I’m printing contact sheets (ooops — thumbnails) of recent photos and running across some interesting things like this, from my trip to British Columbia last month.
The book on Godfrey’s art is just about out. www.godfreysart.com
When I was at the Mother Earth News Faire in Pennsylvania a few months ago, I bought a handmade knife from a mountain man — a guy who dressed in buckskins and made a variety of hunting, trapping, and outdoor tools. The blade was carbon steel, which I prefer over stainless steel. It’s softer and easier to sharpen, even if you have to care for it so that it doesn’t rust.
He told me that it was a Russell Green River blade, so I tracked it down, and ordered about half a dozen different shaped blades (from TrackOfTheWolf.com); they’re pretty inexpensive, $9-$10 each. I made the first one in the last few days with some manzanita wood I gathered (and dried out) a year or so ago. It’s a bit crude, but I learned a lot and am going to make handles for some paring and skinning knives.
In 1961, a surfing friend, John Stonum, was studying to be an architect at UC Berkeley, and designed this small building for me to build in Mill Valley, California. I wanted to build a sod roof (now called “living roof”), and we had journeyed up to the Heritage House on the Mendocino Coast to see their two sod-roofed cabins.
This was a post-and-beam structure, with posts 6 feet on centers, and oversized precast concrete piers for the foundation. A lumberyard in nearby Olema, California was going out of business and I bought a truckload of “merch” grade rough redwood two-by-fours for $35 a 1000. Not $350, but $35.
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From Tiny Homes: Simple Shelter
A 1920s shingled creekside cabin redesigned by architect Amy A. Alper.
“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 …
“…as a tribute to the alpine experience and the famed writer, Swiss studio Bureau A has sited their project ‘Antoine’ within the vast, mountainous expanse of the Alps. commissioned during an artist residency at the Verbier 3D Foundation, the architecture-cum-sculpture is inhabitable and structurally functional, comprising an indoor cabin with a fireplace, bed, table, stool and window. literally hanging on the rock-fall field, the small wooden dwelling hides its internal features within a projected concrete rock, deriving its shape from natural elements in its surrounding environment…”
Article at www.designboom.com/…
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Although we featured this shed earlier this year, here is an article with more information and better pics.
Carpenter, painter, musician and sculptor Joel Bird started working on his garden shed four years ago. “It was like an experiment, really,” Bird says. He’d finished renovating the house he’d bought in Tottenham, north London, and he wanted to create a serene and functional workspace in which he could produce music and paint. In addition to a workspace, he also wanted a garden, so he designed his shed with a garden on the roof. Over the past four years, the roof garden has become more and more elaborate, with a raised bed for vegetables, solar panels and an efficient drainage system. Read More …
Hi Lloyd and Co.:
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.
Greenhouse room built out of old auto windshields siliconed together. Stained glass is siliconed onto inside of glass.
A new documentary film has just been completed about the late artist and builder Mike Kahn, Lloyd’s cousin. Here’s a trailer:
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.
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I did a tour for Tiny Homes on the Move a few months ago in British Columbia. On my way into Victoria, I noticed a little complex of buildings constructed out of used materials. I stopped in and met the owners. Everything was perfect. A tiny village in a kind of industrial area, built out of scrap, clothing manufactured in Canada (I bought 3 beautiful wool T-shirts), surfboards, an outdoor stage. I asked Paul and Nick to send us a writeup of what they are doing:
What started as a trip to the beach has grown from infatuation into obsession. Created in 2013, ANIÁN represents travel, adventure and nomadic culture. ANIÁN products showcase the beauty within simplicity and the importance of quality. ANIÁN clothing is made in Canada to ensure a quality product and fair wages for those who make it.
Nick and Paul, the two owners of ANIÁN (named after a mythical channel between Asia and the Americas) have transformed a rundown lot used for storing dumpsters in Victoria, B.C., into Canada’s first 100% solar, off-the-grid store. The store is best described as a cabin in the woods in the city. It is complete with a lawn, junipers and a small outdoor stage where local artists come to play all powered by four 250-watt panels, one 80-amp charge controller and eight 210 amp-hour, 12-volt batteries. By showing people that going 100% solar in a downtown location is possible they hope to inspire others to follow their lead.
ANIÁN is comprised of an outdoor stage, showroom/retail store, an interactive work shop, and a shipping container where finished goods are stored. 95% of everything is either made or covered in reclaimed material.
Most of the materials came from an old blimp hanger in the Comox valley (central Vancouver Island) where some of the material was pieces of Douglas fir up to 40 feet long.
The interactive workshop is built entirely out of the Douglas fir. The tongue-and-groove pieces ruggedly fit together, giving it a wonderfully rustic feel. The floor of the showroom is one laminated beam cut in half and then bookmarked into four amazingly golden white 3½-inch-thick ten-foot-long boards. All of the patio and boardwalk decking is made of four-inch wide Douglas fir tongue-and-groove. Slightly thinner planking; 2½-inch tongue-and-groove was used for the stage. The shipping container is faced with cedar shakes to help it seamlessly slip into this downtown escape.
Along with showcasing ANIÁN and providing Paul and Nick a place to display their coastally nomadic clothing the location has proven to be a great as a destination for outdoor musical festivals and charity fundraisers.
Next time you find yourself in Victoria, stop by 516 Discovery Street.
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.
These are barns I photographed in the Willamette Valley in Oregon in September, 2014. The gambrel is a distinctive and common barn roof shape in this part of the world, as is the curved roof barn (See blog.shelterpub.com/?s=curved+roof posted last month.)
The word gambrel “derives from the hock (bent part) of a horse’s leg, also called a gambrel. The lower part of the roof is a steep slope, the upper part shallower. The break-in roofline allows head room in the loft space, and is useful in barns for hay storage as well as in homes for rooms above plate level.” –From Shelter II, p. 98.
There are also plans for a 24′ × 32′ gambrel-roofed barn on pages 102-103 of Shelter II.
SunRay Kelley is a master natural builder whose work has been featured in Builders of the Pacific Coast, Waterfall House
Sounds like you have another great project to keep you busy and out of trouble this rainy season. Love and Light,
Bonnie and SunRay
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.
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