Spirit of Place

Visit Spirit of Place/Design for further details and pictures.

SPIRIT of PLACE / SPIRIT of DESIGN inc. is a design-build exploration program primarily for architecture students that has become a major environmental and cultural force in reshaping the built environment.  The program also affiliates itself with the fields of anthropology, archeology, environment, and all the arts, and has recently been featured in the Smithsonian.  SPIRIT of PLACE / SPIRIT of DESIGN inc. is a 501 C-3 Non-Profit welcoming financial and intellectual contributions.

The program provides students the opportunity to research, design, and construct a project in a remote landscape, as a team.  To date, Architect Travis Price, author of SPIRIT of PLACE / SPIRIT of DESIGN inc., in conjunction with The Catholic University of America/School of Architecture & Planning, has co-sponsored and coordinated the design build sojourns.

The goal has been to explore, through an educational forum, the design and construction of architectural forms that are able to successfully respond to their natural and cultural settings in a modern idiom.  The culmination of 12 projects over the past 10 years has resulted in a series of investigations into the spirit of remote landscapes, the diversity of the appropriate cultures, and the fusion of these arenas into practical and metaphorical architectural objects.

Environmental stewardships and the preservation of cultural metaphors in distant landscapes continue to guide the development of these built projects.  The program’s overriding goal is to foster a new language of modern architecture with corresponding syllabus for the education of architects and artists.

The intense construction phase of SPIRIT of PLACE / SPIRIT of DESIGN inc. produces practical, award-winning built projects.  The design process of the program takes place over the period of a semester, while the construction phase is completed in less than nine days.  The students work hand in hand with Travis Price Architects and the client/patron in remote areas and under strenuous conditions.  For many students, this hands-on experience is their first exposure to construction techniques.

The resulting design expeditions have included:

1992 – ‘A Sacred Cache and the Crow’ – A temple.  Yukon Border, British Columbia.

1993 – ‘The Spirit of the Mask’ – Outhouses.  Yukon Border, British Columbia.

1996 – ‘Where Earth, Fire, Wind, and Water Meet’ – A Sweat Lodge.  South Trail Island, British Columbia.

1997 – ‘The Salamander and the 2nd Chakra’ – Bathhouses.  Santa Barbara, California.

1998 – ‘The Fullness of the Void’ – A Bridge.  Vargas Island, Clayoquot Sound, British Columbia.

1999 – ‘Floating in the 10,000 Senses’ – A Casita.  Yacumama Lodge, Amazon River, Peru.

2000 – ‘A Star Gazing Portal to the Inca Mayu – Milky Way’ – A Temple.  Machu Picchu, Peru.

2001 – ‘Sukhavati (Bliss) & The Nagmani (Snake’s Eyes)’ – A Temple.  Nagarjun Mountain, Kathmandu, Nepal.

2002 – ‘Thin Places’ – Two Shrines dedicated to those Lost at Sea.  Anagh Head, Doonamoe, Belmullet, County Mayo, Ireland.

2003 – ‘Where the Daughter Winds of Islam Caress the Mirror of Venus’ – A Temple to Venus.  Pantelleria, Italy.

2004 – ‘Vault of Heaven’ – A Shrine Processional dedicated to the children of Erris.  Scotts Port, Belmullet, County Mayo, Ireland.

2005 - 'The Children of Lir' - A tale of 900 years told in sculpted land.  Caraigh Taigh, Ireland. 

2007- 'Temple of the Tides' - Small refelection chapel dedicated to the "Emerging Irish".  Bellmullet, Ireland.

2008 -  'National Memorial to James Hoban - Architect of the White House' -A memorial dedicated at his home site in Desart , Ireland. DC AIA Award Winner 2008