House Plans from Italy and India

Our window on the modern home is widening: we’ve recently added some exciting (and exclusive to us) contemporary plans from abroad. Plan 473-1 by architect Lorenzo Spano of Terni, Italy, takes  an artful and sleek approach to indoor-outdoor living, from the cylindrical chimney floating over a circular hearth

that draws your gaze into the landscape (in a retro wave at mid-century modernity), to the dramatic concrete cantilever

that shades one side of the house,

to the seamless connection to a pool terrace on the other side. A roof deck also overlooks the water.

Plan 467-2, by Mumbai architect Rinka D’Monte opens up a simple box with walls of glass.

The floor plan takes the form of two rectangular volumes that appear to slide past

each other, which allows room for private decks at front and rear.  It’s a new twist on the row house idea. We’ll be adding more international plans shortly.

Dutch Design and Other Inspirations in New York

I just returned from New York City, where I visited Governor’s Island off the tip of Lower Manhattan.

It’s a remarkable enclave of early 19th and 20th century Army and Coast Guard houses, barracks, forts, and other structures now being preserved by the Governor’s Island Preservation and Education Committee  (GIPEC), a New York State agency. One model for them might be the public-private joint venture at San Francisco’s Presidio, which was reinvented as a national park.

When I toured the Island the historic officer’s houses (at lower right in photo above) were being used for art installations celebrating the 400th anniversary of the Dutch arrival in New Amsterdam (New York). Droog, the innovative Dutch industrial design and branding firm was one of the participants and worked with artist Marije Vogelzang (she is known as an “eating-designer”) to convert one house into a “Go Slow Cafe” that I found very appealing. I entered an all-white room and was asked to take off my shoes — the first gesture toward slowing down –  and then sat at a white table. Lunch arrived on a simple board, like this:

with circles around each item noting the distance it had traveled. The wood and the food comprised the only color in the space. The point: to slow down, focus on the meal,  and think about the energy used to bring us sustenance. The generous sampling of lettuce and cheese came from less than 100 miles away while the small portion of Chinese lychees (the white fruit at right) came many thousands of miles. For a while I was alone at the table as other visitors ambled past. I felt like part of the installation, which I guess I was. Of course another way to “slow down” like this is simply to have a real conversation with your family over the dinner table!

Droog is a fascinating global firm and reminds me of Marcel Duchamp in the way they transform an everyday object into something unusual, like a clothes hanger into a lamp, shown below:

(This image is from 2modern.com.) The word droog, in Dutch, means “dry” or “wry.” One of Droog’s more provocative products is the “Do hit Chair”:

a metal box that comes with a sledgehammer allowing you to bang it

(and your frustrations, presumably) into shape.

At the Island, Droog took a somewhat calmer, “Do Hit the Cool-It Button” approach (as we have seen) and also supplied products for an intriguing temporary design  store designed by Marcel Schmalgemeijer. He stacked chairs to create shelving and display units like this:

It makes you reconsider the typical rented party chair  — maybe a way to use that leftover furniture in your basement…

Finally, I just had to visit one of the greatest American Beaux Arts monuments: the monumental New York Public Library of 1911, by Carerre & Hastings. Now this is a room for reading!

In the age of Kindles and I-phones, it still has the power to awe and made me appreciate anew the grandeur and majesty that can arise from the intersection of knowledge and imagination. And outside, the famous lions

are still guarding the majestic Fifth Avenue entrance. Read about them and New York’s many other landmarks in the just published Public Art New York by architect Jean Parker Phifer (W. W. Norton 2009).

Deftly written, it’s an indispensable guidebook to every monument worth seeing in Metropolis. From the book I learned that the lions, sculpted by Edward Clark Potter in 1911, are named “Patience” and “Fortitude.” I think they’re good to have around in a time of economic uncertainty. Don’t leave home without them.

