past languages

...

click here for larger images...

before hitting on the current unmilled wood building methodology which defines the structure of the new wood shop happening at the land (thesis), alternative languages were explored... here are (3), three week projects from years past ('07 - '08)...

the hensel park project was an evolved version of portable rain water harvesting cylinder with an umbrella like catchment area I'd been thinking of before spending some time in the desert in Arizona... I took a fair bit of inspiration from da vinci's sketches on kinetic structure as well... and I'd be lying if i didn't mention having seen this project a short time before (several years ago) produced by a student in London... obviously the concepts around celebrated rainwater harvesting events have a number of exciting possible manifestations... mine being an evolution of relic, industrial era infrastructure among a post industrial collapse society in rural texas - cotton, buffalo sinues, and Juniperous virginiana utilized along side local sculptural forms as both ceremonial centers and resource machines...

architecture as a catalyst for neo indigenous culture in the lake bryan project, as a lesson in utilizing local materials... juniper and wood fired clay in this case:

and another project with white pine:

solar powered merry Christmas!

...

Merry Christmas!

rather than the conventional felled evergreen wound with colored incandescent bulbs as a visual celebration of Christmas, I've chosen a ( rather humble ) sun weathered juniper stump and an led rope light powered by solar rays. I'll call this gesture a symbolic act of hope in times of sparsity.

( slightly less exposure )

... it's a humble show, but a hopeful one... not as much gusto as neighboring light shows perhaps, but as beautiful? I'll also say that the subtle scene is better in person... and also symbolic of my particular enjoyment in the season, and the successful installation of a new sine wave inverter, which means clean energy for the studio and all its appliances!

it's been cold... but beautiful .

here is some quick info on the making of a mini off grid system. should you ever decide that you too must move ahead with a progressive off-grid life on a low budget, consider life on a land yacht. I've noticed that yachting appliances are profoundly effecient, ( feel free to write me if you're interested in the techincal information ). at the moment, I have a 140 watt panel charging an 85 ah deep cycle 12v lead acid battery. the solar panel has an amperage rating which needs to match the rating of a charge controller for your system ( or the combined solar panel amperage should you have more than one ). the charge controller bleeds off excess battery charge and makes sure that the current from the solar panel flows one direction ( to the battery ). the battery is then connected to a pure sine wave inverter ( DC to AC ) with a fuse on the positive cable and presto... you have a mini off grid system. usually, small grounding lugs on the inverter and the panel can be wired so that your system ( if large enough ) can avoid certain unpleasant phenomena related to the buildup of static electricity. all of these steps are pretty easy to DIY if you can get an electrician to draw you up a quick diagram and coach you through the basics.

life in ds ii ( land yachting ) is a bit like life on a yacht in that, I'm hovering over a sea ( albeit prairie grass and not water ). the view is great, no rent or bills, and the space could be described as "cozy." I have a small fridge with a fast freeze setting that will take the contents to negative 8 F in 30 mins. The laptop computer, printer, and all the lighting I need as well as a small fan to assist cross ventilation can be operated from this simple system. I only have to keep an eye on the power draw of the individual appliances and make sure not to do an intense architectural rendering on the computer while doing a fast freeze on the fridge with all the lights on, the printer printing, and speakers blaring etc. In this event, I would probably be out 18 dollars ( cost of the fuse on the positive cable to the inverter ). I don't think this will happan, and so far I have to say - I love this situation.

Belated Merry Christmas to all! And thanks for checking in on year one of at the land!

lattices part 1

...

door lattices: they're adjustable so that I can have the cross ventilation and the view when I want it... or a lockable space. here they are, not to be confused with the rain screens featured in these images as something not so far from what I hope to build in coming days. special thanks here goes out to Xander for help with construction and detailing... and of course, again, Laura for that curtain idea. on another note: thermal comfort in the place is decent right now... we're dropping down into the 20's at night, and I can work at my drafting table with ease... the space is comfortable. I sleep under about 3 blankets comfortably... though I do notice that by about 4 am (6 hrs after tending the stove last), stove heat has about died out and the air temp inside has dropped a bit. large oak and mesquite logs are a must for the stove... fortunately I have plenty. juniper helps make for a fast start.

