Interview: Landscape Journal. Fall 1993
First, I want to thank you for including me in your list of
leading designers. Ten years ago a client in describing what I do said, “You celebrate the desert rather than deny
it.” I have tried to create
delightful environments that have as their unique character the special qualities
of the desert. When trying to identify the landscapes that most influenced my
work I just had to look at the photos pinned to my studio wall. Trying to
isolate the most important three was a more difficult task. Since I did not
study landscape architecture in school, my education and influences have come
from observations and first hand experience. I have selected the following
three landscapes (environments), they continue to influence me 20 and 30 years
after my first exposure to them.
First: The Sonoran Desert Landscape. The opportunity to live
on a ranch during my high school years presented itself and I took it. After my
first thirteen years in the city, this was a wonderful new experience.
Consequently I discovered the desert. I found great pleasure in exploring the desert. It was absolutely fascinating. The closer you looked, the more interesting it became. In looking at the man-made landscape, I found nothing as interesting as the desert.
Consequently I discovered the desert. I found great pleasure in exploring the desert. It was absolutely fascinating. The closer you looked, the more interesting it became. In looking at the man-made landscape, I found nothing as interesting as the desert.
Its plants are the living time line that connects us to the
natural history of the place. Native plants represent the state of the art of
the process of evolution of a place. I see this as nature at its best. I have
tried to make the beauty and natural processes of the desert part of my work. (Unfortunately
its lessons have been mostly ignored and development has historically diminished
its beauty and energy)
Second: Looking at a photo of Costani’s North Apse, I can
remember my first visit there in 1966. I was an art major in college. A design
instructor recommend I visit Cosanti, Palo Soleri’s studio complex in the
desert. That visit had a profound effect on me, I immediately changed my major
and enrolled in architecture. Cosanti was a new form of landscape created out
of the desert itself. Soleri had seamlessly combined architecture and landscape
into a new experience. The complex burrowed into the ground not unlike a desert
creature and was unlike anything I had ever experienced. The sounds of his wind
bells, the foundry operation, the international languages, and the ever present
opera music added to the magic of the place.
Third: I have three photos of Luis Barragan’s garden as
viewed through his famous living room window. The photos are all of the same
view but they span a period of forty years or more. They show the evolution of
his attitude and garden during this period. The latest photo shows a wild
garden that seems to have a life of its own. The book Builders In the Sun was my first exposure to his work. I was most
impressed by the amount of study and discipline that went into this limitless
1947 environment. With this garden I became aware of the poetic possibilities
of space. Emilio Ambasz, in his book on Barragan’s work, called it liquid
silence.
I hope this is what you are looking for. I draw much better
than I write.
Steve Martino
Landscape Journal
Fall 1993
Steve Martino
Landscape Journal
Fall 1993
