DAVID CARR-SMITH - IMPROVISATION / DESIGN / ART / KITSCH / CHANCE

VERNACULAR PRAGMATISM - VILLAGES

LONGAS / ASSO VERAL / ETC   ... in process

INDEX

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   VERNACULAR PRAGMATISM - p2: VILLAGES  ... in process

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VERNACULAR VILLAGES, PROVINCE OF HUESCA, ARAGON VALLEY, SPAIN    ... in process

The Vernacular is without style and without art. Its products are the result of methods developed in relation to the most plentiful and useful local materials. Its products are entirely practical - even its apparent embellishments: the white-painted surrounds of wall-openings, are mentally practical, assumed to prevent the entry of spirits. What might be called the 'style of this architecture' is simply a communality//similarity of (locally gleaned) materials and (inherited) techniques of constructing them. Style, in the sense of a meaningful collective mnemonic language of status, derived from taste and wealth, expressed and disseminated via architecture - is, simply  in the absence of education or knowledge from outside the local practical culture, hardly present, because not locally known or encountered.  The only examples of style in these villages are certain door surrounds and doors - often bearing the arms of the local lord, and presumably designating###ownership by 'him'.  Even these do not obviously ignore or flout the local pragmatism, either in their language of status (a display of the expense of precise skill in shaping and erecting excessively large stones) or in their aesthetic aims: a display of beauty intentionally expressed ... beyond necessity indeed, but limited to exquisite refinements and amplifications of the usual [1] and simplest form of entry arch [2]. Otherwise there is only one indicator of social status - the size of a house has a straightforward relation to its owners wealth, its 'style' however does not alter.  

NOTES: 
1:  The large entries of these village houses are not only expressions of importance; but more usually concerned with access for farm equipment and farm animals stabled on the ground floors.
2:  As aristocratic display they are modest, constituting a refinement of the local common skills of masonry building and calculation; so similar to the general, and their amplifications of the ordinary so meaningless and superfluous, they introduce into the practical aims and methods of local building no extra attractive external meanings that could be separated and easily copied, no store of kitsch signs whose superior origin is publically known and could thus be meaningfully tagged onto the common carcass of ones house as a vulgar claim to taste. An aristocratic display more akin to a linear increase of quality than a display of style that could be mined for motifs.    ... in process

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LONGAS - IN 1978/80  

Longas village is a few miles south of Berdun. At the time of these photos it was semi abandoned and rather isolated at the end of a miles-long track.

LONGAS VILLAGE: FROM APPROACH ROAD (pic 1978) The village is built on the far side of the next ridge.	LONGAS VILLAGE: BIG SQUARE (VILLAGE 'MAIN ROAD' ENTRY) - BIG HOUSE W-FACADE (DATE UNKNOWN) (pic 1978)	LONGAS VILLAGE: SOUTH PART (pic 1978)
LONGAS VILLAGE: ENTRY TO SMALL SQUARE (pic 1980)	LONGAS VILLAGE: SMALL SQUARE  (pic 1978)	LONGAS VILLAGE: SMALL SQUARE - TO ENTRY (pic 1980)
LONGAS VILLAGE: SMALL SQUARE - SURFACE TO ENTRY (pic 1980)	LONGAS VILLAGE: SMALL SQUARE (pic 1978)	LONGAS VILLAGE: SMALL SQUARE (pic 1980)
LONGAS VILLAGE: SMALL SQUARE - BIG HOUSE W-FACADE (DATE UNKNOWN) (pic 1978) This house as an uncorrupted example of the local stone vernacular. The whitening that surrounds openings is said to deter entry of bad spirits - it is thus applied not as decor but a practical ritual.	LONGAS VILLAGE: SMALL SQUARE - BIG HOUSE N-FACADE W-END - TINY 'MOORISH' WINDOW (DATE UNKNOWN) (pic 1978)	LONGAS VILLAGE: SE STREET FROM SQUARE - 'ENTRY COURT' (pic 1980)
LONGAS VILLAGE: 'TOWER HOUSE' (DATE UNKNOWN) (pic 1980)	LONGAS VILLAGE: HOUSE ENTRY ARCH WITH 'MOORISH' WINDOWS (DATE UNKNOWN) (pic 1980)	LONGAS VILLAGE: HOUSE ENTRY ARCH - DETAIL (DATE UNKNOWN) (pic 1980)
LONGAS VILLAGE: HOUSE ENTRY ARCH & WINDOW (DATE UNKNOWN) (pic 1980)	LONGAS VILLAGE: HOUSE 'SQUARE ARCH' ENTRY (DATE UNKNOWN) (pic 1980)	LONGAS VILLAGE: HOUSE 'SQUARE ARCH' ENTRY (RUIN) (DATE UNKNOWN) (pic 1980)

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ASSO VERAL - IN 1980 ... in process

On the N slopes of the Aragon valley, W of Berdun. When visited in summer 1980 the village houses seemed abandoned and the village only used to house animals - its circulation spaces were astonishingly completely carpeted with the dried dung-pellets of goats &/or sheep.

ASSO VERAL VILLAGE: (DATE UNKNOWN) (pic 1980)	ASSO VERAL VILLAGE: (DATE UNKNOWN)  (pic 1980)	ASSO VERAL VILLAGE: (DATE UNKNOWN)  (pic 1980)
ASSO VERAL VILLAGE:  (DATE UNKNOWN) (pic 1980)	ASSO VERAL VILLAGE: (DATE UNKNOWN)  (pic 1980)	ASSO VERAL VILLAGE: (DATE UNKNOWN)  (pic 1980)
ASSO VERAL VILLAGE: (DATE UNKNOWN) (pic 1980)	ASSO VERAL VILLAGE: ANIMAL SHED INTERIOR (DATE UNKNOWN)  (pic [unfocussed] 1980)

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MARTES - IN 1980  ... in process

Martes is SW of Berdun, on the S side of the Aragon valley, where the land begins to rise out of the river's flood plain. 

MARTES VILLAGE: HOUSE AT S-END (DATE UNKNOWN) (pic 1980)

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ARRES - IN 1980  ... in process

Arres village is SE of Berdun, on a steep hilltop on the S side of the Aragon valley. Its barns are where its fields can start, half way between its hilltop and the river.

ARRES VILLAGE: BARN - E-END WALL (DATE UNKNOWN)  (pic 1980) A fantastic feat of dry stone walling; unused stones still litter the ground.

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