Posted in Design Projects, tagged decks, fire resistant construction, glass impregnated wood, new materials, utilitarian, wood on October 20, 2011| 1 Comment »
Timbersil decking
Timbersil Framing
Adolfo (Ron Tostenson Construction) was sanding the decking smooth before staining when I stopped by. The framing and the decking are all glass impregnated wood by TimberSIL and extremely fire and rot resistant. (more info here) Its looking good – much better than pressure treated from below, and the decking is nice too.
Posted in Found Objects, tagged acoustics, cabin, clam digging, color, concrete, Library, porches, Rem Koolhas, rustic, small buildings, timber frame, tiny trailer home, utilitarian, wood, yellow on May 26, 2011| Leave a Comment »
I just returned from a field trip to Seattle, Washington. We visited one of my favorite buildings of all time, The Seattle Main Public Library by Rem Koolhas, to see how it is holding up. It is now 7 years old and still looks great. Very raw and utilitarian…but nicely detailed to be comfortable and functional too. This building makes me realize that it is sometimes worth the effort to stick to your guns and convince the client to do something really different. There is nothing conventional about this building.
We also visited Ellie Sherman at the Whidbey Institute.
She lives in a tiny cabin – about 7’x8′.
It is very cozy inside. I wish I had a photo. There is something really nice about bedrooms just barely big enough for a bed, some clothes, and some books.
The Sanctuary is another nice building at the Whidbey Institute:
Also, on Whidbey Island, we collected a feast of clams and mussels.
We had a good local guide who shared his secret mussel patch with us.
When we returned, I took a nap in my friend Jason’s tiny retreat on wheels, only slightly bigger than Ellie’s cabin, but it contains a bed, and table for two, and a kitchenette. (you can see it here in the background behind Jason and Rosalina)
And then we cooked clams in Tofty’s yellow kitchen
John sips wine while Jody and Vina tend to the clam sauce
Posted in Information, tagged building materials, fire resistant construction, glass impregnated wood, green, new materials, wood on May 24, 2011| 3 Comments »
I have been searching for a material for building decks that meets the most rigorous requirements of the wildfire interface zones. I found a new product called TimberSIL that seems to fit the bill and more. The product literature makes some big claims:
“TimberSIL utilizes recycled non-toxic water glass, extracted from rice hulls (an abundant waste product) to surround and protect the wood fiber. TimberSIL wood is unrecognizable as food source for insects, protected from flame and resists rot. The glass extraction process is so heat intensive that it creates more energy than it uses (Energy positive).”
BuildingGreen.com has given the material great reviews, and they explain the energy positive claims a bit:
“Timber Treatment Technologies switched entirely to this waste agricultural source of sodium silicate about a year ago. The sodium silicate the company uses in its treatment process is derived 100% from burning rice hulls. Rice hulls have a high silica content–up to about 60%–and this silica is extracted in a gasification process in which the hulls are heated to produce three products: hydrogen (which is burned to generate electricity), carbon (used in making activated carbon for filters), and amorphous sodium silicate. ”
This is a relatively new and unproven product as of yet, but it seems like a good one to try. The TimberSIL installation manual provides a lot of helpful tips. I think only southern yellow pine is available now, but perhaps it will expand to other species and maybe they can switch to FSC certified wood as well.
Posted in Design Projects, tagged ash, kitchen, lighting design, patterns, richlite, tile, wood on May 23, 2011| 5 Comments »
The before shots of this custom kitchen are here. It was an enjoyable design process with a creative and very involved client.
This is a view of the kitchen from the entry hall
Warm glow of orange glass pendant lights
Iridescent orange and gold accent tiles are like music notes in the field of white rectangles
Shimmering figured ash cabinetry with simple mortised drawer pulls (Freedman and Chesley Custom Cabinets)
Close-up of the beautiful solid ash curved bar top (also by Freedman and Chesley, Emeryville, CA)
Custom designed cabinetry to fit the client’s tansu pieces
Intersection of black, white, and warm wood (the black Paperstone countertop matches the tv cabinet across the room)
Laundry and pantry are conveniently close at hand behind a subtle white-painted pocket door
Architect and client in the new kitchen!
Posted in Design Projects, tagged boxes, fir, furniture, process, redwood, salvaged, wood on March 26, 2011| Leave a Comment »
After gluing the box together, it needed some sanding.
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The lid is made from two fir 2×6 scraps and a redwood 2×4 scrap that John brought home from his job site. Better than average specimens, with fairly straight, tight grain; they are probably from appearance grade stock. I did not have a planer on hand, but they were pretty straight and flat. I used my new jointer to make edges flat and perpendicular to the faces. I also used the jointer to clean up the faces. (This is usually accomplished by a planer) Then I glued and clamped them together as shown in this photo.
Posted in Design Projects, tagged cabin, exposed beams, fibercement, fir, lighting design, mendocino, metal, philo, recycled, redwood, salvaged, small buildings, vaulted ceiling, wood on February 22, 2011| Leave a Comment »
I recently paid a visit to the little cottage in Philo that I designed a few years ago. I was happy to see that the owners were using the cozy little space and had decorated in good taste. I took a few pictures since I only have photos of the unfurnished rooms on my website.
