Courtyards

I am designing a Spanish house w/ courtyards...my thoughts on the courtyard:

When the outside and inside become one a courtyard emerges. Since antiquity (some say as far back as 3000 BC), the courtyard has been associated with comfort, intimacy, serenity and of course security. As we step into a courtyard, we are immediately embraced by its inviting and shady arcades, loggias or cloisters. All senses are heightened, and delight experienced when blossoming earth, bubbling water, open sky and fortified walls converge during our brief journey across the courtyard. For me, that journey is a brief moment into paradise restored.

Bobby’s Quotes on Architecture

“Why do we continue to admire beautiful places from our past, but consistently disregard that beauty when designing for our time? True beauty is not held hostage by time. Therefore, should we not expect what was beautiful 400 years ago to be beautiful today and 400 years from now? At Morales Design Studio, we believe it’s only by studying the ‘Grand Styles’ of the past that places can be created where beauty and delight can be brought back into our lives.” - Bobby Morales, CNU, ICA, AIBD

“Can we be so arrogant to think that architecture is actually created by man, as some may have us believe? Is true architecture not just man’s orderly assemblage of divinely created parts? When we finally come to recognize that we could never match the creative force of the “Great Architect” of the universe, we will then humbly come to admit that any building designed by man is nothing more than reconditioned earth entrusted to us for molding into a beautiful vessel.” - Bobby Morales, CNU, ICA, AIBD

Bobby’s Acceptance Speech for Builder Magazine Award

Bobby’s acceptance speech after being presented an award by Hanley-Wood’s Builder magazine for the design of the Casa Teresa/ InSync Showhome. – February 2007

“I would like to begin by sharing a quote with you from Oswald Spengler, a late 19th and early 20th century German historian and philosopher who made this observation about what a house is. “The house is the foundation of all culture emerging like a plant in the heart of the maternal landscape and deepening again the bond of man's soul to the earth.” If we agree with Spengler then we may also conclude that designing and constructing a home is basically an organic process which finally engages the occupants in a profound way.

This was the design team’s approach and design philosophy for the InSync Showhome. We recognized early that a great building is nothing more than earth put in the hands of skillful artisans who then shape and mold it into three-dimensional art. Yet, this art is not to be viewed and appreciated only at a distance but we, humans, whose scale is used to properly mass and proportion such classical and traditional homes as the InSync Home, coexist and live within this beautiful three-dimensional art. We do not believe that beauty is in the eye of the beholder, rather beauty is in the proportions. Beauty is not a thing, but a joyous state of mind; beauty is experienced. When the person is taken out of time what remains is beauty. This home is a demonstration of this approach and philosophy.
In contrast, today, we lament the horrific mutation of the modern home that’s consistently presented to the masses. We must then ask ourselves the following question: Why is it that we admire one kind of place but consistently design and build something different. For example, we are willing to pay great sums of money to stay in an old villa in Tuscany or Normandy, where cracked plaster has peeled off with time exposing the very flesh of the home or discover charming patina and creaky copper fixtures, yet when we come back to America we must insist that our houses be perfect with machined finishes. What is missing is the past fine art of hand-crafted homes, “la mano” or hand being ever present; for example, as the plasterer caresses the wall with his trowel using fine plaster. Instead, we find today grossly exaggerated, improperly proportioned homes that are unnecessarily complex with factory-machined edges, houses that cannot be identifed with any sort of recognizable style.
The InSync home is an example of respecting classical and traditional historical tendencies while at the same time blending smoothly with modern technology. It’s not a new concept. Imagine the delight brought upon the patron, along side his master builder and designer, when first experiencing the advent of indoor plumbing, electrified lamps, telephone communication, and conditioned air.
The InSync home follows this fine tradition. Our inspiration for the style was an early 20th century interpretation of the Spanish home or Spanish Eclectic promoted by such prominent architects as Bertram Goodhue, George Washington Smith, Wallace Neff and Winter Park, Florida’s own James Gamble Rogers II.
Were there challenges? Absolutely! Were the solutions and results fully optimized? No! Our houses continue to be a laboratory for the progression of our comforts at home. The InSync home is just that, a progression. Let us all together move forward in the syncing of home and technology and at the same time not forget the words of Geoffrey Scott, a early 20th century classical architect who wonderfully described the consummation of the art of architecture with the art of building, "Architecture, in short, will be beautiful in which the construction is best, and in which it is most truthfully displayed." Thank you.

Charleston Council for Architecture and Urbanism

Bobby’s Concluding Comments Addressing the Charleston Council for Architecture and Urbanism
- March 11-13, 2005


"On behalf of the American Institute of Building Design, we are honored to have been amongst such a distinguished and talented group of educators and practitioners. We want to thank you and the sponsors for allowing us to be part of this exciting session. Personally, I've been inspired by the lectures and presentations, and have come away understanding clearly that 'the city is more important than the building'. But as the Charleston Charter is being composed, I offer a word of caution….in light that it is Sunday, and we are in a city known as being religious, I feel it timely and appropriate to remind you all that we not set ourselves (the architectural community) up as an ecclesiastical class, being the only ones who can exclusively interpret the "holy writings" of architecture but rather allow others to participate in the process. In medieval times, the Church set themselves up in such a way that only they could read and interpret the Bible, thus excluding the common man from the quest for true and accurate knowledge. May that not happen to us. Please include in this on-going debate all practitioners and non-practitioners who maintain a passion for architecture. Again, thank you for allowing us to be here"
-Bobby Morales, CNU, ICA, AIBD