jargon:

as I blathered this to Xander who recited to Nichole... we may as well include here that: 'the dimensionality and frequency of the lattice members speak respectively to ( 'are conversant with' is better... he's right Nichole ) material presence and visual rhythms found throughout the composition.' that is to say, ripped 2x's on 14 inch spacing match an existing dimension of lumber in the roof (visual from outside) and the rhythm of the aluminum siding, the strongest lateral element on that level of the building. seemingly trivial i know, but significant in that it's a dimension which I would happily call inconvenient for intruders, but convenient financially and visually ( view allowed ) for this portion of the building... as a matter of practicality, the rain screens will be applied at a density twice that of the aluminum paneling ( 7" o.c. ) the point of all this? architecture like all things having to do with spatial arrangement, is susceptible to clutter, especially on small intense projects. for this reason, I'm calling it quits for the moment on adding new dimensional/ material elements to the show.

ripping lumber by... hand?

...

strange as I know this sounds, there is something profoundly

satisfying about dusting off the handsaw and slugging through.

you remember that it's wood that you're working with and that

means something... the word "wood". it's a similar sensation

to the one achieved through reminding yourself that the brown

food you occasionally eat is called "meat" (and it was part of

an animal) by going out in into the backyard over thanksgiving

and observing a family member skin a deer he shot over the

holiday for some very nice venison. ( I always have this feeling

when I'm cleaning the fish from the last excursion into the rapids

with the fly rod... should I have been fortunate enough to have

hooked a nice trout, which I'm not sure wasn't generally cleverer

than I and for which I almost certainly exhausted my calculating

capacity for crafting the strike needed... paid the price of cold

legs, cold fingers, banged up shin etc... me absorbing the

cost of my quarry in other words ). but I keep going back for

more because it's real and I like it.

not only does working with hand tools provide fresh appreciation

for the qualities of a material... a poetic sense of it's essence,

but something about this opens your mind back up to delight in

that with which we interact that has not been machined to

within tolerances undetectable to any of our senses. there is

often nothing there for us to touch or alter even if it needs

improvement. it has been defined... the machined object, is

born in an optimal state, never to improve with the curing of

time... it's all downhill from there. for the machined, age is a

negative. not so for the handmade. i think we like hand made

objects more, mostly for reasons which are unquantifiable though.

that's a dissertation I won't set out to defend at this time, but for a

parting shot, i suspect that hand made objects will outlast the

machined both in the real world and in our imaginations... for that

reason.

btw, architects are the ones who stop by the side of the road to

pick up discarded building materials... ( it's that sad ). I used this

"weathered" (not rotten) ripped 2 x which I had salvaged from the

road... and from which I plucked nails (probably saved someone

a new pair of tires) to complete the galvalume roof on the east side

of the studio ii structure. I figured that the intended juniper lattice

would take ages to complete with all other projects on the agenda.

as what may only be an interim solution but part of me thinks is

there to stay, here it is:

night light

...

each night, solar powered led's cast shade of a prairie sumac (non poisonous) on a translucent wall of my humble home... here she is as a night light.

fall harvest

...

Progress at the ranch: A local rancher has kindly granted me access to his juniper population, under the condition that once in the juniper thickets, I wield my chainsaw with reckless abandon. The problem with juniper is: it drinks vast amounts of water and chokes out the really large, lovely, shade trees. The good thing about juniper is: once felled and debarked, it is one of the toughest, most decay resistant woods around. As an added bonus, the government subsidizes it's removal for the restoration of water tables and native grasslands which provide indigenous habitats (and increase it's grazing capacity).

step one, arrive on site to find that Juniper are encroaching upon the precious live, red, white oak population and the native praire grasses.

