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December 25th, 2007
cyronak house, estes/twombly
Justin in materialicious
“Quiet Modernism” in New England. Lovely stuff. Located on Block Island, this house draws upon a tradition of frugal and forthright architecture that can withstand the rugged island climate. Sliding barn doors enclose the small courtyard entry and protect it from north winds. To the south is a small deck which catches summer afternoon breezes. Inside, the 22′ square 1st floor is open; the 2nd floor contains two bedrooms and a bathroom. At 1050 square feet, this is the smallest house we have done. Estes/Twombly Architects
renovation of a 16th century fortified farm, caruso & torricella architetti
Justin in materialicious
16th Century Fortified Farm, Nesles la Vallée, France. Completed 2005. Renovation of a complex of a 350 sq m house, a 450 sq m hayloft and historical garden. Part of a 1600’s fortified grange connected with the Château, sold after the Revolution to a local farmer ( while the Chateau was disrupted and sold in pieces as building material), subsequently sold to the composer Ch. Gounod, who restored a part as his country-house. The intervention consists in a restoration of the late 19th century renovation intervention, in a restoration of the 1600 original parts with special care for the walls and floors original finishing and in full preservation of the part that remained grange (hayloft) through all the time till our days to house temporary art installations.
Albert Speer Jr., Building His Own Legacy
mediabistro.com: UnBeige
Interesting bit of biography we found by way of Archinect: Spiegel's "Albert Speer's Son, Urban Planner." It's about the son of, yep, that Albert Speer, the Nazi architect, who has tried to work with having his father's legacy always...
Denver Gets the 'Cool City' Thumbs Up, Seattle Doesn't Do As Well
mediabistro.com: UnBeige
When this writer was ooing and ahhing during a trip to Denver earlier in the year, he talked to co-editor Alissa, who has some extended experience with Colorado, and she said something to effect of "Yeah, Denver's becoming the...
LOOS-HAUS
Crouchback in CONTINUITY IN ARCHITECTURE
In the years since our first visit to their Hotel-Restaurant the Steiner Family have, every Christmas, sent us a sprig of vegetation from the forest surrounding their building, better known to architects as the Khuner House by Adolf Loos. Guests can stay, relax and eat in the almost unaltered...
December 23rd, 2007
Urbanffffinds 010
Brendan in Where
I had to venture out into a small blizzard to find a wi-fi spot for this week's Urbanffffinds. Now that's dedication!
Green and pleasant land
Geoff Manaugh in BLDGBLOG
I was poking around for images this morning and I somehow ended up at a site called Old UK Photos. They collect old, public domain photographs of the UK (rather cheekily including Ireland) – but some of the photos are so extraordinarily beautiful, and so hard to believe that they really are photographs, that I felt like re-posting a few here.
Christmas in Chicago, 2007 edition , A photoessay on Christmas in Chicago, 2007
by Lynn Becker
Chicago, its neighborhoods and suburbs, is so big it would take a book to capture its celebration of Christmas, so here's just a few selected shots of Chicago's city center during the holiday season of 2007.
December 22nd, 2007
CHIGAGO’S NEXT LEAD: The Green Alley Project
Ali in Inhabitat
Chicago Mayor Richard Daly, who has already sent a successful wave of
green roofs over the Windy City, has turned his sights towards his next
environmental challenge: greening the city’s alleys. Some 1,900 miles
of alleyways that cover over 3,500 acres of city land with paved,
impermeable surfaces will become the focus of the Green Alley Project
with designs and improvements to help manage stormwater, reduce urban
heat island effect, promote recycling and conserve energy.
Green Building & Remodeling for Dummies
Piper in Inhabitat
Green Building & Remodeling for Dummies is the perfect holiday gift for those of us who are interested in green building, but need a little expert help. Admittedly, the For Dummies® books are a smart start for anyone wanting to pick up a new trade or just learn the overall basics on any particular subject. With more than 150 million books in print and over 1000 topics, this new release by Eric Corey Freed of Organic Architect may be the best evidence out there that green is mainstream.
Simplicity: "We Have Met the Enemy..."
