I'd Like to Tap That: Smith Tower...Again

Check out this amazing photos essay that our friend  Kyle Johnson who did a piece for Kinfolk Magazine Vol. 3!! Kyle proposed the project and shot the story while Ashley Helvey styled the shoot at the top pyramid loft space of the Smith Tower.

 

When the NYT feature of the space came out about 2 years ago,  I wrote a blog post about that space and about how my life won't even compare to the 3 year old kid living there!! But that was the past... now the NEW me, is little bit more optimistic knowing that I'm less than 6 degrees separated from the people who lives there.  I'm getting SO close I can taste it!
But seriously though....I'm SUPER excited for Kyle & Ashley that they got to do this (and of course, equally jealous!) It looked like such a surreal expereince....to hang out in the space, see the view of the city & the water from the 40th floor, while eating a homemade meal by Molly Wizenberg (of Orangette) and Brandon Pettit ( of Delancey)!

Yah, I know, can it get anymore ridiculous than this? I would very much like to shut the front door on them, too.

Someday....I'll get to a point where I don't have to pay $35+ just to see views like this on a day-to-day bases.

I'd Like to Tap That: Pitched Roof Loft

I think with this amount of light that this loft gets, it maybe not be entirely impossible to actually get me up in the morning...especially during the winter times!!
Actually...I really need this....
You know when people's celings are too high when they start to staple pillows on it.
Sheesh....

Via Philip Karlberg

I'd Like to Tap That: Escher Wooden House

Amazingly understated home from the outside, yet glowingly warm and delightfully playful in the inside. Just looking at the photos reminds me something like an Escher drawing where it keeps my eyes moving around looking eager to discover more.

House K by Yoshichika Takagi (Sapporo, Japan)

Via Sokosokoashiko

Back to the Land Homes (part two)

The much anticipated part two of my Back to the Land House post! The hardest part is not including every image of every interior of the book, but these are my top picks.

These and more on Flickr.

Imagine a studio like this!

Or one of the many glorious geodesics.

Some inspiration for our kitchen!

I love the Japanese feeling of this space combined with the massive string art (the text caption is from the book...the way the whole thing is written...not sure what they're talking about most of the time)

These have me dreaming of an Adobe shack...

Circular windows!

Back to the Land Homes (part one)

In the late seventies after a failed attempt to live out of a VW microbus, my Dad had the bright, romantic idea to drop the nomad lifestyle, move to the country, and live off the land. So he did the only sensible thing a twenty-something in that time period could think of, he bought a lone chicken coop on a couple of acres and decided to make it his home. So began years of trials and tribulations that are a prominent part of my family's folklore: a lost cow, brush fires, a roof-climbing goat named Jemima and the transformation of that chicken coop into a modest passive solar home worthy of his back to the land dream.

Like many similar utopian visions of that time, the romance inevitably wore off, practicality set in and we became city dwellers once again, but my Dad still shakes his head and says "I'm so glad I did that." I can't help but feel the same nostalgic romantic feeling from time to time myself. Should we drop everything and head for simple country life?? Could we cut it out in rural life? Scratch that. We'd probably go crazy, but it's fun to think about the possibilities.

While I try to dig up the few photos that were taken of my Dad's own chicken coop transformation, I thought I would share three amazing books that inspired him to take that plunge (and has got me thinking rustic myself). All Their Own, The Craftsman Builder, and Woodstock Handmade Houses

Below are some pic excerpts of some of the exteriors. Interiors (my fav) in part deux.

More scans on Flickr.

I'm just blown away by the creativity, thoughtfulness and resourcefulness that went into these homes. They were built over time and evolved organically with limited resources, but ultimate freedom...it's authentic rustic charm...not the kind you read about in real estate listings...it's genuine character. Geodesic dome on top of a cedar-shaked double-wide character!

(abv) Love the gesture of this structure's roof line...it was actually architect designed and built as his personal hippie home.

The above is built partially into the ground for heating/cooling. The slanted roof runs to the ground to head off the north winds another passive solar feature and one my Dad used on the chicken coop to ward off the Michigan winter winds.

Not exactly sure what's happening here, but I think this is his artist studio/workshop. I could definitely work there!

Sweet treehouse! Me want! The triangular window collage is such a cool feature. Not sure if that staircase is code...

Ok check out Flickr and stay tuned for Part Two.

I'd like to Tap That: Layered House

If I believed in heaven, I'd imagine it would something like this place...
Heck, I'll believe in heaven in a heartbeat if I know I can end up in living in space like this...
The house is designed by, and of course, a Japanese architect, Jun Igarashi.
Read more about it Here.

Via Grijs,
Via Designboom

I'd Like to Tap That: Modern Dream House

I love LOVE every part of this modern house by Linea Studio based in the UK.
There isn't a corner in the house that I don't love....even the dusts in the corner and the smudges on the window....

So, to warn you, there's gonna be a lot of me going "I like this...I like that...and OH-EM-GEEE... I LUV it!" repeatedly through out this post....

To start....
Check... THIS...out!! Look at this staircase with shelves on the side!! SCREAM!
and look at all the cute things on it! (still screaming!)
...SO want open shelves like that for our kitchen so I can display our housewares collection too...

Man....I really would also love a nice open kitchen like that....or to have room for a dinning table instead of sitting on the floor by our coffee table while my feet fall asleep during our dinner...
One thing though...I personally think it might just be a little TOO open. I mean just looking at how much empty space they have on the floor there!
Now...if it was US living there, we'd totally want to take advantage of that empty "wasted" floor space and turn it into a L&G packing & shiping area or something totally awesome like that...
boy...do I like those chairs....
Love the lights, love the floor, love the Finel heart bowl with the plant in it.
I also like the cleverly integrated landing unit and shelves.
Hello...metal flat drawers , giant working desk table with classy chairs, and that whole set of Domus magazines....I like you guys, too.
Clean, simple & nice looking bathroom..I like the simple towel holder pole...oh yes I do.
How fun was that?!
I can do this all day and look at all the photos of this place over & over again....and fantasize about me living there in that house...even as a particle of dust in the corner...