2. Live Oakz


For more information/context before continuing consider checking out
Quercus Virginia: Southern Live Oak for some facts about the tree, and The Live Oak is a Florida Favorite for some understanding of how the tree has been utilized but also neglected in urban enviornments.

Finally, an article in the Tallahassee Democrat on the tornados that hit on the morning of May 10th: Point of convergence: Tracking the Tallahassee tornadoes' havoc in maps, words and photos




LIVE OAKS ARE A BEAUTIFUL HOUSE PLANT TO HAVE






A PREFACE:

This is the second post to the mikebrain blog and website. The focus is on space. In post 1, Taku shared an interior space. The interior space of a collector, where the relationship of objects within a space to one another is much more striking than a more direct relationship between object and space. Taku revealed to us an honest and intimate perspective into what he likes, and the also the satisfaction in surrounding yourself with collected things. In this post, the focus is on the latter, a different sort of object and a different sort of space: big fat trees surrounding small old houses.

ANYWAYS




First and foremost thanks to the Lafayette Park Neighborhood Association graphic design team, which totally exists, for such a fantastic image. found on facebook. Anyways, two or so weeks ago while I was back in Tallahassee I went on a walk around Lafayette park, you will see houses such as 






And I was like wow the grown enviornment and the built enviornment. I like how this looks, and I like how it feels. Maybe slightly manicured, but overall a sprawling. Not only for shade and privacy is this a benefit but it also forces homeowners to have a relationship with their surroundings. 
     Maybe having an active relationship in the maintainace of your enviornment is actually a good thing. Maybe you’ll actually like it! These trees are objects, with personality, unique to their plot, just with slightly more autonomy than a poster that hangs on your wall. Some draw backs of course, ever so evident by the tornado that struck town during the beginning of May 2024, taking out power for a large portion of the community for a few days. 
    No doubt that these large trees can be liabilities to properties. That being said, these houses are old, (1920s-1930s in lots of cases) and the trees are older, (two to three hundred years old.) and neither seem to be going anywhere. Clearly a lot of people enjoy the satisfaction of old rich active relationships with their natural enviornments over the potential risks that may be associated.  




INTERLUDE:

Quotes from Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster in “Lives of the Artists, Lives of the Architects” (by Hans Ulrich Obrist) That i believe relate to this post

“places where plants and organic matter have a certain power” 54

“seriously though, what Paris really lacks is plant life, tropical life. Paris is too dry, too mineral, completely grey...” 54

“well balanced amid the vegital, organic, and mineral ecosystems.” 57

“Architecture’s greatest strength lies perhaps not in its full spaces, but in its empty spaces.” 60

“I’ve never been interested in a relationship with something you can hold, but rather in a relationship with things that surround us. And that, I think, is precisely what I found in Japan.” 62

“The relationship to an object or a thing is all too obvious a relationship, I prefer to be in a relationship with something that’s around me” 72

“Rio is an incredible city in a fantastic geological location, with lots of great architecture and a pre-individualistic mood - the organic, fertile influence of the tropical vegitation and climate is something that’s out of control.” 82

“and I just finished a film related to snow: it’s about a park in Rio called Parça Paris, a kind of French Garden, obsessed with order and symmetry, exept that in Rio it doesn’t work because it’s made with local plants that don’t accept these rigid designs [Gloria, 2008].” 89

“1973 science fiction movie Soylent Green” 84



END OF INTERLUDE



More from the stroll around Lafayette:



TAKE AWAYS:

PRESERVE MORE OLD HOUSES
PRESERVE MORE OLD LIVE OAKS
READ MORE FROM D-GF
FYI I JUST RAMBLE SO PLEASE CONSIDER SHARING YOUR THOUGHTS esp if im wrong about something


THX MORE LATER xx


this post was originally published on June 1st, 2024