Paring back to the essential
The architect John Pawson’s latest book is a wonderful discovery and an inspiration. Pawson is a master practitioner of identifying the essential, setting everything else aside and making the essential beautiful. Pawson elevates the everyday to something simple and rich with meaning. Mies van der Rohe pioneered this approach and called it beinahe nichts.
Cooking and and spending time with family are super important to us and its expression in our home is a priority.
What’s essential in your life?
Is there something–an activity or a pursuit–that you want to make a priority in your space?
How do you want to live?
John Pawson’s book Home Farm Cooking
#johnpawson #focus #kitchen #family #phaidon #lincolnparkchicago #winnetka #westtown #hydeparkchicago
The architect John Pawson’s latest book is a wonderful discovery and an inspiration. Pawson is a master practitioner of identifying the essential, setting everything else aside and making the essential beautiful. Pawson elevates the everyday to something simple and rich with meaning. Mies van der Rohe pioneered this approach and called it beinahe nichts.
Cooking and and spending time with family are super important to us and its expression in our home is a priority.
What’s essential in your life?
Is there something–an activity or a pursuit–that you want to make a priority in your space?
How do you want to live?
John Pawson’s book Home Farm Cooking
#johnpawson #focus #kitchen #family #phaidon #lincolnparkchicago #winnetka #westtown #hydeparkchicago
Feedback
I recently redesigned and supervised the construction of the parkway of the Mies van der Rohe high-rise building I call home. I did $20,000 worth of free work from getting the Dept of Forestry to sign off–our very nice, young, green and inexperienced landscape architects said it could not be done–to making sure the drawings were followed and no one got electrocuted. (Story for another time.) Another condo owner approached me, pointed at the new 20 inch tall, black powder coated, one by one inch, stainless steel bar stock fence and five foot wide flame-finish, absolute granite walkways and asked,
"Did you do this?"
"Why, yes." I replied.
"You think this is Mies?" He asked. His eyes grew wide and he turned red. He began to stutter–I never heard him stutter before.
"This, this, this, this...."
"This is IKEA."
I began to laugh inside. My first thought was to ask him what his unit looked like and inquire if there was there any contraband IKEA furniture in it. I designed my unit and everyone I share it with enjoys how I made a small space feel much larger, function better and fit like a glove.
"Ok"
I responded and I walked away so I could laugh out loud.
We all have emotional connections to places and spaces and I respect them but sometimes it can get a little over the top. I listen, consider it and I may not agree with but I take it all with stride. And sometimes it strikes me in the funny bone.
#lincolnparkchicago #mies #ikea
I recently redesigned and supervised the construction of the parkway of the Mies van der Rohe high-rise building I call home. I did $20,000 worth of free work from getting the Dept of Forestry to sign off–our very nice, young, green and inexperienced landscape architects said it could not be done–to making sure the drawings were followed and no one got electrocuted. (Story for another time.) Another condo owner approached me, pointed at the new 20 inch tall, black powder coated, one by one inch, stainless steel bar stock fence and five foot wide flame-finish, absolute granite walkways and asked,
"Did you do this?"
"Why, yes." I replied.
"You think this is Mies?" He asked. His eyes grew wide and he turned red. He began to stutter–I never heard him stutter before.
"This, this, this, this...."
"This is IKEA."
I began to laugh inside. My first thought was to ask him what his unit looked like and inquire if there was there any contraband IKEA furniture in it. I designed my unit and everyone I share it with enjoys how I made a small space feel much larger, function better and fit like a glove.
"Ok"
I responded and I walked away so I could laugh out loud.
We all have emotional connections to places and spaces and I respect them but sometimes it can get a little over the top. I listen, consider it and I may not agree with but I take it all with stride. And sometimes it strikes me in the funny bone.
#lincolnparkchicago #mies #ikea
Art, Architecture and the Human Figure
The English caricature artist Jonathan Cusick draws with a wit and superb technical ability that make his work fun, beautiful and contagious with delight.
Here Cusick draws the architect Ludwig Mies van der Rohe appearing like a genie from his Barcelona Chair.
Mies believed that furniture should fit the body and it was a discipline with its own set of rules and was distinct from architecture. By comparison, FL Wright believed that Furniture and Architecture were the same discipline. For instance, Wright’s dining room table and the chairs with their vertical slats were not so much a place to comfortably eat but the chair backs were a vertical screen that created a volume over the flat horizontal plane that is the table top. Being seated in FL Wright chair in a FL Wright dining room is being committed to the architecture in a not very comfortable way. The chairs do not fit the body like Mies’s Brno chairs do. Something to think about.
Jonathan Cusick’s website
#jonathancusick #caricature #barcelonachair #madelonvreisendorp #moma #peterpalumbo #dirklohan #miesvanderrohe #lincolnparkchicago #winnetka #westtown #hydeparkchicago #farnsworthhouse
The English caricature artist Jonathan Cusick draws with a wit and superb technical ability that make his work fun, beautiful and contagious with delight.
