Outside Space
Tue 19 October 2010
One of the differences that struck me here is the use of outside space. In New England, a patio might get used a few months out of the year. Folks are packing away their deck chairs for the winter, around now. You'd never count on using your porch for meals.
Outside spaces get used routinely here. I suspect this is common in warm climates. It still surprises me.
Every morning I eat an al fresco breakfast at the guesthouse.
I'm writing from one of the tables now. Mosquito coils and a fan keep the bugs away. A couple toads waddle out from under the soda cooler every night. ( This occasioned learning the word for toad, which I had mistaken for frog.)
The Soup Dragon has lots of open air seating. It's more accurate to say they have few walls.
There's an inner core with the kitchen and bathrooms, and a stairway leading up to more seating or offices. I believe they put up shutters at closing.
Le Tigre Papier's cooking class met in a rooftop kitchen. We passed through a sweltering kitchen on the way upstairs.
Air conditioned spaces are closed off. The guest house rooms are air conditioned, but the lobby door is always open for ventilation. My office is air conditioned. The stairway to the upper level is outside. That would never work in Boston, but here it maximizes the cooled space.
If I were visiting Boston, I'd marvel that ice and snow made outside staircases impossible. Besides, we'd need jackets just to go upstairs.