"Touch this earth lightly"
Aborigenal quote
Aborigenal quote
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| Bowali Visitors Centre - Glenn Murcutt / Troppo Associates - Photo: F. Barilari |
La prima architettura che vidi di Glenn Murcutt fu la Magney House sul Domus del Gennaio 1988.
Da allora mi sono innamorato del suo approccio all'architettura pragmatico, essenziale, apparentemente semplice e in realtà ricchissimo.
Negli anni in cui insegnavo progettazione architettonica, ho cercato di spiegarne il metodo; Murcutt intanto ha continuato a progettare case splendide come la Walsh House, la Short/Murcutt House, la Simpson/Lee House o l'Artur & Yvonne Boyd Centre, senza mai tradire la propria linea di ricerca, improntata alla massima integrazione tra uomo, architettura ed ambiente, totalmente incurante di mode, formalismi o teorie astratte.
Avrei sperimentato di persona la bellissima leggerezza della sua architettura, solo diversi anni dopo.
Le sue, sono architetture nelle quali abitare, stare bene e vivere in armonia con la natura:
“Life is not about maximizing everything, it’s about giving
something back – like light, space, form, serenity, joy”
Glenn Murcutt
Negli anni a seguire, gli sarebbe stato tributato il giusto successo internazionale, sia in termini di premi che di pubblicazioni, fino al numero monografico di El Croquis, ma ancora nel 2002, quando venne premiato con il Pritzker Prize, una sorta di premio Nobel per l'architettura, erano ancora in molti a non conoscerlo da queste parti.
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| Bowali Visitors Centre - Glenn Murcutt / Troppo Associates - Photo: F. Barilari |
Nel 2001, insieme ad alcuni colleghi ed amici, Murcutt ha dato vita ad un corso, il Glenn Murcutt International Architecture Master Class, che poi si è sviluppato negli anni, con una fondazione no-profitt ed altri corsi descritti qui OZ.E.TECTURE, che spero di riuscire a frequentare, prima o poi.
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The first week is held at the magnificent BoydEducation Centre 'Riversdale', on the banks of the Shoalhaven River, south of
Sydney - the building designed by Glenn Murcutt (with his wife Wendy Lewin and
Reg Lark) has been described as Glenn's "masterwork". The second week
is held in a heritage building in central Sydney, close to Sydney Harbour.
The
two-week annual residential program has, since its inception in
2001, been attended by architects from over 70 nations. Pritzker Prize
laureate Glenn Murcutt leads the studio, and other principal tutors include
seminal Australian architect and teacher Richard Leplastrier,
Norwegian-Australian Professor Brit Andresen and multi-award winning architect
Peter Stutchbury. The convener of the event is Irish-Australian Lindsay
Johnston, Former Dean of Architecture at the University of Newcastle,
Australia.
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| Fredericks / White House - Arch. G. Murcutt |
Lindsay
Johnston
"Glenn
Murcutt speaks often botanically, as he did in his Pritzker Prize
acceptance speech, his knowledge and observation of the natural environment is
extraordinary. To walk over a landscape with Glenn and to hear him identify and
discuss the plant species with their botanical names, is to have revealed
insights into geology, rainfall, water flow, wind direction, solar access,
bushfire threats, the movements of the seasons, wildlife, scents, so it is that
his buildings are, first, ‘grounded’ on the reading of the land, of the
landscape. Walking with Uncle Max over this same ground is another, parallel
and complementary journey. He will speak of the hillside and the trees as his
family relations, of the traditions and journeys of his ancestors, of reading the
land, of spirit lines, of totems, of sacred places and of the landscape as a
source of food"
“Mother
Earth births
everything for us. Father
Sky carries the water
and oxygen for us to breathe.
Grandfather Sun warms
the planet, warms our body,
gives us light so we can see,
raises the food that the
Mother births and raises
most of our relations,
all our plants and trees.
Grandmother Moon moves
the water and gives us the
woman-time and our birthing”
everything for us. Father
Sky carries the water
and oxygen for us to breathe.
Grandfather Sun warms
the planet, warms our body,
gives us light so we can see,
raises the food that the
Mother births and raises
most of our relations,
all our plants and trees.
Grandmother Moon moves
the water and gives us the
woman-time and our birthing”
Uncle Max
Dulumunmun Harrison, Aboriginal elder of the Yuin people
‘My People’s Dreaming’
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| Donaldson House - Glenn Murcutt |
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| Donaldson House - Glenn Murcutt |
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| Walsh House - G. Murcutt |
"It is very important to me to make buildings that are like instruments. They respond to light, to the movements of air, to prospect to the needs of comfort. Like musical instruments, they produce the sounds and tones of the composer. But I am not the composer, nature is the composer. The light and sounds of the land are already there. I just make the instruments that allow people to perceive these natural qualities."
- Glenn Murcutt. Quality of buildings that are like instruments.
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| Kakadu National Park - Australia / Northern Territory _ Photo: F. Barilari |
"The creative process is a path of discovery. The hand makes drawings and arrives at solutions before the mind has even comprehended them."
Glenn Murcutt
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