Field Notes - The Architecture of the Lane
I went on a late afternoon walk to break the friction of restlessness and fatigue. My eyes eye registered the geometry of a landscape caught between what was and what is left behind. My feet walked different terrains. My path moves through the narrow remains of old rural lanes. Modern poorly kept pavements, cutting between detached and semi-detached houses. Many sit abandoned, their gardens turning wild, while others are still fiercely maintained. The shapes cut clean lines against the sky, some round and fluid, others perfectly rectangular or quadrangular. They wear the skins of past decades: beautiful Portuguese tiles, or fading coats of mustard paint. There is a deep layering of class and history here. I pass an ilha - the late 19th-century-early 20th worker housing built for the mills and factories that used to exist here - its shared yard loud with the sound of several roosters. Further up, a mid-20th-century building has been repainted in modern dark grey. On its first-f...
