Tuesday, February 23, 2010

The Old Home Place in Ruins


We were walking around Alamos recently when 
we ran into some ruins of an old building.

(To see a rewrite of this post go to Adobes In Ruins In Alamos, Sonora.)


Which got me thinking about what happens to a house that determines 
whether a building will survive and prosper or fail and turn into ruins.


Who lived here and what happened to them
 and what caused the house to fail?


Stewart Brand wrote a book in 1987 called How Buildings Learn 
which addressed some of these thoughts.



This was an old prison in Alamos apparently.
 The original adobe wall was patched with the
 fired bricks many of which have fallen off. 
Dissimilar materials usually will not bond well.


There is an old bluegrass song about a guy who goes back
 to his old home place only to find it in ruins. It is very sad.


This is part of the Hotel Casa de Maria Felix and is the ruins 
of the birthplace of the well known Mexican actress.
When we build we may want to think about this.