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Two Paths On The Way Home
The vast majority of American homes have a “traditional” and namable identity. Whether it’s “Colonial,” “Arts and Crafts,” “Shingle Style,” or “Bungalow,” the broad brush of History paints 90% of...
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Past: Present: Future
Houses are time travelers, – each is built for a brave new world, personal or cultural, and inevitably change to provide useful and comforting shelter as they age into new generations. In his “Poetics...
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Building on the Water
Water – Living in love with it, without breaking your heart (or budget) The romantic allure of waterside living is undeniable, but back in Colonial times no one wanted to live on or near the coast who...
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INSULATION: A Swamp Yankee Primer
At one point this fall, every state in these United Sates had a place below freezing within its borders. Mammals need help keeping warm, and humans set a 98.6F standard for survival. Huddling around...
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“Settling”: The Big Lie
A new home or an addition is about 3 or 4 months into its occupancy. Cracks Happen. The builder and/or architect/designer are called, and either or both responds with a one word blanket excuse:...
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LIGHT
When you think about any building there are some basics: gravity, weather, materials, the spaces you live in, but bathing all of those basics is light. On Earth we are victims of living on a spinning...
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LET THERE BE LIGHT
HOME PAGE deals with Light In A Dark Season. An hour of science, design and technology as applied to our lives and homes: light is one of the universal realities of designing any buildings, but the...
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The Hidden Factors Driving Your Home’s Design
For Most people, houses embody a style that is draped over the home’s exterior and applied to its interior. Many people are comfortable picking a style like an entrée off a restaurant menu, but they’re...
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How Tall is Tall? Getting the Low Down on Height Regulations
Most people now assume that when they go to build anything, regulations will limit what they can build. The earliest codes were designed to address safety and health concerns in dense city...
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Architecture In Love : the flat roof syndrome
We all want love. But who we want it from is where humans differ. Most of us are content to desire love from those we actually love. But those in full devotion to anything seek love back from it: the...
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HOUZZ Rules
Note: 8/3/15 HOUZZ announces first ever national ad campaign: pay-for-play journalism needs to add value (hits) to get paid:...
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The Illusion of Value
No potential client has ever said to me “I found you through Porch.com”. This is distinct from HOUZZ which has become the Google of home design web surfing. Loews has “partnered” with Porch: meaning...
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Pitched Roofs Matter
Roofs and Architecture now have an odd relationship. Roofs have become the litmus test for a variety of judgments. Sculpture has no “roof” it is a shape unto itself. A “datum” (archispeak for a...
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Shedding Water = A Building
I believe that the prime difference between buildings and other things humans construct (bridges, sculptures, cars) is that a building’s prime directive is to protect its users from the weather....
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Between Rocks & Hard $$$
There are many reasons to use masonry in building. The single most commonly used reason not to use masonry is cost. Wood, steel, plastic, glass are all cheaper cladding. Even CMU’s and brick are...
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Architecture and The Failed Model of Genius
This is a piece that took a great deal of time, and patience, to create. I hope you can read it in these times where there is time. To Read:...
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Built Beautiful
Sometimes connections happen. I see a book, I use it in a talk (or six). The author and I meet. Then dozens of others connect. Then a movie. Maybe a movement, or least a stream of ideas we have...
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Black Windows, Corian Countertops, Avocado Appliances
Black windows are crisp, even edgy. Corian countertops with integral sinks are nearly miraculous in their seamlessness. I even remember the pop of seeing “Avocado” colored appliances destroy the...
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History: The Other Gravity
Every second passes, and there was a before, now and after. Unrelenting. Unchanging. On every thing we see, hear, taste and touch. Time is universal. It is so pervasive, so overwhelming, that we often...
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Transactional Immunity
Encouraging bad behavior is at the root of the human condition. Teaching design three half days a week, (and prepping for almost as much time) I must work 7 days a week, or everything suffers....
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