Green-nomics

If you are thinking of making some eco-conscious changes to your home but would like to weigh the cost benefit there is a great site devoted to spelling out the pay back of going green. Green and Save saves your money and the planet one home at a time.

is it really eco?

Eco Timber provides an informative overview of standards for sustainably-harvested and reclaimed wood products. In addition to providing great shots of wood flooring options in various room settings, their wesbite is quite educational for the layperson trying to maneuver their way through the forest of eco-friendly information out there.

GALLERY: Hand-Scraped Hickory Mocha, Woven Bamboo Honey Color, and White Tigerwood Honey.

Prefab at the Moma

Five architectural teams will present their concept of a full scale prefab dwelling at the Museum of Modern Art’s show titled, “Home Delivery: Fabricating the Modern Dwelling” on July 15th. One of the five teams, chosen from nearly 400 applicants, will be Jeremy Edmiston and Douglas Gauthier ’s Burst*008 house. Designed to be assembled on site from laser-cut pieces, the Burst *008 house is a computer-designed remake of the typical prefabricated box. Working from a computer formula that automates the specific pieces needed to create the house desired, the project is based on a system that can be adapted to a changing set of criteria. The 2003 prototype of the Burst *0003 project was built on Australia’s Northeast coast, and won the Royal Australian Institute of Architects 2006 Wilkinson award. As we know, prefab building minimizes waste and is a eco-conscious way to build in today’s environment.

I.V. Self watering planter system

My friend Ellie Bishop from vitaminliving.com, sent me this info on their new I.V. Planter that it's available for purchase now, while a slick limited edition black is also ready to ship. The lightweight fiberglass plant pot has a height adjustable metal rod, a refilable I.V. bag and a flow regulator that allows you to set watering rates to suit your plant. This self-watering plant pot's main feature is a medical drip feed. This unique characteristic allows the plant to be nourished with water and food as it is required.

jordi badia

kambiz

skye

Lookout Mountain Studios

Ben Benschneider architecture photography

Ben had a very early introduction to art and photography, and was always supported in his interests. His father was a commercial photographer and teacher, his mother a painter and sculptor. Ben grew up in Colorado, in remarkable natural surroundings, and frequent hikes led him to a genuine appreciation of the interplay between light and landscape. He was aware that he wanted to develop his craft in order to portray that interplay in his photographic images.

extra seating edition

Always one to get ahead of myself, Im thinking about extra seating in my dining room. Yes, thats right - I don't have much regular seating. Cart before horse and all that.

To give you a bit of background: Before doing the reno, we worked the layout of our house to allow for a large table that seats 10-12 people. There isn't enough room to keep that many chairs and an extended table open comfortably all year - but the room is big enough to squeeze when the occasion calls for it. (Not that we often have 10 of our closest friends over for dinner but we do host Christmas dinner and hope to do at least one other big dinner party a year -we'll see if we ever get around to that). So this Christmas will be a hell of lot more comfortable than prior years where we crammed the whole family onto a too small folding table in our too small house. Just talking about having a table large enough to host a proper Christmas dinner this year is making me giddy with excitement! So back to my point - while the dining room table will have 6 chairs on a normal day, I need to have at least another 4-6 chairs at the ready for holidays.

So that brings me back to the cart before horse topic. I can't yet find dining room chairs (or a table) that I like enough to buy right now but I would like to have some extra chairs so that visitors can sit down if I invite someone over for coffee. So I'm thinking of buying my "extra" guest chairs now while I hunt for the perfect everyday chairs.

Ive looked around and found that Ballard Design has some really nice folding chair options.

But at $100 a pop not including a cushion or shipping - thats a little rich for my blood. After all, these chairs will only see the light of day a few times a year once I get proper furniture. The rest of the year they will spent in the corner of the basement.

So as plan I'm considering getting some Chiavari chairs. Im awaiting shipping estimates but Ive found them as cheap as $45 each INCLUDING

They are stackable although not foldable (which would be more ideal if they weren't twice the price). The gold works nicely with the brass accents I have in the room. Plus the sight of Chiavari chairs always make me think of beautiful parties.

So am I crazy? I don't want my house to look like a banquet hall but Im hoping a few of these mixed in with heavier wooden pieces will help create an eclectic look that works.

What do you think?

FYI: In case you are wondering what sort of chairs Ive used to host prior Christmas dinners, take a look at this beauty. Although this photo doesn' t show the beautiful legs wrapped in duct tape or the dried paint dribbles.

All at sea - libertarians and the market for governance

Last month, PayPal mastermind Peter Thiel pledged $500,000 to The Seasteading Institute. Co-founded by Patri Friedman (grandson of Milton), the Institute’s official mission is to

Establish permanent, autonomous ocean communities to enable experimentation and innovation with diverse social, political, and legal systems.

In an article for the Wired website, Alexis Madrigal zooms in on the original motivations of the Institute’s founders;

True to his libertarian leanings, Friedman looks at the situation in market terms: the institute’s modular spar platforms, he argues, would allow for the creation of far cheaper new countries out on the high-seas, driving innovation.

“Government is an industry with a really high barrier to entry,” he said. “You basically need to win an election or a revolution to try a new one. That’s a ridiculous barrier to entry. And it’s got enormous customer lock-in. People complain about their cellphone plans that are like two years, but think of the effort that it takes to change your citizenship.”

While over at the excellent BLDGBLOG, Geoff Manaugh has turned his mind to the potential implications of “seasteading”;

What interests me here, aside from the architectural challenge of erecting a durable, ocean-going metropolis, is the fact that this act of construction – this act of building something – has constitutional implications. That is, architecture here proactively expands the political bounds of recognized sovereignty; architecture becomes declarative.

Sovereignty for sale? Whether you see this as a laudable quest for self-government or - as China Mieville argues - a morally bankrupt flight from responsibility, there are definite echoes of a certain late-80s paperback. But who knows? $500,000 might just be enough to give this scheme some real momentum.

TOWER SPACE

“High-rise towers rarely develop the verticality of spaces they create, remaining instead only iconic objects in the urban landscape. Their interiors consist of stacked-up floor plates, maximizing leasable or usable floor area, and in urban centers where groupings of towers crowd to get her on the most expensive land, the spaces between the towers are ignored. No doubt, these conditions result from the single-minded interests of commercial developers and the isolation enforced by private property ownership.

The potential remains, regardless of the limitations of current attitudes, to invest the latent and actual verticality of towers with new programs of habitation that expand the meaning and experience of urban tower space.

This was the aim of the sixth semester design studio in the Graduate School of Architecture at Pratt Institute this past semester. It was realized in a one-to-one installation constructed by the members of the studio in the main space of a recent addition to the architecture building, designed by Steven Holl.

“The studio set out to explore a ‘proto-urban’ condition observed in cities throughout the world,” write the members of the studio. “Tower projects are rising to previously unimaginable heights, employing the very latest in technology, materials, design, and construction methodology. While many such endeavors enjoy great acclaim, the projects, typically ‘single point’ towers, rarely address the existing or emerging urban landscape. In this way, the tower, despite the use of expressive shapes and complex skins, is rapidly becoming the world’s generic building unit. Regulatory and economic realities often force this unit’s construction in a kind of non-contextual vacuum. Our studio explores what might occur if a complex of interrelated towers were to be commissioned. What types of relationships, physical or otherwise, might be formed? How might these new relationships change (for better or for worse) the ‘proto-urban’ environment?

Our proposal emerges from the spirit of research and is born of a commitment to an entirely collaborative design/build process. Our collective vision is the creation of four integrated towers. The structures are shaped and informed by a matrix of vertical urban planes based on an aggregate of the world’s many urban grids.Three of the emerging towers stand vertically while a fourth is set on a diagonal. The complex composition permits rich relationships between the structures and the ground plane while also giving rise to an entirely new form of public zone. The architecture will incorporate interactive experiences that fuse light, sound, and moving images in order to explore our studio’s interest in programs for verticality that relate primarily to the psychological desires and realities of ‘proto-urban’ dwellers.”

The results are visually powerful and evocative of new possibilities. What remains to be accomplished is a critical discourse about them, and a way to evaluate—or even answer—the questions invoked by “for better or for worse.”

