We absolutely love it when people talk about our la Boîte projects. Even if they use the term "quirky," we get that they are raving about the design and sustainable ideas inherent in "the Box"
We absolutely love it when people talk about our la Boîte projects. Even if they use the term "quirky," we get that they are raving about the design and sustainable ideas inherent in "the Box"
]]>
The volume of space an architectural project uses up in the built-environment is important on many levels. The surrounding context is full of significant considerations, like the relationship to neighboring structures, the pattern created by a row of houses along the street and the approaching view corridors. There are variables between the volume of the structure and the site itself, like whether the house maximizes the zoning footprint and the extent of connection to the surrounding landscapes and hardscapes. The volume has direct results on the experience of the architecture itself and affects the quality of the spaces within. It can be a difficult task “carving out” the massing of a project while keeping all of these factors in mind.
We recently finished up a residential project that involved many of these issues at a heightened level. The project is located in a well established and relatively dense neighborhood (for a single family zone) on top of Seattle’s Queen Anne hill. The finished result responded to each of the factors discussed above –filtered through the modernist philosophy. Today’s post reviews our thinking and design-decision making process on the project (and there may be a bit of post-rationalization in there too).
The concrete foundation of the existing home was maintained for a variety of reasons. It makes the construction much more cost-effective, it keeps the new home to a tidy footprint and it maintains the original sense of scale within the neighborhood. The basement is just a bit over 1,000 square feet which, multiplied by three floor levels, is plenty of space for the homeowners and their two children. Rather than expand out, the idea was to use what is already there and expand up.
The neighborhood is a mix of housing styles -weighted toward craftsman style bungalows. In response to the smaller scale of these bungalows, the design of the home alleviates the overall massing by separating the home into two distinct parts. The two volumes are further differentiated with their siding applications: horizontal cedar with a light gray stain on the left and vertical cedar with a dark gray stain on the right. The visual creates a more granular massing and helps the new construction relate to the scale of its neighbors.
While the scale of the home takes cues from its context, the level of transparency does quite the opposite. We’ve always found craftsman architecture to be dark and dreary inside, with little connection between interiors and exteriors. From the start, we wanted to create a high level of transparency for the home; this was achieved through large panes of glass and operable accordion doors. During the day the house has a strong relationship with the yard and adjacent decks. At night it becomes a glowing beacon from the adjacent view corridors.
Queen Anne is a walking neighborhood and a family neighborhood. During construction we were constantly amazed at how many people walked by the home on an hourly basis, many of them stopping to chat. To a greater extent than most of our projects, the front of this home plays an important role as a gesture to the pedestrian realm. Without jeopardizing the family’s privacy, we wanted the design to be warm and welcoming toward the sidewalk. Our interpretation of the modern stoop greets visitors and allows the homeowners to hang out and chat with neighbors.
Inside, the home benefits from direct relationships to adjacent outdoor spaces. Large doors allow interior spaces to open up and take advantage of outdoor spaces when the weather cooperates. Integral canopies screen the sun and keep the rain at a distance.
In many ways the home draws on the characteristics of the traditional bungalows that populate this neighborhood. A modern interpretation of these characteristics allows for a home full of lifestyle opportunity and connection with the neighborhood –all wrapped in a crisp, modern design.
[Existing Home]
Cheers from team BUILD.
’
Is summer here yet? With the gorgeous modular and modern architectural designs of the Blanco River House, by Austin, Texas’ ma modular, you’re going to wish that not only was the weather perfect out there, but that you had such awesome porches to hang out on. Of course, that rusty metal facade is just so Western-y, so Texas. This is the sort of architecture that makes you really appreciate regional design.
A 3 bed, 2 bath 1400 square foot vacation home in Wimberley, Texas, it was built for around $200,000, contains not only good-looking modern designs but sustainable ones, too. And of course, part of the charm of a home built by ma modular is that it’s modular! Love, love it. More photos on ma modular’s Facebook page.
What do you think about that rusty metal exterior? Dig it or not your thing? Let us know!
AORA hybrid CSP Tulip system in Spain
When officials from AORA cut the blue ribbon to launch the Tulip CSP system in desert country north of Almeria, Spain, I was able to sit with Pinchas Doron, PhD, the AORA Solar chief technology officer, to learn more of this innovative hybrid system. What follows is a condensed version of that interview.