step two, find the tree for your building system

step three, cut er down and make way for the native oaks

step four, clear of extraneous limbs and leaves

step five, pile the brush to make habitats for the wildlife

step six, add to pile of building elements

step seven, strip the wood and it's ready for use... for more on that click here

A quick thought on free building materials: These are what architects dream about. Contrary to popular belief, we are the lowest paid of the professions. And so! good architecture usually happens from a love of the game (design). The words "free materials" are to the ears of an architect, the equivalent of the tinker toy box rattle in the ears children. They tend to come running from all over in order to gather round and imagine worlds free from the opression of codes, cleanliness, and all the things that make life dull. Some architects with access to free materials have been known to quit their jobs and go found civilizations of architect interns making utopias in the wilderness. For more info, click here. Oddly enough, some of these experiments have led the way in defining the architecture of the future, as freedom from constraint allows a quicker response to an increasingly quick change of surrounding conditions.

fall color

point 14

...

Before I get back to work with what you see above, I'd like to share a thought on point 14 from Bruce Mau's '98 incomplete manifesto for growth:

I like a lot of what Bruce has to say here in light of what's going on attheland. I can't say I agree with point 2: Forget about good.... because it's what we're all working for. I mean, who wants bad?

I love point 14. I hold it up as an excuse for idealistic blog entries. Why not? So here it is:

14. Don't be cool. Cool is conservative fear dressed in black, free yourself from limits of this sort.

The thing about cool is that it's at least half market driven in this country, and market driven here is less than half good for the human race I'm willing to wager.

Another statement along these lines was pointed out by Laura last week, found in this document:

"Theoretic chaos has replaced the idealistic thinking of old -- and, unable to reconstitute theoretic order, men have condemned idealism itself. Doubt has replaced hopefulness -- and men act out a defeatism that is labeled realistic."

I recently considered heavily editing out some of the more idealistic textual moments in the blog for the sake of some vague notion of increasing approachability. It's easy to ask oneself questions like "how will this ever work on a big scale?" Then I thought of Bill Mollison: "It’s curious that we never apply what we know to how we actually live." And another time he said something to the effect of: Do a small thing right first and then we have a hope of doing something larger well. I reckon it's going to take a while to sort that out.

At least for now, I've decided not to edit out any of the more idealistic textual moments, not even in the name of "professionalism" which feels a bit to close at the moment to the "defeated realism" mentioned above. Not that all successful professionals are defeated realists. Quite the contrary, quite a few I've met are highly idealistic, even utopian in outlook and incredibly hard workers. But they've labored courageously to stay that way and to make the kind of space I enjoy right now. So thanks to them, and the hope carrying on that possibility for others to enjoy.

Thus ends the critique/ praise. And now, it's back to building.

thesis sketches

...

a quick perspective of the whole tree lamella (a arch of trusses)... models are on their way, this was a quick something which happened during an unfortunately long lecture this week.

following are plans, dtls for linking to the ground, (that's limestone for the foundation) and aluminum sheet from the salvage yard for the building skin.

see the testing testing entry (just below) for the specifics of the structural joinery.

for more background info on this project try here (precedent architect's website), here (mind map of refrences), here (back story on thesis development) and here (technical paper from USFPL).

Grant proposals for US Forest Products Lab small diameter roundwood buildings are now under construction.

testing testing:

...

latest on the thesis:

here I am standing on a 3" depth whole tree joint. not a single snap, crackle or pop... the wood pegs are clearly doing most of the work, but the hose clamps (separated from wood surface by leather strips) do their share in compressing the members to maximize the surface area of contact, and to assist the wood pegs in lateral bending/ torsion.

the steps to creating these joints are few and simple:

1) debark wood (mostly peeling in this case)... debarked juniper is smooth as wet skin

2) using a jig, cut receiving surfaces into the joined elements (the angle is determined by dividing the number of elements across the desired shape of the arch).

3) secure the elements in place with cinches

4) drill

5) wood pegs

6) then hose clamps and leather

7) jump up and down to make sure you got it right.

(for the full photo story click here)

1

2

3

4

5 & 6

7

for more background on the thesis: (structural parametric whole tree lamella) click

monarchs

...

on their way to the beach... they always stop in Texas.

first bowl of oatmeal

...

cooked on studio ii wood stove... eaten by myself.

here you can see the new vent pipe.

there it is again!

competition entry: truss shelter

...

built interior: 8' x 16'

Here are several spliced photos which show a combination of how the shelter is and will be.