At Home With Nature

We have a lot of granite in our house but it’s not in the kitchen counter: instead there are egg-shaped stones strewn across the mantelpiece and piled elsewhere in baskets and bowls — like hors d’oeuvres from the Pleistocene Era.

My wife is very supportive (er,  long-suffering) and my brother-in-law shares some of this granitic obsession: he once sent me a large and very heavy box. When the mail carrier delivered it he asked me “What have you got in here, rocks?” And of course I had to reply: “Why, yes.”

But in the waning days of summer my thoughts often turn to the seasides and lakeshores where these stones were found, and a little of the vacation feeling returns. I even use one of the rocks as a paperweight on my desk. (I guess it could also be a sort of “writer’s block,” which seems to snowball now and then.) It’s an easy way to incorporate nature — and perhaps even a refreshing Zen moment — into your home.  I am inspired by a painter like Alan Magee, who turns such a simple subject into high art, for example, in his “Convergence” shown below,

which seems to merge painting and sculpture with geology and memory. But I can’t paint so I collect.

Stone and pebble accents in living environments have a long history — just think of the pebble mosaics in some ancient Greek and Roman houses and especially in their communal baths.

This example is from Pella in ancient Greece (Macedonia) courtesy miriam.mollerus at Flickr Creative commons. And by the way, the best book on home life in Roman times that I have read is Fires of Vesuvius: Pompeii Lost and Found (Belknap Press, Harvard, 2008) written with immense verve and a good deal of saucy wit by English classicist Mary Beard. The descriptions of cooking and bathing rituals are especially vivid.

Here’s a somewhat more recent application of the pebble idea: an outdoor shower defined by a wall of pebble stone

tiles from Zation Stone, by Los Angeles designer Justin Davis of True Design Build. (Photo courtesy Sunset.) The tiles enhance the outdoor feeling.

A floor of well grouted stones in the shower

is good for  massaging the feet while you stand under the shower head (example also from Zation Stone).

Stone accents are always possible in the garden, whether as a small Japanesque fountain

like this Natsume basin from Stone Forest, or to support a dramatic fire vessel

from the same company — the big stone has been cleaved in two to form the base for the steel grate.

You can even find a wide variety of pebbles mounted as cabinet and drawer pulls,

like these knobs from Pulls Direct. Or this hook

from Uncommon Goods.

The trick with using rocks as accents is not to overdo it — to suggest nature, not start an avalanche…I guess that would be good advice for me too!

Have another pebble. They’re delicious.

Sixties Modern Revival

Big news! We have acquired the rights to sell copies of four original mid-century modern Eichler plans — they’re the latest additions to our Exclusive Studio Collection. These rare historical designs were done in the 1960s by architect Claude Oakland for California developer Joe Eichler. It was Eichler who brought award-winning modern architecture to the suburbs in the 1950s and 1960s when he hired contemporary architects like Anshen & Allen and Jones & Emmons to design his subdivision houses in the San Francisco Bay Area and Southern California. At Anshen & Allen the principal designer for Eichler homes was  Oakland, who had studied briefly with maverick architect Bruce Goff. In 1960 Eichler contracted directly with Oakland, allowing him to start his own firm. Here’s a photo of Joe and Claude reviewing a set of working drawings:

Joe’s in the glasses. The firm became Oakland and Imada Architects in the 1970s — Kinji Imada had studied with Walter Gropius at Harvard. While most of their work was for Eichler, they also designed redevelopment housing and other projects. Oakland died in 1989; Imada in 2005.

The following image of a typical Oakland living room is emblematic (photograph by Ernie Braun / courtesy Eichler Network Archives, all rights reserved).

All the Eichler characteristics are here:  an exposed post-and-beam one story structure, floor to ceiling walls of glass, and the promise of easy indoor-outdoor living. Furnishings are casual, uncluttered, and contemporary. It remains a powerfully seductive  image of modernity for a mass market.

