stephanieNY

I'm at a coffee shop in Berkeley, CA right now. The scent of yerba mate is overwhelming and the bike rack is at capacity. It's so San Francisco, it's almost Portland (except everyone is using a MacBook). If you watch Portlandia, you'll know what I mean. If you don't, you should immediately.  

I will duly use my Hipstamatic iPhone app to illustrate for you:

Disclaimer: I have never been to Portland OR. My impressions are based solely on a television show.  

A few years ago, a pigeon slipped on a patch of ice and walked away unscathed (physically). I wish I could say the same about the dove that took cover on our stoop yesterday. I won't name names, but someone swung open the door a little too hard and hit the sweet dove. The poor guy flew away squawking, and all that's left are some drops of dove blood on our stoop. Yeah, dove blood...on our stoop. Awful. But maybe...magical at the same time? We should probably bottle it and use it for spells.

Lego introduced Mies' Farnsworth House to their architecture series.  

The house is joining Frank Lloyd Wright's Fallingwater and Guggenheim.  Nice choice this time around.  Look how beautiful:

What's next, Lego?!

Speaking of lifts...

Last month, on arguably the coldest day of the winter, I spent about four hours 60 feet up in the air to survey a historic structure.  The North Congregational Church is in Porter Square in Cambridge and is about to be moved next door, restored, and become part of the art school at Lesley U.  

Check out this lift/room at Rem Koohaas' Maison Bordeaux. The handicapped user here sits in his sweet office to get between floors instead of in a cramped and isolated elevator. Bookshelves run the height of the shaft, thus never depriving the office of books. Each floor is constantly redefined by the presence or absence of the room.  

Beautiful.

The rest of the house (designed as a "machine for living") moves too:

A resort house in South Africa (via today's design-milk)...

...complete with glass walls, bedroom curtains, roof overhangs, a corner pool, and mountains...a lot like Neutra's Kaufmann House (1946)...

J.Crew did a gorgeous catalog spread at the Kauffmann House in 2008.  This is the only pic I could find...

A steep gambrel roof pitched toward a close neighbor is one way to privacy.  A box with solid walls and a light shaft through the middle is another. 

Check out the incredible interior. The split-level stair that circles the kitchen in the core is such a clear and elegant organization of space and way of circulation...It's the kind of space that makes me wish I had thought of it first. Symmetry gets me every time.

Project by Atelier rzlbd

Photo via archdaily

My cousin and his wife recently designed and built their house outside Austin, TX. I feel pretty proud that I can post a design project like this from within the fam. Chris and Sarah captained sailboats for years, where I think they collected habits from efficiency of space and functions, and brought them to their new terrestrial home.

The structure is two (and a half?) levels. A workshop on the first floor lifts their entire living space up close to the tree line, where they tap into the airflow for natural ventilation. The elevated living space is a big open loft that extends out onto an enormous deck, covered by the south-facing shed roof. Even in Texas, they manage to turn off the a/c sometimes and let the roof overhang shade them from the south sun, and the clerestory windows draw air in from the north. Building materials include stucco and standing seam steel outside, poured concrete countertops and stained plywood floors and wall panels inside.  

Oh, and Chris built it.

For more pictures and some better reporting:

grassrootsmodern.com post

statesman.com article