Journal — ME MERAKI

A sharp diagonal of sunlight crossing a porous travertine wall and stone floor

Field Note 001

Every Object Begins in the Landscape

Before there is a vessel, a bowl or a cup, there is a landscape. Why a landscape architect makes objects — the founding note of the practice.

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Olive-tree shadows cast across a whitewashed wall in a Cycladic alley

Field Note 002

The Geometry of Mediterranean Shade

Shade is not the absence of light. It is one of the most carefully designed spaces in the Mediterranean.

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A solitary stone bench beneath an olive tree, overlooking the sea

Field Note 003

Objects That Could Belong to a Landscape

Can an everyday object belong to a place in the same way that a bench belongs to a square?

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A single olive tree on a dry, straw-coloured hillside above a deep blue sea

Field Note 004

The Colour of Dry Summers

Summer does not only change landscapes. It changes the way we see them.

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Tall dry grasses on a coastal hillside, all bending in the same direction under the wind

Field Note 005

Designing with Wind

Wind is the only material we design that cannot be seen. We only recognise it through what it moves.

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Rainwater flowing in thin rivulets across a pale limestone pavement

Field Note 006

Learning from Water

Water never follows a drawing. It follows gravity.

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A weathered limestone wall in low afternoon light, every pore and fossil revealed

Field Note 007

The Intelligence of Limestone

Limestone does not become beautiful when it is new. It becomes beautiful because it survives.

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A white plaster wall meeting a pale limestone floor, crossed by a single crisp shadow

Field Note 008

Why Simplicity Is Difficult

The most difficult design decision is often deciding what not to add.

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A clay bowl, weathered limestone, silvered olive wood and a patinated bronze handle in the same light

Field Note 009

Materials That Age Beautifully

The best materials are not those that remain unchanged. They are those that become more themselves with time.

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Ceramic bowls beside a landscape plan and a site model with miniature trees

Field Note 010

Landscape at Table Scale

A bowl and a public square begin with exactly the same question: how will people inhabit this space?

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Seen from above, still clear water meeting worn pale limestone along a soft edge

Field Note 011

The Edge

Every landscape is defined not by its centre, but by its edges.

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Aerial view of ancient agricultural terraces wrapping a hillside at sunrise

Field Note 012

Contours

A contour is not a line on a map. It is a record of movement across a landscape.

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An almost empty room with a plaster wall, limestone floor and soft morning light from a window

Field Note 013

Objects for Quiet Spaces

Some objects ask to be admired. Others quietly improve the atmosphere around them.

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Rows of small clay vessels in varied glazes on a stone shelf, lit by low sunlight

Field Note 014

Repetition Without Sameness

The repetition is real. The sameness is not. A group of small vessels in Rhodes, and the Small Vase Project.

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A single unglazed clay vessel casting a long shadow across a plaster wall

Field Note 015

The Architecture of a Vessel

Foot, body, shoulder, neck, rim. Read in section, a vessel is a small piece of architecture built around empty space.

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A long stone table in a courtyard, set sparsely with ceramic objects beneath the shadow of a tree

Field Note 016

A Table Is a Landscape

Centre, edge, territory, movement. One of the smallest landscapes we design every day.

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Ancient-style vessels, plates and a jug arranged in a niche of a plaster wall

Field Note 017

Why Ancient Forms Still Work

Remove the decoration and some of these objects could belong on a contemporary table. Some forms survive because they work.

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Ancient-style clay vessels shaped like a bull, a bird and a human face, standing on a stone ledge

Field Note 018

The Freedom of the Ancient Ceramicist

A vessel shaped like an animal. A face emerging from a cup. What the humour of ancient objects offers a practice that tends towards restraint.

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Pale clay vessels spaced along a stone ledge, the shadow of olive branches crossing the plaster wall behind them

Field Note 019

The Space Between Objects

Move two vases closer and they read as a pair. Separate them and each becomes independent. Space as a material of composition.

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A clay jug, cups and a bowl of olives on a stone table in the dappled shade of a tree

Field Note 020

Useful Can Still Be Beautiful

A cup. A plate. A jug. An incense holder. Usefulness is not the opposite of creativity. It is where the interesting questions begin.

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A clay vase holding an olive branch, a bowl and an open notebook on a table overlooking the sea

Field Note 021

What Should We Carry Forward?

Heritage as knowledge rather than style. What ancient objects, landscapes and buildings can teach the next Me Meraki objects.

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Notes from the field — landscape, architecture, process, material.