Here Cusick draws the architect Ludwig Mies van der Rohe appearing like a genie from his Barcelona Chair.
Mies believed that furniture should fit the body and it was a discipline with its own set of rules and was distinct from architecture. By comparison, FL Wright believed that Furniture and Architecture were the same discipline. For instance, Wright’s dining room table and the chairs with their vertical slats were not so much a place to comfortably eat but the chair backs were a vertical screen that created a volume over the flat horizontal plane that is the table top. Being seated in FL Wright chair in a FL Wright dining room is being committed to the architecture in a not very comfortable way. The chairs do not fit the body like Mies’s Brno chairs do. Something to think about.
Jonathan Cusick’s website
#jonathancusick #caricature #barcelonachair #madelonvreisendorp #moma #peterpalumbo #dirklohan #miesvanderrohe #lincolnparkchicago #winnetka #westtown #hydeparkchicago #farnsworthhouse
Wood structural systems that behave like steel
When we think of innovative structural systems, we think of Mies's iconic 50 x 50 house which was supposed to be built in Winnetka but we are unsure exactly where. The 50 x 50 house was built in steel but what if it could be completed in wood? (Periana Architecture in LA is actually building Mies's 50 x 50 house which is pretty cool.) Wood embodies carbon rather than creating it as in the case of making steel. Here's an idea in wood where laminated eight 2x4 beams are laminated together and then arrayed in alternating rows 5 feet apart and then stacked a 3/4" threaded rod at each intersection bolts the assembly together. 60 foot clear spans are possible. Check out the model and a completed interior. #architecture #mies #Chicagoarchitecture #chicagoarchitecturecenter #cac #miesvanderrohe #winnetka
How do you want to live?
When we think of innovative structural systems, we think of Mies's iconic 50 x 50 house which was supposed to be built in Winnetka but we are unsure exactly where. The 50 x 50 house was built in steel but what if it could be completed in wood? (Periana Architecture in LA is actually building Mies's 50 x 50 house which is pretty cool.) Wood embodies carbon rather than creating it as in the case of making steel. Here's an idea in wood where laminated eight 2x4 beams are laminated together and then arrayed in alternating rows 5 feet apart and then stacked a 3/4" threaded rod at each intersection bolts the assembly together. 60 foot clear spans are possible. Check out the model and a completed interior. #architecture #mies #Chicagoarchitecture #chicagoarchitecturecenter #cac #miesvanderrohe #winnetka
How do you want to live?
Chicago’s Geothermal Permit Program (in Hyde Park)
We just successfully applied for and acquired our first geothermal bore hole well pilot program permit. Let's say it was eye opening. The aftermath of the tunnel disaster where a contractor unknowingly drilled a hole into a freight tunnel flooding basements in Chicago's loop resulted in hundreds of millions of dollars in damages and the creation of the Office of the Underground (O.U.C.). The OUC is where all of the different stakeholders look at your site plan and confirm that the 75 foot deep, 4" diameter boreholes will do no harm. We worked with Paul Johnson of installgeothermal.com and are were quite pleased with his service.
We are one of the first to complete a permit with the program and are happy to help you with your sustainable design and energy needs.
If you combine geothermal with a passivehouse level of building envelope control and the proper solar orientation, your energy costs moving forward can be very minimal. We don’t recommend the passive house certification because it’s very expensive but we recommend is level of performance and using a blower door test to measure leakage and the figure out where things stand. Ask us!
#geothermal #chicagopermits #ouc #geothermalpilotpermitprogram #officeoftheunderground #sustainabledesign #heatpumps #lincolnpark #hydepark #logansquare #oldtown #goldcoast #westtown #highlandpark #olsonkundig #811 #811Chicago #oakpark #burrridge #oakbrook #hinsdale #passivehouse #passivehaus
We just successfully applied for and acquired our first geothermal bore hole well pilot program permit. Let's say it was eye opening. The aftermath of the tunnel disaster where a contractor unknowingly drilled a hole into a freight tunnel flooding basements in Chicago's loop resulted in hundreds of millions of dollars in damages and the creation of the Office of the Underground (O.U.C.). The OUC is where all of the different stakeholders look at your site plan and confirm that the 75 foot deep, 4" diameter boreholes will do no harm. We worked with Paul Johnson of installgeothermal.com and are were quite pleased with his service.
We are one of the first to complete a permit with the program and are happy to help you with your sustainable design and energy needs.
If you combine geothermal with a passivehouse level of building envelope control and the proper solar orientation, your energy costs moving forward can be very minimal. We don’t recommend the passive house certification because it’s very expensive but we recommend is level of performance and using a blower door test to measure leakage and the figure out where things stand. Ask us!
#geothermal #chicagopermits #ouc #geothermalpilotpermitprogram #officeoftheunderground #sustainabledesign #heatpumps #lincolnpark #hydepark #logansquare #oldtown #goldcoast #westtown #highlandpark #olsonkundig #811 #811Chicago #oakpark #burrridge #oakbrook #hinsdale #passivehouse #passivehaus