Posts Tagged ‘Stonework’

Understanding Craftsman Architecture

January 3rd, 2010

Many older homes in cities today have their roots in the Arts and Crafts movement. With their squared, low-lying layouts and sturdy construction, these homes are often easy to spot, but generally not as widely recognized or studied as Victorian homes from the same era – they simply remain unclassified or incorrectly identified as ranchers. As years progress, however, the homes, properly known as “Craftsman” buildings, are outlasting most Victorian buildings, and finding more recognition among preservationists and historic home buyers who want to ask for them by name.

In some ways it’s remarkable that Craftsman-style homes were so attractive, given the round-about way they were conceived. Rather than emerging simply as a new architectural form, Craftsman homes developed as part of the Arts and Crafts movement, which in many ways was a reaction against the over-decorated and fragile aesthetics of the Victorian era, as well as the lack of personal touch in many modern-era buildings. Given those prerequisites, one might have expected an unfocussed, impressionistic style to emerge, rather than the refined, often symmetrical building shapes for which Craftsman style homes are known. These homes can generally be identified by their front entrances featuring a large raised porch with columns on either side, a central door, and a single second story window in the second floor gable. Roofs in this style are generally hipped, with overhanging eaves on all four sides. Other common Craftsman features include extensive stonework, rough-hewn wood, and stucco exteriors.

The popularization of Craftsman homes is largely credited to designer Gustav Stickley, a turn of the century architect who often featured these homes in his magazine, The Craftsman. Stickley famously referred to Craftsman style as “a house reduced to its simplest form,” wrote lengthy reviews on home and furniture originals by designers Harvey Ellis, the Greene Brothers, and others. Large numbers of Craftsman homes began appearing in San Diego in the early 20th century, which eventually led to the term “California Bungalow” for these types of homes.

Craftsman-style homes worked as well for families and middle class as they did for designers and artistic activists. One of the most significant advances made by these homes was the way they re-aligned the kitchen area with the rest of the main floor – instead of having a segregated kitchen with a formal dining room, Craftsman homes often had a built-in “breakfast nook” so that families could eat closer to the kitchen, which then became the center of activity on the upper floor.

No comments »

Posted in Articles

Tags:

Contemporary Landscape Designs Create Movement and Form That Compliment Architecture, Sculpture, And Art on Display

September 28th, 2009

A local Houston art collector hired us to create a low maintenance, sophisticated, contemporary landscape design. She wanted her property to compliment her eclectic taste in architecture, outdoor sculpture, and modern art. Her house was built with a minimalist approach to decoration, emphasizing right angles and windows instead of architectural keynotes. The west wing of the house was only one story, while the east wing was two-story. The windows in both wings were larger than usual, so that visitors could see her art collection from the home’s exterior. Near one of the large rear windows, there was an abstract metal sculpture designed in the form of a spiral.

When she initially contacted us, the surrounding property had only a few trees and indigenous grass as vegetation. This was actually a good beginning point with us, because it allowed us to develop a contemporary landscape design that featured a very linear, crisp look supportive of the home and its contents. We began by planting a garden around the large contemporary sculpture near the window. Landscape designers planted horsetail reed under windows, along the sides of the home, and around the corners. This vegetation is very resilient and hardy, and requires little trimming, weeding, or mulching. This helped unite the diverse elements of sculpture, contemporary architecture, and landscape design into a more fluid harmony that preserved the proportions of each unique element, but eliminated any tendency for the elements to clash with one another.

We then added two stonework designs to the landscape surrounding the contemporary art collection and home. The first was a linear walkway we build from concrete pads purchased through a retail vendor as a cost-saving benefit to our client. We created this walkway to follow the perimeter of the home so that visitors could walk around the entire property and admire the outdoor sculptures and the collections of modern art visible through the windows. This was especially enjoyable at night, when the entire home was brightly lit from within.

To add a touch of tranquility and quite repose to the stark right angles of the home and surrounding contemporary landscape, we designed a special seating area toward the northwest corner of the property. We wanted to create a sense of contemplation in this area, so we departed from the linear and angular designs of the surrounding landscape and established a theme of circular geometry. We laid down gravel as ground cover, then placed large, circular pads arranged like giant stepping stones that led up to a stone patio filled with chairs. The shape of the granite pads and the contours of the graveled area further complimented the spirals and turns in the outdoor metal sculpture, and balanced the entire contemporary landscape design with proportional geometric forms of lines, angles, and curves.