Finally they moved a couch into the little cabin…and lots of other things too
The builder took the liberty to use some of the 100 year old salvaged redwood siding from my house in Berkeley to make this cute little vent cover
Still no art on the tall southern wall. stay posted. I think a painting will be installed soon
The loft above has been furnished too! complete with a painting of bruce lee and sheer curtains!
Posted in Design Projects, tagged fir, furniture, green, paint, paperstone, patterns, recycled, rope, salvaged, wood on January 20, 2011| 3 Comments »
This Cadillac Trash Can has a top shelf for plants, a shelf for holding tuna for the cat, and a space below to push the dog bowls out of the way. It is built from remnants, so I didn’t have complete control of the proportions: Richlite top, fir sides, plywood shelves, door, & back panel
Decorated with pencil and Bioshield Aqua Resin Trim Enamel (zero VOC and compostable)
The door flips open on and is held at the proper angle by rope salvaged from a sailboat. Small clothespins attach the bags to the door for easy access
Posted in Found Objects, tagged energy efficiency, heat recovery ventilator, HVAC, passive house, rainscreen, windows, wood on November 4, 2010| 2 Comments »
Passive house is a fairly new word. This recent evolutionary step in building technology comes from Austria, but many of the concepts are ancient. The basic idea is to insulate really well and eliminate random air leakage and thereby require way less heating energy. Ideally all the heat needed will be generated by occupants, their computers and light bulbs, and the sun.
Pretty simple, right? The devil is in the details. Real Passive Houses also must pass a performance test to prove they actually work.
Nabih Tahan was an innovator on the west coast. The New York Times published an article about Passive Houses a houses in 2008 that mentions his Berkeley California renovation project.
Unfortunately, Nabih’s house failed the blower door test for leakiness, so doesn’t actually qualify as a passive house, but he has measured his energy use over the last two years and it performs extremely well. He had to install electric baseboard heaters to satisfy the building code. He rarely turns on these heaters, but since electric heat is inefficient, (a lot is wasted in transmission) his “source energy load” is slightly over the Passive House requirement. He thinks that he would have qualified if he had used gas heaters.
Here is a picture of Nabih’s Air to air heat exchanger (energy recovery ventilator) from Ultimate Air:
The guy in the picture designed and installed the system. His name is is George Nesbitt, and he has a company called Environmental Design-Build.
Nabih installed redwood rainscreen siding. I think it was made out of the old siding, milled into flat slats. His window details are pretty nice:
Posted in Design Projects, tagged doorways, El Cerrito, houses, mahogony, process, wood on September 30, 2010| Leave a Comment »
The front door was installed yesterday. Now we are working out the trim details. (Ignore the blue painters tape please)
We decided to make the fir continue all the way to the ceiling and the corner for simplicity Having a sliver of white to the right of the door and a wider sliver above would have diminished the installation. I admit some influence by the intersecting planes of Gerrit Rietveld’s Schröder House
Posted in Design Projects, tagged doorways, mahogony, process, wood on September 24, 2010| Leave a Comment »
The client and their cats are moving back home so Guillaume put in a rush order for the custom fir door. Here is a photo of the door glued and clamped at John Staton in West Berkeley: 
I hope it will be ready in time!
Posted in Found Objects, tagged Brooklyn, derelict chic, lighting design, metal, New York, restaurant, rustic, tile, wood on September 21, 2010| 2 Comments »
I just ate dinner at this cool restaurant in Brooklyn. It was dark outside the whole time I was there. I am sure the place would feel pretty different for breakfast.
The building is an old diner train car with all the inherent architectural charm that you might imagine….. cozy narrow space, curved ceiling, lots of windows.
Instead of accentuating the 50s style, this restaurant has a different, edgier and classier sort of atmosphere.
It easily could have been overly trendy with its “derelict” finishes (ala Zoolander)
The old tile floor is patched with no attempt to hide that fact that it has been patched.
but some how it just works.
Once again the lighting is key. In this case the general lighting is dimmed, and warm flickery candlelight creates the mood. Mirrors, shiny ceiling and glass tiles add to the sparkle.
Lara Kaufman, who took most of these photos for me, is pictured on the right and Elissa Steglich, the local friend who took us here is on the left
Photo from Lara K showing some artful floor patches
Posted in Found Objects, tagged energy efficiency, garden, landscape, lighting design, recycled, salvaged, wood on September 6, 2010| 2 Comments »
I got to go to John’s company party the other day. The food was good. Here are some photos of the house and gardens and some of the party-goers and feast.
It is more energy-efficient to have a square, compact house, but when you live in California and you have a beautiful piece of land with some nice views, it is hard not to connect the inside to the landscape with courtyards. This H-shaped piece of architecture works pretty well, although it would have been better if the site was on the north wall of the valley rather than the north-east. I imagine that the courtyard is sometimes unusable on a hot afternoon with the low-angle sun beaming across the valley. As you can see from some of the photos, the house has a lot of creative and artful details.
Links:
deedsdesign 