LW

Pratt Institute Graduate School of Architecture and Urban Design: Thomas Hanrahan, Dean; William MacDonald, Chair; Sixth Semester Design Studio: Liam Ahern, Tia Maiolatesi, Adam Grassi, Benjamin Keiser, Brian Choquette, Kurt Altschul, Johanna Helgadottir, Andrew Miller, Tapasi Mittal, Rob Jarocki, Drew Seskunas, Dhreiv Chandwania, and Lebbeus Woods, Professor; Guest critics: Narelle Sissons, Christopher Otterbine, Christoph a.Kumpusch, Steven Holl

Suburban House

Today we will look at the next scheme from the suburban house project. This scheme came later in the process and so the sketches are more fully developed than the other schemes we have looked at. In this scheme we returned to the idea of the gathering of spaces around the living room, with the secondary spaces seeking a physical connection back to the center of the house. We also struggled to find a way to make a positive solution to the need to elevate the plumbing in the house above the septic system without lifting the entire house out of the ground and compromising the connection to the landscape or bringing in large amounts of fill. What we arrived at was a rather complex interior space arrangement which followed a multi level path through the house, but existed within a simple massing under a simple roof.



I think the house is difficult to understand from floor plans, yet we'll look at them anyway. Those of you who can read plans well will enjoy the jump from flat-land to seeing the space in your mind. For everybody else we'll look at some better representation further down.

So on the ground floor you arrive at the house at what is a very ordinary suburban situation - a garage door flanked by a recessed entry. This gives way to a small vestibule which is also joined by the entry from the garage. Adjacent to the entry is a nice sized home office/studio space. This is great for home office workers as it is removed from the rest of the house and is even workable for taking meetings without parading through the home. From the entry you proceed up a third of a level to the living room - a small stair.

You arrive in the living room space, a high story and a half space. Straight ahead is a fireplace with niche on either side (actually not drawn on plan), to the left is the kitchen and dining area, which is another level up, and to your right is a more intimate area with a lower ceiling that has a window wall facing out to the site. Take the short steps up to the kitchen and you have a large table area that overlooks the living room. The kitchen has a large island, and another counter at the wall. Above the countertop is a large window looking out at the front of the house. At one side is a pantry space and another short stair that brings you up to the bedroom level.

The bedroom level has short hall/balcony that overlooks the living room. The two bedrooms share a bath room and have windows overlooking the side of the house where the entry door is located. At the end of the hall is yet another small stair that takes us up to the master bedroom level. The master bedroom bridges back over the living room on the left, and to the right has a large area for closets and master bathroom. Unlike the other bedrooms it is very isolated and feels removed from the rest of the house.

This section view above gives you a pretty good idea of all these level changes, but this cut away view is probably even better for understanding the layering.







And here is a rough walk through of the sketch model which will give you the best representation of the space and how the parts relate to one another.

I liked this solution as its simple geometry was efficient and economical yet it provided a very dynamic interior space that served the program. Right now its my favorite candidate for conversion into a stock plan.






And here is a rough walk through of the sketch model which will give you the best representation of the space and how the parts relate to one another.

A prefab project

I still haven't started painting yet. Man. Taping and papering an entire house really is not fun. Hopefully with the paint gun I will be rewarded with a quick and painless painting experience. I understand that professional painters use a "shield" to screen off, rather than tape, no-paint areas. Man that must be nice...

Plan is to be back out at the house first thing Monday morning to paint. Then a final round of cleaning, some miscellaneous to-do-list stuff, and we're in business. Landscaping is going to be a continuing work-in-progress for the foreseeable future. (I remember when we first talked with Joe and Rob and John at the Res4 office in NYC, I was pretty focused on not disturbing the site too much, and in my construction naivete revealed some silly expectation about just sort of dropping the house of in the woods and being ready to rent it. I was imagining in my head a scenario where only the 65'x16' footprint of the house was excavated, and everything outside that footprint remained in its natural pristine state. They gently informed me that the process is more complicated than that, and as an aside talked about "a year or so" before the site no longer bears obvious markers of what took place. Short of bringing in a landscape architect or a truck of sod, there's no getting around the fact that backfilled dirt looks like backfilled dirt for quite awhile. We're going to start with mulch and go from there...)

Next House

Here are the new Boulder Hill Condos!

I finally got a chance to tour the new Boulder Hill Condos off Boulder Hill Pass - down behind the shopping Center at the Rt. 25 Entrance. These apartment buildings are being converted to condos as they are sold. Prices start at $75,900 for a one bedroom unit and go up to $120,900 for a 3 bedroom townhome.

There are two units you can view as models - both have been furnished by IKEA and look really nice!

These units are similar in size (but more updated) as the Deer Run Condos off Rt. 31 in Oswego. All units will have association dues but heat will be billed separately. Some of the standard home features will include:

• New Windows
• Wall to Wall Carpeting (laminate wood upgrades offered)
• Custom Window Treatments
• 6 Panel Colonist Doors & Trim
• Designer Lighting pacakge
• Appliances
• Central Air
• and more!!

Rabbit Storage Box

"A stylish storage box with a playful twist. Irresistible design with sweet rabbit-ears on top - a small friend to storage the children’s toys in. A practical storage box in three different sizes, the two bigger ones can even be used to sit on. On the lid there are two sweet rabbit-ears in natural leather that works as handles." from Rabbit Storage Box

LED Leaf lamp

Take a look at Eco Centric's new offering - a LED Leaf lamp.

Sleek, contemporary design with energy saving at a premium (40% in comparison to convetional bulbs and 100,000 hour life). Added eco credentials are that it is made from 95% recyclable and 37% recycled materials. A cool £349.00......

DC Design House bedroom

Brocky Proxmire wrote us about the bedroom his mother, interior designer Kelley Proxmire, designed for the DC Design House. It's stunning, so elegant and sophisticated, and had a special feature: "The big hit of the room was the now you watch it (#7) now you don't (#8) TV. The TV is mounted on a swing arm behind the drapery panels. There is a slit in the drapery panel on the end so that swing arm may be extended several inches into the room. The size of TV (19") is correct size for this distance of TV viewing from the bed." Brilliant! Thanks Brocky (and Kelley!)

Daryle Lambert’s 31 Club Blog

Learn How to Buy and Sell Antiques, Fine Art and Collectibles

This business thrives even in a bad economy.

Charles and Ray Eames LCW, red aniline-dyed molded birch plywood chair in excellent condition, signed with foil Herman Miller label, sold for $2,000 at Treadway Galleries, May 4, 2008

Yesterday, I shared about European and Early American chairs, but if I was starting to take an interest in furniture today, it would be in the Arts and Crafts Furniture and the Modern Design pieces. This is where the trend is, and that is where we want to be.

Arts and Crafts is already well into the trend, but I think there is still a lot to go. Names like Stickley, Frank Lloyd Wright and Limbert are going to grace our homes for a long time. The young collectors seem to be drawn to this style, so don’t try to fight a trend.

Places to find out more about the Arts and Crafts design era is to view catalogs from Rago Arts and Auction and Treadway Galleries. These two houses seem to be the trendsetters for the Arts and Crafts market. There you will find true values for the chairs and other furniture and objects of art that were produced during this period. They have some of the finest art pottery pieces of this time period, as well. If you get a chance to visit one of their auctions, you’ll get an education that is well worth the time. Buying a few of their back catalogs to use as a source of reference will be a superb addition to your library. Study their websites. They list their sales and even the results of their sales. What a great way to become educated at no cost.

Most of the items that bring the big bucks are made of oak and have a rather straight, minimalistic design, but you can find ones made of mahogany and birdseye maple. These can have a branded mark or cellophane label. Often the cellophane labels are missing, and so unscrupulous people have even reproduced these labels and placed them on items that are nowhere like the items they claim to be.

The area that I am least familiar with is the Modern 20th Century Design Movement. However, when I look at some of the Wright Auction catalogs, I know that it is time for me to step up to the plate and get an education in this area. This market seems to be lead by certain designers and you must know their names and designs. If you do the rewards will be tremendous.

Modern 20th Century Design are those objects of art, lighting, and furniture from about 1920 through the present time, and they continue to be a hot commodity in the collectibles world, especially for the younger generation who grew up during the time period of these great designers.

