CASA ALTA

An Un Paraíso
Andalusian Andaluz
Paradise

CASA ALTA

Photography by
Fotografía de
Richard Barnes

Contributions by
Contribuciones de
Victor Carrasco
Antonio Ortiz
John A. Loomis
Elizabeth McMillan
Jacobo Cortines

PRINCETON ARCHITECTURAL PRESS

New York
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CONTENTS The private The Casa Alta Victor Carrasco,
Contenidos garden as of Bornos bodegonero
paradise espléndido
177 177 179
El paraíso en La Casa Alta Victor Carrasco,
un jardín de Bornos bodegonero
privado ANTONIO ORTIZ espléndido
Victor Carrasco John A. Loomis
135 144 166 172
PROLOGUE The House EPILOGUE Roof
Finding 182 190 terrace
La Casa Epílogo
the crucifixes in Bornos
180 150 172
Prólogo Azotea en
Buscando
The Furniture Bornos
los crucifijos 184 Jacobo Cortines
ELIZABETH MCMILLAN Los Muebles

156
The Garden
186
El Jardín

160
The Lemon Tree Pool
188
El Estanque
del Limonero
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The
private
garden as
paradise
VICTOR CARRASCO

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 My own or rather its redesign,
since it was originally
Islam left an indelible
imprint on Spanish

house in a twelfth-century
Muslim defense tower,
culture and architecture.
The Alhambra of Granada,

southern part of the fortification

of the town. Southern
one of the most sensual
buildings in the history

Spain Spain is a palimpsest,

a superimposition
of architecture; the Great
Mosque at Córdoba,

had a very of cultures on cultures.

The Romans occupied
possibly the closest that
humankind has come to

strong the area for four hundred

years, the Visigoths for
depicting the infinity of God
by means of hard materials;

intention two hundred, and the

Arabs for eight hundred.
the palace of Medina
Azahara outside of Córdoba;

behind its Islam invaded the Iberian

Peninsula in 711 and
and so on. But perhaps one
of the area’s most precious

design, stayed there until

Ferdinand and Isabella
legacies of Islam is the
incorporation of the private
forced them out of garden, however small,
the Alhambra of Granada into a sensual lifestyle.
in 1492. When I want to escape the
sensual desert of America,
I find refuge tucked
away in a remote little
village in southern Spain.

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The English word paradise The Qur’an promises In addition to the flowers, A poet from Córdoba
is derived from the true believers an earthly birds, and fountains, the wrote a description of the
Latin paradisus, which in paradise after death, Qur’an offers solicitous Andalusian garden that left
turn comes from the forever. In an impossibly Hourtis, pages with a phosphorescent trail in
Greek parádeisos, which hot climate (during the gold bracelets and anklets my mind. His words have
is from the Avestan summer months, when and silks and brocades influenced the design of my
(an ancient Persian I live in inland southern that scantily cover their house more than anything
language predating Farsi) Spain, the mid-afternoon beautiful young bodies. else I can recall: “There is
pairidaêza, meaning temperatures can reach For those who inherit no garden of paradise except
enclosure—later used 110 to 115 degrees heaven, says the Qur’an, in your own home. Do not
to describe enclosed, Fahrenheit), paradise the Garden of Paradise think that tomorrow you
private gardens. The term gives trees to spread shall be their hospitality will enter the eternal fire;
pairidaêza eventually came shade and produces fruits for eternity, and they You do not enter hell after
to refer to not only the and flowers unfailingly, will never desire to be having lived in heaven.”
Persian garden but also to including pomegranates, removed from it. When I die, I don’t want to
the sublime bliss of the suit apricots, lemons, go to heaven, I want to
Garden of Eden. oranges (and their go to my house.
intoxicating blossoms),
jasmine, roses, and
more. This rich bounty is
accompanied by birdsong
“Cuando
and the sound of water
trickling from fountains,
yo
which enter cool and
dark pavilions, providing
muera,
respite. no
quiero
ir al
cielo,
quiero
ir
a mi
casa.”
VICTOR CARRASCO
1942– 2005

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