Web tour: ArchitectureBoston: Maeda on people tech

RISD President John Maeda talks with Jeff Stein in the November/December 2008 “Hybrid” issue of ArchitectureBoston, a BSA publication. I keep mentioning Maeda, because he keeps making pithy observations. For instance, he tells Stein, “In the field of architecture, the real challenge is how our world of data has changed how we live. Architecture in the future is going to engage much more psychology, much more anthropology, much more of the human condition, and much more of the liberal arts perspective, because the act of living has become a lot more personal.” I imagine that’s why I wanted to become an architect in the first place.

Later in the interview Stein asks Maeda what he means by “humanizing technology.” Maeda says, “Some people say the best solution is high tech; some people say no, go low tech. I believe that the best solution is always less tech. Just enough, which is not usually considered an option.” How true. As someone who enjoys the world-wide web for the connections between people and ideas that technology fosters, but who still draws and drafts by hand, for both the pleasure and freedom craft allows, I’m a long-time believer in less tech.

Towards the end of the interview, Maeda emphasizes the importance of relationships. He says, “I think what has to be designed is what’s been designed forever, which is relationships: between people, between people and their objects, between people and their past…I look at the whole design question as encompassing the design of you own life.” That sounds refreshingly human.

by Katie Hutchison for the House Enthusiast

Web tour: Boston Sunday Globe: Dreamy drystone walls

Click on this photo to see it in the note cards/prints gallery.No two drystone wallers would build the same wall. That’s the magic of the medium. This wall is part of the old stone-barn ruin that I wrote about in a previous post. Dan Snow of Vermont writes in the Globe, “A derelict old wall can be restored to its original profile, but even when the same stones are used, it can never be the same wall twice. Every builder will handle the stones differently, resulting in a unique creation every time.” Snow’s book In the Company of Stone first introduced me to his lyrical stone work and poetic prose. I imagine I’ll find his latest book Listening to Stone (from which the Globe essay is adapted) equally engrossing. His is yet another craft I would love to learn. If only it didn’t involve all that heavy lifting…

by Katie Hutchison for the House Enthusiast

Web tour: Boston Globe: Time to revisit housing policy

Edward Glaeser writes in the Sunday Globe, “Instead of continuing the debt-fueled policies that got us where we are, why not rethink our approach to the housing market?” He suggests that government subsidies be redirected from "wealthy Americans who borrow to buy bigger homes" toward first-time home buyers, so we can build “more housing where it’s needed.” He continues, “Instead of spending federal money to encourage borrowing and keep prices high, it would make more sense to make housing more affordable by eliminating the artificial restrictions that stymie supply.” Like Rybczynski whose Wilson Quarterly essay I referred to in a previous post, Glaeser sees lot size and density as key factors in affordability. Glaeser writes, “In dense states like Massachusetts prices have been kept high by localities that oppose new construction, with large minimum lot sizes, Draconian barriers to subdivisions, and a general hostility to any multifamily housing. If those uses were eased, then housing would become more abundant and affordable.”

by Katie Hutchison for the House Enthusiast

Web tour: WQ: Rybczynski affordable housing essay

This wonderfully cogent essay by Witold Rybczynski, author of Home: A Short History of an Idea and The Most Beautiful House in the World among other books, addresses the “vicious circle” which keeps the cost of new housing out of reach for many. Rybczynski targets the availability of buildable “serviced land,” as a root of the problem. He writes, “For the neighbors, requiring large lots has two advantages: It limits the numbers of houses that can be built and, since large lots are more expensive, it ensures that new houses will cost more, which drives up surrounding property values. But reducing development has another, less happy effect: It pushes growth even farther out, thus increasing sprawl. While large-lot zoning is often done in the name of preserving open space and fighting sprawl, in fact it has the opposite effect.” This is why the Smart Growth and New Urbanism movements are calling for change.

Rybczynski continues, “Smaller houses on smaller lots are the logical solution to the problem of affordability, yet density -- and less affluent neighbors -- are precisely what most communities fear most. In the name of fighting sprawl, local zoning boards enact regulations that either require larger lots or restrict development, or both. These strategies decrease the supply -- hence, increase the ­cost -- of developable land. Since builders pass the cost of lots on to buyers, they justify the higher land prices by building larger and more expensive houses -- McMansions. This produces more community resistance, and calls for yet more restrictive regulations. In the process, housing affordability becomes an even more distant chimera.”

Wilson Quarerly link by way of the Boston Chapter of The Congress of Residential Architects

by Katie Hutchison for the House Enthusiast

Web tour: Old-House Journal: Repairing a Frank Lloyd Wright original

Every once in a while when I comb through my stacks of newly arrived shelter magazines, I think it’s time to reduce my subscriptions. I weigh which to eliminate, often zeroing in on the somewhat staid cover of Old-House Journal. Then I read the cover lines and find my curiosity piqued, and before I know it, I’m engrossed in a story.

The October issue (in print and online) has an interesting feature about a 1932 Frank Lloyd Wright house in Minnesota that’s being repaired by its private owners. As seems to be common with many of Wright’s houses, there were some practical failings from the get-go, mainly in the form of infiltrating water. When the original owner brought the moisture problem to Wright’s attention, he recommended the old standby solution: seal with goop. More specifically, OHJ reports Wright instructed, “The tops of the chimney and walls should be coated twice with rubberoid mastic. This will solve your problem.” OHJ notes “It didn’t.”

The article relays in some detail how the offending exterior components were recently addressed. I wish they had included floor plans and interior photos, but they understandably steered toward a more narrowly focused story. In the print edition there are some reproductions of original elevations and detail drawings for those who, like me, find such things intriguing. It’s enough to keep this subscriber coming back. See what you think.

by Katie Hutchison for the House Enthusiast