A lady whose home I went to shared a story about the time she and her husband started house keeping in the 50”s. Today, she was ready to change the way she was living and a friend suggested she call Wright Auctions to get an idea of the values of the items she was tired of. The auction house representative came, and she could see the excitement in their eyes. They hauled off furniture she would have gladly sold for a few thousand dollars. Later, after their auction, she received a check for well over $100,000 from Wright. Now that would be what I consider finding a treasure, even if I had owned it all the time.

Furniture, lighting, and art objects from the top designers of this time have been copied, often rather badly, but it is the designer pieces of this time that are considered works of art, commanding top prices in today’s marketplace. No one has changed the world of Modern Design Furniture and Objects of Art as much as Wright Auction House.

In 2000, founders Richard Wright and his wife, Julie Thoma Wright opened the doors of their auction business, specializing in items from this period. Their business creativity drastically changed the face of business in this area of the market. Julie Thomas Wright, we are sorry to say, has recently passed away, but it was her visionary ideas for this business that propelled this company forward to become today’s standard for Modern Design Collectibles. Today, Wright Auctions is known internationally as the spot to go for the best of these designer items.

This area of Antiques and Collectibles can be the turning point in your career as a buyer and seller. To really make some serious money, spend time studying the Modern movement. Call Wright Auction and ask how to get up to date in your knowledge of this movement. They will be glad to share with you because they want new people to appreciate modern design and this is where they make their money. Call them at 1-312-563-0020, and they might even have a few old catalogs to share with you.

For those who are following my book, ”31 Steps to Your Millions in Antiques & Collectibles,” and have joined the 31 Club, dealing in these more rare and valuable items is the direction we move toward, step-by-step. You might still be working the lower end steps at the moment, but when you stick with it, continuing to complete each step, soon enough you will find yourself in the position to be buying rare and high end items. Knowledge about these designer items will expand the areas in which you can trade.

Most of my readers know, as a rule, I don’t deal in antique furniture. I’m not much interested in dealing with bulky items that require more than myself to transport, nor do I want to keep the kind of storage space furniture requires. But, I must say, in this case, I’m seriously considering making an exception for some of these fine pieces and the prices they can bring in.

Prices for items by well known designers and artists like Vladimir Kagan, George Nakashima, Ponti, and Paul Evans, can bring in amounts of $40,000 to well over $150,000. You might not recognize these names right now, but I hope you will in the future. If you ran across any of these items in a house sale right now, I doubt you would recognize them, and you’d be passing on a find that could make a big difference in your life.

Tomorrow I’ll continue to examine the furniture market. This study should take at least the rest of this week, but you should be picking up ideas for future study. One way is to get a great cup of coffee at your local book store and browse their selections on furniture. I promise that you will be engaged in conversation quickly with someone who is doing the same thing.

Find out more about our step-by-step program to enable you to work in the more rare and valuable items in the Antique, Art, & Collectible Markets here.

Join with like-minded 31 Club Members and put a turbo charge on your treasure hunting skills. Get FREE Mentoring. Learn Inside the Industry Secrets. Learn to make high profits and continue to grow your money buying and selling antiques, fine art, and collectibles. My 220 page book, 31 Steps to Your Millions in Antiques & Collectibles is FREE with your membership. The book is also available on Amazon.com. If you buy the book on Amazon, then the membership is FREE.

Take a look at our Gallery of Fine Art Paintings by Listed Artists, here.

bed light

I think I want a couple of Seed lamps by our bed. This is what Northern Lighting writes about the lamp and the designer in the catalogue:

Seed is a wall-mounted night lamp. Seed creates a unique reading environment through its filtered light source from a low watt energy saving LED. The focused yet soft beam emitted from the diodes makes it possible to read in bed while your partner sleeps. The ‘revolving arm of light’ can point in a variety of different directions and can be easily fixed to the wall in any desired position. The front-end light switch makes it easy to turn the light on and off and since the lamp does not emit heat Seed is safe to touch, even by children.

Seed is available with four different colours of fabric. The package also includes patterns, tips and suggestions of how to create your own personalised cover. The lamp is inspired by a seed - rising and growing into a plant.

Designer: Hedda H. Braathen
Hedda Heyerdahl Braathen is head designer in Accendo, an Oslo based industrial design office. She and her team have won several awards for their designs. Accendo works with a variety of design projects, mainly related to lighting, furniture design and consumer good packaging.

“With the Seed lamp I wanted to create an arm of light which lets your partner sleep while you read, nurse or knit. I also wanted to challenge users of the lamp to create their own design element by changing the cover according to their mood, the season, fashion trends or simply a change of the bed covers”.

You might remember that I have mentioned Northern Lighting before.

Red & White Media Cabinet from Wud Furniture

The Red & White Media Cabinet is a beautiful piece of furniture designed by Wüd Furniture Design, a Brooklyn based design and manufacturing studio. This design is a combination of contemporary designs with classical joinery, merging both function and beauty. White and wood together look awesome and the final result it’s such a clean and modern look. The design is available is a variety of woods and finishes, with custom sizes available upon request. - Via - Designspongeonline

Contemporary Flueless Gas Fire for your Home : Superior Neon

The Superior Neon is a contemporary flueless gas fire which will transform any room in your home with its glossy black glass mounted onto an aluminium back fascia. The benefits of having a flueless fire (aside from the fact they look great) is that they are 100% heat efficient. Normally fires let a large amount of heat escape straight up the chimney but these fires utilise a system called Clean Burn Catalytic Technology to clean the fumes produced by the burning process and make them safe to be released into your living room. This means that flueless fires such as the Superior Neon can be used in apartments and anywhere in the house without the need for access to a chimney or external wall. You can get the Superior Neon flueless gas fire from here, and the price is £994.99.

Prefab that fits all

I really like some of the things I see on Next House's site. I even like the site itself, which is really saying something; I find so many architects’ sites so fussy and difficult to navigate, which is odd given the inevitable descriptors in their “about us” statements: elegant, functional, minimal, clean, etc. I love that the flat-pack houses come in sizes XS, S, M, and L. – GF
(via Below the Clouds)

How to Build an Inexpensive Hoop-Style Greenhouse

One of the most valuable assets in my garden is my greenhouse. It has allowed me to grow plants that I normally would not be able to grow, produce crops that the season is not usually long enough to produce, and protect my plants from frosts, hail, or other severe weather that normally would have destroyed my garden.

But I don’t have thousands of dollars to spend on a greenhouse. I just priced out an 8’x12’ greenhouse for $3,500. I would love to have a large, professional greenhouse, but that simply isn’t financially feasible for me. So, instead I’ve found a way to make a large greenhouse that is functional, easy to build, and inexpensive. This article will explain to you exactly how to build a 12’x32’ hoop-style greenhouse for under $400.

Required Materials List

Note: All wood should be green, treated wood to resist rot. (Or you can spend more money and buy a rot resistant type of lumber such as cedar.)

• (4) 2×6 – 16’
• (2) 2×6 – 12’
• (14) 2×4 – 12’
• (19) ½” x 20’white pvc pipe
• (9) 10mm x 10’ rebar
• (1) 20’x50’ roll of 6mm plastic
• (1) Bundle of 50 4’ wood lathe (or optional staples)
• Zip ties
• Nails or screws
• Metal banding
• Door hinges and handles

Step 1 – Laying Out the Frame

Using the 2×6s, lay out and put together your 12’x32’ frame. (You can join the two 16’ pieces with a 2’ piece of 2×4.)

Ensure that the frame is square by measuring diagonally across it. You can temporarily keep the frame in place by pounding a 30” piece of rebar in each corner. (You can pull these out to use them in the next step.)

Step 2 – Adding the Hoops

Cut each 10’ piece of rebar into four 30” pieces of rebar. This will give you thirty-four pieces. Pound the rebar into the ground about 15” deep on the outside of your frame at two foot intervals. This will leave 15” sticking up out of the ground.

Now slide both ends of your pvc pipe over the rebar to make a hoop across the width of your greenhouse.

Attach the pvc pipe to the 2×6s by screwing short pieces of metal banding around the pipe.

Step 3 – Building the Ends

Cut the following pieces out of your 12’ 2×4s:

• (2) 11′8¾”
• (4) 1′6″
• (4) 4′7″
• (4) 5′7″
• (8) 1′11¼”
• (2) 4′¼”

For each end, assemble the wall according to the following diagram.

Place this wall within the 2×6 frame and nail/screw in place.

Cut (4) 28” 2×4 pieces. Cut one end at a 45º angle. Use these pieces to brace the wall.

