Carpentry (165)

Warrick Mitchell lives deep in one of the world’s most remote locations: Fiordland, New Zealand. His home in the country’s oldest national park is nestled in a vast wildness accessible only by boat or airplane, a four day’s walk from the nearest road. Life in isolation can be hard, but surrounded by breathtaking, pristine natural beauty, plentiful wildlife and a small but tight-knit community that is always willing to lend a hand, Mitchell would have it no other way.

• www.greatbigstory.com/…

Photo by Lloyd Kahn

Bill’s piece of land is at the end of a two-mile dirt road. His 1900 sq. ft. house has a pentagonal floor plan with an 800-year-old salvaged old-growth redwood log as the center post. There are 21 Douglas fir rafters that Bill peeled and then sanded with an auto-body grinder. There are structural posts under eleven of the rafters. In between the posts are 2″×6″ studs with traditional plaster walls.

• Featured in our book, Builders of the Pacific Coast

Denman Island, BC, Canada Photo by Lloyd Kahn

• Featured in our book, Builders of the Pacific Coast

Surfer’s shack north of Tofino, Vancouver Island, BC. Built by Bruno Atkey. Photo by Lloyd Kahn

• Featured in our book, Builders of the Pacific Coast

On a trip to Nevada, Utah, and Arizona in 1989

This political nightmare we’ve been going through for some months now may have led me to choosing the subject for my next book.

I’ve been trying to figure out what to do after Small Homes:

• 50 Years of Natural Building
• A book on my trips
• A book on barns

Some kind of context for the 10,000+ photos I’ve taken over the years.

The idea about a book on the U.S.A. popped into my head a few days ago. This would be my version of America. It would start with me riding the rails and hitchhiking from San Francisco to New York in 1965, along with a copy of Ouspensky’s In Search of the Miraculous — seeking enlightenment, if you will, trying to figure out what to do with the rest of my life — as the cultural revolution of the ’60s–’70s unfolded. (Upon return a month later, I quit my job as an insurance broker and went to work as a builder.)

I would show the America that I love, the people in every state who were kind and friendly and helpful, Pop’s Diner in Page, Arizona; pressmen at Courier Printing in Kendallville, Indiana; squirrel hunters in Tennessee; the waitress in an Oklahoma diner serving me coconut cream pie with coffee at 2:30 AM; farmers, surfers, skateboarders, lawyers, and bankers (yes — there are some good ones); book lovers, musicians, builders; makers…

This just may be the next book: the glass-half-full take on America.

Our names are Karl and Monika, and we live on the south shore of Nova Scotia, Canada.

We pretty much have all your publications. Here is our tiny house which we built mostly out of recycled materials.
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Eco-resort on Hainan Island, China Design/photo by David Greenberg

• From our book, Home Work: Handbuilt Shelter