Month: April 2022

One of the many delights of traveling is to become aware of vernacular building typologies. Many local building traditions can pass by unnoticed. Until you tune into them. Then you realize they are all over. Yesterday, upon landing in Arequipa, Peru, we were awakened to a delightful building tradition: let’s give this the inelegant name, Glass Box On Heavy Masonry.
As the photos below show, the visual effect is stunning. Very light, glassy, and thin structures are built over massive concrete and stone buildings. These glass spaces function as living spaces, as well as the enclosure of stairways. And they are all over the city. The glass structures are wonderful to be in, as we have one on the roof of the Airbnb that we are staying in.
These compositions are done surely without architects. Yet any one of these beat close to the heart of most any architect. The challenge is to be awake to the vastly rich and varied kaleidoscope of images that pass by.

This is a photo of our son Hans, flying his Navy F18E Super Hornet, in a training exercise taken only a few days ago by a fellow pilot, who was flying an F16. With the world at levels of tension that we have not seen in decades, we can only hope that cool minds will ultimately prevail to de-escalate the Ukrainian conflict, as well as all conflicts. We offer this sentiment of peace in light of all of our sons and daughters, from Cooperstown to the rest of the world, who are on deployment. We are in the business of visualization, and we are visualizing Peace.