Run of House
You expect to see extremes in Las Vegas, and the latest New American Home did not disappoint. Call it an architectural flash flood with almost 7,000 sq. ft. of
contemporary razzle dazzle: the home as floor show. There is the system of indoor-outdoor infinity edge pools with a swim-up bar/barbecue-kitchen (near Continue reading
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Long Division
A quiet revolution has been taking place in the world of the sliding glass door. The first examples were usually custom-designed and became key features of modern houses, capturing the new machine age spirit of the early 20th century. One of the most famous examples is the large moveable window wall connecting
the living room to the terrace at the Villa Savoye near Paris by le Corbusier, of 1931 — you can see how one panel has slid partly to the left past the round Continue reading
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Karaoke Showers: Or How Home Building Is Picking Up the Beat
A new tune wafted through the convention hall at the Home Builder Show in Las Vegas last week: it was a little bit Adele, as in “Let the sky fall/When it crumbles/We will stand tall/Face it all together/At skyfall” and a little bit Christina Perri, as in “I have died every day/Waiting for you/Darlin’ don’t be afraid/I have loved you for a thousand years/I’ll love you for a thousand more.” In other words, everyone seemed tempered by the downturn yet recommitted to the future. Keynote speaker and former Disney chairman Michael Eisner captured that spirit by showing clips from the film Cool Runnings about the improbable Olympic bobsled team from Jamaica who suffered a disastrous crash but then picked up their sled and carried it over the finish line to wild applause. Here are the products that caught my eye (and ear), with more to come in the next post.
Kohler launched their very cool, clever, and sleek Moxie shower head: it has a built-in wireless speaker and plays up to 7 hours of music and news (you should
be very clean after that…). The magnetic speaker pops out of the shower head for easy recharging of its lithium-ion battery. It pairs with Bluetooth-enabled Continue reading
Power Patios, Part Deux
Last week’s post on courtyard houses prompted some great suggestions from readers. Sydney, Australia architect and heritage specialist Matthew Devine told me about the house that mid-century modern Melbourne architect Roy Grounds
designed and built for his family in 1953, shown above as a model in the collection of Museum Victoria. Every major room in the almost square house Continue reading
Holding Court
A well executed courtyard makes a house memorable as well as more livable. The strong indoor-outdoor connection is a powerful lure but also the geometry of the space, its openings and wall surfaces, and paving materials play important roles. One of the most alluring courtyard houses that I can
think of is the home built for silent film director Fred Niblo in Beverly Hills of 1927 by Wallace Neff (photo courtesy Propertypal). The dramatic curve of that entry court clearly celebrates automobiles and a theatrical sense of arrival by
literally sweeping them around to the front door (image courtesy Stefanos Polyzoides of Moule Polyzoides Architects). The rest of the house falls into place around it like a perfectly drilled chorus line. The design is a silent movie in its own right — see how the oval hall between living and dining rooms echoes the motorcourt, a Mini Me echo of the main event. At a house in California’s Central Valley from the early 1980s architect William Turnbull
deftly turned the veranda outside-in and opened up the roof at the same time
– so that the wood-framed courtyard becomes a grand open-air hall at the center between two wings – almost like a small piazza shaded against the summer heat. (photo courtesy Open Buildings). But a smaller home on a
tighter lot can also boast a central courtyard, as this Eichler tract house by architect Claude Oakland from our Exclusives Collections shows (Plan 470-6).
Architect Gregory La Vardera has reinterpreted that atrium design for today, as shown above (Plan 431-11).
At a lecture recently I met Jawed Umerani, a talented structural engineer who very graciously gave me a tour of his wonderful new courtyard home, which was designed by Apple Stores architects Bohlin Cywinksi Jackson. Of course
Jawed, whose firm Umerani Associates is a frequent consultant for the Bohlin firm, did the engineering and contributed much to the design. It shows how to fit an exciting light-filled, outdoor-oriented, one story house onto a tight suburban
lot. From the street, it’s impossible to tell what lies ahead — you see the garage, a ribbon of walkway leading to a sheltered entry. That remarkable stone-paved
room awaits just beyond the front door, on the other side of a small sitting area. The elegant U-shaped house puts the bedrooms on one side and the great
room on the other. Light floods in from all sides. The Umeranis treated me to breakfast and it was hard for me to sit still because the center of the house became the center of my attention — another film about to start.
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Eye on Design is the blog of Houseplans.com, where Editor Dan Gregory covers home design — from products to process.