gabions get hip

The humble gabion is having its day. Gabions are wire or steel cages filled with rip-rap or other stone. Long an engineering standard as cheap, reliable retaining walls, as of late they've been commonly used to stabilize highway embankments and other industrial landscapes. Suddenly hip, they are popping up in contemporary residential landscapes, and in the hands of designers they are quite lovely. 

entry walls

gabion terraces

Hill House

Check out my Walls Pinterest board for more ideas.
                                                                    

modern beach

The Stinson Beach House by Blasen Landscape Architecture is a lovely example of a contemporary landscape that balances clean, simple lines with softness and warmth. I love the rich materiality of the built features juxtaposed with the soft texture and movement of the grasses. Although this project takes place in the California landscape, this style would transfer quite nicely to coastal Nova Scotia.

outcrops.

Molly's Cabin

 I currently have a bit of an obsession with cabins built on outcrops, as you can see from my Pinterest board Cabin (have I mentioned how much I love Pinterest?). I came across photos of this cabin last night and almost went out of my mind. 

Molly's Cabin

Molly's Cabin, by husband and wife architecture team AGATHOM, is located in Pointe au Baril, an archipelago in Georgian Bay. The 1000 suare foot cabin is a simple, yet rich, reinterpretation of the architectural vernacular found in this area that responds quite beautifully to its context.

Architect Albert Frey's home in Palm Springs

I am curious to know more about the connection details involved in attaching to the bedrock. I still have time before I decide on a piece of land and attempt to build a cabin of my own (perhaps on one of the plentiful outcrops here in NS). Time to research, plan, dream and of course time to clip images of simple, beautiful and inspiring homes.

integrated landscapes

This Australian residence by CplusC architectural workshop illustrates a seamless transition between interior and exterior space. I really appreciate how the pergola is incorporated into the structure of the house; the steal beam runs between interior and exterior structures. So often landscape is an afterthought to the architecture, is a divergent style or not at all considered and in all of these cases looks the part. It's nice to envision a world where design professionals - architects, landscape architects - work together throughout a project to create a cohesive design.

{via desire to inspire}

bloomfield community greenhouse

I feel pretty lucky and grateful to have been selected as a participant in the first year of the Bloomfield Community Greenhouse. What a great opportunity to grow food throughout the long, cold Canadian winter! Also a lovely boost for the spirit - the greenhouse was a cozy 42 degrees celsius when I stopped in today (we're still calibrating details like temperature regulation).

The greenhouse is a collaborative project between two community organizations - Imagine Bloomfield and Ecology Action Centre. It's a pilot project with a vision of community greenhouses throughout Halifax Regional Municipality. A handful of us were selected through a membership lottery and now we're responsible for the day-to-day operations of the greenhouse, logging our experiences along the way.

 

Features of this passive-solar design include solar-panels, re-purposed barn boards, solar hot-water heating that circulates under the interior beds, an interior rain barrel, a community message board and a vermicomposter. I'm eager to meet the buider, Zak Miller of Full Cycle Builders, to learn more about the technical components of the building.

I planted seeds about a week ago and they are just starting to emerge. I am so excited to get started with a new crop just when the gardening season would usually be slowing down. I'll be back soon with pics of the new babies!

unhappy hipsters

Check out this blog that adds melancholy captions to images from Dwell magazine featuring moody hipsters in their modernist homes. Quite funny.

Lying on his back, watching the passing clouds, he worried over the Nathaniel Hawthorne lookalike’s role in this grim threesome.

(Photo: Céline Clanet; Dwell, November 2009)

Everyone always leaves.

(Dwell, April 2009)

cardboard vaulting

I have spent the last couple of weeks working on very technical grading plans and feeling like an engineer- this is incredibly inspiring! This guest bedroom is carved out of the side of a mountain in Vals, Switzerland and the vaulting represents the contours of the mountain. The 400 mm cardboard was computer cut but begs for a little diy re-interpretation. Check out more of Studio JVM here . (via Apartment Therapy )