Just a few short weeks ago this soul was stamping the dust in the Roman forum, where countless others have trod. Whilst suitably humbling to stand where very powerful historic figures have been, it was also salutary to look skyward and realize the transitory character of  time and experience, and the burdens arising from self formed comparisons. Trajan’s public court  (1100 sq. metres) is the size of about 4 modern-day Australian MacMansions, yet it comfortably served as the fulcrum for the  entire empire: just what are adequate space standards for the modernist? Is modesty too much even for the common man (or woman).

Who needs architectural icons or glittering mosaics when the illusions of Hollywood and ganing can create virtual architecture, and bend your mind & psyche into the bargain?

Trajan Forum

Vessels of titanium and evermore complex freeform geometries and demonstrations of design caprices, seem to underscore the unhappy vicissitudes that such temporary measures of success really means.

The real power is in the emotional connect and content, that symbology still carries. This is the subtle  invitation by architect (and building construtors and “patrones”) for the viewer to engage with the dialog and language of “permanence” and illusion. Hence even in swirling crowd, after an exhausting wait in the hot Venetian sun in september with a thousand other tourists, San Marco in Venice can still leave one breathless and inspired. This was not reveries or devotional panegyrics, but a gestation of decades old art historical studies on icongraphy and colour sense. That columuniated corner, rhimed by Ruskin in his fluttering watercolours, beneath the bronze horses, dealing with transition and interconnection by perambulation of the busiest cornered  neck in the L shaped piazza.

Church of San Carlo alle Quattro Fontane, by Francesco Borromini, in Rome, Italy.

The paradox that queuing has pleasures, that would otherwise be passed over in the tramp and rush to tick the boxes of travel sights seen and attended, of a forced anticipation, of boredome triggering reflection.

So now, to set these thoughts in some order, summed like a pentacle, restless and circling  with statis, and a persistent mystic power.

 By degrees, and good degustation, this site will start to form itself into a entirely useful source of architecture and green building information. this will be supported by blog, discuission and links for deeper  environmental and social consideration, where the curious may venture at their peril.

An example of how drawn representations of buildings give a far better impression of a building to the untrained but experiential eye than a mechanically created CAD representation.

See how the second post comes above the first post, etc, etc.

Comments can be allowed (or disallowed)  per your choice.

Welcome to Ideas Group Australia

This site (under perennial construction like owner builders) is to promote sustainability in many forms

• Building design concepts,
• Architecture of place,
• Character of good governance and
• The role of the informed technical practitioner in meeting the best practice re construction & land use, without falling down too many ‘rabbit holes’.

This site shares and promotes good practices, and recommends valuable resources worth considering.