QUATREFOIL used in Exterior Architecture

I started a search of the quatrefoil and of course found a ton of designs using this shape. First one that came to mind was the famous bronze door castings by Lorenzo Ghiberti. I remember these doors from my college Art History classes and before I get to far ahead of myself you may be wondering what a quatrefoil looks like.

Definition of QUATREFOIL

1

:  a conventionalized representation of a flower with four petals or of a leaf with four leaflets

2

:  a 4-lobed foliation in architecture

Lorenzo Ghiberti, an Early Renaissance sculpter,  won the competition to construct those Baptistry Doors. The beautifully poured casting each telling their own story are set inside the quatrefoil shape. 

www.thehistoryblog.com

Close up you see two sculpter's submission each displaying the biblical story of Abraham sacrifying his son Isaac.

The usuage of the quatrafoil throughout the years in architecture appears as a dominating choice today through several industries. Not only is the quatrefoil found on exterior doors and buildings, but many manufacturers of carpet, material, wood, plastics, and wallpaper display the design as a current design choice. I plan on talking about those too, but that will be in another post. Today I want to specifically zero in on exterior Architecture. 

Venice - Doge's Palace

When I take myself on an imaginary vacation it tends to be in Italy. I will have to say going here would be in the top 5 destinations I would choose. Having studied these buildings, artist, sculptor's I feel the pull to go see it for myself. 

Notre Dame

Of couse the quatrefoil can be found in other locations for instance the photo above is of Notre Dame Cathedral Paris, France. Construction began in 1163.

Spanish Mediterranean homes architecture

I know this picture above is a little blurry but this modern home proudly display's the quatrefoil around it's foyer roof line. 

Garden Nook

Here it was designed into this cute garden area and is a definite focal point. American Architects are using the quatrefoil in their creations as shown in this photo below of a residential home in Southern California.

American Architecture: Mission Revival

Clearly you can see how this shape has benefitted the design world. From the early 1100's cathedrals constructed to present day, architects remain firm in using the quatrefoil shape.  

Take a look around your town to see if you can spot them either in old or new construction sites.

I will keep on the lookout and report any of my findings. 

Connie

Office Update

Office Update

If you have an obsession to be organized like I do then you must love the saying "A place for everything and everything in it's place." I feel like I have my act together whenever someone needs something and I can go directly to that item without searching for it. Somehow over the last 6 years I lost that capability to find everything or even know if I still had that item in question. Trying to get back some of that control over my household has been driving me to achieve that organization I once possessed.

I drew this little plan with labels on several boxes with the hope that if I saw it on paper I would be able to eliminate everything that wasn't neccessary. Color coding my boxes helped me see progress since the clutter was so distracting. Although it would be really nice to say I am finished or to just hurry through, which neither are the case, but I do have progress to report.

1. First I must go on record to say 'It has been so hard to let things go.' I have been toting extra baggage around because my thoughts were 'I might need that (fill in the blank book, item) someday.' Some of the squares on the floorplan are not actual boxes but piles like the yellow ones ontop of the desk. Because I think yellow is a happy color I started here. As I worked sorting/shredding I could see immediate results. This also created a TO BE FILED pile, which started a domino effect.

2. Since I did not have an empty drawer to place my TO BE FILED papers in. I knew my next task would be to empty the file cabinet drawers. I knew this old metal 4 drawer cabinet was packed full. In it I found a ton of unnecessary papers, Homeschooling information plus visuals, old client info, and manuels to equipment we no longer had!! More sorting and shredding.

3. Amid all the sorting, shredding I received an invitation to sell Homeschool curriculm one Saturday last month. Notice that the school books are removed from the office YEAH!! My daughters assisted me in the sale from gathering, sorting, & pricing books and other school products. Simply removing these books helped to eliminate the boxes off the floor in front of the file cabinet and book shelves. I would not have been able to sell these item without the words of wisdom from my aunt Betty. She said "It's time to embrace this new chapter in your life."
I let those words sink in.
Just accepting the fact that I no longer need curricula brings the reality that my little babies have grown up. ;{

Clearing out the school books allowed for emptying a few more boxes and I had double rows of books on several shelves. I still need to rearrange the books I do want to keep, and there are still quite a lot, but the shelves are no longer gasping for relief. 

Love my floorspace.

4. It's funny how all this overlaps and I really can't list these tasks out numerically. But I can tell you that the next move was to empty all the mini file totes and place those items inside the tall file cabinet. This was a bigger task than removing books, because I'm still sorting/shredding. I have a joke for you that I saw on the top of my bank statement. It asked "What's black and white, and read all over?' The answer was 'your bank statement.' So shredding is important to me however our recycle days are every other week and lets face it that bin can only hold so much.  I am feeling like I'm back to square one except that I have acheived a little more breathing room. I didn't sell all of my homeschool items, but I will not be bringing them back into this space. Those totes I used to transport books to the sale will be placed in the attic as soon as I cross off everything sold. I need to update/finish my craig's list of these books for sale while I wait for the next opportunity I have to sell them which is next spring.

I will report progress soon. Hopefully.
CONNIE