In doing an article for Mother Earth News on “Tools for the half-Acre Homestead,” I’ve been searching through my old photos and this little place just popped out (sic). The pop-out windows are a brilliant way to expand the actual and physical space. By Bodega Portable Buildings. They make sound, well-designed portable tiny homes.
I don’t see any boards, but these guys gotta be surfers. Somewhere in Kapa’a, Kauai. Authentic, eh?
What I like here (aside from the soulfulness):
-hip roof, corrugated steel sheets
-porch area by subtraction. Think of it as the overall simple roof shape; then by moving walls inside, you get porch.
-up off ground on simplest of foundations.
-colors: red/green. I love the brick red color, especially window trim on Pacific west coast.
Hi Lloyd,
Just completed another bridge project. This was constructed using a hybrid of laminated plywood, steel and oak. Its the first time I’ve experimented with such large laminations!
Jonny
This reminds me of homes designed by Bernard Maybeck and Julia Morgan during the Arts and Crafts Movement in the San Francisco Bay Area in the early 1900s. Note the fine lava rock masonry work of the fireplace, the gentle curves at the ends of the rafters. Well designed, well built.
On a grassy hillside in southwest Kauai. Note simple awnings that keep rain, glare off windows.
Proportion—proportion—proportion.
Come to think of it, I might do a series of photos of elegant proportion: barns, farm buildings, modest homes, commercial buildings, public buildings…I’m always on the lookout.
My favorite definition of architecture: “…the art and science of building.” Too bad so few architects are builders.
Dog house is in Kapaa, Kauai.
“Waioli Mission Hall stands as a major monument of Hawaiian architectural history, the primary inspiration for the Hawaiian double-pitched hipped roof so widely popularized by C. W. Dickey in the 1920s. Built by the Reverend William P. Alexander, Dickey’s grandfather, the plaster walls of the frame structure repose beneath a sprawling roof and encircling lanai. The roof, originally thatched, was shingled in 1851. Similarly, the freestanding, ohia-framed belfry at the rear of the mission was of thatch construction, but most likely received a covering of shingles in the same year. The form of the twenty-five-foot-high belfry drew upon a long British and American colonial tradition. Common in its day, today it stands as the sole surviving example of its type in Hawaii.
This was the third church building on the site, with the earlier thatched edifices falling prey to fire and storms. It remained a center for worship until the completion of Waioli Huiia Church (ka44) in 1912, when it became a community hall for the church, a function it still serves today. The building has been thrice restored: in 1921 by Hart Wood, in 1978 by Bob Fox, and again in 1993, following Hurricane Iniki, by Designare Architects.”
In 1989, I drove my Tacoma truck to Arizona to visit my cousin Mike, who had created a sculptural complex in the desert near Sedona. Mike and I had hung out together as kids; he was a year younger, and we looked a lot alike. He was an artist from early on. We’d each gone off with our different lives, then got together in the mid-60s when we were both feeling the stirrings of the cultural revolution, and this was the first time I’d seen him since then.
He created the room shown here out of used automobile windshields, with stained glass glued on with silicone caulk.
Blog Posts I just did 2 posts for our new blog — they’ll be up within a week — https://www.theshelterblog.com/, as I transition to a different blogging mode. Not as much stuff as this (although I can’t resist blabbing now and then). More material on building, the home arts, gardening, farming. Especially building.
I feel like I have a lot to communicate with builders after all these years of non-academic study of carpentry and other methods of construction.
Back in the saddle with this new blog.
Coming off 5 years of building domes, I set about to learn the most practical methods of building homes, small buildings, and barns. It can be so simple.
Sample future posts:
•Drawings of 5 tiny homes (including every stick of wood in framing (from Shelter)
•Barns of my acquaintance
•Timber Framing
•Master Builders of the Middle Ages
•Architecture: architects need to know that the definition of architecture is “…the art and science of building.” Building.
•Dwell magazine: occasional comments on this paragon of soulless living
•Rad Rigs: More tiny homes on wheels
I’m really excited to be shifting to this mode. I have something like 70,000 photos, both film and digital, to draw from.
Today’s New York Times has a terrific science section, including a stunning photo of the moon by the Lunar Orbiter V, and an article about a combo robot/man diving suit that will be used to explore a Roman ship believed to have sunk in the 1st century BC, and which carried “…the Antikythera Mechanism, a mechanical device for predicting celestial movement.”
Serena was just superb on Saturday. Power and grace. Beautiful.
Surfing Without Catching Waves Went out on my 10′ Haut Surftek board the other day, too many surfers for me, just got a couple of krappy rides in the foam. Then a few days later could not get out through 6′ surf with my surf mat BUT as I get older I settle for just being in the ocean AND I’m gonna get waves — going to Kauai in November with surf mat and fins.
Over & Out I’m leaving tomorrow for Pittsburgh, then to Seven Springs, PA to do a presentation Friday, Sept 12 at the Mother Earth News Fair. Anyone know if Pittsburgh is worth exploring?
Photo: grapes at Louie’s
