Modern rural architecture holds a lot of appeal for me.  I love the simple forms, the simple lines.  There is something to be said for a quiet architecture, serving its purpose and not shouting about it.

Architecture, although capable of evolution, is really a snapshot of a moment.  A collaboration of agendas – architect, client, contractor – converging to create built space during a specific timeframe.  The ‘finished’ design ultimately results from the current building technology, the program (what the client thinks is important and necessary), and the idea/work from the designer.

There are hundreds of things that influence the end product of architecture (the site, the codes, the budget, etc.).  Isn’t it interesting to speculate how a project might different had it been built 10 years earlier or 10 years later?  Having been involved in a lot of residential work, it is easy for me to see the differences in how space and needs are viewed at different points in our lives.  Equally, programmatic needs for larger commercial or public buildings (schools, libraries, hospitals, offices, etc.) are evolving at faster and faster rates.  So, do we do our best to accommodate the moment?  Or the inevitable evolution?

It is difficult to anticipate unknown needs. One thing we know for sure is that things will change.

Lately I’ve noticed that my online consumption is similar to my food consumption.  My eating habits happen in waves, particularly breakfast and lunch.  I get on a kick – and watch out, it’s a breakfast of steel cut oats for two months. (By the way, have you tried them overnight?)

Similarly, my online use has its own ebb and flow.  Whether it be Facebook or Twitter, Pinterest or blogging – I get sucked into one venue and then it’s crickets everywhere else.  Perhaps it is the rabbit hole nature of the internet?  Or maybe just a character flaw?

As a designer, my fickle nature is both a blessing and a curse.  There is always a new idea on the horizon, a new project on the table, a fresh concept to explore.  Ideas are always perfect in the beginning, fickleness arrives when the imperfection show its face.  It’s a continuous battle to explore the ideas that produce something worthy to share with the world.  But, it might be better to listen to this guy more often.

I first set eyes on this house early in high school, while enjoying a friend’s family beach one summer.  The Douglas House by Richard Meier is an obvious contrast to its surrounding landscape and quickly caught the eye of an architecture-bound teenager.  Years later I had an opportunity to tour the home.  While some portions of the house and its construction were a little disappointing, overall it is a spectacular house – second only to the view, even on a cloudy day.  (Photo above from the rooftop deck.)

2011 © calouette llc, all images and content

Like so many others, this blog has fallen into a trap of an unintended hiatus.  Between work, more work, and personal reasons the posts have been slim lately.  Apologies!  I’m going to blame the trillium and just leave it at that.

“Much of my inspiration is drawn from natural forms, french landscapes and tiny details.  I construct my art using a delicate balance between photographies and painted elements or textures in search of simplicity and poetic potential that is in everything.”

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Santiago Calatrava is a rock star of sorts, he is known for his many trades: architect, sculptor, structural engineer.  The Bahnhof Stadelhofen (1990) is just one example of these combined talents. The design excavated the side of a hillside to accommodate a third track to an existing railway station (the structure also restores the hillside in the new design). Zürich is also where Calatrava’s principal office is based.

2011 © calouette llc

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