This morning I was able to share some recent projects with archi-buddy Jamie Crawley (@falloutstudio) over coffee. The hit of the morning was his project for this year’s Barkitecture – the RIB HOUSE. Which reminded me:

Barkitecture is this Saturday from Noon to 6:00 in the 2nd Street District of Austin. More information can be found at http://www.austinbarkitecture.com/.

Anyway, the project is a study in design/construction elegance. Of all of the Barkitecture doghouses I have seen over the years, this is my favorite. By a good measure.

Have a great weekend!

I was able to visit the Riverdale Residence recently for a site visit/camping trip with my son. Camping has been an important component of this project and I hope to maintain it as a standard design protocol for all of my rural projects. Camping allowed me to gain a greater understanding of the site as well as the clients. Drinking wine next to a campfire makes for great design!

The home is ‘dried in’ now and all the porches are done, a very important milestone. The clients are self-performing most of the work and this allows them to move at their own pace and enjoy the outdoor living features that were designed to take advantage of the site.

In fact, during a recent weekend long rainstorm, they were able to spend the whole time – with extended family – under the sheltering roof of their modern Dogtrot. Beer in the kitchen, game of washers in the very large Breezeway. Rainstorm be damned!

That was how we planned it.

I was able to visit MILHouse 2.0 last week and take some pre-move-in photos. I am looking forward to seeing this occupied by the happy newlyweds.

We were able to resolve a few things on the second iteration of this home. The Kitchen has been enlarged from original MILHouse to resolve the circulation pinch point that I noted during Cool Home Tour. Since these clients will entertain more, this was a critical issue to resolve. The Hall doors are installed in ceiling mounted pocket doors tracks instead of face-mounted rails, but are contained within a recess so that they flush out with the walls. This eliminated some visual noise (or created functional interest, depending on how you look at it) in the Hallway while allowing the wall cavity behind the door to used for electrical runs instead of a door pocket.

Once again we used cabinets from IKEA for the Bedroom Closets. These units take up less space than a series of walls with doors – critical in a home this small – and allow a huge amount of flexibility. The Kitchen cabinets are from IKEA while the Bath cabinets are custom.

Ready for MILHouse III – who’s interested?

I am very excited about this weekend and most of all about the updated Arthouse reopening. I have watched the construction, especially the final pieces, including the simple, but awesome painted signage.

The Reopening Party – dinner and/or after party – will be held Friday, October 22, and tickets are still available – $1,000 for the dinner and $125 for the after party.

The Member Preview Party will be held Saturday, October 23, 2010.

The Public Reopening Party will be held on Sunday October 24, 2010 between Noon and 8:00. I am especially looking forward to the 2:00 presentation by Lewis.Tsurumaki.Lewis Architects.
More info can be found and tickets purchased at: http://thenewarthouse.org/

A recent article from the Statesman on Arthouse: http://www.austin360.com/arts/arthouse-raises-the-cultural-ante-on-congress-976074.html

This home was designed to use solar power for most of its energy needs. The clients chose to phase the installation of solar panels as rebates were available from the City of Austin (the rebate program had been halted at time of construction, but all infrastructure was put in place). The photos below represent the first phase of a two-phase installation.

Another benefit to phasing the PV system is that the components of the system are better and more cost-effective than they would have been when the house was under construction. As a result, the total system output is larger than originally designed.  Capacity for each installation phase is just over 6 KW, pushing total system capacity to just under 13 KW when both phases are complete!

That is a personal power plant.