Random Urban Planning Quote...

"One of the transcultural constants of town-making in history is the idea that a quarter mile is the maximum distance that the average person will walk to get somewhere on a routine basis.  Beyond a quarter mile, some people will either seek transport or not bother going.  This theory is born out in many different cultures around the world and is clearly due to the universality of the human scale.  The quarter-mile standard therefore seems to present an optimum arrangement.  It permits people to go about routine business without a car.  Chores that require many separate, tedious car trips in sprawl can be accomplished in a single outing on foot.  (In a culture of walkable neighborhoods, shop owners adapt by offering home delivery of bulky merchandise.)  Walking allows a person to visit many different types of shops--thereby promoting small scale, locally-owned businesses, which, in turn, promote manifold civic benefits from the support of local institutions to the physical caretaking of the street.  Walking down the street permits casual socializing.  Pedestrians make streets safer by their mere presence in numbers.  Finally, walking down the street is spiritually elevating.  When neighborhoods are used by pedestrians, a much finer scale of detailing inevitably occurs.  Building facades become more richly ornamented and interesting.  Little gardens and windowboxes appear.  Shop windows create a continuity of visual spectacle, as do outdoor cafes, both for walkers and the sitters.  There is much to engage the eye and the heart.  In such a setting, we feel more completely human.  This is not trivial."

Aunt Jeanne's House, aka Heaven

We found the cow whilst antique shopping. Let's just say antique shopping was not my favorite activity when I was a child and stuffed in the back seat of the 1988 Volvo wagon with my big sister in the middle of summer days. Yet, as a grown up? Extremely relaxing and fun. I got many things during this same trip.

Dee Oh En Ee

Final Presentation Board

It's done! My thesis project of my twelfth and final semester in college. I called it the Leaf Shadow House due to the conceptual experience of the space. When you look up at a bunch of trees, perhaps in the forest, or walking through campus, what do you see? Layers of light. Layers of green. Shadows. The canopy effect of the trees is one that always soothes me and is quite frankly, one of my favorite little things in life. If it's a nice sunny day, I guarantee I'll be happy to see the bright green and yellow of the trees.

I used this as inspiration to create a house which could live among the trees and use their leaves as sustainable features.  In the warmer months, the leaves shade the house, and the lack of leaves in the colder months allows for more sunlight to get into the space.

My personal favorite time of daylight is sunset. Truth be told, any sort of light between the hours of 11-4 for me are entirely too bright and hurt my delicate scandinavian eyes (yeah, I went there). I'm one of those people that can be brought to tears (not really) by a good sunset--the colors, the clouds, the atmosphere. For this reason, I made the west side of the house almost entirely glass facade. While dinner is on the table, the sun is setting and you get to view every part of it. It's the little things, folks.

A small part of me also did this as a thesis because of my small obsession with English country cottages that are entirely abundant in greenery. My parents watch a lot of British crime dramas...

The pattern on the glass facades? Abstracted leaf patterns to contrast the real-life leaves right next to them.  The combination of both of their shadows creates awesome moving art on the blank walls throughout the day, with the sun as the artist.

That just got deep.

In a nutshell, I love this project. I'm glad it was my last here at design school, and I hope it will also help me get a job... *fingers crossed*

C2C Final Renderings

DINING

2ND FLOOR LOOKING TO COURTYARD

LIVING

MASTER BED

Floor plans to come soon! Wrapping this project up and then... Say it with me. The Sixth Year GRADUATION! :)

C2C Base Renderings

C2C Furnishings

Starting to think about furnishings for the C2C house. Some thoughts:

Dining: Louis Ghost Chairs. Contemporary Turned Leg Table. Light fixtures which cast interesting shadows.

Living: Simple modern furniture. Coffee/side tables with intriguing shadows. Simple pendant light.

Pause: Let's Go Back to the Start.

Making progress on the Cradle to Cradle house.  When I get to this stage, usually I start to freak out a little bit and lose track of my normal design process.  Where am I going with this? What was my original intention?  Why am I making this way more complicated than they need to be?  Exactly.

Here's a few notable images from my original "inspiration & concept" folder made the first day we got this project, approximately a month ago.

Open, industrial, and yet still connected with nature.

Shadows were an original conceptual idea.  I'm still working with how they play off each other and create graphics on walls.

Same idea here: the shadows of the structure can, depending on the time of day, create patterns and graphics throughout the space.

Nice cubby type sitting area, perfect for my courtyard.

Indoor green wall, illuminated with skylights. Umm, hellooo?

Just... Beautiful. I think this is in Japan...

Was going to work with this pattern and make screens out of it, allowing the light and shadows to play off each other to create the graphics on the interior.

This is just a summation of all the materials I want to use, basically.

So what have we learned from revisiting these images?  I want trees.  I want shadows.  I want shadow and light interactions.  I want the outdoors to not feel almost like the indoors.  And I especially want/wish we had a street tree tunnel of white trees like Japan.

All-in-all, it's coming together.  More updates in a few days, when I can manage to get some interior views together.  Sneak preview:

(end terrible, straight SketchUp style view)

Project due in: 5 weeks.