What's next?

Tobacco Barn: Hadley, Massachusetts

I've been doing a lot reading lately about agricultural vernacular architecture. One of the better reference books on the subject was written by Thomas Visser : "Field Guide to New England Barns and Farm Buildings". The most interesting passages relate to the solution of everyday problems on the farm. On manure cellars...

"The breath from cattle, together with the vapor arising from the manure, which defies all attempts to keep it below the floor if the cellar is warm, covers, not only the floor over the cellar, but the beams, and the whole underside of the roof, with pearly trickling drops for weeks together during the winter. If the doors are thrown open in order to evaporate this moisture, you lose the benefits you have been seeking in making a tight barn, by reducing the temperature so much that cattle require more food, while the effect is to reduce the flow of milk in the cows...."

Thus the birth of the rooftop ventilator, or cupola, allowing moisture laden air to exit the ridge. Leave it to post-modernism to prostitute the humble cupola for pure decoration. As an architect I receive many requests for cupoloas on projects, my response now? "Only paired with a manure cellar."

A sketch exploration of some ideas I've been fleshing out. Nothing really sings here, rather it builds on ideas related to barn architecture, sliding door panels, moveable walls. It all looks a bit too 'corn crib' right now.

solid/void games

filtering light

indoor/OUTDOOR

the module

Farm buildings made efficient use of material and derived beauty effortlessly through the expression of their simple means to keep water out of the building. Siding would be comprised of locally sourced wood, options include Eastern White Pine (70c/board foot), Eastern White Cedar (locally, length is an issue, usually limited to 6'-8' maximum runs), Maple, Ash... each material weathering at differing rates. Unfinished, leaving little to no maintenance and installed as part of a rainscreen detail would mean it would dry just as a century-old barn would.

I'm close to trading in the house for a barn...with tobacco, no cupola.

‘Ornament & Crime’

The essay by the Austrian architect Adolf Loos ‘Ornament & Crime’ written in 1908, argues that all ornament is criminal in nature. Loos, “holds the Papuan up as an example of man who has not evolved to the moral and civilized circumstances of modern man, and who will therefore kill and consume his enemies without committing a crime. Had a modern — meaning a Western man — done the same thing, he would either be considered a criminal or a degenerate. By the same token, the Papuan may tattoo his skin, his boat, his oar or anything he may lay his hands on ... He is no criminal. But a modern man who tattos himself is either a criminal or a degenerate. Tattooed men who are not imprisoned are either latent criminals or degenerate aristocrats. If a tattooed man dies free, this is because he has died prematurely, before committing his murder.”( ‘Adolf Loos: The New Vision’: Joseph Rykwert) Ornamentation, he contends in modern society is without merit. It forces the laborer to perform work that performs no function, other than signatory (say, a crown moulding signifying the top of a wall). Loos professes that it’s a waste of material, effort and a needless expense. Ornament freezes a building in time, Art Nouveau, in Loos’ time…perhaps pluralism or minimalism in our time.

No trim, no ornament, no crime.

Stonco 150L, with 4A backplate

Does our house look dated already by virtue of the lack of ornamentation? There’s validity in the argument that economy has driven many of our decisions, including those to eliminate ornament…but I wouldn’t have chose ogee moulding even if I had an extra five grand sitting in my pocket. I question some of Loos’ arguments and the social conditions he supports them with, but at heart I have to say I agree with his thesis. Loos worked hard to allow each material to be expressive of its inherent qualities, the only object on my walls (until I can afford artwork…is that ornamentation?) are my $11 Stonco exterior grade lampholders…a modern torch of sorts. Oh yeah…there’s the Enje roller blinds (IKEA, 39”x98”, $29.99)…which I considered stitching colored thread horizontally to add some color to the room…ornament, tsk tsk.

It’s no wonder my kids are pining for the outdoors, their required reading lists now require German translation.

Influenza A/Brisbane H3N2...

has disrupted my life for a good 2 1/2 weeks....but I see traffic has really picked up around here, thank you for the nods on the design blogs mocoloco, materialicious, and others thank you-thank you!



We've been settling in to our new home for close to four months now and of course the punchlist is longer than it was on move-in day last November. I've been busy checking off things inside as the snow outside continues to pile up. One of those tasks was a radon test. I figured we would be borderline given that we've built on solid granite ledge, but the tests in the bedrooms came back at 10pci, the EPA threshold for action is 4pci...so 'act' we must. The basic idea is to drill a hole (or two if you own an eighty foot long house) insert a pipe and depressurize the slab beneath by installing a small fan in the attic space connected to that pipe exhausting to the atmosphere...where radon (being heavier than air) settles right back down on the ground?! Anyhow, the company we've hired to install the system guesses the current levels in the basement, where the radon seeps into the house, are in the 20s, not an ideal place to send the kids on a winter's afternoon to ride their bikes I suppose.

Thank you to the IRS for funding this project with $1800 of fresh hot rebate.