Lloyd Kahn’s book, Tiny Homes, featured Linda Smiley’s Laughing House, located in Oregon at the Cob Cottage Company. Linda is a director of Cob Cottage Company as well as a master cobber and therapist. She teaches Sculpting Sacred Spaces, Interior Design, and Natural Plasters and Finishes. Read More …
A 1920s shingled creekside cabin redesigned by architect Amy A. Alper.
Description
“The architect designed a new double-height living room addition to wrap the original exterior. Weathered shingles and period windows remain — when open, kitchen and living room are connected. New materials contrast with the old; reclaimed beams mediate between them, and visually echo the surrounding woods. Window walls showcase views to the swirling waters below.” Read More …
Saw your call for responses to the upcoming Small Homes book. Exciting! I think our straw bale & timber frame home fits squarely into that category. It’s actually around 440 sq. feet of interior heated space, but with the porch and balcony it’s a bit bigger.
There’s residential design, and then there’s jigsaw puzzle design. This elegant project by the San Francisco architect Christi Azevedo, who wedged a full guest house into a laundry and boiler room from 1916, falls somewhere in between the two. Read More …
Here is a collection of some of the most breathtaking bridges from around the world, all built from natural materials. Check out the rest of the images at www.boredpanda.com/old-mysterious-bridges.
Michael “Bug” Deakin grew up in British Columbia, one of 10 kids in the family. He built his first house in 1970 out of used materials and these days runs Heritage Salvage, a large yard in Petaluma, Calif., filled with hand-hewed beams, flooring, barn doors, and all kinds of salvaged building materials. I love roaming around his yard. There are treasures there, as there are in this book.
He’s an irrepressibly dynamic, cheerful, funny guy (disclaimer: I know him) and this is a scrapbook of his colorful world and history. There are stories: building homes, gardens, furniture and movie sets (including for McCabe and Mrs. Miller), planting trees, tearing down old buildings all over America, a touching (and happy) tale of first meeting his daughter when she was 40 and their immediate rapport, of hanging out with Tom Waits.
He’s a dynamo for all good things and this a charming introduction to Bug’s World.
Jonny is a 26-year-old carpenter from North Yorkshire who learned his craft at the Prince’s Foundation for Building Community (that’s Prince of Wales — traditional carpentry is just one of Charlie’s many earth-sensitive endeavors).
“…The building craft apprenticeship allows students who have a genuine interest in traditional building, sustainability and design to learn from master craftspeople around the UK.
Jonny now specializes in the design and build of traditional timber frames, structural timber work and bespoke furniture.”
Jonny wrote us today:
Hi Lloyd,
I have finally got a website together which shows the larger structures I have built over the last few years. It’s www.jonny-briggs.com
Thanks,
Jonny
I tell ya, the 20-year-olds these days are really something! A whole new octave.
This building is sitting on a vacant lot in Gualala, Calif. I believe it’s some kind of historic building in the town. Nice proportions. Photo taken last week.
I recently got home from a two-week trip to Peru with my wife Chelsea. We flew into Lima and hung there for a day. From there we flew to Cusco for two days then took a train to Aguas Calientes where we stayed for three nights and visited Machu Picchu. We then went back to Cusco for a night and then onto Iquitos which sits directly on the Amazon, Iquitos is the largest city in the world not reachable by a car. Everything must come in by boat or plane, we stayed at an eco lodge for three nights. One of the best parts of the trip was seeing all of the different building techniques which are employed from the Andes to the Amazon. Hope you enjoy.
For as long as I can remember, people have been building little surfer shacks on the coast. This one has been up for a few years and remodeled, every time I go by there someone has added something new. A whale washed up about a year ago and some of its bones have found its way into the architecture of the shack. Read More …
In 1973 we published Shelter, which turned out to be station central for people interested in creating their own homes. Now, in the 21st century, we continue this dialog here online on shelter, carpentry, homesteading, gardening, and the home arts with this blog. We hope you will join us and contribute.
