Interlaken, Switzerland, in the Hohematte, looking East
Inspirational mountains…settled by humans longer than the written record…
Nevertheless the human landmark for more than eight hundred years in this inspirational landscape is a tribute to God. This piece of land and the human shelters built there still, today in 2013, remind all of the human existential questions that stir in the landscape…mysteries to solve.
Crystal Vision is a landscape story. It is a novella, literary fiction.
The past reaches for today
In Crystal Vision, George Moleson, an emerging professional, leaves his landscape architecture roots in Southern California, to build his international career, becoming a key person on a huge new town project located just near the Tropic of Cancer, on the Red Sea in Saudi Arabia.
After six cosseted years on that project, a quick succession of personal and professional events batter George. They untether him; and he embarks into the labyrinthine mists of landscapes…landscapes the nature of he had never ever imagined.
Read Crystal Vision preface and the ten Episodes’ summaries.
From Bern to Bernese Oberlands Jungfrau Region
Mountains, Plants, Water, Sky
Humans in the Mountains
Then please tell me if you like it or have any questions about it.
Thank you for your time and interest in the landscape.
As I move toward the completion of my second landscape story, Crystal Vision, I have updated the novella’s story line.
Labyrinthine Mists is the landscape through which the main character moves.
Geo was from LA. He was a young and successful landscape architect; yet he sensed…an unease. He took an offer to work in Saudi Arabia, an excellent challenge where he would have exponentially larger responsibilities.
During his six years on the Red Sea in Saudi Arabia, his professional and social life evolved inside a bubble, a cultural bubble protecting him from uncertainty…until…the bubble burst.
He lost his tether to ‘reality’ and began a blind journey into a landscape labyrinth. A labyrinth by definition does not have an end; but Geo sensed…an obligation and something important to find. And so, he embarked upon an exploration of labyrinthine landscapes he had never before imagined.
Bonigen Alpabzug
What is urban landscape and what is public realm?
This is a September 2013 view of main street in the center of Bonigen, a Swiss town of roughly 2,000 people. It is a town that has been for centuries.
Every summer the Bonigen farmers take their cows on a journey to the high Alp ‘pastures’. The above view shows the festival of the cows’ return journey (Alpabzug) from the high Alps. The cows and other grazing animals are feted. Plants and flowers make up head dresses for the cows. And all the residents come to cheer for them as they are paraded down main street.
The urban landscape, the public realm overflows with landscape and agricultural realities–the realities of inter-relationships among people, plants, animals and landscape.
27Aug2013, The 23 Club Beta 03 has been released.
Beta 03 includes:
1) A reformatting of endnotes into page notes,
2) An addition of two episodes as part of the consolidation of characters and plot,
3) A partial reinstatement of the detailed table of contents, and,
4) Proofreading corrections.
The 23 Club is literary fiction. It is a landscape story, novella length, 50,000 words. It takes place in Dubai, Abu Dhabi, the Empty Quarter. It is about people and plants in a strange landscape.
This is a link to The 23 Club Beta 03 pdf file.
This is a link to a six minute trailer that will give you a taste of the flavors and content.
Please comment and let me know if you like it. Let me know if you understand what is a landscape story. Thanks.
…music.
Most North Americans are overwhelmed by the convenience and connectivity of the various forms of public transport in Switzerland. It is an effectively interwoven network that begins at the airports and train stations where it is most dense. Then it gradually thins out as you travel higher into the mountains and further away from the cities.
At the final destination, you can find Swiss people in blissful contact with the landscape, as the following images demonstrate.
How much do you think access to this landscape pleasure is worth in any urban design?
Look at the faces of these people 2,250 meters above mean sea level…transcendental enjoyment if I have ever seen it! Music, people, landscape.
The landscape above
The landscape below
Alphorns
Alphorn painted details
Alphorn craftsmanship
Landscape, alphorns, people
Landscape, people, music
People and music
People and music
People in the landscape
Sometimes I get a chance to sit quietly, in the steep mountain sided lake basin known as the Brienzersee. I watch the clouds mysteriously emerge…and sometimes I watch them just as mysteriously disappear…in as much time as it took me to write this!
It is more than science, isn’t it?
Share your thoughts, please.
What makes it all fit together?
What is the magic? How do the parts fit together? The clues are in this image. The challenge might be: how do you get a healthy maturity in a young garden? Healthy maturity = feeling like it belongs, and, has belonged.
…writing in the 1820s Tales of the Alhambra, about the palace of the Alhambra:
“…externally it is a rude congregation of towers and battlements, with no regularity of plan or grace of architecture…giving little promise of the grace and beauty which prevail within.”
Might there be a design lesson hidden in that observation regarding something seen from a distance?
Might there be an essential outside vs inside experience?
Might there be seeing when the viewer is moving vs seeing when the viewer is still?
…outside? …inside?
…this is a great selection of walking, hiking and biking options 10 minutes from home.
Each walk is a pleasure!
Do you have these walking, hiking and biking options 10 minutes from your front door?
