Category: Off-line

Scotland

Dancing

DancersS. and I have taken up Scottish Country Dancing. We’re unbearably smug about the fact that we are fleeter of foot and comprehension than the rest of the council-run class; eventually there must be some karmic reaction to my calling one of the other couples ‘rhinoceros and elephant’, but I don’t think you’re supposed to look like you’re sumo-wrestling each other when you go for a spin. The teachers are amusing enough themselves: Kenny is chipper and sprightly, while Glenda never cracks a smile — and you never know when she’s going to appear at your elbow to lecture about Keeping Up the W (which S. and I understand, but I’m fairly certain noone else in the class knows what she’s talking about). Continue reading “Dancing”

Scotland

‘The Pad’ 3 – Schematic Design

Anime Sophistique.skp[‘The Pad’ is a condo in downtown Boston that I am currently re-designing for my friends Eric and Holly. This series of blogposts chronicles its progress.]

Once we had come to an agreement about the general arrangement of the floorplans, it was time to start thinking about what the place might actually look like. I came up with two themes based on my knowledge of their interests: one based on their enjoyment of the outdoors, which I called ‘Adirondack Modern’, and another based on their liking for Japanese cartoons, which I termed ‘Anime Sophistique’.

‘Adirondack Modern’ begged for natural materials: blue slate floors, extensive wood paneling, rugged stone walls, and rustic furniture. The garden space is shown enclosed with stone planters, creating real separation between it and the living room and bar area. The ‘Anime Sophistique’ scheme is unapologetically contrived-looking: Continue reading “‘The Pad’ 3 – Schematic Design”

Scotland

‘The Pad’ 2

previewI’m not going to post plans showing the existing walls, as all except the wet walls are irrelevant. What’s not irrelevant are the sprinkler heads, smoke detectors and fire alarms, and HVAC ducting, all of which seem to have been placed in the most inconvenient areas the developer could have imagined. Gripe. We will deal with all that eventually.What I was first concerned with was imagining a program (i.e. set of spaces and their relationships) that would work for Eric and Holly.

So I came  up with a few options for how I thought the space could work. This point in the process is often one of  the most interesting: for example, in my own home I would NEVER design computer workstations to be so central – but I can tell you from having stayed with them, the first thing Eric and Holly do when they get up in the morning is go to their computers, and they are found there whenever they have a spare moment. Continue reading “‘The Pad’ 2”

Scotland

‘The Pad’ 1

WindowSo I’ve been working for two months now on a project in Boston, even though I’m back in Edinburgh. As I’ve briefly mentioned before, it’s a loft condo in Downtown Crossing owned by my friends Eric and Holly. It’s their first home, but they went big: 3,000 square feet, all of which need to be gutted, as the space had been used for years as an office.

While the apartment is fairly industrial  and riddled with little rooms and bad fluorescent lighting, its bones are beautiful. The brick building was built in 1917 for use as a battery backup for city power, and its units boast high ceilings, enormous windows, and exposed brick walls. Eric and Holly’s unit has a 20-foot ceiling at its highest, though a mezzanine cuts through half the space. Unlike the other floors, theirs has only one large window at floor level and a number of smaller clerestories 18 feet up. (see ‘before’ photos in this post.) Continue reading “‘The Pad’ 1”

Boston, User Experience

Research

Maybe every architect should be required to live with their clients for two weeks. You find out the most interesting things — both about them and about the space.

For one: the loft is much noisier than I could ever have imagined. Theoretically I knew that a cocktail of concrete floors, brick walls, and drywall everywhere else was a recipe for echoes and difficulty hearing, but I was still amazed at how close you have to put the sofa to the TV in order to understand it.

And speaking of noise, the wet walls carrying all the piping from the rest of the building are clearly not well-insulated; every time someone flushes the toilet in a unit above it sounds like a freight train rushing towards you as you’re trying to untie yourself from the tracks… Continue reading “Research”

Boston

It’s Official

Not long ago I posted on my facebook status that I had acquired a lawyer. It’s a telling comment that all the people who responded assumed that there was some sort of problem — that I was getting sued or that I was having to oust my tenant. Some people who know me really well thought I might have needed to post bail. The truth is that the lawyer is a good thing (even if her fees were not so much): since I hired her last week she has set up two companies for me. I am now officially an LLC as an architect and an LLC as a product design firm.

Nothing is all that different. I’m still sitting at home working on three different projects. I’ve worked as a consulting architect for a few years now; my estimate is that I’ll launch my first product in February; and the competition I’m doing makes me feel like I’m back in grad school (check out http://www.shiftboston.org/). And yet.. everything has changed. Continue reading “It’s Official”

Boston

Home for Now

I woke up in my own house yesterday morning and experienced a big d’oh: now I remember why I became an architect. There is actually a point to designing a space that works for you. Living in other people’s houses over the past 18 months has left me feeling a bit out of sorts. Although I appreciate all styles, the one I most like to live in is quiet: spare, well-detailed, and functional.   My apartment  is very small, but its high ceiling and huge window with a view of the Boston skyline gives it a spacious feeling I often don’t get in homes twice its size. The kitchen is designed for cooking; the huge closets whisk away clutter; every light in the joint is on a dimmer; and my books are temptingly lined up waiting for a leisurely rainy Sunday. Continue reading “Home for Now”

Scotland

On the Catwalk

I’m a model, you know what I mean… I’m disappointed that we didn’t blare techno or have a big catering setup to coquettishly ignore at our photoshoot Thursday, but it was still a quietly amusing proposition: me vamping around in shoes I can barely walk in with far too much makeup on playing stick with a hyper dog in a cool outfit. I never had quite enough treats in my pocket; in trying to make them last I had my fingers bitten a number of times. At the end of the shoot I had the idea to wade in the icy pools at the Parliament, but had a hard time convincing Dylan to join me. I’m not used to being thought crazy by a dog. And she rudely turned her head when I instructed her to make love to the camera.

But Dylan seemed completely comfortable in her coat, and we had a number of appreciative comments from passers-by, so that’s something (though one of them was a vacant-looking fourteen year old boy who couldn’t take his hands out his track pants – a sort of Scottish Deliverance..) And the photos are great, though the ones in the pools weren’t worth losing a few toes to frostbite. Continue reading “On the Catwalk”