Lynch Architects Big Norfolk Skies «

These are some photos of a holiday we spent last June in a Norfolk cottage that we worked on a few years before that. Norfolk is very flat and the sky seems to go on forever. We stayed in the house for two week before we did anything to it, and this experience informed our design. Cottage life revolved around an old and worn and beautiful oak table around which you sat in a bench sat into the wall. From there the evening sunlight almost spilled into the room, and yet the garden felt too distant. So we lowered the windows a few brick courses and lined the interior in order to insulate and waterproof it. I like these photos because you see from the dining table that there is a strong coincidence of wine and supper and dusk light and music, and being there it feels like you’re sitting inside the sky.

The best album to listen to at Marsh View was Van Morrison’s Astral Weeks, which turned the space into a huge droning drum (‘aye, aye, ayah, aye, aye, ayah, aye….. and I will never grow so old again’, etc.). The obvious music for these pictures has to be The Orb’s ‘Little Fluffy Clouds’, which younger readers would do well to listen to (‘No Chis, it’s not like Milo’):

‘What were the skies like when you were young?
They went on forever
And they — when I
We lived in Arizona
And the skies always had little fluffy clouds
And they were long and clear
And there were lots of stars, at night
And when it rained it would all turn
It — they were beautiful
The most beautiful skies as a matter of fact
The sunsets were purple and red
And yellow and on fire
And the clouds would catch the colors everywhere
That’s — it’s neat
Because I used to look at them all the time
When I was little
You don’t see that…’

Electronic music inspired by a sense of the infinity of nature, and a modern folk song about a transvestite called Madame George; and modern architecture that isn’t solely dedicated to the muse of technology….

Happiness on holiday is innocent to start with, but suddenly you’re past the halfway point and already missing it and looking forward to going home, caught in mood of longing and regret anticipation and enjoying both. I like architecture that seems to find a mid-point in the rhythm of time, offering you the chance to be surprised. Not too much design, enough to make you feel cared for, enough to allow for nature to safely take over:

Layering different sounds on top of each other
Layering different sounds on top of each other
Little fluffy clouds
Little fluffy clouds and
Little fluffy clouds and
Little fluffy clouds and
You don’t see that
You might still see them in the desert
The most beautiful skies as a matter of fact
Purple and red
Purple and red and yellow and on fire’

Click one of the images below to launch the gallery, although you’re probably better off using the “View with PicLens” option and setting it to full screen.

[View with PicLens]

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