Q. Tell me about the history of this hybrid CSP system.
A. The core technology, the enabling technology – it started at Weizmann Institute of Science. Weizmann has a solar tower facility – built in 1989. In 1992 I joined that group initially on a part-time basis before finishing my PhD. It was there that we developed the ideas of what we call the DIAPR (directly irradiated annually pressurized receiver). This later evolved into that solar receiver that we have now, which basically is the device that heats compressed air to the temperature that is required to run an air turbine.
Q. What happened then?
A. We created the first unit that heated air at a much higher temperature than what we need here because we later tailed it to You don’t need to heat to the 1300 degrees, you heat only to the 1000 degrees that you need.
Q. The micro turbine is powered by hot air from the sun that is being reflected in the mirrors, not gas, like many think.
A. That solar receiver that we have now, which basically is the device that heats compressed air to the temperature that is required to run an air turbine – common name is gas turbine. People think it is a turbine that runs on natural gas, but it is not. It is a turbine that runs on air. People often misunderstand – so how do you run a gas turbine with sun?
Q. Your first ‘proof of concept’ for the system took place in Nanjing, China five years ago, followed by a system in Israel.
A. In 2009 we started our first prototype in the southern part of Israel. We ran that system under various operating conditions and came to a lot of obstacles along the way. And following those lessons we upgraded the design of many of the system components and came to build this plant that is now here. In parallel, we are now operating the system in Israel that is almost the same as this one. So we’ll basically have twin units.
Temperatures in the Tulip system's air turbine measure 1000 degrees Farenheit
Q. In Israel you supply power to the grid?
A. We were the first ones in Israel to go through that process of getting the authorities approval to build such a thing and connect to the grid and have the Israel Electric Utility – which is a state-run utility – to approve our connection to the grid. And understand I never knew there were so many divisions of Israel Electric until each one of them wanted to visit. But they were satisfied; they were satisfied with what they saw. So they shaved on our on beard – that’s a Hebrew expression: shave on somebody else’s beard so you don’t get the cuts yourself. So actually now everybody was satisfied. Our beards were shaved – and we didn’t get cuts, by the way.
Q. The technology is such a complete solution for renewable energy using solar. Why has there not been a larger following of your achievements?
A. I think that we’ve probably been under the radar even though we had this first launch in 2009. But most people considered us as being under the radar. Most people – the premise is to go to large plants, large units. We can do a large plant but our units will stay as those modular units. We’re quite unique.
Q. Talk about your business plan.
A. The business plan would be to do clusters of units – maybe tens of units, maybe hundreds – which would start initially from a small number of units that will help gain the confidence of this new technology. By building a cluster, you could much easier finance. You build groups, then you start generating income and then you build the next so you have a phased financing, basically, and a phased matching income at the other end. We would go initially to grid-connected installations. We will look for places where we can benefit from the discriminator of providing heat as well – of being flexible in operation and flexible in terrain, which is also extremely important. The key is flexibility. As we move along we also get into the off-grid market – a lot of places where the grid is either absent or not reliable. And there are a lot of places like this. Over there such a solution would be very good, actually. Again, I like to look at it as electricity – it’s not just electricity, it’s an energy solution.
Q. How is the turbine powered in this hybrid system?
A. The turbine can run on solar only, can run on solar, augmented by fuel, and we can run fuel-only. Now the fuel that we can use can be bad fuel, but it can also be nice fuel – it can be biogas, synthetic gas – whatever you could look at that would be green maybe.
Q. Do you consider adding sustainable fuel or biogas to your hybrid technology?
A. You could also use things that you need to take care of like the date plantations in the southern part of Israel. They have all this biomass that has fallen and you need to do something with it. You cannot really leave it in place. Or cow manure – you need to do something with it. Take that thing – not all processes, some processes are available that would use heat from the excess of the turbine – take that cow manure, or other stuff and generate renewable fuel that would in turn feed the turbine when there’s no sun.
Q. Like methane?
A. Yeah. So there you have sustainability – both in how you run your turbine and in taking care of that yucky matter that you need to do away with. So that is why we think that our system – even though we deal with the intermittency of the sun by burning fuel (natural gas) is still a sustainable system. It’s not a fossil power plant. You could use fossil fuels if you don’t have anything else and you need the power at night, okay? You do until you have another option, and when you have another option, modify the system to use another fuel is extremely simple, and fast, and probably not expensive….So that’s sustainability, as far as I can see it.
After the interview, Mr. Doron sent this message:
“I cannot recall if I really emphasized it, but one major discriminator of our system is minimal use of water (this being an air turbine), which is extremely important as many of the potential location for our systems do not have water to spare.”
Very important, indeed.
Dual-flush toilets are common where water is scarce.
