On the Skagg’s Springs Road in Mendocino County, California, last Friday. This is one of those humble farm buildings that stop me in my tracks. Everything looks right. Too bad architects so seldom incorporate the beauty of simplicity, practicality, and economy in their creations.
About Lloyd Kahn
Lloyd Kahn started building his own home in the early '60s and went on to publish books showing homeowners how they could build their own homes with their own hands. He got his start in publishing by working as the shelter editor of the
Whole Earth Catalog with Stewart Brand in the late '60s. He has since authored six highly-graphic books on homemade building, all of which are interrelated. The books, "The Shelter Library Of Building Books," include
Shelter,
Shelter II (1978),
Home Work (2004),
Builders of the Pacific Coast (2008),
Tiny Homes (2012), and
Tiny Homes on the Move (2014). Lloyd operates from Northern California studio built of recycled lumber, set in the midst of a vegetable garden, and hooked into the world via five Mac computers. You can check out videos (one with over 450,000 views) on Lloyd by doing a search on YouTube:
On the Skagg’s Springs Road in Mendocino County, California, last Friday. This is one of those humble farm buildings that stop me in my tracks. Everything looks right. Too bad architects so seldom incorporate the beauty of simplicity, practicality, and economy in their creations.
Lovely!
This reminds me of my first architecture studio assignment. Design a 500 SF space. I drew almost this photo. Never made it out of architecture school, I became a builder.
I don't know whether this is true, but I've heard that architects very seldom – if ever – go back after several years to see how people are actually using their buildings. Apparently, the changes people make in an attempt to have the building usable and livable often totally destroy the magnificent vision that the architect had for the building when it was designed. This would be too upsetting for the architect's delicate psyche to handle.
Stewart Brand's excellent book "How Buildings Learn" describes this issue in some detail.
An architect's job would be so much easier if it weren't for all those annoying people messing everything up!