Recently entered in the "design it" shelter competition sponsored by The Guggenheim, Google (sketchup was the required entry medium), and Taliesin, this studio/ shelter is my current abode of choice. I live here 5 nights a week, commuting for the other two nights. It's a perfect base camp for planning the construction of a new wood/ carpentry shop on site... the first structural whole tree lattice building... er... anywhere? After a few minor delays, construction is scheduled to begin a few months behind schedule... we hope this means ideal weather.

Text from the competition entry (70 word limit): The truss shelter glides out above the terrain drop, showcasing views down through the prairie. The structural, spanning, skin enables a minimal footprint, and re-usable space as the shelter erodes or transforms into an expanded prairie habitation. Constructed from native lumber, recycled aluminum, and indigenous juniper shade lattices, the materials speak to the objective of reducing the area from which resources are drawn for enhanced continuation of life on site.

the bathouse!

...

Simple, elegant, constructed of recycled materials: aluminum grate from the salvage yard, plywood and aluminum roof and walls salvaged from an old shed, debarked juniper roundwood set in calliche footings as the foundation columns, recycled aluminum screen and gray 2x and 1x lumber... the bathouse offers a nice place to take a solar shower and features a new Sun-Mar Excel NE. I have Laura to thank for how well this space turned out. Once we reached a decision about the general shape of the building she completed the interiors (juniper shower curtain rod), original, quality details all around. Lovely. Approximate cost: $100.

studio i update

...

new structural shoring on the original studio...

exhibition / party

...

- A chance for the friends and family to see what architects dream up at secret studio locations in the late hours. What a dream come true. There we were walking around inside what began as daydreams materialized in sketchbooks during various lectures... thanks to the endless labor of the talented Laura Mast, co-designer/ builder of the bathouse and many many other talented friends and family over the past month. They came, they saw, and hopefully they'll be coming back because we now have a studio/ living space with solar power, a bathhouse with a solar shower, a composting toilet, and another studio in a tree... all places conducive to further dreaming - day and night.

Also, we want another party next year... preluded by a fall and spring work weekend ( thanks C ). Between now and the fall work weekend, a parametric juniper lattice wood shop/ detail library, should take final form. For now, photos of a bathouse with juniper foundation, a tree studio with a juniper column, and a studio live space which should soon house a juniper rain/ shade screen system are up. Thus we begin the indigenous phase of works out at the land! Major thanks go out to all the supporters!

Speaking of supporters... each time people come out to support, a new corridore in the collective imagination seems to be unlocked. New solutions, a new sense of possibilities awakens. Problems solved without petroleum or money? Wood pegs instead of steel bolts? Expereince the forest at the canopy level where the breeze sweeps over the juniper understory? Hurricane lanterns and solar - led light arrays are all we need? Outdoor rooms? Forest gardens, and permaculture? One is either re-inforcing a sense of the vastness in the solutions for higher quality living, or discovering an entirely new take on life. It could happen in a moment when the moon is rising over the surrounding mesas, sending rays right through the canvas openings of studio two, which acts as a kind of lunar ray magnifier, funneling rays across white surfaces and through to the prairie scape beyond. It could be as the evening wears on and a friend notices that everyone breaks off into little groups gathered around small hurricane lanterns and candles in woodland clearings where they seem happy to stay for a while (with food) and conversation, starlight and a warm candle light... no background music required.

At the end of the evening, I found 7 of us sitting around the moonrise... from the east porch of studio two... unexpected and perfect. I might have thought it strange if the whole scene were not so primally comfortable.

studio ii update

...

After a nice long break overseas, we're moving forward with the vision back at the land. Here we see Grandpa and Laura finishing up a bit of the west deck. We have a date for the long awaited party/ exhibition - August 8th! Here is a sketch elevation of where things are probably headed...

those somewhat vague lines indicating screen of some kind will perhaps constitute the first use of truely indigenous material here... in this case, juniper.

visual manifesto

...

