. The project is featured in “Capital Modern: Edmonton Architecture and Urban Design,” Alberta Art Gallery 2007.
…in memory of an age long dead still trying to asset itself… another stone cairn in a prairie landscape, not of the land, but a mimetic archaeology of a mythic past and the classical origins of a constructed culture.
Just a house: an urban transformation through fantasy answering demands for new patterns of behaviour. The accent is on expansion of physical surroundings, sensibilities and media through the disturbance of the familiar, the realization of aspirations in opposition to the repressive architecture of bureaucracy and luxury that imposes absolutes on society.
