Nothing is as it seems......... Getting wood (erectile disfunction aside) should be fairly straight forward, you would think. Well no, really. We have been to a saw mill, with no saw. Timber yards with wood but only 3 meters. Wood we can use and then we cant. Wood thats shit. Wood at 4.00 o'clock that then dispears. Wood, so much talk of wood, but as yet, no wood. This could be seen as a problem, with over a third of the time already gone but thats not how it feels. The complications with the materials have directed us to improvise with what we have got. In some ways we should have been more prepared for this, we came withour own rule set of how we would aproach this project. How we fix things, the materials we use all these preconceptions we brought with us have proved unviable. As a result we are much more in tune with what is going on around us, how do people here get round these problems. We have gone native.
The changes we have made to our design have made the last few days hectic, stressful but very exciting. Not being able to get hold of dimensioned timber has led us to use a kind of local Bamboo. We plan tomake a form of latice construction with the bamboo but to stick to the shape of the original plan, two stories with a possible third. Instead of fixing the platform from underneath we are hanging it with high strength cable. This hopefully makes supporting the structure quicker and easier but also allows for movement between the three trees. Answers on a postcard please.
The location we have for the treehouse is just amazing, will post some picutres soon. It is on part of a cliff ridge and is a sheer drop on both sides of the structure, sketchy as hell and you want to be roped in but its epic. Its been really good satrting to get the first fixes in today and hopefully get the first bit fixed on tomorro, wood permitting. I think we can make up the time we have lost so far and still make something we are happpy with. It does feel quite a responsiblity, a lot of trust and faith has been put in us to make this project work and i jsut hope that we live up to that.
The main thing at the moment is just that this is such a lot of fun. Sure its pretty full on and pretty much full tilt surealism most of the time but we just all feel so lucky and blessed to be here. Tomorro is a big day and we hope to get big things done, hopefully a platfrom of some sort. Bamboo, bongo wood, excited to see what thats like..............
jm
Wednesday, 11 March 2009
Sunday, 8 March 2009
A week can be a very long time. Finally left the crazy beauty Mexico City, much fun and not what I had expected but good to leave all the same. Friday we at last made it to Xilitla, we travelled through the night and arrived in the early morn in a haze. To walk through the entrance to Las Pozas, to be actually there was amazing. Having read so much about the place, seen pictures, watched videos, to be there for the first time was just incredible. The place is something else, i cant really describe the scale or the beauty or just the damn right crazyness of it all, its incredible. Spent most of friday wandering around in general wonder, still hazy and disorientated from the night bus, then increasingly hazy and disorientated by the gardens themselves. Nothing is as it seems, or where you think it would be, the water flows according to gravity but apart from that all bets are off. But it is beautiful, i was´nt sure that it would be but truely it is. Just the way the jungle and the sculpture interact and become one, the way that the whole place is so heavily landscaped while always appearing is though it were not and how the pools of water form the gardens heart. Its epic.
Anyway, thats enough gushing about the place there is also work to be done here. So, the Treehouse. We have found the site and are curently designing the structure. The design i had in my head before went out the window as soon as we walked around and saw the place, i thought this may be the case. We spent a long time walking around lookiing at diferent sites and have been given a great deal of freedom in that. One of the things we had in mind for the location was somewhere that offered the feeling of hight, somwhere that had a veiw. We have not been dissapointed, the site is on an outcrop of cliff about 300 foot in the air, the view from the back down into the waterfalls of the gardens and to the front Xilitla and the mountains beyond. Will post some pictures soon. Its a bit daunting, just getting the materials up there is going to be a herculian task but if if we can pull it off it will be a really amazing structure. We have designed a 2 story structure with a 3rd story crows nest, the theme of the design centers on a contrast between natural froms and materials and a very angular and contempory structure. Sort of hippy Ghery kind of thing.
Sunday, thats today has been quite a full on day. Got up early, worked on some designs, went for a coffee, had an interview with 2 local papers, went to the treehouse site for approval, went to the local market then to some traditional dancing and then off to a giant limestone cave to watch the daily commute of 2 million swallows. i would love to talk at lenghth about anyone of those things but time is an issue here but i must talk more about the swallows. About an hour from Xilitla is this huge cave, something like 400 meters deep, and it is home to millions of these swallow like birds. the cave is a good hike through the jungle but well worth it and although on paper watching birds fly into caves does´nt sound like much but when ther are millions and there are all flying at 125kmh its quite something.
more news to follow soon.
jm
Anyway, thats enough gushing about the place there is also work to be done here. So, the Treehouse. We have found the site and are curently designing the structure. The design i had in my head before went out the window as soon as we walked around and saw the place, i thought this may be the case. We spent a long time walking around lookiing at diferent sites and have been given a great deal of freedom in that. One of the things we had in mind for the location was somewhere that offered the feeling of hight, somwhere that had a veiw. We have not been dissapointed, the site is on an outcrop of cliff about 300 foot in the air, the view from the back down into the waterfalls of the gardens and to the front Xilitla and the mountains beyond. Will post some pictures soon. Its a bit daunting, just getting the materials up there is going to be a herculian task but if if we can pull it off it will be a really amazing structure. We have designed a 2 story structure with a 3rd story crows nest, the theme of the design centers on a contrast between natural froms and materials and a very angular and contempory structure. Sort of hippy Ghery kind of thing.
