Table of Contents August 2008

from the editor

• what's bred in the zone

  Despite public perception, most experienced architects I've talked with don't prefer the proverbial “blank slate” commission.

   

home front

• 

  perspective: a matter of fact

  Jeffrey L. Day, AIA, NCARB, has never been one for conventional practice models.

   
• 

  lean feat

  The goal of Rice Design Alliance and AIA Houston's 99K House Competition seems self-evident.

   
• 

  revitalizing design

  Can you make affordable housing sustainable? Juliet O. Whelan, AIA, of Philadelphia-based Jibe Design and her collaborator, Naquib Hossain, a Temple University design instructor, believe so.

   
• 

  extreme solutions

  It may not have the name recognition of Moscow or St. Petersburg, but Cherepovets is an equally vital cog in northwest Russia's industrial machine.

   

green piece

• 

  street smart

  Sophisticated landscaping techniques will also turn the streets into stormwater-management tools.

   

k+b studio

bath

• 

  a bath undivided

  The open floor plans so commonly seen in homes' public living spaces in recent years are finding their way into private areas as well.

   

kitchen

• 

  now you see it

  Mark Peters, AIA, engaged in some imaginative planning for this do-it-all kitchen in a slender single-family house of his design in urban Chicago.

   

profiles

• 

  thinking & making

  It's not easy for an outsider to catch the folks at el dorado in an entirely serious moment. The Kansas City, Mo., firm's five partners recently used the 1980s hair band Def Leppard as a reference point in an architectural lecture. The group's offbeat, deadpan sense of humor harmonizes with their...

   

projects

• encore, encore: pool cues

  Silvio Gueilburt specializes in hospital design in Argentina, but when he was given the opportunity to transform a defunct factory into a home for a professional couple, the commission was too good to pass up.

   
• 

  shell game

  The transformation of this 1905 New Haven, Conn., fire station into a live, work, and play space was all about shells.

   
• 

  super save

  Three neglected buildings are rediscovered, repaired, and reused as residential.

   

architects' choice

• 

  waste watchers

  Levitt Goodman Architects: Baleboard plastic lumber is manufactured from 100 percent recycled industrial waste, making it less vulnerable to the elements than real wood.

   
• 

  tube tops

  Levitt Goodman Architects: The Castor Recycled Tube Light has a tongue-in-cheek design but is all business.

   
• 

  down light

  Levitt Goodman Architects: Solatube's skylights capture daylight and disperse it into a home.

   

doctor spec

• 

  something old, something new

  Architect Griz Dwight, AIA, was doing an adaptive reuse project in the Washington, D.C., area when he came upon a brick wall that had been covered over with a thick layer of plaster.

   

products

new material

• 

  essential minerals

  The company handcrafts the flat and satin interior paints from environmentally safe binders and the same mineral pigments used by Corbu.

   
• 

  easy fit

  JACLO's Renovator is a simple, yet ingenious and cost-effective system for retrofitting an old shower.

   
• 

  line item

  Among Ludwig Wittgenstein's handiwork was this 5.46-inch-long handle, recreated by TECNOLINE and distributed by Los Angeles-based Masters of Modernism.

   
• 

  light cargo

  New York City-based Urban Archaeology reproduced the Cargo pendant from an original found on a 1910 fishing boat.

   
• 

  how the west was won

  JELD-WEN has reclaimed many of these throwaway trees to manufacture interior and exterior doors as part of its IWP Custom Wood Estate Collection.

   
• 

  aqua therapy

  Oceania's Classique collection offers advanced hydromassage and chromatherapy in a retro package.

   
• 

  old friends

  Sometimes old is better than new, as ably demonstrated by these salvaged redwood beams from TerraMai.

   

workspace

• 

  designbuild collaborative

  When three architectural firms needed new offices for their respective practices, they joined forces to find an old building in an urban setting.

   

Other Articles

• 

  drawing the line

  Part of the mystique of architects has traditionally come from their hand sketches, those fluid doodles that brilliantly capture the evolution of ideas.