Once all of the hoops and the two ends are in place, connect two pvc pipes together and cut them to measure 32′ long. This will be the rib that will go along the top of your hoops. You can attach this rib with plastic zip ties.

Step 4 – Covering the Greenhouse with Plastic

If you are going to use wood lathe, cut 32 pieces of 20” lathe. These will secure the plastic to the sides of the 2×6 frame in between each hoop. Or optionally, you can use staples, though they may have a tendency to pull through the plastic.

Drape the plastic over the length of the greenhouse. Be sure to have enough overlap at the ends to cover the end walls. Pull the plastic snug and attach to the 2×6s at one end using the wood lathe or staples. Go to the other end, pull snug, and attach in a similar manner. Do this at the center, and then along the rest of the length of the greenhouse.

Note: If you can do this in warm weather, there will be less sagging later. Make it as snug as you can without causing damage to the plastic.

To attach the plastic to the ends, pull the plastic straight down, and attach with lathe. Then pull the plastic out to the sides. This will give you extra plastic along the outside edge. Fold the plastic back towards the center and attach. For the end with the door, cut out the plastic leaving a few inches of over hang to wrap inside and attach.

Step 5 – Adding the Door

Before you cut your pieces, check the actual measurements for the space you have. Your wall may sit a little different than mine. It’s always better to go a little small or your door may not fit. But if the measurements are the same, cut the following pieces out of your 12’ 2×4s:

• (2) 4′11″
• (2) 3′9″

Nail these together to make your door frame. Lay a 2×4 diagonally across the frame and nail in place. Trim off anything that hangs over the frame of the door. This will be on the inside of your door. Too much wood hanging over will jam your door. Attach the hinges to the door frame.

Cover the outside of the door with remaining plastic or you can use plywood if you would rather. You can attach the plastic with the wood lathe or staples. There should be about 4” of overhang of plastic on all sides.

Attach the door handles to the door. Mount the door to the frame.

And there you go! You can have a beautiful 12’x32’ hoop-style greenhouse that can be built in a weekend and all for less than $400.

Greenhouse Tips

It is finally warming up in Humboldt County, after an extremely cold spring with snow flurries in April -- very unusual for us. My greenhouses are not heated in winter, and other than fans, there is no cooling system. One of the problems with our foggy climate is that temperatures in the greenhouses can swing more than 50 degrees F. in 24 hours, heating up on the sunny days, and cooling at night. This is a bit extreme, even for bulbs. Most of the bulbs I grow come from climates where the temperatures reach 100F at least, but growing them in black plastic pots is another thing entirely, since the soil temperature in a pot can get much higher than the soil temperature would be in their natural environment. In the wild, bulbs often grow at great depth, escaping the scorching temperatures on the surface. In a greenhouse, we have to take some steps to moderate the temperature.

I recently installed a product called Aluminet, a knitted aluminum coated shade fabric. Shading in a greenhouse is more effective if you can put the shade fabric on the outside of the structure, but in this windy climate this is impossible. Aluminet is more expensive than traditional shade fabric, but it has other attributes that make it worth the expense. It is feather light, and can be suspended by clips from the frame of the greenhouse. Because is is metallic and shiny, it reflects the light. I bought 40% shade fabric, and was worried about it reducing the light intensity, especially on our frequent foggy days. It doesn't seem to do that at all, in spite of the 40% rating. Another bonus is that the fabric itself doesn't heat up, unlike black plastic shade cloth, and you can place it directly on top of the pots, as I have done, on some seedling pots that are going dormant. The bulbs, at this stage, are tiny and are in the top one or two inches of potting mix, so they can desiccate if they get too hot. In their natural environment they would probably be shielded by drying grasses or adjacent vegetation.

The temperature reduction so far is about 15F on sunny days. I have not shielded the side walls, and intend to do that to reduce the temperature more.

Grand Designs Live House of the Year

Grand Designs Live, the slightly addictive t.v. show about house renovations, has named its Voters' Choice Home of the Year, 2008. Winner of the Best Conversion category, Black Sheep House went on to beat off all the other contenders to win the overall prize. That is quite a feat because some of the other houses were far more sophisticated, designer, and stylish. Instead voters went for a sweet hippy house on a remote corner of the Hebrides islands overlooking the sea. Its turf roof and gently curved stone walls blend into the surroundings; so much so that the house cannot be made out in an aerial photograph.

The husband of the two-some is a professional dry-stone waller, so he was able to do all the stone work himself with occasional help. He started with 3 stone walls and a tin roof; the remains of a sheep shed. He left the original walls in place and added to them to extend the height of the building and double its original size. A turf roof was installed, with the sod being hand-cut and lifted up by ladder, piece by piece. The turf weighed several tons, so this part of the work took three to four months of physical labour. At one point it was almost lifted off by strong winds. It was all done on an extremely low budget, which didn't turn out to be enough, of course, so the place is now rented to tourists. If you are looking for an award-winning, exotic, remote getaway, here's the place.

Casa Elegante - Pure Luxury

Casa Elegante is a pure simbol of luxury, that I’ce decided to post under my Dream Homes collection. I know that I didn’t post to much in that category, but this house is really amazing, and I had to post about. Now let’s find a few things about this luxurious home. The home was developed by Laughlin’s Luxury Lifestyles and built by Triangle Construction and is a lavish 14,243 square foot residence. Believe it or not, the listing says this one is a certified green home. There are five bedrooms and the finishes include lots of marble and travertine as well as exotic woods including Brazilian cherry, teak and bamboo.The grounds include a large pool and spa and a dock and boat lift. Now if the pictures that I’ve posted here are not enough you can take a virtual tour of this home by going to this link, and you’ll be able to see a few 360 degrees pictures. Finnaly if you wonder how much a house like this cost …the price is $9.950,000. - Via - Luxist

Camps Bay Villa

South Africa architectural design company Peerutin Architects created a 550m² a super-luxury villa named the Camps Bay. The villa has exceptional views, spacious living areas and patios, merging with a private, peaceful garden and sparkling pool. This villa is characterized by clean and nice lines, and I can say that I love the pool. - Via - Belowtheclouds

Great Small House/Apartment Entrance Idea

While I was checking my RSS reader today I’ve found this interesting idea for a small house entrance on Swissmiss. I love the idea, and I think that I’m going to implement it in my small apartment, especially how the shoes are stored is a great space saver. The materials used are ash and plain steel. The ash has been bleached and then custom finished.

Modular houses coming to the hill?

I got this invitation through a Capitol Hill mailing list:

Invitation for the Capitol Hill Neighborhood
Come visit Inhabit prefab modular housing units
May 14th, 4-6PM

Hello All:

This is a special invitation to see a new architectural concept for multi-family buildings that might be used on Capitol Hill in the fairly near future, and to give feedback while it is still in the conceptual phase.

I am working with Unico Properties to introduce neighborhoods to the concept of assembling multi-family residential buildings out of factory-built, prefab modules. It promises to be less disruptive, to provide higher quality at a lower cost, and to to take far less time to complete - all advantages to neighborhoods.

To showcase the concept, Unico had two units made and installed them on top of the Rainier Center, one on top of the other. These are fully furnished living units, designed by Mithun and Hybrid-Seattle architecture firms.

I am inviting you to come downtown next week, Wednesday May 14, 4 PM TO 6 PM to tour the assembled modules and be introduced to the concept. The attached invitation has interior and exterior photos as well as additional background information.

Unico plans to utilize this concept in multiple neighborhoods. Although the company has not yet obtained a site in Capitol Hill, it may happen in the future, and their goal is to work with the neighborhood in advance, to build understanding and relationships and to find out what individuals might care about in particular. ( The first actual project is in design review right now and will be built at 1701 Dexter Avenue, near the Dexter Hayes Pub.

Prefab house

With 70 square meters this house is made of two prefabricated modules perched one on top of the other. The designers pivoted the top unit to create a variety of interesting integrated outdoor spaces with indoor spaces.

What is gorgeus is that you can build your house from as many prefab modules as you want and make as big as you want.

The Maison evolutiV consumes only 48 kWh/square meter per year. Solar thermal on the roof provides hot water and the wool wood insulation helps to keep the house temperature regulated. Rainwater harvesting provides water for toilets and landscaping.

