Showing posts with label architecture. Show all posts
Showing posts with label architecture. Show all posts
Wednesday, December 23, 2015
Thursday, December 17, 2015
Last night I watched an episode of Tiny House Nation on TV. Or, rather, watched as long as I could stand it, less than five minutes. It had this nice looking young white couple with three kids being surprised by their newly built tiny house. The building was a mess. Crudely attached short pieces of “natural lumber,” slate roof (?), dumb porch (don't subtract from precious interior space), dangerous loft.
Worse was the amazement and delight of the occupants upon seeing their new digs. It all seemed phony and shallow. Reality TV comes to the tiny house movement. "Could you go out, come back in, and say 'awesome,' again, honey?"
I tell people that I'm not the tiny homes guy just because I did a book on the subject. I'm the build-it-yourself-guy. Do what you can for yourself with your hands—shelter, food, clothing, firewood, etc.— with the awareness and understanding that you can't do it all. Find the balance.
I don't know about other Tiny House Nation episodes, but this one was a commercialization and dumbing-down version of a concept that is very real in its heart for many people. Too bad.
Here's just one example of bad design in the TH field, and it's quite prevalent: Are those round steps with no banister actually the way you climb up into the cramped and dangerous loft? The ladder to loft is a bad design in all these gable roofed tiny houses. The space is claustrophobic. There should be windows all-around at eye level to expand your sense of place. And so on. Unfortunately this configuration is the poster girl for the tiny house movement.
What do I think is better? The gypsy wagon, or vardo design, with curved roof and bed at one end with drawers underneath. Lots of eye level windows. Heck, look at our last book.
I'm not one to bemoan the absence of architects, but in this field, good architecture could make a huge difference.
And by the way, a home is more than a house.
Photo: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RijQcJTruek
Worse was the amazement and delight of the occupants upon seeing their new digs. It all seemed phony and shallow. Reality TV comes to the tiny house movement. "Could you go out, come back in, and say 'awesome,' again, honey?"
I tell people that I'm not the tiny homes guy just because I did a book on the subject. I'm the build-it-yourself-guy. Do what you can for yourself with your hands—shelter, food, clothing, firewood, etc.— with the awareness and understanding that you can't do it all. Find the balance.
I don't know about other Tiny House Nation episodes, but this one was a commercialization and dumbing-down version of a concept that is very real in its heart for many people. Too bad.
Here's just one example of bad design in the TH field, and it's quite prevalent: Are those round steps with no banister actually the way you climb up into the cramped and dangerous loft? The ladder to loft is a bad design in all these gable roofed tiny houses. The space is claustrophobic. There should be windows all-around at eye level to expand your sense of place. And so on. Unfortunately this configuration is the poster girl for the tiny house movement.
What do I think is better? The gypsy wagon, or vardo design, with curved roof and bed at one end with drawers underneath. Lots of eye level windows. Heck, look at our last book.
I'm not one to bemoan the absence of architects, but in this field, good architecture could make a huge difference.
And by the way, a home is more than a house.
Photo: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RijQcJTruek
Wednesday, December 16, 2015
"The Sami people (also Sámi or Saami), traditionally known in English as Lapps or Laplanders, are an indigenous Finno-Ugric people inhabiting the Arctic area of Sápmi, which today encompasses parts of far northern Norway, Sweden, Finland, the Kola Peninsula of Russia, and the border area between south and middle Sweden and Norway.…
Their best-known means of livelihood is semi-nomadic reindeer herding. Currently about 10% of the Sami are connected to reindeer herding, providing them with meat, fur, and transportation. 2,800 Sami people are actively involved in herding on a full-time basis. For traditional, environmental, cultural, and political reasons, reindeer herding is legally reserved only for Sami people in certain regions of the Nordic countries.…"
http://www.whitewolfpack.com/2015/12/rare-old-photos-of-indigenous-sami.html
From Rick Gordon
Above: Sami people in the late 1800s Sweden/Norway..…Their best-known means of livelihood is semi-nomadic reindeer herding. Currently about 10% of the Sami are connected to reindeer herding, providing them with meat, fur, and transportation. 2,800 Sami people are actively involved in herding on a full-time basis. For traditional, environmental, cultural, and political reasons, reindeer herding is legally reserved only for Sami people in certain regions of the Nordic countries.…"
http://www.whitewolfpack.com/2015/12/rare-old-photos-of-indigenous-sami.html
From Rick Gordon
Monday, December 14, 2015
Just thought you might like to see some photos of SunRay's latest creation -- a funky little treehouse nestled in ponderosa pine trees, built during the recent 20th anniversary Natural Building Colloquium in Kingston, New Mexico. I have a bunch of images on my website here: http://www.theyearofmud.com/blog/
It's a beautiful structure, particularly the roof. Hope you enjoy!
