I've been working with Union Studio Architects (Providence, RI, USA) on a series of affordable housing developments here on Martha's Vineyard. They are so good at making a simple, buildable box of a building look great. This lets us put the costs into high thermal integrity enclosure, very efficient systems, and onsite solar generation. No cantilevers :-)
Every time I look at a McMansion I wonder why the builders built them like that instead of, for example, Colonial boxes with insulated attic floors on frost protected slabs. Doesn't every stacked gable, dormer and bump out cut into profit margins?
If only we had designers of the calibre of Dieter Rams working on passivhauses instead of architects who feel more comfortable working with a spreadsheet than an elevation...
Embodied carbon isn't the biggest problem with Fallingwater, or most of Wright's buildings. It's that they fall apart, leak and/or need constant repair. He should have hired a competent engineer to critique his designs before and during construction. Form follows function, some people have been saying, both before and after Sullivan
Nice! I was thinking on a similar line going past one of my favourite small apartment buildings today. It was built here in the 1920's with nice brickwork, attention to detail & (you'll like this) a single central staircase. The stair layout allows for balconies (at the rear) to be set between the dining room and the central staircase. So balconies inset in the building rather than the ugly projecting scaffold like things with huge external pillars and posts so common now.
This is an excellent post, thank you Lloyd!
I've been working with Union Studio Architects (Providence, RI, USA) on a series of affordable housing developments here on Martha's Vineyard. They are so good at making a simple, buildable box of a building look great. This lets us put the costs into high thermal integrity enclosure, very efficient systems, and onsite solar generation. No cantilevers :-)
Every time I look at a McMansion I wonder why the builders built them like that instead of, for example, Colonial boxes with insulated attic floors on frost protected slabs. Doesn't every stacked gable, dormer and bump out cut into profit margins?
If only we had designers of the calibre of Dieter Rams working on passivhauses instead of architects who feel more comfortable working with a spreadsheet than an elevation...
Embodied carbon isn't the biggest problem with Fallingwater, or most of Wright's buildings. It's that they fall apart, leak and/or need constant repair. He should have hired a competent engineer to critique his designs before and during construction. Form follows function, some people have been saying, both before and after Sullivan
Nice! I was thinking on a similar line going past one of my favourite small apartment buildings today. It was built here in the 1920's with nice brickwork, attention to detail & (you'll like this) a single central staircase. The stair layout allows for balconies (at the rear) to be set between the dining room and the central staircase. So balconies inset in the building rather than the ugly projecting scaffold like things with huge external pillars and posts so common now.