The canvas walls have arrived! DS II interior construction starts as soon as it drops back below 100 Fahrenheit which is this weekend I hope. For now, here is a visual manifesto drawn yesterday for the three story house:

design inspiration

...

"My sources of artistic inspiration are many, but ultimately originate in One, big fun daydream from Who knows where about people living together in peace and harmony." - Sir Thomas More.

To be honest, (and slightly embarrassed ) I wrote that, but I reckon we all agree: the world is full of immense meaning, beauty, Intent! It wants to be perfect. I find that the moment I look at something, anything, I begin to find a story. 

And that story becomes part of another story. And eventually, I find I'm intertwined in plots and dramas of epic proportion! Here one tries not to dwell to deeply on the butterfly effect, but is careful not to squash any insects whose progeny, due to global warming adaptation, may secrete an aromatic and irritation free natural sunblock in 20 years... etc. I see how things have gone a bit wrong, yes, but then I see how they want to be made right. Of course, we're woven into such a vivid realm of color, movement, life, rhythm, line, shape, texture, scale and on... it's a bit shocking sometimes - just the attempt of taking in a moment at random; "checking in with reality" for a second. Then, you might ask a question like: why is this all here? and what am I doing? and what does this mean? Follow any one of those rabbit holes and you're bound to encounter Significance in a way that may feel like falling. 

The manifestations of design inspirations are as numerous as the people I've met and the places I've been. As implied earlier in the "out is the new 'in' " entry, the places I've enjoyed most, and have most profoundly stretched my sense of the beautiful have been encounters of the natural world with others. This obviously means that architects, and architecture, are not my primary inspiration for making more architecture. It never started out that way... and I've never had fun imagining it as such. I made a tree house because I wanted to be in the tree, not chiefly because I was excited about wood joinery and tensioned cable details. I realize that there are certainly more and less crudely crafted and contrived human made things, and I'm not saying that there is no point in architecture... I delight in it deeply. The point is, architecture is merely something that takes me somewhere... into something more important. It is the desire to be with people, under certain circumstances, in some experience, or alone even in some place... that drives the action to make.

 

To wax eloquent ( I hope ): in the midst of an essence, framed purely and poetically, or subtly - almost accidental, to slip into a fold of reality that pulls me into wrinkle in time-space, where things slow down, or dynamism takes place; somewhere where the tangibility is nearly overwhelming. Why be anywhere but there? These kinds of things happen all the time, with someone under trees under stars, or facing west late in a day, around a campfire with people, in a golden lit pub, smooth worn stone gleaming reflected amber draught and candlelight hues. Or sitting on dads shoulders as he wades a river, a lullaby from mom in bed. These memories come as hot torrent to a mind numbed by digital media and suburban traffic flows. Time in the untouched landscape made me want to find a way to be there without touching ( or touching lightly ).

Our place in nature is outside mostly; and "inside" only for the framing of action which needs to be there. We might filter moisture and wind, but not certain light for reading. There is filtration of all light and moisture, but not a gentle breeze for summer time sleeping, and the allowance of rainfall for a natural shower. The habitation of places with people - this inspires the architecture as facilitator. It started with camping trips and campfires. Architectural education was the next step.

An important and enjoyable step it's been; a time during which I encountered the work of fellow students, received guidance from tutors in seminar, critique, tutorial, and lecture settings. Encountering the work of fellow students and teachers in careful critique settings has been the most inspiring part of the educational process, - the encounter of individuals defending their ideas before an engaged audience. More than endlessly gathering the knowledge of others, it is in working with those who understand that each and every individual has a unique, new, experience and viewpoint... and therefore interest, that I have found abundant life in the academic setting. These mentors know that if ones latent interest is defined, refined, and then fed,  a passion will grow within the student, and from that passion, a magnificent body of work will be born. 

