campo, s. andrea della valle;

pantheon system, s. maria in via lata;

coffering systems; s. spirito in sassia and s. peter in the vatican

cloaca massima and series from circo massimo;

coffering systems; s. maria in trastevere and s. andrea delle fratte

aggregation studies;

piazza s. maria in trastevere;

aar salone; happy thanksgiving

projective geometry in the ghetto;  chalk outline of a murdered fountain?

manual system;

tetrapylon; ink, watercolor and darkness at the arch of janus

s.l. dei francesi side aisles;  ascending diamond grid with unique rosettes book matched.

london; historic preservation

london; more diagrid than you can shake a stick at.

quotidian italian

election night 3:30am; results still coming in.

more diagrids and pixels;

new pages; s. maria in sassia <lt> + s. pietro <rt>

more systems; pavillion at villa borghese w/ diminishing octagon + inverted 8-sided star (?) components.

new purchase; magenta

S. Carlo ai Catinari; a few weeks ago i shot the int. coffering system, now a drawing from the exterior.  S. andrea d. valle gets more design credit probably b/c it’s actually visible from the street unlike this one where you have to find the right spot, then strain your neck even get a glimpse of it.

SunMonTuesWed roundup;  *final look at my old studio *move to a new studio *lunch w/ Alice Waters

Cy Twombly’s supply box at Ditta G. Poggi.

starlings swarm;

starling flock from my window;

s. ivo;

Pina giving a course on Italian wines; salone of the American Academy.

new pages ii; (right) coffering systems of s.m.d. pace and ss. ambrogio+carlo al corso.

new pages;

s.m.d. pace

s. maria della pace; p.d. cortona mixes two dome systems: hexagonal/diminishing coffers with ribs.

new pages; forum area, pavement system in s. giovanni dei fiorentini,  S. Nome di Maria.

dome studies; S. Maria di Loreto and the S. Nome di Maria (aka the baroque domes by the wedding cake).

this mornings studio; the painting in the middle derives from studies David Jaubert and I have been doing for SystemicProcess.

Norma’s going away on the terrace.

S. Giovanni dei Fiorentini; on off on off

more diagrid: this one a bit more of a radial weave that touches goes back, touches goes back (touchweave?)

recent sketches looking at the bridge/city relationship at ponte sisto, broken pediment circumflexes (?), the backside of the pantheon, and the tiber’s canalization. i bought an ink bottle and pen-much darker and much cheaper!

some of my studio space/s. andrea della valle

quick diagram/plan of rotation of s. trinita dei pellegrini

rotation before it was called rotation; maybe rotation and transformation aren’t happening in the sectional depth of S. Trinita dei Pelligrini, but in the 2 meters given to Francesco de Sanctis for the facade, he’s able to pull off the rotational trick with 4 columns.

some time later…2 parts script, 1 part maya deformer.

very early test with a script derived from san carlo’s 3 component geometries.

san carlo dome: 3 shapes interlock to make the system and contract with height. simple right?

san carlo alle 4 fontane coffer system and unrelated vignette of palazzo massimo

diagrids abound

flu’s gone- now, trying to make an atmosphere in the studio conducive to work.  the tempietto is very close to the Academy and a friendly candidate to begin bigger drawings and finally, painting (though the .jpg has a way of deadening the color!).

oops, no updates this past week due to some:

san carlo ai catinari coffering: system of three shapes arranged in static repetition, projected onto an arch.  it doesn’t quite describe the compressive forces splayed out by the arch,  but if the system scaled down with it’s acension upwards like the dome of san carlo alle quatro fontane, a greater tectonic lightness would be perceived.

ponte rotto

michelangelo designed an unmistakable marble chapel at castel sant’ angelo.  i asked the one of the “curators” where i could find it, he told me to go to the vatican instead. ha!  hundreds of people passed it unnoticed, kids clamored all over it, breast feeding etc.  but, wow, an unbelievable masterpiece of complex geometry, profiles and proportion.

christo and jeanne-claude save rome by hiding the wedding cake.

more small studies of systems in rome: santa maria in trastevere cosmateque geometry.

google image “caparezza”…

tiber: disconnected from the city.  beautiful, natural resource, unused.

systems…plant+stone pixelization

linking geometric and tectonic pattern systems (see left) is a study i hope to undertake complimentary to my main project proposal of reintegrating the tiber into the roman urban fabric.  linking this to systems would be…glorious.

apartment on the Gianicolo