The sky is a place of souls, kites and gods. Although there are more souls than kites and fewer and fewer gods. But overall, it has to be said that there is indeed quite a large audience up there.
Some people claim that the huge Nazca geoglyphs were made by ancient Peruvians to communicate with extraterrestrials, others say they were more intent on communicating with the gods, others still their descendants.
It’s noble to think about the latter, the heirs to the land and the ones that would look down upon it at some future point too. But how to communicate with them and give the impression of doing so deliberately?
Voluntarily leaving a mark that can be seen from on high seems right somehow or instinctive at least. Up there, there are no eyes really, just the future, judgement, drones and helicopters.
Our modern intentions will become clear and poetic if, before we change our landscape with marks and buildings, we ask ourselves: what will it look like from above?
Two thousand five hundred years ago the Nazcas made a series of enormous geoglyphs or lines in the Peruvian desert and in doing so started a bit of a fashion (there are geoglyphs all over South America and in other areas of the world too).They were, for a while, lost to history and rediscovered only a hundred years ago when the first aeroplanes were invented.
There will be more and more flying objects filling our skies in the future and that’s giving some credence to the idea that buildings, gardens and courtyards should perhaps be designed with the view from on high in mind. An azimuthal view will show exactly how well a house melds with the surrounding landscape. Most interesting of all, however, is the unconscious awareness of moving in a space, in a house or a property that has a façade raised to the heavens…
