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He made a massive personal commitment to the island; countless traffic islands are distinguished by his colourful cubist and sometimes mechanical modern sculptures. Manrique was not a sculptor, a painter, an architect or a town planner, he was an artist and he applied his art to all he did, including those disciplines. He is responsible for some extraordinary architecture, modern and yet blending with the natural landscape. In the same way as the castle on Lindisfarne in Northumberland UK seems a natural extension of the rock without which the landscape would be unfinished, so is Jameos del Agua, Mirador del Rio and the main subject of this book, his house.
His house. The word conjures an image of four walls and a roof. How wrong. The plan looks more like that of a futuristic space vessel. The house integrates into the volcanic landscape. While using the traditional white painted building style of the region he also exploits the lava bubbles beneath the ground to form a series of interconnected living spaces. Many feature an opening to the sky, one has a palm tree growing up through the centre of the "room" emerging above ground. Another is home to a small swimming pool with a bridge of lava (featured on the book-cover). Nor are the surface-level buildings conventional. No room is without some reference to the landscape; one delightful feature is a window through which the lava appears to have flowed into the room.
The book includes a short biography, a description and lavish colour photographs of the house.
Buy the book but be warned, you will want to visit the house as a result - and it's worth it. Though not on the same scale, the house imbues one with the reverential atmosphere of a great cathedral.
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