Web neighbor: The School of Life

Perhaps I’m over-reaching by placing The School of Life in the “web neighbor” category. I suppose House Enthusiast is more of a wannabe web neighbor of The School of Life, the brainchild of Alain de Botton and a few of his colleagues. For one, The School of Life broaches the broader topic of living a fulfilling life, while House Enthusiast wanders the narrower topic of engaging with a fulfilling home. Secondly, The School of Life presents most of its offerings in person in London, as opposed to House Enthusiast’s virtual offerings in the form of online commentary. Still there is a modicum of overlap. According to De Botton in an article in Varsity (the “independent student newspaper for the University of Cambridge”), The School of Life “has big ambitions to define a new, more practical approach to culture.” Bravo. As a fan of culture’s charms, I, too, aim to make it more accessible.

The “tiny institution” (De Botton’s words) of The School of Life offers a variety of evening classes, weekend intensives, events, meals, services and more.  Each offering, the website notes, has been envisioned “in collaboration with leading authors, artists, actors and academics.” Some upcoming class titles include: How To Have Better Conversations, How To Realise Your Potential, How To Make a Difference, and How To Change Your Mind. As a student of human behavior, each sounds intriguing to me. The School of Life’s online presence includes a blog and videos of the School’s Sunday sermons.  How I wish the School offered online workshops and podcasts of the events, too.

If you’re not familiar with De Botton, he’s the best-selling author of books ranging in subject from philosophy, to status, to, yes, architecture. You may have read my House Enthusiast post about his thought-provoking book The Architecture of Happiness. I find his work inspirational. So much so that his school and a few other entities and organizations, which likewise foster life learning, have prompted me to ponder creating my own school.

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Design snapshot: Vestige of Victorian era entry

The color combination of orange doors trimmed in white within pale, green, exterior walls drew me eye to this tableau. (See House Enthusiast logo/button colors.) Three granite risers and an elegantly bracketed door visor set off the striking doors, which feature square and rectangular panes of colored glass bordering clear lites. Bottom wooden panels, picture-framed by moldings and featuring applied panels with diamond-shaped accents, further render these doors unique.

Though they may have once functioned as primary entry doors, they now appear to be acting as storm doors or secondary doors. Today, immediately inside them, a newer, single, French door sits in what is presumably an insulated wall. This is a very clever way to preserve an antique entry while simultaneously reducing air infiltration. It’s win-win; such a solution retains architectural character and improves energy efficiency. If you’re renovating an older home, keep an approach like this in mind in lieu of replacing unique, antique doors with contemporary alternatives.

by Katie Hutchison for House Enthusiast

Exhibit: Unbound: Highlights from the Phillips Library at the PEM

The Phillips Library, where the collection currently on exhibit at the PEM usually residesOf the 30+ objects on display at the Peabody Essex Museum in this exhibit, one display, in particular, piqued my curiosity. It contains a Japanese teahouse pop-up c.1820 from a collection of 90 such pop-ups. 

Each scaled-model teahouse is hand-drawn, hand-cut, and affixed to a base layer of paper into which it folds for storage. Neat packets of other folded teahouses rest nearby in the original wooden box made to house them. The pop-ups represent historic Japanese teahouses spanning from the 13th-19th centuries.

Unfortunately, only one of the pop-ups is currently unfolded and fully presented in the exhibit. It would have been great to have seen several of them unfolded together, forming a miniature Japanese teahouse village, of sorts. Since the exhibit continues for another year (through November 26, 2012), it's likely that the display will rotate through a few of the pop-ups at an interval the curators deem reasonable. Wish I knew the interval, so I wouldn't miss anything. Visit the PEM soon to see the first in the teahouse rotation.

by Katie Hutchison for House Enthusiast

How to look at houses... (like an architect)

Looking at the Middle

Here's the third video in the series exploring house exteriors. This installment looks at the middle of houses, relative to the base and top.
 
The next episode will focus on the top of houses. If you would like to recommend a project to be referenced in the next video installment, please email it to Katie@katiehutchison.com. You can also find this video posted to the Fine Homebuilding SquareOne blog. Meanwhile, keep training your eye on houses.

by Katie Hutchison for House Enthusiast and SquareOne

Design snapshot: Barn three-season bonus

A barn is a natural to adapt to a three-season space. This barn in Connecticut is home to Elise, Landscapes & Nursery and contains their three-season-like showroom and design offices. Overhead garage-style doors open the sitting space showroom to the container-garden patio. A slate floor extends a couple of feet outside of the barn door openings and transitions to pea stone at the same level, which helps unite the two spaces. A fresh, green, interior wall color also ties inside to outside. Wicker furniture, dressed with throw pills and positioned on area rugs, sets a homey stage (and showroom).

Outside, an arbor visor extends across the two barn door openings, softening the transition between inside and out. The folks at Elise have carved out space on either end of the three-season-like showroom for their offices. Both flanking spaces take advantage of French doors and interior windows to borrow from the adjacent indoor/outdoor vibe in the showroom.

For an example of a smaller three-season living space, check out the Manchester Garage/Garden Room I designed. Also, if you’re thinking of adapting/creating your own three-season space, you may be in need of some oversize doors, so take a look at the “Designing doors for large openings” Drawing Board column I wrote for Fine Homebuilding here. Issue #198, October/November 2008. Reprinted with permission copyright 2008, The Taunton Press, Inc.

by Katie Hutchison for House Enthusiast and SquareOne.