Dear Vittorio: February 2010

Saturday, February 13, 2010

NOAH

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Salute' Vittorio!
This week my voice is in the depth of a winter cold, as is the rest of me. I am blaming it on a long backcountry hut adventure with my daughter March and friends, in a windy snowstorm. That's a story for another time, however. Here's a story about a young man who has a sense about the future of his generation:

Saturday, February 6, 2010

Homebrewers Impasse

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Nephew James turned 21 last year. He took me up on my offer to live with us for a winter season, so he could be a ski bum – actually, a “rider” bum, a snowboarder-dude. This guy loves to have fun, he makes lots of friends fast, but he pushes the safety envelope a little far sometimes.

My Friend Vittorio

I met my wife Jan in college, at Pratt Institute in Brooklyn NY, right about the same time I met my primary Professor of Architecture, Vittorio Giorgini. Both of these people are primary infuences in my life. Jan is the love of my life and the mother of our two daughters.
Vittorio has been and continues to be a major influence in my pursuit not just of Architecture, but of Life and Nature as well.
Before Vittorio came to New York to teach Architecture, he pioneered an organic form of Architecture that is only now beginning to influence the future. He showed us some of his work on "thin-shelled structures", but he set this aside, in favor of helping us to build solid foundations in the art of design. By this I mean he helped us to hone our abilities to understand people and their needs, to see conflicting desires and needs in any design problem as counterpoints whose natures could be understood, and whose seemingly opposite needs could be balanced for a more successful design. He helped us to see beyond the conventional solutions to problems, to unique perspectives that could create new ways of solving problems. I have benefitted tremendously in my practice from Vittorio's influences, and to this day, I still do.
Vittorio has long since retired from Pratt Institute, to his home town of Florence, Italy. Our good friend and my fellow student, Sam Gordon, keeps close tabs on Vittorio, whom he treasures as an "adopted father", as well as a professor. Vittorio has written extensively since his retirement, and honed his work on thin-shelled structures, publishing several books on the subject.
Vittorio has all but lost his eyesight with age, but he continues to write and to appreciate the people around him. I hope to travel to see him again this year, but until I do, I have decided to write a story or essay each week, and read it for Vittorio, so he can listen with his computer at home in Florence. These stories will describe my life in the Rocky Mountains, the influence of his teaching on my practice, the transition we seem to be negotiating in our new pursuit of an old, yet new way of living sustainably, and stories of Adventure.

If you are "listening in", enjoy, and thank you for appreciating all you can learn from my old friend, Vittorio Giorgini (wikipedia)