This particular contemporary landscape design also has a sense of movement attached to it. All stonework leads to a destination of some sort. The linear pathway provides a guided tour around the home, garden, and modern art collection. The granite pathway stones create movement toward separate space where the entire experience of art, vegetation, and architecture can be viewed and experienced as a unity.

Contemporary landscaping designs like create form out of feeling by using basic geometric forms and variations of forms. Sometimes very stark forms are used to create a sense of absolutism or contrast. At other times, forms are blended, or even distorted to suggest a sense of complex emotion, or a sense of multi-dimensional reality. The exact nature of the design is always highly subjective, and developed on a case-by-case basis with the client.




By: Jeff Halper

No comments »

Posted in Articles

Tags:

Contemporary Patio Design

September 4th, 2009

Contemporary patio design is one of the most unique and dynamic elements of contemporary landscape design. It offers more opportunity for expansion and integration with other landscaping elements than do other types of hardscape. Planters, fountains, retaining walls, and even gardens can be integrated into the physical structure and basic form of a contemporary patio. Because of the increasing popularity of contemporary architecture throughout the Houston area, patios are being built with increasing sophistication using a number of construction materials put together in entirely new ways.

One method we use to distinguish contemporary patio design from more traditional forms is the creation of deliberately geometric patterns in stonework. Although stonework patterns are not limited to a single geometric form or size of form, it is essential that the angles in quadrilateral forms and the sizes of these forms be identical, obviously complimentary, or directly proportional. Such patterns create the immediate impression of that which has been man-made-something mathematically calculated, carefully measured, and precision cut. Irregularities in stonework tend to make it appear more random and more analogous to natural rock formations. An example of this principle in one of our more popular contemporary patio design styles is a linear hardscape made out of rectangular cuts of stone that run across the ground and turn at a sharp right angle upward to form a retaining wall. Smaller patios without walls can be built of blocks that are cut like perfect squares, or they can be made of one or more circles with radii that divide the hardscape into equal proportions. Circular patios are often built around contemporary fountains, particularly when the fountain is used as an introductory keynote to front yard landscaping.

Contemporary patios can also be built using unique brick designs. While many people may at face value think of brick as a material that is used only in traditional and historical masonry, it has found widespread use in recent years as a valuable construction material in contemporary structures as well. There are a number of brick elements that can we can vary to create a contemporary look and texture for the patio design. Color selection is perhaps the most important of these. Since red brick is the standard image that most people visualize when they think of a brick structure, any extreme deviation from this color pattern (such as an off-white or dark gray) can grab the attention enough to overcome assumptions and introduce an entirely new contemporary sense. Bricks can be cut or sanded with sharp, clean lines that remove the oven-baked appearance we typically visualize. Grout details can also be varied to create patterns of avant garde artistry between bricks. Sometimes a contemporary patio design can be created from a pattern that is based on something traditional, such as the running bond pattern that has been staggered by breaks between the rows and deviated into more angular linear movements.

As stone and brick patios continue to rise in popularity, concrete continues to maintain its status as a mainstay material used in contemporary patio design. The key lies in how we finish its surface in order to make it appear more abstract, refined, or chic. Broom finish concrete relies on linear parallel lines to create a sense of movement similar to those seen in linear stonework does. This style is very apropos to homes with contemporary architecture that is based on principals of minimalism, stark angularity, and an emphasis on large windows. In fact, many contemporary Houston homes extend this principle of artistic minimalism extends throughout the landscape. Most of the vegetation will be is replaced by outdoor artwork, gravel beds, and patios whose design functions as a reflection of the deliberately inorganic, intellectual elements of the landscape. Concrete in these areas should be toned down with no sheen on its surface. This will prevent it from reflecting light and make it a more suitable compliment to stepping stone paths, decorative rock formations, and abstract statuary. In still other instances, we may build a contemporary-style patio immediately adjacent to a living room or family room with wall-sized windows and a sliding glass door that permits immediate transition from indoor living space to outdoor living space. Such a patio is normally built out of concrete blocks in segmented rows and columns that allow us to later remove selected blocks at will to create open spaces where small trees can be planted, Zen gardens can be installed, or even custom contemporary fountains can be designed.

