modern architecture

Duval Studio

| mjneal

The program was to provide workspace for a multi-disciplinary creative studio. The location was in the last remaining intact interior of a small completely masonry (interior and exterior) strip center designed and built in the late forties.

New additions are of wood and steel to contrast the existing raw masonry. Everything new is installed so that when removed, the integrity of the raw space is maintained for the future.

Careful allocation of funds and tricks like kerfing the ¾” plywood to provide the “poor man’s curves” where used to meet the extremely low budget of twelve thousand dollars. New materials are formaldehyde free plywood with a tung oil finish, cold rolled steel, and paint.

Update: this project won a Merit Award at the AIA, Austin 2010 Design Awards.

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Sustainable Homes in the USA

| mjneal

We are proud to be in this fine book and I’m particularly happy that my pictures are getting published all over the place. I’m enjoying photography more and more, as I have been mentioning in this blog. I’m preparing an exhibition… I’ll post about it soon.

Anyway, the focus of the book is sustainability. I encourage you to review the Texas Architect article by Richard Wintersole, AIA:

 Conserving energy is important to Neal, thus the SIPs serve as a thermal umbrella and air is encouraged to circulate through the building from end to end. The Farleys plan to add a large, low-velocity fan to improve the air circulation. When ambient air breezes through the home, the Farleys and their guests are truly in touch with the natural world.”

or by going to the Dwell article by Sarah Rich

In a climate like this, air-conditioning seems indispensable, but to cool the entire structure artificially would be inefficient and costly. Neal devised a solution by building a 540-square-foot box nested within the superstructure, which contains the bedroom, bathroom, and kitchen, as the only air-conditioned space in the building. The two-story plywood envelope has sliding walls on all sides that can be closed to keep cool temperatures in or left open to the fluctuations of the natural ventilation throughout the building.”

 

Macho Minimalism

| mjneal

The Wolfe Den is in it’s final stages. Little details are being completed like the front door handle and the landscaping is being installed. Becca of Rain Lilly Design has dubbed the front stone entry design “macho minimalism”. I really like that! I’m going to steal it;)

Enjoy, I am.

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Ipe @ the Den

| mjneal

The Front Ipe bench is ready to install (and probably is installed by this posting.)

Mr. Fritz, a new hand with Living Art Austin, shows off his handy-work on the Ipe vanities. Beautiful, elegant, chunky things. You need to come touch them to understand them. Am I in Mexico… sorry went into a daydream there. Woof!

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Creative Process Sneak a Peak

| mjneal

I was opening files and this Skype chat between MJ and I came up.  We were in the same city, yes, but in different houses, late at night (noooo we didn’t have a fight… it’s a loooong story… to be told another time) We had a deadline on an article we had been asked to write for our good friends at the Good Life Magazine so we both got on skype…

You won’t see a post like this every day on this blog, no sir

Skype

Chat History with 

Created on 2006-12-07 22:51:33.

2006-12-07

mj:22:23:52
test
barcelonaloca:22:23:57
hello
mj:22:24:03
yes
mj:22:25:17
so we’re working remotely for this article. the beuty and the beast of technology
mj:22:25:36
how are we to maintain a physical community with this?
barcelonaloca:22:25:57
it would be a long story to explain why we are not doing this in person, but it IS related to housing
mj:22:26:09
or not
barcelonaloca:22:26:23
ok the absence of housing then
mj:22:27:00
well maybe it is also the absence of the ability for most to be “neighbors” these days or maybe that is a little to harsh
barcelonaloca:22:27:40
I liked your perception of the fence around our house, I’m going to paste it here
mj:22:27:58
it is a beautiful metophor
mj:22:28:11
a physical thing
mj:22:28:19
a real thing
barcelonaloca:22:28:21
Our current house has a low chain link fence around the back yard. You know the type, the one your parents put up to keep the family dog from getting into their friend’s–read neighbors–yard and digging up the tomatoes. The fence dad would lean on while talking to Mr. Jones. The fence where Mrs. Jones would trade mom some tomatoes for zucchini. Well this fence of ours, has gates in it to the neighbors’ yards. Imagine that. Openings to my neighbors’yards. A gesture to the sense of community right there in my own back yard.
 But these gates are covered with vines and have been wired shut.   When? Why? What a beautiful thing those gates are.
(this is a goo “last line)I wonder if my neighbors would like some Squash?  

mj:22:28:24
tactile
mj:22:28:41
is that goo or good?
barcelonaloca:22:28:47
good
barcelonaloca:22:29:10
maybe we should skip the IM thing and go home and get in bed
barcelonaloca:22:29:13
together
barcelonaloca:22:29:19
I like the tactile part
mj:22:29:26
yeah..
barcelonaloca:22:29:38
ok back to the article
barcelonaloca:22:29:40
rats
mj:22:29:48
double arts
barcelonaloca:22:30:12
somehow I think that the point you make about community is also related to “truth”
mj:22:30:15
that should be double rats
barcelonaloca:22:30:29
or double star

(…)

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