Salagnac Arquitectos

Salagnac Arquitectos Offices in Nosara, Costa Rica

Growing up in a Frank Lloyd Wright community, I am well aware that architecture has a tremendous effect and power to influence lives. On our recent trip to Costa Rica, we stayed in a beautiful home designed by award winning architects Evangelina Quesada and Lucca Spendlingwimmer of Salagnac Arquitectos, a Costa Rican based firm who pay special attention to simplicity and beauty and give new meaning to the concept of inside/outside. Like Frank Lloyd Wright, they "promote the maximum integration of the building and the environment, in order to diminish the impact it causes on nature." In this type of architecture, "human comfort can be accomplished by means of efficient energy consumption systems, bioclimatic design strategies and advanced technology. This innovative architecture integrates, in a creative way, the environment, technology and aesthetics."

If I ever build a house, I would definitely consider hiring them to design it. We were in Nosara, Costa Rica in the rainy season. Afternoons were spent sitting comfortably outside in covered areas with glass roofs, and with the huge glass windows, even inside one had the impression of literally living in the jungle. And as a bonus, there was also a fun interplay of reflections throughout the whole house...

Spirit Children of Fontaine Manse

This is a good story! A friend recently turned me on to Snap Judgment Radio (Storytelling, with a BEAT), a podcast described as "mixing real stories with killer beats to produce cinematic, dramatic, kick-ass radio."

I usually stay away from ghost stories because they scare me--but this 12 minute one, The Invisible Children, based on Kathleen Mcconnell's book Don’t Call Them Ghosts: The Spirit Children of Fontaine Manse- A True Story" didn't frighten me at all. In fact, I found it an intriguing story about kindness and open-mindedness...a ghost story with a heart.

The River by Mary Oliver

I've had quite a few rivers in my life lately. The Damariscotta River in mid-coast Maine, the mighty Hudson, the Nosara River in Costa Rica. This Mary Oliver poem seemed apropos...

THE RIVER
by Mary Oliver

In one day the Amazon discharges into the Atlantic the equivalent of New York City’s water supply for nine years.

Just because I was born
 precisely here or there,
 in some cold city or other,
 don’t think I don’t remember
 how I came along like a grain
 carried by the flood—
on one of the weedy threads that pour
 toward a muddy lightning
 surging east, past
 monkeys and parrots, past
 trees with their branches in the clouds, until
 I was spilled forth
and slept under the blue lung
 of the Caribbean.
Nobody
 told me this. But little by little
 the smell of mud and flowers returned to me,
 and in dreams I began to grow dark,
 to sense the current.
Do dreams lie? Once I was a sad fish
 crying for my sisters in the glittering
 crossroads of the delta.
Once among the thick reeds I found
 an empty boat, as narrow
 as a man’s waist. Nearby
 the trees sizzled with the afternoon rain.
Home, I said.
 In every language there is a word for it.
 Deep in the body itself, climbing
 those white walls of thunder, past those green
 temples there is also
 a word for it.
 I said, home.

Painting of the Week

This super large collaborative painting sold yesterday in Copenhagen. So happy it gets to stay in Denmark. Available in poster format.

Charity of the Week:
Maui Food Bank

About The Author

New York City based contemporary artist, Pam Smilow, began writing the creative lifestyle blog “things we love” in an effort to foster a sense of community during times of isolation and reflection. To read more about her and her art, visit her website and check out the essay written by the Hammond Museum's Frank Matheis entitled The Sophisticated Innocence of Pam Smilow.