Our Eichler plans were designed for two Bay Area developments – one in Mill Valley and one in the East Bay Hills. Plan 470-4 is organized around an open-air atrium, a feature that Eichler made famous.

The front door is really the gate beside the garage and opens to a passage leading to the atrium. Straight ahead, the second front door opens to the loggia adjacent to the living room.

A friendly gabled street facade gives no hint of the spatial surprise — the atrium — within.

Plan 470-1 is distinctive in that it contains a so-called “hobby room” behind the garage.

The kitchen is conveniently situated between garage and the entry and can be entered from both sides. A long low overhanging gable running parallel to the street

pulls the facade into an orderly line.

Plan 470-2, for a somewhat narrower lot, puts the entry between

kitchen and garage and includes a large “gallery” that functions like a great room.

The facade combines offset flat and gable roofs in a crisp contemporary composition.

Plan 470-3, below, is an unusual two story Eichler.

The layout is wide and relatively narrow, with a generous entry to accommodate the stairway.

An efficient and graceful circulation plan on the ground floor allows each room to flow into the other without wasteful dead-end spaces.

Upstairs, airiness and outdoor living dominate with front and rear balconies and a two-story living room.

A percentage of the price of each plan supports the Environmental Design Archives at U. C. Berkeley, which preserves the original Oakland/Imada drawings and the records of other significant California architects and landscape architects.

For an architectural history of  Eichler homes see the excellent Eichler: Modernism Rebuilds the American Dream (Gibbs Smith, 2002)

by Paul Adamson and Marty Arbunich with photography by Ernie Braun. Information and advice about Eichler communities is available from the Eichler Network (www.eichlernetwork.com), which publishes the informative quarterly CA Modern.

We’ll provide ideas and advice for updating these Eichler plans for today’s energy codes and lifestyles in future postings. Also see our Eichler-inspired plans by New Jersey architect Gregory La Vardera, California architect Robert Nebolon, and Alabama designer Daniel E. Bush, which are part of the Exclusive Studio Collection, with more to come.

Concrete Casts A Spell

The latest Harry Potter film debuts this week, which made me think that if Harry designed patios, kitchens, or bathrooms, he’d use a lot of concrete. That’s because it’s so malleable and expressive and, like the best potions, incorporates both ordinary and unusual ingredients for special effects. But you don’t have to be a wizard to see the possibilities in this remarkable age-old material. Here’s a Gryffindor Common Room of counters, sinks, pavers, and garden benches to prompt your own transformations.

Let’s begin with concrete innovator Fu-Tung Cheng, founder of Cheng Design, whose new book is Concrete Countertops Made Simple (Taunton 2008).

The book speaks to the do-it-yourselfer, incorporating techniques, tips, and advice from his long career teaching people how to work with concrete. (Of the 350 members of his website, 250 have been trained as concrete installers by Fu-Tung himself.) It’s useful for anyone building a new home. Here’s a page showing three installations:

The green triangular counter with the integral round sink is an example of sculptural geometry, and turns a tight corner into an expansive vanity; it’s practical as well as beautiful.

Fu-Tung designed the warm coppery orange-hued hearth (below) for a contemporary kitchen.

The smooth waxed finish and depth of color make you want to run your hand along the surface. I like the idea that this counter is both a hearth and a buffet.

Or here’s a concrete solution for a tight rear yard: a circular patio ringed with a bench.

The bench artfully outlines the terrace while providing ample places to sit. It frames the space and frees it at the same time: truly a form of design magic.

Notice the characteristic Cheng detail: inserted elements — stones, rough texture, contrasting color — that draw the eye and add personality to abstraction. Here’s a view across the patio back to the house.

It shows how the bench starts flush with the deck and edges the steps down to the patio floor. Such a compact, low maintenance yard suits a dense infill lot.

When I spoke with Fu-Tung recently he reminded me of concrete’s environmental qualities. He said: “85% of a bag of cement is sand and gravel, which is harvested locally, and so the carbon footprint is low compared to what’s required to cut and transport granite, for example.”

