The Craft Begins

When I was in India, there was this amazing temple that we had a chance to visit, but unfortunately I was not able to take pictures.  Thankfully, there are ones provided by the temple website that I can share here.  It was an amazing temple – incredible hand-carved details and a monumental scale.  We had to take off our shoes to visit, which I think only heightens the experience.  What’s amazing about it is that it was only built in the last 10 or so years, and isn’t some ancient artifact.  The level of craftsmanship is simply astounding; you really start to think that no one in the world values craftsman anymore, until you see this.

The above picture is a detail of the ceiling – not only do the layers go up in ascending order, but they’re all carved from just one piece of marble.  Can you imagine the patience and precision it would take in order to create something like this not just once, but many times over?  There are a dozen ceilings like this, all with their own unique design.

What’s amazing is that all of this lies in the heart of busy, congested, polluted Delhi.  The grounds alone are a fantastic respite from the hustle and bustle, and would be impressive anywhere, let alone in the middle of a chaotic cosmopolitan city.

In Cripple Creek, Colorado (a town more known for casinos and motorcycle touring) there is a fabulous old schoolhouse-turned-hotel called Carr Manor.  I was fortunate enough to stop in for a visit a year or so ago and was charmed by the entire schoolhouse itself, as well as the rooms, which are all individually appointed and share such features as original blackboards.  One of the rooms even has a built-in hot tub/bar!

If you ever happen to find yourself in Cripple Creek, I think this would be a fantastic place to stay, and if not that, at least a great place to stop in for a visit.

A reader a while back pointed out this Japanese architecture firm to me – I fell in love immediately.

Such playful use of vibrant color – though my personal style tends more towards the subdued I really am drawn to color like this.

It might be a little minimalistic for my tastes, but you gotta admire the consistency and creativity of this London loft.

via Apartment Therapy.

I enjoy visiting the National Parks for their natural beauty most of all, but I also really enjoy the type of architecture that is present there, from guard stations to amazing hotels.  After talking to a Park Service employee, I discovered that the architectural type is generally referred to as “parkitecture”.

I love the rustic elegance of these old-fashioned structures.  It really takes you back in time to a simpler era when the National Parks were first becoming very popular.  I also like that the overwhelming goal of these buildings was to blend into both the natural beauty and the cultural history of their surrounds.  I’ve always thought that really good architecture should just look as it was organically raised from the environment surrounding it, and these park buildings are really successful in that.

It’s almost as if some previous civilization had created these buildings and we’ve only happened upon them centuries later, they fit in so well.

There’s a great website detailing more of these structures and a little more history about the architects themselves that can be found here.

first image is by Carol M. Highsmith, all others are from the National Park Service.

How would you like to live in a super ultra modern trailer that was shaped like an egg?

It’s bigger than it looks at first glance but the idea of sleeping in the wall like a Japanese hotel or small train car makes me a little claustrophobic.  Although I could see it being an awesome hideaway for kids.

found here.

I LOVE this house.  Love the furniture, love the bookcases, love the walls, love everything about it.  Especially that bathroom.  It’s like a spa.  I’ve been dedicated to the idea of trying to find  midcentury house plans and re-configuring them with modern materials, and I’ve always imagined it would look like the house above.  Now, getting them to actually look like that is another thing entirely.

via Curbly.

Not quite a houseboat, but not quite a house – wouldn’t it be nice to live in the middle of a lake?  It’s like your own private island!

via Please Sir.

I keep driving past this gorgeous 60′s modern home in Savannah and I really want to knock on the door to ask to see the inside, and maybe to see if they have an extra set of blueprints lying around.  It’s a little bit dated but I think that a design like that updated in modern materials would be a knockout.  I found a great resource yesterday to fulfill my need for mid-century floorplan porn.

There are more than a few houses that I would live in, no questions asked.  I’m trying to see if the actual blueprints are still available for places like this – I’m sure that they can be found somewhere.  In the meantime, check out more floor plans here.

These really interesting examples of Russian wooden architecture have been preserved due to the fact that they are out in the middle of nowhere.  A Print a Day pointed them out, for which I am forever grateful, because these buildings are seriously cool.

I love how ornate they are, and how there’s just enough color left that you can really visualize how colorful they must have been once upon a time.  I just can’t believe this is real – it looks like a make-believe house.  If you’d like to see more pictures, click here.

How cool are these pictures of abandoned insane asylums by Christopher Payne?  I’ve always had a soft spot for broken down industrial areas (there are a lot of them out west, especially old mines and such) but we sure don’t have many abandoned insane asylums, at least that I know of.  The subject matter is interesting and the photography is brilliant.  See the whole slideshow here.

As if I needed another reason to want to buy a house.

Not only are green roofs environmentally sound, they look really cool as well.  I like the juxtaposition between the extreme modernism of a lot of contemporary architecture and the earthy, wayward nature of the plants.

all above images from Treehugger.

They aren’t too common at the moment, but I believe that they’re going to become more and more popular when people realize how beneficial they are.  And how gorgeous.  My favorite picture above is the city building being taken over by green.

Bonus – backyard livestock have a place to hang out.  Check out the goats on the roof!  And why limit the green to roofs?  Why not walls as well?

1, 2 and 4.  from Greenopia. 3 from here. 5, 6 and 7 can be found here.

I stumbled across pictures of this commune and they really caught my eye. Geodesic domes are interesting (somewhat) but a pretty typical sight in the hippie-prone west – however, I’ve never seen them so colorful and out of what looks like stained glass.

It would be an interesting way to live.   Everyone brushes off all of the communes in the 70′s as they didn’t survive very well, but I’ve noticed that a lot of the lifestyle choices they were trying to make have come back in vogue.  Living simply and sustainably, growing your own food, using solar power, etc. are all enjoying a comeback, albeit in a more mainstream way.  Somehow, I don’t know if these multicolor domes will ever catch on again.

Frank Gehry has always been one of my favorite architects.  I remember watching a documentary about the man and his career, and in one scene, he takes a piece of paper, crumples it up, cuts a piece off of it, and sticks it on a model building.  This is how the man does architecture.

It may seem unconventional, but clearly it’s an approach that’s worked for him.  If you’ve never seen it, I highly recommend the documentary.  Not only is it interesting to see the way that he approaches his craft, it’s also delightfully narrated by the late Sydney Pollack.

I’ve been fortunate enough to be able to see a few of his buildings in person, and they’re even more impressive that way.  One day I hope to be able to see all of them, but I fear that might be a life long pursuit.  They have such exuberance and are so different than any other architecture out there.  It’s always amazing from an engineering perspective what can be achieved outside the bounds of the four walls.

Gehry also dabbles in other design.  His cardboard chairs were universally well received and display much of his characteristic swirliness while still maintaining the integrity of the chair.  And in an interesting twist, his line for Tiffany came out a few years ago and has some very charismatic pieces as well.

Have you ever seen any Gehry buildings – which ones?  And how do you feel about them?

Broken Arrow dvd

Have you all seen pictures of this building in Spain?

If you were out for a walk in the woods and happened upon this from the wrong side, you might not even notice it.  Even if you did, it would just seem like perhaps a greenhouse.  In reality, it’s a stunning piece of modern architecture.  The way that it is integrated into the landscape while still maintaining the integrity of the natural environment is inspiring.  And the juxtaposition between the ultra-modern lines and the woods that surround it is astounding.  Honestly, I like it for its sheer uniqueness, but I’m not sure how I like the project as a whole.  It is definitely interesting. I think I would definitely prefer going to work in this office than in a gray cubical nightmare.

See more pictures here

.