While to a certain degree, everyone is a unique movement, we learn in a context of precedent. Precedent does inspire. Precedent also gives groups of individuals momentum. Furthermore, it shows the client that your mind isn't entirely out to lunch with Utopians, and that you may even share a common cause with organic, yet unfathomably well organized, networks of like minded (contemporary and existent) individuals collaborating in a patterned effort. Paul Hawken has shown this to be true for so many people. I'm a great fan of that crowd, and in the same thrust, have compiled a reference of material from many others in the Architectural profession (and some with closely related work) who's aims and means share a close proximity with those of the "three story house" project.

post petroleum parametric

...

how will this:

best become this?:

perhaps like so:

Vernacular (Webster): 1 a: using a language or dialect native to a region or country rather than a literary, cultured, or foreign language 3: of, relating to, or characteristic of a period, place, or group ; especially : of, relating to, or being the common building style of a period or place

If computer generated architecture cannot become vernacular in nature, here that means: made by the people in walking distance, then it at least retains hope of habitation, use, or inspiration while remaining glossy and new. But as it weathers and wears, who will repair it? Who will enhance it? How will it's ideas live on? Or will it be mined for materials and re-compiled as relic fragments, -talking points grafted into neo indigenous, handmade shelters of a local economy future?

I wonder, what is the culture that goes with the digital, the computer generated? I'm not referring to more of what we see around us, rather, I wonder what happens when the principles learned from the petroleum era experiments with parametric design, scripting, biomimmicry, cellular automata, and the knowledge sets yet to emerge, impact local economies of the future? 

I have visions of skilled craftsmen with calloused hands in fine rimmed spectacles, eying the carefully cultivated woodland groves surrounding their communities. They consider the selective harvest before them in gradations of tended "wilderness" ( having actually moved beyond the need for words like wilderness in the acknowledgment that humans are a helpful part of nature and have intertwined their own optimal existence with the optimal existence of the rest of the natural world). I see them discussing the matrices of possible bifurcation ratios in the scaffolding limbs on different tree species, sketchpads in hand, documenting the new formations and comparing their knowledge and experience for creating this and that joint in such and such wood grain. They search out the formations carefully among eligible candidates, in much the same way stone masons from earlier times would turn the stone, looking for the right seams to strike. These carpenters of the future have learned to recognize the optimized tree formations and have developed a number of languages and sub languages for building based on the optimal characteristics of formations... and the cultural needs of the time. 

The existing structures evolve as the craft of  wood  working improves dramatically over the 

years. People mend their own homes from the groves they maintain in this (moneyless?) society, enriching the existing structural stock. Meanwhile, children play with wooden models and toy building systems they are taught by family members. Every so often, it is one of the youth who stumble across the methodology which solves the latest design difficulty or pushes the craft to the next level of perfection. Eventually, the feedbacks of the increased application of principle toward physical experimentation open up new realms of mathematical understanding, formerly unattainable in the high digital technology era... ( as Margaret Wertheim has discovered ) ; and a method for modeling trees all the way through the "adult adaptive geometry" stage is developed. 

Structures now sway beautifully in the wind when necessary, generating energy in their kinetic flexations, or humming like instruments through evening breezes. New dances and ways of walking and climbing have evolved over time as a result. Parkour is the expected means of travel for people in their prime, and the elderly have rightly regained their place in society as front porch commentators on the frivolity of youth, outwardly scolding of the expression of youthful vigor from swinging passers by. All scolding is of course done tongue in cheek, interrupted with knowing glances of admiration to one another at the impressive acrobatic display from their fellow treetopia citizens. The commentators (laughing boisterously) sit on kinetic Theo Jansen like rocking chair devices which pace their treetop porches as their sanftestructuren style living spaces are now well off the ground, the grafting process having begun earlier than the majority of the population in many cases. Fire hazards have long been dealt with naturally, utilizing permaculture techniques and naturally resistant resins and retardants. 

A culture, once inwardly rich, can't help but manifest beauty, intellectual rigor, art, and freedom in all they do. Having evolved in light of these new processes, song and laughter and the sound of human life catches the wind as it drifts up from under the natural canopies, out across the open grasslands and into thickets dotted with similar but distinct microcultures, spread right across the earth, into waters, under waters, up mountains and under mountains, beautiful new cultures tucked into the folds of the natural world, touching lightly her beauty and bringing only enhancement and celebratory habitation to the existing immensity.

I hope that Tree Lattices are another step toward that world.