Web tour: Old-House Journal: Sears kit houses

possible Sears kit house (with addition)We believed the original portion of this little cottage, where my friend and her family lived for years, to be a Sears, Roebuck and Company Modern Homes kit. Its walls and floors were all finished with wood or tile, not a smidge of plaster or Sheetrock -- except in the addition. I'm not sure if my fascination with the Sears kit houses of 1908-1940 was originally sparked by my friend's cottage or if the cottage merely reinforced my fascination. In either case, I continue to marvel at the genius of the Sears Modern Homes program, which endured until the Great Recession and pre-World War II building-material shortages took a devasting toll.

I was delighted to find an article in the  May issue of Old-House Journal (on newsstands now) about the Sears, Roebuck kit houses of Hopewell, Virginia. I planned to link here to the story on the Old-House Journal website. However, I was disappointed to learn that the story is not yet available online, but, then, I made another discovery in the Old-House Journal article archives. There, I found "The Story on Sears" by Shirley Maxwell and James C. Massey. I'm not sure when the article was written, perhaps ages ago, but it's a great synopsis of how the Sears Modern Homes came to be, evolved, and, ultimately, ceased production.

The popularity of the kit-house concept tends to resurge every so often, as it did in the 2008 MOMA exhibit titled "Home Delivery, Fabricating the Modern Dwelling" which I wrote about here. It seems to me an idea that may again be gaining traction as we begin to emerge from the current recession and the dire lessons of living large and unsustainably. An updated, sustainable, human-scaled kit house, for the way people really live, may, once again, be in order.

by Katie Hutchison for House Enthusiast

Design snapshot: Distinctive Dutch door

The Dutch door is one of architecture’s more versatile elements. It’s both door and window. We often associate Dutch doors with barns, as in the case of Mr. Ed. But a Dutch door is a great feature in a dwelling, too. It allows us to control access between spaces by closing the lower half, and to invite view and air flow by opening the upper half.

This Dutch door is a front entrance. The closed lower half signals that passersby aren’t encouraged to enter uninvited, but the open upper half communicates that the occupants, who are willing to share an enticing view of the entry hall’s elegant wallpaper, might be open to receiving guests.

Perhaps it’s the contrast of the stark, walled exterior and the hint of a vibrant, lively interior that drew my eye to this entry. Few other door types offer the opportunity for such a provocative juxtaposition. This one beautifully balances enticement and deterrent.

For more about Dutch doors read the Design snapshot: Entry duality, too.

by Katie Hutchison for House Enthusiast

Web tour: Skallops (a fun building toy) on Kickstarter

photo courtesy of the Skallops Kickstarter pageWithin many a house enthusiast is an inner architect, designer, builder in search of an outlet. Search no more. Skallops, a fun buidling toy, awaits your discovery on Kickstarter. Skallops are the ingenious creation of the earnest folks at E&M Labs, LLC. Each Skallop is a little laser-cut, birch-plywood, scallop-shaped clip. Attach playing cards and/or other Skallops to build whatever you imagine.

Skallops will be funded via Kickstarter on February 1, but it isn't too late for you to kick in, and get a Skallop play pack of your own. Get a Starter Pack of 104 Skallops and two decks of playing cards. Or, get the Builder Pack, which includes twice the contents of the Starter Pack. Or, splurge on the Architect Pack, which includes twice the contents of the Builder Pack.

The folks who created Skallops note that, alternatively, you can clip together business cards or cards of your own creation. I'd love to see some Skallop houses. If you create a Skallop cottage or manse, let me know about it at the KHS Facebook Page. Meanwhile, happy building.

by Katie Hutchison for House Enthusiast

Design snapshot: Positive space

Somewhere I have a winter picture of this little house with its assorted outbuildings, but this summer shot is a warm reminder on a cold day.

The tiny outbuilding to the right looks to be about five feet from the back corner of the petite main house, which appears to border a courtyard of sorts, edged by yet another modest outbuilding. Together, these diminutive structures shape a mini compound. Their arrangement carves out several engaging outdoor rooms within the lot.

Some might refer to such outdoor rooms as negative spaces between structures. To me, they’re positive spaces -- the reward of mindful siting.

Check out another “Design snapshot” about cottage placemaking here.

by Katie Hutchison for House Enthusiast

Web tour: Scientific American: “Doorway effect” on memory

At first, I was skeptical of the provocatively titled recent article “Why Walking through a Doorway Makes You Forget” in Scientific American Mind Matters. Then I remembered that only a few days before, I’d gotten up from my desk in my home office to retrieve a pen on my bedside table, and upon entering the bedroom and approaching the table, I had completely forgotten why I had gone in there. Apparently, I was experiencing the “doorway effect”.

According to the article by Charles B. Brenner and Jeffrey M. Zacks, a team of researchers at the University of Notre Dame has been investigating these types of minor memory lapses. They ran a series of experiments which determined that a shift in location, which involves passing into another room through a door and doorway, causes our memory to discard recently experienced memory from the previous room in order to make room in memory for new experiences in the next room. Interestingly, our memory doesn’t seem to discard recent memory when we move an equal distance elsewhere in the same room. It’s the transition through doors and doorways into different rooms that causes the effect. Plus, it doesn’t seem to help if a shift is back into the room where the memory was encoded; we still experience a memory lapse.

It’s fun to ponder the design implications of this kind of scientific finding. Perhaps it’s a good justification for keeping a home office distinctly separate from a home’s other living spaces, lest work pre-occupations seep into family time. Or perhaps it supports more open spaces in a senior living space, such that activities undertaken in a kitchen at one end of a space aren’t forgotten in a dining area at the other end of a space.

I’d be curious to know if the experiment holds true when the doorway doesn’t include a door. What if the doorway is oversized and doorless?  Might transitions through column-supported soffits have a similar effect? The scientists note that in one of the virtual space experiments, the difference between the various rooms was reinforced by different wall patterns. What, then, if subjects were to travel between real spaces exhibiting markedly different finish treatments in which a nuanced transition is indicated by an opening in low walls with nothing overhead? Would there be a “doorway effect” beyond the transition? I’d love to know. Here’s hoping there’s more research conducted into the implications of architectural space on our thinking and behavior.

by Katie Hutchison for House Enthusiast