In conclusion, then, it is evident that it is not so much a matter of what materials or forms are used to create a contemporary patio, nor is it a matter of how many of these additional features are integrated into the design. Rather, what defines the contemporary style regardless of what feature is actually being built (be it a home, a garden, or a landscape itself) is the combination of geometric angles and shapes in a manner that is instantly recognizable as the work of mathematics, and consequently the uniquely human faculty of Mind that is able to measure, segment, and create relationships between the abstract.

Contemporary Patio Design-BLOG

Contemporary patio design is one of the most unique and dynamic elements of contemporary landscape design. It offers more opportunity for expansion and integration with other landscaping elements than do other types. Planters, fountains, retaining walls, and even gardens can be integrated into the physical structure and basic form of a contemporary patio.

Creating unique patterns in stonework is one way to differentiate contemporary patio design from more traditional forms. These stones can be cut in all sorts for shapes, provided that the linear and angular elements that constitute them appear in such a way as to create the immediate impression of a man-made element. With few exceptions, this means symmetrical cuts of stone and deliberate patterns of symmetry should be followed throughout the hardscape. Any irregularities will make stonework appear to be more random and thus more closely resemble rock formations found in nature. One of the most popular contemporary patio designs is a linear stone patio made with rectangular cuts of stone that run across the ground and up the sides of a stone wall. Smaller patios that do not have retaining walls may be built of blocks that are cut like perfect squares, or they can be made of one or more circles with radii that divide the hardscape into equal proportions.

Contemporary patios can also consist of unique brick designs. Some may think of brick as a material used exclusively in more traditional and historical forms. This is not necessarily the case. There are a number of brick elements that can be varied to create a very contemporary look and even texture for the patio design. Color selection is perhaps the most important of these. Red brick is the standard image most people picture when they think of a brick structure. A completely different color, such as a unique shade of white or gray, will often be all that is needed to create a more contemporary sense. Grout details can also be varied in special, proprietary ways to create patterns of avant garde artistry between bricks. At the same time, bricks can be cut or sanded with sharp, clean lines that remove the oven-baked appearance we typically visualize. Sometimes a contemporary patio design can be created out of bricks laid down in a pattern that is based on something traditional, such as the running bond pattern, but that has a deep break between the rows or a sharp deviation in the direction of linear movements.

Concrete is the most common material used in contemporary patio design. There are many ways to finish the surface of concrete to make it appear more abstract, refined, or chic. Broom finish concrete uses linear parallel lines to create a sense of movement in much the same way that linear stonework does. However, this type of concrete appears much more modern and is often more apropos to homes with contemporary architecture based on principals of minimalism, stark angularity, and an emphasis on large windows. In other contemporary homes, this principle of minimalism extends throughout the landscape. Vegetation is replaced by outdoor artwork, stonework, and patios whose design functions as a reflection of the deliberately inorganic, intellectual elements of the landscape. Concrete in these places is often toned down with no sheen on its surface. This makes it absorb light instead of reflecting so that it will more suitably compliment stepping stone paths, decorative rock formations, gravel beds, and abstract sculptures. In still other instances, we will build a contemporary-style patio immediately adjacent to a living room or family room with exceptionally large windows and a sliding glass door that permits immediate transition from indoor living space to outdoor living space. For this type of patio, we can lay down concrete blocks in segmented rows and columns that allow for Spartan plantings of vegetation in between them, or we can remove some of the blocks for plantings of trees and gardens.

It is not so much what materials or forms are used to create the hardscape, nor is it a matter of how many of these additional features are integrated into the design. Rather, what makes defines the contemporary style regardless of what feature is actually being built (be it a home, a garden, or a landscape itself) is the combination of geometric angles and shapes in a manner that is instantly recognizable as the work of mathematics, and consequently the uniquely human faculty of Mind that is able to measure, segment, and create relationships between the abstract.




By: Jeff Halper

No comments »

Posted in Articles

Tags: