Archive by Author
Ask an Architect at Miele’s San Francisco Showroom
You’ve been dreaming about expanding your home for years now, but haven’t committed yourself to working with an architect to explore what could happen. Or maybe you’re just curious about what architects actually do. Now’s your chance to ask all the questions you want, with no obligation – and take a cooking class on Miele’s state-of-the-art equipment at the same time.
Monday, January 17, 2011 | Rebecca Firestone | Add a Comment
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Chris Downey on Tactile Architecture
“The idea of simplicity for the sake of mental clarity can actually be created even within a complex space by having an orthogonal way of moving through that space. Even a Frank Gehry design can have an orthogonal footprint within it. I’d love to visit his museum in Bilbao. It could be a fascinating building to hear or to sense… virtual reality is all about being “somewhere else,” but architecture is about being where you are – that’s what I’m really interested in doing.”
– Chris Downey, Architect
Monday, December 20, 2010 | Rebecca Firestone | Add a Comment
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Chris Downey on Architecture for the Blind
“When I lost my vision, the first thing I had to learn was non-visual coping skills. Rehabilitation teaches you about things like how to travel on mass transit, but there was no training on how to be a blind architect. But why not? After all, Beethoven wrote some of his best music after going deaf. We’re not shut out of architecture.”
- Chris Downey, Architect
Monday, December 13, 2010 | Rebecca Firestone | Add a Comment
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Anne Fougeron’s City of the Future Starts Now…
With 80% of the world’s arable land already in use, we are running out of land to feed ourselves. Land and water are fixed, finite resources; their scarcity could become a greater crisis than global warming, terrorism, or species extinction. One way to address that is by expanding the notion of what “land” is to include urban settings, to make regions like the Bay Area self-sustaining. Architect Anne Fougeron answers a few questions about her vision for a San Francisco 100 years in the future by saying, “People shouldn’t be allowed to come into this world only to starve.”
Tuesday, November 23, 2010 | Rebecca Firestone | Add a Comment
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Design Alert: Potential China Scam
It sounded too good to be true – an invitation to build a large office tower and sustainable housing project in China. But when several architects discovered that they’d signed on for the same identical piece of work, everyone smelled a rat. No one has lost much money, yet. So the mystery is, why?
Wednesday, October 13, 2010 | Rebecca Firestone | Add a Comment
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LA Modern House Tour in Los Altos Celebrates Richard Neutra
Coming up on Saturday, October 16 from 10-3pm is a special event for fans of Modernism – the 2010 “LA Modern” homes tour sponsored by the Los Altos Community Foundation. The upcoming tour includes several California Modern homes besides the Neutra house designed in the same spirit: light, airy, rigorous and clean, with an acceptance of natural materials as well as modern industrial techniques.
Monday, September 27, 2010 | Rebecca Firestone | Add a Comment
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Re-structuring Your Design Firm During a Recession
“In this prolonged recession, we have two choices, it seems: We can hibernate for a number of years, like Rip Van Winkle, waking conveniently to a new world. Or we can make the time to consider new business development strategies that highlight our firm’s value and that put us closer to new projects. Concurrently, we can consider ways to improve our ability to stay abreast of trends in technology and practice.
The reality of global outsourcing is likely to change the nature of firms of every size. Our day-to-day tasks may shift from directing in-house staff to one where we review outsourced documents for design and code compliance. Can you fit in, and if so, how?”
Thursday, September 23, 2010 | Rebecca Firestone | Add a Comment
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Jill Pilaroscia: Give Color a Chance
“Color isn’t just about surface decoration. There’s a cellular response to color that we have as human beings, and it’s that response which we are addressing when we work with color. Sometimes colorizing a space costs more to do and to maintain. But our environment shapes behavior. It’s WORTH spending time on.
Few architectural institutions offer a formal program addressing color in the built environment. Any exposure they have to color theory is frequently through studio courses that focus solely on two-dimensional color applications. Architects aren’t taught about bio-responses to color. They’re not taught how they can move volumes around in space through the application of color, or how they can use color to shape experience and behavior. I’d like to tell them not to be afraid of color. Give color a chance!”
– Jill Pilaroscia
Sunday, August 15, 2010 | Rebecca Firestone | Add a Comment
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Talk to an Architect on September 11-12
Have you ever wanted a chance to ask an architect about your home? Maybe you’ve got some new idea and want to know what’s involved in making it happen, or maybe there’s just one thing you’d like to change but you don’t know how. Well, if you live near San Francisco and you’re planning on doing the San Francisco Living: Home Tours, then you can also bring your photos, idea books, sketches, and questions to the “Talk to an Architect” booth at the Home Tours headquarters.
Tuesday, August 10, 2010 | Rebecca Firestone | Add a Comment