Sunday, thats today has been quite a full on day. Got up early, worked on some designs, went for a coffee, had an interview with 2 local papers, went to the treehouse site for approval, went to the local market then to some traditional dancing and then off to a giant limestone cave to watch the daily commute of 2 million swallows. i would love to talk at lenghth about anyone of those things but time is an issue here but i must talk more about the swallows. About an hour from Xilitla is this huge cave, something like 400 meters deep, and it is home to millions of these swallow like birds. the cave is a good hike through the jungle but well worth it and although on paper watching birds fly into caves does´nt sound like much but when ther are millions and there are all flying at 125kmh its quite something.
more news to follow soon.
jm
Thursday, 5 March 2009
Wednesday, 4 March 2009
meanwhile back in mexico city.........
AMAZING!!!!
colour, music, food, the energy of Mexico city are just incredible. Arrived last night and finally met up with Zaira and Toby, drank cold beer and delicious tequilla and listened to marriachi music and ate tacos, yep, we are in Mexico city. The bags had other ideas though. Tobys bag thought the prospect of a night in Mexico City too much to bear and stayed in New York while Dex´found the lure of Amsterdam too great and so stayed. I suppose one bag out of three is´nt so bad. Bizarely mine was the only one that made it through, the one weighing nearly 30kg sailed through without any bother. .
money runnig out, got to go.....
colour, music, food, the energy of Mexico city are just incredible. Arrived last night and finally met up with Zaira and Toby, drank cold beer and delicious tequilla and listened to marriachi music and ate tacos, yep, we are in Mexico city. The bags had other ideas though. Tobys bag thought the prospect of a night in Mexico City too much to bear and stayed in New York while Dex´found the lure of Amsterdam too great and so stayed. I suppose one bag out of three is´nt so bad. Bizarely mine was the only one that made it through, the one weighing nearly 30kg sailed through without any bother. .
money runnig out, got to go.....
Tuesday, 3 March 2009
Right, the journey begins! via the mediums of automobile, locomotive and airoplane i now find myself in schipol airport. its a vast and sprawling non-space and is like all airports i have ever been to its a mix poverty, wealth and boredom. i have so far managed to resist the lure of $15000 chanel handbags but have succomed to a much more sensibly priced hieneken, god bless the dutch. despite this beeing amsterdam (though that is only a half truth, the end of schipol runway actually being in kent) the smoking facitlies are somewhat lacking. there is a small glass box where smokers are allowed to huddle together and think about what they have done but thats all.
next stop mexico city!!!
next stop mexico city!!!
Sunday, 1 March 2009
2 more sleeps!
Two days to go and the tension builds! Its part excitement, part worry and part disbelief; wow I'm going, shit I'm going, really, am i going? I am a great believer in packing at the last possible moment, usually about 5 minutes before the taxi arrives but this time i am beginning to doubt my beliefs, in fact with two days to go i have tentatively started to pack.
This project up to now has seemed like some kind of abstract hobby i have devised, do some drawings, make a model, send a million e-mails and think a lot. Now it all seems a lot more real. This week met up with the wonderful Antonio Riveira, a Mexican artist with a long affiliation to Xilitla and all of a sudden the whole adventure seemed so much more tangible. I have read a lot about the Gardens of Xilitla and seen numerous videos on YouTube and stuff but to actually talk with some who was there a few weeks ago was amazing. I haven't yet written about the place and really i should. Xilitla was the bizarre vision Edward James had for a jungle property, his idea to create a surreal Eden, a place where he, and others, could realise their dreams. Its wonderfully confusing mix of surrealist architecture and creeping jungle and is probably the only place of its kind. Words, or at least my words, cannot do it justice and to anyone wanting to learn more about it i recommend their website, fondo Xilitla or go to YouTube and search Monty Don, Xilitla. Anyway, i have not yet been so maybe i will be able to make a better description next week.
watch this space...............
This project up to now has seemed like some kind of abstract hobby i have devised, do some drawings, make a model, send a million e-mails and think a lot. Now it all seems a lot more real. This week met up with the wonderful Antonio Riveira, a Mexican artist with a long affiliation to Xilitla and all of a sudden the whole adventure seemed so much more tangible. I have read a lot about the Gardens of Xilitla and seen numerous videos on YouTube and stuff but to actually talk with some who was there a few weeks ago was amazing. I haven't yet written about the place and really i should. Xilitla was the bizarre vision Edward James had for a jungle property, his idea to create a surreal Eden, a place where he, and others, could realise their dreams. Its wonderfully confusing mix of surrealist architecture and creeping jungle and is probably the only place of its kind. Words, or at least my words, cannot do it justice and to anyone wanting to learn more about it i recommend their website, fondo Xilitla or go to YouTube and search Monty Don, Xilitla. Anyway, i have not yet been so maybe i will be able to make a better description next week.
watch this space...............
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