With space of interaction between indoors and out, ecological capabilities, easy transportation , low cost of money, we think this tiny prefab could be the house of the future.

sneak peek: eleanor of push me pull you

when i first saw eleanor grosch’s - of push me pull you - work in person at art star philly i immediately feel in love with animal pattern prints. and although i’ve never met her in person, when i saw the pictures from her charming home, i couldn’t help but think this house looks like her! from the bright colors to great finds, eleanor does a great job showing how to make a house a home (more, full-sized images here). to feel even more at home, don’t forget to try out her “in the kitchen with” recipe for strawberry tofu pie. [thanks so much, eleanor!] -anne

[above: I live in a South Philly row home near the Cambodian neighborhood in Philadelphia. I love this house so much! I bought it 2 years ago and have made a lot of changes to it, but I hope I’ve retained the original feel. I got the couch from ebay for $200 and reupholstered some ikea cushion inserts. The pillow covers are thrift store finds and the cute tree print cushion is from Urban by Julia Rothman. The bird wall art is a C.Jere piece from ebay. My favorite thing in the house, the coffee table, is another ebay find – it’s just lovely. I got the front window replaced with a very energy efficient one, and I love plants in the house, so I keep a rosemary in a teapot and a mint plant hanging from a basket above. The stained glass pieces are “Eleanor originals” from high-school!]

My bedroom is painted chartreuse and a lot of the accents are either turquoise or dark brown. I have a lovely Charley Harper screenprint of a Trumpeter swan hung above my bed; it’s from the Ford Times era of his work which is my favorite! The little side table is actually a telephone seat that I found at a thrift store. My bedspread is from Urban (the colors are perfect!) and the beautiful elephant head is from Thailand.

The kitchen in my house is little, but I painted it bright turquoise to liven the area up a bit. I was lucky to get all new appliances with the house, but I would have loved to have seen how this kitchen looked before it was made over with the new cabinets and granite counter top. I’m hoping to replace the ugly floor tiles with 1” hex tiles in black and white sometime soon. To offset the turquoise walls, I installed some lincrusta (linoleum wall paper) and painted it off white. It’s water resistant and washable, so it’s perfect for a high-traffic area like this. My brother bought me lovely copper pots and pans for my birthday a few years ago; they fit nicely with the colorscheme in the kitchen! I display two mexican paintings of birds that were my grandfather’s.

I painted the rickety old staircase alternating moss green and white just like I saw in domino magazine (love it!) and beneath the staircase on the outer wall, I have a bright red anthropologie console table that I got on sale a few months ago, a print from hammerpress, a silver deer sculpture I got in Cambodia, and some other little knick knacks.

The double use studio and guest room take up the 3rd bedroom in the house.

Mint and Moss are the colors I chose to start with in the house. The floors are a lovely warm oak with darker wood inlay and really set off the green walls well. I got a great carpenter to restore all the moulding and replace the crappy hollow doors with salvaged 5 panel ones. Then I painted all the trim and most of the doors an “antique white” to recapture the vintage look that I love so much. I adore Charley Harper (obviously!!) and bought a good few of his prints , two of which are displayed in the dining room. Also, I found some great prints and other stuff on Etsy (bird print by ashleyg). The chairs and tulip table are antiques that I found on ebay; I recovered the chairs with anthropologie bird print dishcloths. They look so cute and they’re totally washable. The side table is another great find from ebay; it’s the perfect size for this room and holds some favorite items such as my jonathan adler bird bowl and an old printer’s tray that has some little items in some of its nooks. The armoire is a side of the road find that I haven’t repainted. It just happened to fit in really nicely with my color scheme. I added some anthro knobs to it to spice it up a bit. Tole floral light fixtures are so pretty. I bought two (the chandelier and the tall lamp ) on ebay also. I’m definitely an addict!

NEW ENGLAND LIFESTYLE’S NEW PAINTED WOODEN ACCESSORIES

Why not brighten up any room in your home with some of our new products, particularly our New England Liftestyle painted wooden accessories. These have proved very popular with clients so far and can help to complete that New England Lifestyle design look in your home.

Our New England Magazine Rack is the ideal accessory to tidy your magazine collection and looks good in any room. It is available in three colours, white, cream or blue.

We also have our New England Wastepaper Bins which are hand carved and have very useful carry handles; again these are available in three colours, white, cream or blue. They almost look too good to be used for wastepaper!

You can even extend the New England style design to your kitchen windowsill with our New England Window Boxes, a perfect trio for kitchen herbs, available in white, cream or blue. Why not choose all three and mix the colours together, as you can see, they would look fantastic anywhere in your house. Also for the kitchen we have our very own New England Bread Bin, again available in three colours, white, cream and blue.

We have designed a very useful New England Peg Rail, also available in white, cream or blue which is a versatile hanging solution with six pegs and we have our New England Shelf - an all purpose white shelf, suitable for kitchens, bathrooms, hallways or living rooms.

By popular demand we have designed some New England Sailing Boats and two New England Yachts which look good in any room in the house, available in white, cream or blue. These make the perfect present for those marine loving homeowners.

We also have our unique hand carved three dimensional wooden fish and don’t forget we have our very popular existing Tall White Lighthouse to complete the New England look in any home.

Complete the look with our New England Flag - a large decorative wooden flag with our own New England style. Designed to be hung flush against the wall, providing a feature for any room in your home.

Spring cleaning

Well now it's done, the annual spring cleaning. It is no fun job to do but it has to be done and someone has to do it. Now I have taken all the seedling out (almost) and left in the greenhouse are the tomatoes and peppers. A few Geraniums, Auriculas and Roses just to add colour and scent. The cushions are cleaned and aired, now I have earned a nap on the sofa...but seriously, I hardly lay down for more than 5 minutes. I always seems to find something that I just have to do. But it is really nice be able to lay down those few minutes to straighten out the back, catch a moment and philosophize...

A Budget Greenhouse Solution

(with some nice pictures !)

By Ian Maxwell (GranvilleSouth)
May 10, 2008

Unless you live in the tropics, you need a greenhouse. The problem of course, is the cost as permanent greenhouses sell for thousands of dollars. There is a way out though, that allows gardeners on even the tightest budget to enjoy a little piece of tropicana. All you need to do is spend a little, bend your back & apply some imagination.

There is something special about greenhouses. I have wanted one far longer than I have been a gardener; a desire garnered as a kid exploring the parks & public gardens of my hometown. The structures I haunted back then were old & substantial; brick & glass constructions that I could only dream of owning now. A lot can change in 30 years though.

Materials available today mean greenhouses can be made cheaply, light-weight & for all sorts of gardeners. Even with budget models, gleaners enjoy a broad range of options. “Cheap” can mean a couple of thousand dollars, less than $100.00 or anywhere in between. This article will look at these choices & a way of getting a dependable set-up for as little as $70.00 or $80.00.

In simple terms, obtaining a greenhouse means building or buying one. Handy gardeners may take the first option, but most of us will find it easier to buy. Probably the best value is in greenhouse kits. These are available in a range of styles & sizes, from gardening stores & through a variety of online suppliers. They are generally aluminium or timber-framed structures, with walls made of materials such as UV-resistant polycarbonate or acrylic. They retail from around $US500.00 to $4000.00 & can include features such as inbuilt shelving, multiple entrances & ventilation fans.

Whilst greenhouses like Rion & Juliana’s are nice, their price tag will not suit every gardener. Confronted with this situation around six months ago, I tried Ebay & found a cheap way out. At the time, I had just taken the lawn from a patch meant for a new garden bed & knocked down the stump of a long dead pine. Plans for the garden were still quite vague, but they did include the possibility of a greenhouse.

What I found on Ebay was a polycarbonate tent, selling as a temporary or portable greenhouse. They were going for around AU$80 & in the product pictures, looked about as sturdy as the Begonias I was hoping to grow in one. That is, not very but nonetheless, I had an idea. If I placed the greenhouse in a sheltered spot & laid the pine stump down the centre, I could use it to rope down the frame & make the structure steady.

The resulting set-up has survived several large storms & now at six months old, is really as good as new. Thanks to the greenhouse, my adeniums get bigger all year round, I can fast-grow coleus to spread as cuttings & will be starting tomatoes early this year. The secret was in screwing large hooks into the length of the stump, providing a series of anchor points beneath the top “beam” of the greenhouse. This critical anchorage is vertical & spread from the front of the structure to the back, so the greenhouse can move to a point. The top beam is reinforced with a second aluminium pipe since it takes the stress pulling the structure down as the ropes are tightened.