In yesterday’s post on water-efficient toilets, I did not mention dual-flush toilets, which exist in places such as Australia, where water scarcity is more prevalent.
According to HowStuffWorks, dual-flush toilets handle solid and liquid waste differently, using less water to evacuate whatever waste exists in the bowl, whether solid or liquid. The user has a choice of what kind of flushing action is needed.
Again, dual-flush toilets are meant to conserve water in countries where there is either a water shortage or the water supply and treatment facilities might be over-burdened. But let’s be clear: water shortages do not take place just outside the United States. How Stuff Works writes clearly on this issue:
“The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) reports that by the year 2013, an estimated 36 states will experience water shortages as a result of increased water usage and inefficient water management from aging regional infrastructures. Using less water to flush liquid waste makes sense, but in the United States there may be cultural biases that make accepting a more hands-on approach to personal waste harder to accept [source: Safe Plumbing].”
Australians are credited with the development of dual-flush technology. In 1980, Bruce Thompson of Caroma Industries created the inaugural two-button flushing system that translated into a half flush for liquid waste and a full flush for solid waste. Most modern dual-flush toilets use less than a gallon of water to flush liquid waste and around 1.6 gallons to flush solid waste. Old toilets used five gallons or more per flush.
Today, dual flush toilets are used widely in Australia, Europe and Asia, and they’re catching on in other areas as well. Increased environmental awareness, government regulation, the availability of monetary incentives and the rising cost of water are making the changeover to dual-flush and low flow toilet designs more attractive to U.S. consumers.
For those wanting the tidiest toilet bowl, however, dual-flush toilets are known for leaving waste residue. For some this negative consideration might weigh more heavily than their desire to save water. But there’s always the toilet brush.
Also, those wanting to know more shouldn’t forget the other option: a composting toilet.
Great question, and there are a lot of different opinions.
One of the basic laws of physics will tell us that, yes, turning off your heating or hot water system during...
Read the rest of We Talk With Tracen Gardner of Reclaimed Space About Prefab Building & Salvaging Materials
Permalink |
Add to
del.icio.us |
digg
Post tags: artisan homes, artisan prefab building, artisan prefabs, hand made prefab homes, handmade prefabricated homes, off grid homes, off-grid, prefab building, prefabricated building, Reclaimed Materials, reclaimed space, reclaimed space buildings, reclaimed space homes, reclaimed space prefab, Recycled Materials, Tracen Gardner, Tracen Gardner reclaimed space
Scott T. sends word and a link that the John Lloyd Wright-designed Merrill House (aka "The Wonder-Y Ranch") in Valley Center, CA will be sold by public auction Saturday March 17, 2012 at 11:00am at the site. Details and photos here.
Image via trovit.com
Blair Kamin, the architectural critic for the Chicago Tribune, covered the plight of the James B. Riving houses in Wilmette, IL on his blog Cityscapes and gives PrairieMod the shout out for the role played in connecting Wright and Schindler to the little cottage in the back of the property. Read Blair's post here.
Image via Cityscapes
Oh we’re loving the odd style mixes, dramatic color pairings and interesting angles spotted in this house called Four-Room Cottage by Australian firm Owen and Vokes. Firstly, love the overwhelming mix of black and white punctuated by color. The black and white here is really used as a way to highlight the interesting architecture that you spot when you turn every corner.
And on the subject of the architecture…it’s just so darn unique. It’s got slight hints of traditional architecture, but done in really fresh, modern ways. We love how they play around with the idea of an “outline,” merely teasing at structure. There are a lot of controlled ways in which you peer at views: through a opening pass the kitchen, through architecture. Light and shadows play in this structure. It’s quite inspiring. Looks like it might have been a renovation, and the project dates are listed as 2008-2011. More.
What do you think about this home? Is it inspiring to you? Let us know what your favorite element is.
What’s modern, awesome and sure to light up even the darkest night? Why…it’s Barcelona-based company Marset’s brilliant designs, new on 2Modern! We couldn’t be more excited to offer up their sleek light fixtures on our website. There’s a definite modern simplicity that permeates through every one of their pieces, but also a level of sophistication and detail that is thick and lovely. You won’t find a lot of crazy colors in their collection, but you will find a high level of quality and a light fixture that will be the center of attention any room it goes in.
Started in 1940 as a metal casting business, it’s amazing how Marset’s been able to not only stay on top of the trends, but actually set them. They’re always looking at new technologies and processes to create their designs, and continue to innovate in the design world year after year. Catch Marset on 2Modern!
]]>