Reuse

This collage was aimed at seeing the overlap of spaces in a reused project. And how they there is not always a clear boundary more of a layering of old and new and how the spaces are shared then with both structures.

Materials and Texture

My materials and texture collage is intended to express the different textures of a particular material through its life cycle. What was interesting to me was the spatial differences that can be created when using the same material in different textures.

Passage Of Time Collage

Light Collage

Vernacular

I found this great little video and article about vernacular that I wanted to share.

http://www.pbs.org/e2/teachers/teacher_302.html

Great Sketches

Morimoto Restaurant- NYC

TADAO ANDO

Hyōgo Prefectural Museum of Art- Japan

RENZO PIANO

Modern Wing at the Art Institute of Chicago

High Museum of Art Addition

Critical Regionalism

In studio we had a great discussion about critical regionalism and vernacular architecture. I feel that vernacular architecture is the root of critical regionalism. The two to me seem so closely linked that they must indeed overlap. I did ask myself the question if vernacular is "the response to local conditions by necessity, not by choice"1 then can vernacular by modern? Does it adopt our new technologies and advances in comforts with which we live?


1. Canizaro, Vincent B., Architectural Regionalism Collected Writings on Place, Identity, Modernity and Tradition, (Princeton Architectural Press: New York, 2007)        
           pp. 20

The Art and Science of Renzo Piano

Sunlight & Shade

The natural sunlight in a room in unmistakable. The illumination it carries is a warm and your bare feet thank it as it defrosts them as you walk across the cold floor in the morning. I think natural sunlight is something no building can live without. Laws in Berlin Germany will agree, for you are not allowed to build a building with offices and rooms not receiving natural sunlight. Natural sunlight has found its calling with advances in the field and more sustainable practices. Optimizing on the energy we can save by using this unlimited resources.


I enjoy the shade as much as I do the sun. More importantly the shade prescribed from off of a tree. The dappled light is comforting to me and when there is a breeze the shade too is dynamic. I am curious if there is a way to properly replicate this in architecture.

The Beauty of Black and White

In high school I took photography classes, we started with black and white and then moved into digital photography. Digital was convenient because there was no waiting for prints to develop, however this is one of the many things I enjoyed about black and white film photography. There is such a quick turn around of gratification from the moment you capture the image to the time you process your shot as a print. I love how you can manipulate it under an enlarger and then when it develops it just slowly emerges on this white sheet. A black and white photo for me has drama. I love the sharp contrast and boldness of seeing the object's lines run and bleed together as tones. There is the advantage of learning about light when working with photography, and an appreciation for highlight and shadow.

Jason Watts- Full Sunflower

Ansel Adams, Aspens, Northern New Mexico 1958

 My own shot of Santiago Calatrava's Bridge in Valencia, Spain

The Log Cabin

The Traditional Log Cabin

Many of us grow up in that traditional wood frame house and we find comfort in the this familiarity, but find comfort even more so being engulfed under larger timber beams and nature. The log cabin has so many forms and has developed with the times and its site. There is something I find so successful about the Cabin yet not sure what it is exactly or why I do love them so. It could be the texture? Could it be their sites? The small intimacy of the scale? Is it the tectonics of the wood coming together?

Allen & Maurer Architects, Maurer Residence 

Johnston Architects, Twisp Cabin, WA

Balance Associate Architects, Wintergreen Cabin

Another Restoration!

On the tiny island of Coll with just two hundred residents off the coast of Scotland sits a modest masterwork of modern renovation – a brand new home slotted delicately inside the (reinforced) crumbling stone ruins of an ancient local manor.

Planned around its predecessor, the new construction helps shelter the old, takes advantage of existing wall heights, window perforations and more to create a beautiful balance.

Stainless steel frames were delicately introduced to help hold existing walls together, prop up the sagging chimney and support a new door-overhanging lintel made of local stone. While digging to pour a new foundation, bronze age pottery was found and carefully exhumed.

The open-plan interior has layers of fresh-finished wood, flat reflective glass and sleek black-coated steel right alongside aged stonework walls, setting them apart visually while tying everything together … and placing the rough vintage edges, cracks and crevices in easy-to-touch locations throughout.

For all the polish of the finished product, construction was anything but easy. Between the fragile frame of the building and the fierce ocean winds, simply stabilizing the existing building remnants took WT Architecture months of careful planning and execution.

Outside the new structure, a high performance aluminised builder paper maximizes the insulation value of the building fabric while much sealing was required to bridge gaps between glass windows and stone frames. Overall, the intersections of modern forms and existing elements is beautifully balanced both from a large-scale and down-to-details perspective.

http://dornob.com/remote-retreat-new-island-home-in-an-historic-stone-ruin/

Book Worth Buying!

Beautifully Restored

Salvaged exterior siding became interior paneling – scrap floorboards turned into new stairs, trim and counter-top material. ?All in all, there is a timeless look to the end product; a traditional farmstead structure has definitely been giving a great new lease on life.

Barns tend to be rich in history but mixed in terms of materiality, made for functional on-the-farm purposes with owners little realizing they might one day live where pigs and chickens used to lay (eggs or otherwise).

Salvaged exterior siding became interior paneling – scrap floorboards turned into new stairs, trim and counter-top material. ?All in all, there is a timeless look to the end product; a traditional farmstead structure has definitely been giving a great new lease on life.

Skylights and bay windows opened up the interior to let in additional daylight, while a limited material and color palette kept any additions from drawing attention away from the existing elements. Meanwhile, recycled surface materials, plumbing pipes and more were utilized throughout.

This structure is a lovely layered and deeply-textured exception – particularly following a fantastic renovation effort turning it into a downright dazzling contemporary house.

SHED architects worked some serious wonders in programming this old building with a workroom, kitchen, lofted living area, guest apartment and multiple bathrooms. All of this also had to be done with historic preservation in mind.

http://dornob.com/beautiful-old-wood-barn-renovated-into-a-fresh-new-home/

Recycle, Restore and Reuse

There is something I find terribly sad when I travel down small county roads and see abandon houses with their collapsing roofs, boarded or missing windows and their unmaintained lawns. I drive by and can't help but think of ways to salvage the property. There has to be ways that these deteriorating homes could somehow help the ones of the future. Could the materials be striped and saved reused for another home? Could the building's foundation support a new load, maybe a restored version of the existing? Isn't the greenest building ones that already exists? Would nature be more quick to grow and take over if the building were all together removed? Why cant something great come for the junk or garbage of another?

Recycled barn door

Mason Jars originally for pickling and jams mounted
to a piece of trim and repurposed for craft storage

Antique trunks Repurposed as night stands

The Importance Of A Good View

A good view is something we all search for. They are forever changing with the time and are never seen exactly the same to everyone. It is something special and architecturally can form a space. Architects design  for views we create these living photographs with glazings and openings in our structure.

 

The Necessity of Nature

Lake McDonald, Glacier National Park, MT

Lavender Fields in France

Plains in Namibia

I need places that look like this. Amazing and captivating scenes. They keep my mind at peace and my lungs searching for breathe. Being surround by nature is never been anything short of sublime. I hope to someday live self sufficiently off the land and off the grid. 

"When one tugs at a single thing in nature; he finds it attached to the rest of the world." -John Muir