The choice of position was important. I know which way the prevailing winds blow, especially in winter when the big storms visit. The greenhouse is sheltered from the worst of it by a combination of my house, a high fence & a mulberry tree. There is a slight gradient in the ground on which the structure sits to prevent rainwater collecting in it. Additionally, I am careful to keep its windows & doors zipped-tight at the first sign of inclement weather, so it doesn’t catch wind & lift or tear.

A large storm hit my area within a fortnight of the greenhouse being erected. This was strangely fortunate I thought, as it would test the structure before I began to rely on it heavily. The storm was big enough to level trees, down power lines, take rooves from houses & cause minor flooding in some parts, but my greenhouse didn’t budge.

We all have different situations & this is merely an example of how I deal with mine. The principles involved however, can be put into practice by almost any gardener. Even if you have particularly harsh conditions, a greenhouse can be positioned close to your house, perhaps on a patio & sheltered with a trellis, awning or shade-cloth from the worst of the elements over winter. Trees help of course but it is a good idea to check for dead branches or anything else likely to fall before installing the structure.

We may not all have an old log laying around, but there are others means of doing the same job just as naturally & imaginatively. Bolts can be drilled into boulders, large planting containers or concrete, especially if your greenhouse is placed on a slab or patio. Pavers are not such a good idea unless they are cemented. Wiring the structure down at a lot of points is important, vertically from its top “beam” & down the full length of the greenhouse. The ropes or wires of course, are great for vines which will add reinforcement as they grow. At no point should the structure be secured to the ground by any part but the frame.

There are a lot of greenhouse suppliers out there, making it wise to keep looking until you get the deal you want. Perusing the US Ebay site, I saw a lot of variation in price & availability amongst the different merchants. Probably the best offers I saw were from Golf Carts, Parts, Lifts, Kits etc. Ltd. This Ebay merchant had portable greenhouses for around US$70.00, plus shipping. Apart from the kit, gardeners wishing to put a cheap greenhouse together will need a securing rope, wire or cable, plus a level, sheltered surface, at least a dozen screw-in hooks or bolts for anchor points & of course the actual anchors. These should be positioned before the greenhouse is erected.

Handy gardeners taking the build-it option, may be interested in the range of greenhouse plans available online. Some are free & can be found on web sites. Other are available from places such as Ebay & are usually delivered digitally.

transparent house

i’m editing and coding today’s coverage of bklyn designs (which was great this year!) but i wanted to kick things off this morning with this beautiful new concrete flooring from san francisco’s trasnparent house team. because concrete flooring has become popular in modern homes, the transparent house team decided to create an application that would add detail to the flooring without taking away from the simplicity of the style. they’ve created a way to add these soft floral patterns to polished concrete flooring either doing the pouring or after the concrete has set. i don’t know if i’ll ever live in a home with concrete floors but if you have them in your home (or would like to) just click here for more information on the application and to contact the transparent house team.

Modern American architectural gems set for auction

It's quite a house. Five bedrooms. Swimming pool. Tennis court. All on a 2.5 acre lot with wonderful mountain and desert views in one of the plushest parts of Palm Springs. How much would you expect to pay for a house like this? Between $8 million and $10 million, or so say the local real estate agents. Why then does this one have a price tag of $15 million to $25 million?

The answer is simple. It's the Kaufmann House, designed in the mid-1940s by the modernist architect Richard Neutra. Not only is it among his finest work, but it's a 20th-century American architectural gem. The house is to be auctioned tomorrow, not by a Palm Springs realtor but alongside the trio of Francis Bacon self-portraits and a very rare Clyfford Still painting in a sale of postwar and contemporary art at Christie's in New York.

Five days later, another modern American architectural landmark will go on the block when the Margaret Esherick House, which was designed by Louis Kahn at the turn of the 1960s for a local bookstore owner in the Chestnut Hill area of Philadelphia comes up for sale at the Wright auction house in Chicago. The Esherick is smaller than the Kaufmann - with only one bedroom - and Philadelphia isn't as sunny as Palm Springs. All of that is reflected in the price, which Neutra (who disliked Kahn) would have been delighted to note is considerably lower at an estimate of up to $3 million.

Even so, that's a lot more than you'd expect to pay for a one-bedroom house in Chestnut Hill. Both the Esherick and Kaufmann are beneficiaries of the fashion for the new trophy homes, the modern architectural masterpieces that now command million-dollar premiums but were sold - or often failed to sell - as tear-downs less than two decades ago.

That was the fate of the Kaufmann when its current owners, the investment manager Brent Harris and his architectural historian wife, Beth Edwards Harris, discovered it in 1992. It had been on the market for three and a half years when the couple, who are now divorcing, bought it for $1.5 million after the realtor assured them that they could easily turn it into "something Spanish."

The original design had been bashed about by the previous owners, who'd included the singer Barry Manilow. But no expense was spared by its original owner, the Pittsburgh department store magnate Edgar Kaufmann. He was an architecture nut who had already built the extraordinary Fallingwater, designed by Frank Lloyd Wright, as his weekend home. Neutra was allowed to spend $300,000 on building the desert house, a fortune for the time.

Neutra, who was born in Vienna and had lived in the United States since 1923, was then at the peak of his career. He'd made his name by designing seductive glass and steel houses in the Hollywood Hills, notably the Lovell House, which had a starring role in the neo-noir thriller "L.A. Confidential." Neutra had a flair for designing homes that their owners loved, and for blending them into the surrounding landscape. To comply with postwar building legislation, he began the Kaufmann by building the pool, and supervised construction while splashing in the water.

The result was an architectural showstopper of glass, concrete and stone, which the Harrises lovingly restored. Their architects, Leo Marmol and Ron Radziner, hunted down the original suppliers of paint and fixtures, and re-opened the area of the Utah quarry where Neutra's builders had sourced the stone.

Gorgeous though the Kaufmann is, design purists would probably plump for the Esherick, size, location and everything else being equal. Neutra was a gifted designer, but Kahn was an architectural god, who designed very few houses. The tiny Esherick was one of the best. The son of poor Estonians, Kahn arrived in the United States at the age of 5, and died broke and so obscure that it took the police days to identify his corpse after he suffered a heart attack in the men's room of Pennsylvania Station in New York.

Today he is revered by fellow architects for his mastery of light and space, and for refining the rigor of early-20th-century Modernism into a subtler, more sensual style. The Esherick is a wonderful example of Kahn's skill at choreographing a building's structure to respond to the light as it changes through the day. It also boasts the craftsmanship of the owner's uncle, the sculptor and woodworker Wharton Esherick, who was a friend of Kahn's.

Even with a Wharton Esherick kitchen, buying an architectural landmark is a daunting proposition. Maintenance is complex and expensive, restoration even more so. Few of these houses meet contemporary standards of energy efficiency. There is also the obvious problem of geography. You can't move a landmarked house to wherever you wish, as you can a painting or sculpture.

Nonetheless, many art collectors and architectural buffs are now buying them. Most change hands privately, and many are too small - and inexpensive, even with an architectural premium - to justify a high profile sale at auction. But the beautiful Farnsworth House, designed by Mies van der Rohe in 1951 for a site near Chicago, sold for $7.5 million at Sotheby's five years ago. The Maison Tropicale, a prefabricated house designed by Jean Prouvé in 1951, then reached $4.97 million at Christie's last summer. As a prefab it can be built anywhere, which solves the geography problem, and it was bought by the U.S. hotelier André Balazs.

Another peripatetic prefab, the Artek Pavilion, designed last year by the Japanese architect Shigeru Ban as a temporary gallery for the eponymous Finnish furniture company, is to be auctioned by Sotheby's next month, for $800,000 to $1.2 million. Sotheby's hopes that collectors will vie for the pavilion, which is made mostly from recycled materials as part of Ban's experiments in sustainability, as an architectural landmark of the future.

RAIC 2008 Governor General’s Medals Announced

Royal Architectural Institute of Canada (RAIC) and the Canada Council for the Arts are pleased to announce the recipients of the Governor General’s Medals in Architecture for 2008.
“The creations of the twelve recipients of the Governor General’s Medal in Architecture make us appreciate the degree to which Canadian architects have transformed the places where we live, work, share culture and come together into a celebration of beauty and human genius,” said Her Excellency the Right Honourable Michaelle Jean, Governor General of Canada.