- ziggy
p.s. By the way, I'm greatly looking forward to the next book!
Brian 'Ziggy' Liloia
Natural Building Workshops & more
Thursday, December 3, 2015
Friday, November 6, 2015
Thursday, November 5, 2015
Too bad most of the houses (over 600 of them) out there turned out to be such clunkers. Why do so few architects ever get it right?
The best thing about Sea Ranch is the landscaping, by Lawrence Halperin; he left it completely au naturel.
This is at Stewart's Point on Highway One.
Wednesday, November 4, 2015
Friday, October 30, 2015
"Fresco of the Last Judgement on the inside of the Dome by Vasari, begun in 1568, and completed by Federico Zuccaro in 1579 Duomo of Florence, Basilica of Saint Mary of the Flower, Firenza Basilica di Santa Maria del Fiore Built between 1293 & 1436 Italy."
"Domes, which vault the crossing and altar of countless churches, lend themselves well to being transformed into paintings of the sky. The round shape above our heads seems to open onto a higher world, so that God and the things of heaven become visually present at the church holiest spot.
The Last Judgment in the enormous dome of the cathedral in Florence was painted from 1572 onward. Vincenzo Borghini had drawn up a learned theological program as early as 1570, Giorgio Vasari was responsible for executing it, but he died in 1574. Federico Zuccaro completed the frescoes in 1575-79. High up in the fresco in the dome, around the cupola, hovers a temple with the twenty-four elders of the Apocalypse; beneath this, on terraced registers, follow choirs of angels with the instruments of the Passion, then groups of saints, then personifications of the gifts of the Holy SXpirit, of the virtues, and of the beatitudes, and finally the regions of hell with various deadly sins. The composition of the fresco thus takes into account the architectonic form of the vault in its eight sections, hard upon one another. There is no attempt to dissolve the architectural structure completely by means of illusionistic painting.
The temple and the zones of heaven for four of the eight sections of the vault were completed under Vasari's direction."
http://www.wga.hu/html_m/v/vasari/2/13duomo.html
Photo: public domain
Thursday, October 29, 2015
Friday, October 23, 2015
Thursday, October 22, 2015
Wednesday, October 21, 2015
In keeping with the Brotherhood of Beach Builders: no nails.
Friday, October 16, 2015
Kudos to the good architects, of whom there are unfortunately few these days.
Thursday, October 15, 2015
Thursday, September 17, 2015
"I am a registered architect with a passion for African vernacular architecture. I wish to connect with others with similar interests to preserve African vernacular architecture before it vanishes. The overall goal is a database, which currently does not exist online for most African countries."
 Jon (Twingi) Sojkowskihttp://www.malawiarchitecture.com/#!homes/csc8 |
Thursday, September 10, 2015
"…It’s not hard to see the appeal. Shipping containers look exactly like building blocks, which is the primary medium (other than dirt) that most architects started working with. You can buy used ones for about $1,600 a pop, which seems like a steal for housing. Doing that also feels very environmentally conscious, because you’re taking something that already exists and reusing it for a different purpose. For these reasons, architects in particular are drawn to the idea of using shipping containers as housing for poor people — as is the case with this plan for a skyscraper made of them, which just won a design competition for low-income housing in Mumbai.
There’s just one problem: Shipping containers turn out to be a uniquely poor building block for human shelter. Mark Hogan, a San Francisco architect who has worked with shipping containers in the past, just wrote a succinct manifesto about why you should really, really not use shipping containers for housing.
For one thing: A building made of corrugated steel is going to be a miserable residence, especially in a place as hot as Mumbai. You could add insulation and a ventilation system — but that would make a box that already has awkwardly low ceilings even smaller. You could add windows — but that would require cutting through steel walls, which takes specialized equipment, and a contractor who knows how to use that equipment.…"
http://grist.org/cities/dear-architects-stop-trying-to-make-shipping-container-buildings-happen/
http://markasaurus.com/2015/09/01/whats-wrong-with-shipping-container-housing-everything/
Sent in by John Michael Linck
Wednesday, September 9, 2015
Snark snark: this place is vastly overpriced ($35 general entrance fee for one day), not very well designed, and compliments the weirdness and architectural absurdity of the De Young Museum across the way from it. Sorry, it just pisses me off. The old academy and museum were just fine and in harmony with the bandstand with its pollarded trees outside.
Wednesday, August 26, 2015