Fu-Tung is also branching into FSC-certified (Forest Stewardship Council) cabinetry with his new Plyboo line at Tonusa.

Sonoma Cast Stone is a company that continues to make waves — literally — in the concrete world.

I’m thinking of their marvelous undulating sinks, like the one above, which have been evolving ever since they debuted at the National Kitchen & Bath Show some years ago.

I’m also a fan of their Ramp Sink, shown above, versions of which Sunset used in several Idea Houses. Sonoma Stone also invented “Stainless Nucrete,” part of their lighter weight Earthcrete line, designed to resist staining from limes, lemons, tomatoes, wine, and oil, (which adds a patina that some customers do not appreciate). According Sonoma Stone: “Liquid soap and a wet sponge will keep EarthCrete totally new and guaranteed so.” Earthcrete products make use of recycled paper fibers, glass, ceramics, and industrial by-products such as fly-ash. The company is also known for an ever expanding array of concrete tiles and pavers, including their so called “Soft Stone,”

which has a pillowed look.

Concreteworks has made a splash with the clarity and simplicity of their designs, especially owner-artist Mark Rogero’s marvelous egg-shaped tubs, like the Napali, below.

Getting into it must be almost like returning to the womb!

Concrete lends itself to a spare elegant esthetic,

as illustrated by this serene spa by Concreteworks East Studio and Catherine Gerry Interiors (photo by Todd Mason from the Concreteworks Blog). There is a Concreteworks Gallery with work by other artists as well, such as Alexis Moran’s architectural bookends (below).

They would make a good introduction to the material if you don’t want to spring for a kitchen counter or spa tub immediately, not to mention an easy way to store your collection of J. K. Rowling books! Or you could just sit back and use Harry’s summoning charm: Accio Concrete!

Now More Than Ever: NOT SO BIG

Ten years ago architect Sarah Susanka began showing how to “build better, not bigger” — as an antidote to McMansion mania — and launched her hugely successful (and ongoing) series of books about the Not So Big house. Well, now that the “not so big economy” (perhaps we should trademark that phrase) has arrived, we need her ideas more than ever. So I am enormously pleased to announce that Houseplans.com is now the exclusive host for her Not So Big architectural plans. With her wonderful  best-selling books, including The Not So Big House (Taunton, 1999), Home By Design (Taunton, 2004), The Not So Big Life: Making Room for What Really  Matters (Random House, 2007), and the just released Not So Big Remodeling (Taunton, 2009),

Sarah has become the J. K. Rowling of home design. Harry Potter, meet your architect!

Sarah brings a brand of practical magic to the way she explains how to make the most out of limitations in resources, space, and time to create plans that are practical, innovative, and personal. Here’s a sampling of her designs. (All photographs courtesy Sarah Susanka.)

Showhouse 2004 (454-5) embodies warmth and generosity.

The wide encompassing roof is a graceful multi-tasker; it shelters terraces and a courtyard while projecting personality in the upward sweep of the eave over the sun room at the center.

A River Runs Below It (454-2) is oriented toward views and outdoor living.

The screen porch on the deck at the side of the house is like a seasonal pressure valve, allowing life to move into a sheltered outdoor space during warm weather.

See how the living room opens directly to the screen porch; sliding doors can close it off from the living room in colder weather. Characteristic Susanka touches include the built-in window seat between the dining area and living room, and the built-in display cabinets flanking the entry hall. These sorts of details add character as well as comfort to smaller spaces.

A Good Neighbor (454-1) is designed to blend into older neighborhoods, as this images shows.

Inside there is a sort of choreography of craft, with welcoming details like the breakfast banquette near the kitchen,

and the elegant stained glass pattern for the window in the foyer, shown below.

It is a  Not So Small delight to delight for us to know and work with  Sarah.