“All art forms contribute to improving our quality of life and the communities we live in, but architecture has a particularly immediate and direct impact on our surroundings,” said Simon Brault, Vice-Chair of the Canada Council for the Arts.

“The outstanding buildings that are being honoured with this year’s Governor General’s Medals are a testament to the creativity, ingenuity and overall excellence of Canadian architects, and the Canada Council is proud to participate in the administration of this award.”

“It is very encouraging to note that our educational, cultural and community institutions have embraced inspirational contemporary Canadian architecture,” said RAIC President Kiyoshi Matsuzaki, FRAIC. “This year’s winners include buildings for higher education, community and cultural centres, a church and a museum as well as two residences. The award-winning projects are indeed world-class and demonstrate that, as architects, we Canadians can create buildings that are second to none.”

The Governor General’s Medals in Architecture will be presented at 6 p.m. Oct. 16, 2008 at Rideau Hall by Her Excellency.

The Governor General’s Medals in Architecture recognize outstanding achievement in recently built projects by Canadian architects. This program, created by the RAIC, contributes to the development of the discipline and practice of architecture, and increases public awareness of architecture as a vital cultural force in Canadian society. These awards are administered jointly with the Canada Council for the Arts, which is responsible for the adjudication process and contributes to the publication highlighting the medal winners.
The 2008 Governor General’s Medals in Architecture recipients were selected by a jury of the following distinguished architects: Prof. Manfred Sabatke, (Stuttgart, Germany); Pina Petricone, MRAIC (Toronto); John McMinn (Toronto); Anne Cormier (Montréal); and Steve Christer (Reykjavik, Iceland).

Established in 1907, the Royal Architectural Institute of Canada is a voluntary national association representing almost 3,700 architects. As the leading voice of architecture in Canada, RAIC works to affirm architecture matters; to celebrate the richness and diversity of architecture in Canada; and to support architects in achieving excellence.

McGraw-Hill Construction generously sponsors the RAIC’s awards programs.

The Canada Council for the Arts, in addition to its principal role of promoting and fostering the arts in Canada, administers and awards over 100 prizes and fellowships in the arts, humanities, social sciences, natural sciences, health sciences and engineering. In addition to its partnership with the RAIC in the administration of the Governor General’s Medals, the Canada Council recognizes achievement in architecture through the Professional Prix de Rome in Architecture, the Prix de Rome in Architecture for Emerging Practitioners, and the Ronald J. Thom Award for Early Design Achievement.”

The Recipients of the Governor General’s Medals in Architecture for 2008:

Terrence Donnelly Centre for Cellular and Biomolecular Research, University of Toronto (Toronto, ON)
architectsAlliance & Behnisch Architekten

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Nk’Mip Desert Cultural Centre (Osoyoos, BC)
Hotson Bakker Boniface Haden architects

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Jaypee Institute of Information Technology (Noida, Uttar Pradesh, India)
Le Groupe Arcop

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Canada’s National Ballet School Project Grand Jeté (Toronto, ON)
Kuwabara Payne McKenna Blumberg Architects & Goldsmith Borgal & Company Ltd. Architects, Architects in Joint Venture

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ROAR_one (Vancouver, BC)
Lang Wilson Practice in Architecture Culture Inc. and Hotson Bakker Boniface Haden Architects, Associated Architects

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House at 4a Wychwood Park (Toronto, Ontario)
Ian MacDonald Architect Inc.

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New Canadian War Museum (Ottawa, ON)
Moriyama & Teshima Architects, Griffiths Rankin Cook Architects: Architects in Joint Venture

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Gleneagles Community Centre (West Vancouver, BC)
Patkau Architects

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Winnipeg Centennial Library Addition (Winnipeg, MB)
Patkau / LM Architectural Group

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Communication, Culture and Technology Building, University of Toronto (Mississauga, ON)
Saucier + Perrotte architects

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Scarborough Chinese Baptist Church (Scarborough, ON)
Teeple Architects Inc.

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Trent Chemical Sciences Building (Peterborough, ON)
Teeple Architects Inc. and associate architects Shore Tilbe & Irwin

Descriptions, biographies and downloadable images of the architectural firms and their winning buildings are available at http://www.raic.org and http://www.canadacouncil.ca.

Top 10 Green Architecture Projects

The American Institute of Architects (AIA) and its Committee on the Environment (COTE) have selected the top ten examples of sustainable architecture and green design solutions that protect and enhance the environment. The projects will be honored at the AIA 2008 National Convention and Design Exposition in Boston.

The goals for each project are presented along with the philosophy behind the project.

The top ten projects are:

• Yale University Sculpture Building and Gallery (KieranTimberlake Associates, LLP) New Haven, CT
• Queens Botanical Garden Visitor & Administration Center (BKSK Architects) Flushing, NY
• Pocono Environmental Education Center (Bohlin Cywinski Jackson) Dingmans Ferry, PA
• Nueva School Hillside Learning Complex (Leddy Maytum Stacy Architects) Hillsborough, CA
• Macallen Building Condominiums (Burt Hill with Office dA) Boston, MA
• Lavin-Bernick Center (VJAA) New Orleans, LA
• Garthwaite Center for Science and Arts, Cambridge School of Weston (Architerra, Inc.) Weston, MA
• Discovery Center at South Lake Union (The Miller|Hull Partnership) Seattle, WA
• Cesar Chavez Library (Line and Space, LLC) Laveen, AZ
• Aldo Leopold Legacy Center (The Kubala Washatko Architects, Inc.) Baraboo, WI

Berlin’s Magma Architecture

Magma was established in 2003 by Martin Ostermann and Lena Kleinheinz. The Ohio native Ostermann is a former senior architect at Studio Daniel Libeskind. The Denmark-born Kleinheinz is an exhibition designer. Magma is known for its inventive, experimental and experiential approaches to architectural work.

The main feature of Berlin’s Magma Architecture is an alarmingly orange flexible fabric (polyamide-elastan mix) stretched between the walls, ceiling and floor. The fabric is the most visible part of the exhibit, yet it is also the tool with which the viewers can focus on smaller details.

Visitors bend down under the fabric into which openings were cut. Through these holes, visitors pop their heads up into the orange space to view drawings, models and photographs suspended from wires.

Preview of Pima Canyon Guest House Design

Here is another preview image of the guesthouse for a residence I designed in Pima Canyon. There will be more of this project to come.

fire extinguisher by designer Piotr Woronkowicz

The fire extinguisher was designed to be placed in the kitchen where most fires occur. Attention to ergonomics, styling, and user intuition in a high stress situation was focused on during the design process. The Miele design language must be aesthetically pleasing while keeping the emergency characteristics of a fire extinguisher dominant. from fire extinguisher

Joshua Tree, EvolutiV, mkSolaire debuts and more

materialicio.us covered the Joshua Tree prefab:

steel skinned prefab with a wooden interior described as a ‘mountain refuge’, presented at the recent Milan Furniture Fair.

A number of blogs covered the EvolutiV House. Archinect saw it first. MoCo Loco picked up the trail. Treehugger added some details:

The 70 square meter Maison evolutiV was shown at the Salon Européen du bois et de l'Habitat Durable in April....

It is a low consumption modular wood home, ...composed of 2 prefabricated units...

materialicio.us saw the home. And Inhabitat's Prefab Friday liked the home enough to feature it:

The beauty of this design lies in its chestnut façade and inviting floor plan, but also in its small ecological footprint.

Treehugger wrote about a series of prefabs from Swedish company Next House (no relation to Empyrean International's NextHouse). We'll cover those in more detail down the line.

Jetson Green, in conjunction with PrairieMod, visited MKD's mkSolaire at the Chicago Museum of Science and Industry. We'll cover the unveiling in more detail soon.

Modern architecture Suntro house

Jorge Hernandez De La Garza created this gorgeous modern architecture design for a residential project in Oaxtepec, Mexico


The Suntro house architectural modern design allows natural light to be filtered through the folds of the house, flooding the space with soft rays of light reflecting on the walls with playful chic. This house architecture has been meticulously planed so that every part of the house will keep cool defying the area high temperatures.

On the edge house

This wooden structure is amazing; it seems that if a small bird should accidentally decide to nest on this architectural creature’s side, the whole thing would crash.