Jon Lebkowsky in WorldChanging: Tools, Models and Ideas for Building a Bright Green Future
The cultivation and expansion of needs is the antithesis of wisdom. It is also the antithesis of freedom and peace. Every increase of needs tends to increase one's dependence on outside forces, over which one cannot have control, and therefore increases existential fear. &mdash E.F. Schumacher, 1973. In the midst of the winter holiday season's explosion of festive commerce, I find myself thinking about voluntary simplicity, a term originally used by Ghandian Richard Gregg in 1936 to describe a focused existence excluding the clutter and complexity associated with 20th century acquisitive lifestyles of the middle classes.
port-a-bach, atelier workshop
Justin in materialicious
Okay! Here’s the Port-a-Bach, from Atelier Workshop in New Zealand! It reminds me of BARK’s All-Terrain Cabin, in that it is created from a 20ft. shipping container. The Port-a-Bach portable cabin sleeps two adults and two children, is power, water and sewer independent, has one wall that folds down to create an open living space and folds back up to secure the unit for storage or relocation. It has a kitchen and complete bath, and can be hooked up to external services, as well. Awesome.
ipad™, andre hodgskin
Justin in materialicious
Top New Zealand architect Andre Hodgskin created a sensation when he launched the BACHKIT™ in 2000, gaining acclaim in international design magazines. Andre has now developed the iPAD™, a fresh look at the concept of a simple but stylish lightweight kitset building.The iPAD™ is a true kitset bach designed to covers a range of options; it could be a one bedroom holiday home, secondary dwelling, granny flat, office, studio or resort unit to name but a few. It can be grouped as a series of pavilions to form larger accommodation if required. A single iPAD™ totals 50m sq with decks of 55m sq and will retail in New Zealand for $125,000.00*. Various external cladding and colour options are available to suit individual taste and context. Of particular note is that the iPAD™ can be either manufactured off-site and easily transported to its final destination, or shipped as a kitset and erected on site by a licensed contractor.
Philip Johnson's Apartment To Be Preserved
mediabistro.com: UnBeige
The New York apartment once owned by architect Philip Johnson has escaped gut renovation, thanks to a pair of Texans who were enraptured by the place. Michael and Amy Cosgrove paid approximately $2.25 million for the 1,427-square-foot one-bedroom on the...
Taking Design to Task
mediabistro.com: UnBeige
Another design magazine?! Really? "Don't worry," says the first issue of Task Newsletter, "It's going to be great." A look at the contributors is convincing. The designers-slash-editors: Emmet Byrne from Minneapolis (and of the Walker Art Center), Alex DeArmond...
Why Geo-Engineering is a Debate Whose Time Has Gone
Alex Steffen in WorldChanging: Tools, Models and Ideas for Building a Bright Green Future
With some regularity these days, I get calls from reporters wanting to know my thoughts about various schemes for attempting to use enormous technofixes -- vast space mirrors, mountains of iron filings dumped into the oceans, newly planted forests of trees gene-hacked to suck in more carbon dioxide, intentionally filling the atmosphere with sulfate pollution (creating a sort of artificial volcano), etc. -- to combat climate change. And, increasingly, my opinion has grown stronger: they're all dumb, dangerous ideas. I generally believe we ought to keep an open mind about matters scientific, and I'm prepared still to be convinced that one or more of these ideas can work and work well. That said, as the evidence currently stands, I think the intelligent stance regarding debate on these matters is one of extreme skepticism.
What's New in Interior Design Is Old Again, Right Away
mediabistro.com: UnBeige
You want to read the most exhausting yet really fun story in the New York Times you'll probably ever run across? If so, click on over to Penelope Green's "Flash in the Can: Design Soon Forgotten." It's all about...
Dark City
Lynn Becker in ArchitectureChicago PLUS
The long night approaches. The sun, six hours stolen from peak summer flush, crouches low in the sky, buried alive beneath the skyscrapers. Birds chirp their anxiety from bare, snowdripped branches. An urban brew of filth-informed slush mires streets and sidewalks. We go to our jobs in darkness, return home in darkness, while in workday hours, the eviscerated rays scarcely penetrate the panes of glass sweating cold into dry, overheated rooms. Winter solstice, Natalis Invicti, day of the new sun's birth, become, under a later Julius, the next the first, birth date of the son of God, harbinger of personal salvation.
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