I cant help myself but remember Hayao Miyazaki Howl’s Moving Castle, which is an amazing film by an even greater creator. Assembled from multiple units, this looks like a strange modular house from a different era.

Found in the Ukraine, Microscopiq says it’s the remains of “bunker for the overload of mineral fertilizers.” How totally un-romantic. I prefer to believe this is a wooden ship stranded in the middle of a field after all the water has completely dried up.

Minikitchen by Boffi

The Minikitchen by Boffi is a re-issue of the visionary Minikitchen by Joe Colombo, a mobile kitchen block of only half a cubic meter containing the main functions of a kitchen. A 1960’s vision for the compact kitchen…


Perfect for small houses, the Minikitchen can be described as a large trolley with an enclosed hob unit, mini-fridge, drawer, storage compartments, small cutlery drawer, sockets for small electrical appliances, big solid teak chopping board and a pull-out worktop.

Modular homes kitHAUS

KitHAUS prefab homes provide you with modern modular homes built solid with a patented MHS, lightweight aluminum frame and clamping system.

These modular prefabs can be assembled within days on site at hard-to-reach destinations without ultra heavy equipment.

KitHAUS lets you choose from several modules, such as a single unit for a weekend retreat or a backyard office and studio, like i always wanted, with multi unit configurations.

These prefab homes screen design reminds me of the Japanese aesthetics; I love how it plays with the light and the effect it creates with the wooden deck.

Jar Tops by Jorre van Ast

Jar Tops, a student project by designer Jorre van Ast of OKAYstudio, have been put into production by Dutch kitchenware manufacturers Royal VKB.

The collection consists of a range of tops that screw onto reused jars, turning them into containers, jugs, shakers and more.

The set includes adaptations for a sugar pot, milk jug, chocolate sprinkler, oil & vinegar set and a water jug.

Van Ast explains, “By screwing on plastic tops, these readily available jars are turned into vessels with a specific function. A generic jar is transformed into kitchenware, creating more practical and emotional value.”

Van Ast originally showed the collection as part of his graduation show at the Royal College of Art in London in 2006.

Houses in Cyprus by Iosa Ghini Associati

Italian architects Iosa Ghini Associati have designed four houses for a new residential district near Nicosia, Cyprus.

The family houses, to be built by developer Full Circle, incorporate solar panels and rainwater recycling.

The following text is from Iosa Ghini Associati:

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The project started with the aim of creating a new residential area alongside Pedieos river, near Nicosia, Cyprus. The Client, Full Circle Dv Ltd, wanted to realize four one-family luxury houses shaped in an organic, fluid form. Iosa Ghini designed the four units in a whole overall organism hosting four units each one keeping its own morphological features.

Eco-technologies both passive and active have a basic relevance in this project: low E glass panels, adjustable solar panels, recovery and recycling of rain waters, storage heating system for winter months. All external walls are treated with photo catalytic concrete, allowing the transformation of harmful organic and inorganic matters into harmless compounds. The outside shell, both organic and fluid, grants the harmonic fusion between traditional and contemporary materials as the local stone.

Hanger Chair by Philippe Malouin

Milan 08: Designer Philippe Malouin will exhibit his Hanger Chair at Still, the Design Academy Eindhoven exhibition at Spazio Rossanna Orlandi in Milan during the furniture fair this month.


As you may have guessed, Hanger Chair is a folding chair that doubles as a clothes hanger.

Here are some of Molouin’s other projects, with text:

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Everyday Beautiful Objects

Objects can be reinterpreted, morphing into a completely new product that fulfills a entirely new function. I am presenting four projects. Everyday objects with ordinary functions inspire these projects, yet they become extraordinary through technology of construction and mechanisms. These elements are then reassigned and recombined with another utilitarian objects (furniture per say), to satisfy new needs, or take a different approach to answering problems or using artifacts.

Dervish Ceiling Fan

I pulled into an automated carwash, and while inside, I couldn’t help but notice how the carwash brushes completely alter their shape from flimsy drooping hair covered rods to massive powerful beams. Could this quality of transformation be applied to the home sector? Where would a transforming apparatus find use in the home?


The carwash brushes go from limp, to cones, to beams. A lamp could use this whimsical feature to direct light, from a tube of light to a cone, to an open light source. The contraption, with its spinning, would produce a rather considerable amount of wind. By morphing the ever-changing carwash brushes with a ceiling fan, a new product is achieved and completely redefines ceiling fans. The piece is called Dervish, its spinning qualities remind one of the Turkish spinning dancers going in a trance.

Grace Table

Grand furniture pieces are marvelous, although rather tricky to transport. handle or store. I admire the capacity of inflatable furniture to decrease its size to modest volumes. Inflatable furniture has many disadvantages such as stability, rigidity, the control of its shape etc. Inflatable chairs and couches have been around for a long time. I am trying to move toward this concept from a different approach: inflatable tables do not exist because of the limitations of inflatable furniture, starting with the fact that flat surfaces are difficult to achieve.

After having researched many types of inflatable materials and products, I came upon a technology used within the British Navy Rescue. Inflatable rescue platforms are built in grand sizes and utilize a material called “Drop-Thread”. A spin-off from the velvet manufacturing industry, Dropthread (Dropstitch) fabric first found application in the military arena. This material is composed of two layers of waterproof fabric, which are interconnected by thousands of strands, allowing one to achieve flat surfaces once inflated.

I have worked in collaboration with Eurocraft, a leading manufacturer of inflatable structures in the United Kingdom. And developed a grand table, big enough to accommodate 10 guests when inflated, and small enough to fit in a duffel bag when deflated.

Ball point stool

Whilst sitting on a caster chair, I rolled over a patch of dust, and my tracks were marked. I thought of how interesting it would be to track a user’s behavior with a piece of furniture. Would a caster-mounted stool stay in its place of use or would it be playfully used to travel around one’s apartment. Writing and drawing are two acts that allow such creativity; the act of sitting on the other hand does not often lead to extraordinary inventive achievements. Perhaps the feat of sitting could lead to playfulness, inventiveness, and therefore redefine itself.

I experimented with countless combinations of ink mixes and caster systems. I discovered that ball transfers would make a perfect ballpoint, capable of supporting the weight of a human whilst distributing ink as a pen would. The final product is a transparent stool informing its user of its contents (ink) and its new functions: tracking, writing and drawing, all in motion.

Hanger Chair

“Occasional furniture”. Folding chairs tend to lie around the house, stacked in a corner, or in an unused room. When space is an issue, as is the case for most European city dwellers, an object such as a folding chair will clutter up the precious available space.

The Hanger Chair is a folding chair based on one of the ultimate storage systems: the modest hanger. It allows us to store clothes in an orderly fashion. Most houses or flats are equipped with a wardrobe to receive the object.

By morphing the function of the hanger with that of the folding chair, a new hybrid is born: a Hanger Chair that has a function, even when not in use, to store our clothes in an orderly fashion.

Flow by Xavier Lust for Indera

Milan 08: Belgian designer Xavier Lust has designed Flow, an aluminium sofa range for furniture Belgian brand Indera.

The range, which can be used indoors and (if you remove the cushions) out, will be launched in Milan during the furniture fair later this month.

More info from Indera:

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FLOW

Passionate design

Design company Indera joined forces with Xavier Lust, rising star of the Belgian design. Their cooperation is epitomized in ‘FLOW’, a beautiful timeless sofa.

In this sofa, Xavier Lust unites innovation, movement and emotion. He combines cool high tech/futuristic aluminium with a sensual, seamless play of shapes and warm fabrics. The result is ‘FLOW’, a luxurious sofa with perfect proportions and playful undulating lines. A passionate ensemble of technology and aesthetics.

In-&Out

By using high-end powder coated aluminium, shaped from one sheet, this sofa can be used indoors as well as outdoors. For outdoor use, comfortable weather resistant cushions are available.

Indera stands for character, craftsmanship and love, and these qualities are obviously present in this FLOW model.

FLOW can be seen in premiere from 16 to 21/04/08 at the Salone Del Mobile in Milan, hall 10, stand F22, and at Zona Tortona, 01 Superstudio, via Forcella 13, press preview April, 15, h. 3.00 pm.

Available as a 1, 2, 2.5 and 3 seater, there is also a special version of 4 m, all in one piece!