frame

drawing and argument in architecture

[nickkarth]

merci leon

This is a hard one. Leon Krier was a stalwart polemicist, and though I have taken exceptions to his arguments, he has always remained a heavy influence on me. Especially in pioneering drawing as argument, a tactic this drawg has taken since day one. From urbanism to the simplest of follies, Leon carried arguments through his drawings. His built work may not have been numerous, but his impact will…

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[nickkarth]

less isn't always a bore

less isn’t always a bore

Thank you, Robert Venturi.

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[nickkarth]

modules. shingles. tiny.

Today is another foray into the world of tiny homes.  Since they’re all the craze, and lend themselves to most often less-than-inspiring forms with ramshackle facades and haphazard plans, I thought I’d take a stab at taming this faddy beast.

An 8’0″ module dominates (primarily dictated by Department of Transportation trailer width standards), broken down into a smaller 2’8″ framing module. …

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[nickkarth]

two squares, many arches

two squares, many arches

It’s been far too long – apologies are in order.

But today it’s back to basics: square and arches.  The first project is a simple study of a simple idea, instigated by an awful homespun diy renovation in my neighborhood, where a series of plaster arches had been tacked up under a shallow roof overhang, obscuring the clapboard home beneath.  I’ve ordered it a bit more, rendered in a square with…

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[nickkarth]

a kitchen in the round

a kitchen in the round

Today’s post is a continuation of the previous week’s.  Here, I’ve blown-up the kitchen proper, which like my grandparents’ kitchen that inspired it, has a large central island.  Where theirs was square, though, I’ve rendered it circular, in homage to Sir Edwin Lutyens’ great subterranean kitchen at Castle Drogo.  Similarly to Lutyens’, I’ve topped it with a great circular skylight as well, to…

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[nickkarth]

a rambling house

Sometimes I’ll sit in front of a blank page of my sketchbook, pen in hand, coffee poured, for some time with seemingly no idea of what I’d like to draw, what ideas I’d like to explore – an ‘architect’s block’, if you will.  To break the silence, I might attempt to draw a floor plan of a house I know in a different style (as in this previous post, where I took the Craftsman Gamble House and…

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[nickkarth]

philip johnson and the rockefellers

philip johnson and the rockefellers

In 1950, Philip Johnson completed a townhome in Midtown Manhattan for the Rockefellers.  The simple mid-century modernist gem has become an icon of the halcyon era, with a black steel frame filled with a blind brick first floor and large floor-to-ceiling plate glass windows above, and an open floor plan hiding an exterior courtyard and reflecting pond, with a bedroom suite beyond.

Like most…

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[nickkarth]

a skylit studio

After taking a little well-needed vacation, I’m back with more frame.  Specifically, I’m sharing a continuation of the past two posts – a hillside studio and home.  Both of these projects included a small cubic volume topped with a pyramidal skylight.  This particular ‘studio’ typology is explored more fully here.  While the exterior is a solid white stucco-ed cube, the interior shows a…

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[nickkarth]

a hillside elevation

Most often, architects design with ‘plan as generator’, that is we begin designing a building with the floor plan, and derive all the elevations, sections, and even details from it.

Today, though, is something different.  This began as an elevation – what you see above.  I was thinking something between Adolf Loos and Irving Gill, with a Richardsonian picturesque quality – a ‘character study’ if…

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[nickkarth]

a studio, hillside

Small (often illegal) studios riddle the Hollywood Hills, where all ilk of entertainment-oriented folk hash out their hits and edit down their next Oscar-worthy performances. . . or so the stereotype goes.

This is such a studio – a miniature white cube set deep into the hillside with a service shed and private garden adjacent.  Upon approach, only the pyramidal skylight is visible, slowly…

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[nickkarth]

a tale of two long, 'low', gables

a tale of two long, ‘low’, gables

What we have today is a study in similarities and contrasts – two houses, separated by a continent in distance (and climate), two distinct architectural styles (and building materials), and about fifty or so years of time (and appreciation.

The first (up top), is McKim Mead & White’s iconic Low House of 1886 at Bristol, Rhode Island, a long shallow gable of shingles, punctured by a subtle…

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[nickkarth]

eccentrically braced mies

While studying for my last licensing exam, I found some simple and elegant diagrams of different steel frame systems (something like this or this).  While the concentrically braced frame has been a hallmark of certain strains of Miesian modernism (Craig Ellwood, anyone? or here), I couldn’t think of an instance where the eccentrically braced frame had made its feature debut.  So I drew one.  I’ll…

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[nickkarth]

neo-rationalism in the basque country

neo-rationalism in the basque country

In 1980, Jose Ignacio Linazazoro designed a deceptively simple renovation of a town hall at Segura in the Basque region of Guipuzcoa.  While Linazazoro’s current work is of a decidedly modernist vocabulary, his earliest work was more neo-rationalist, taking heavy cues from Rossi and Krier (he even worked in the office of Venturi Scott Brown for a time).  The town hall renovation in question…

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[nickkarth]

a quonset. a barn. a home.

a quonset. a barn. a home.

As any casual observer of this ‘drawg’ will note, I have quite an affinity for the vernacular architectures of the Americas.  My family’s winter trips to rural Oklahoma have offered me a greater opportunity to acquaint myself with the seemingly endless variety that the vernacular languages offord. This is yet another home in a barn – yet this time a quonset-roofed barn, where the structural…

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[nickkarth]

making pj pomo, before he himself was

making pj pomo, before he himself was

The plan above is a direct take on Philip Johnson’s Hodgson House of 1951, at New Canaan, CT.  The original is of the same mid-century modernist vein as his own storied Glass House of 1949, also in New Canaan.  My version keeps the same U-shaped floor plan, but filled out to take up an entire square, and replaces the focal fireplace wall with a half-round bay.  Most dramatically, though, the…

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[nickkarth]

greek shingles This small home is a take on the shingled row houses of southern New England, particularly by a number of homes I visited on the Rhode Island-Massachusetts border while in graduate school. 

[nickkarth]

mid century modernism goes traditional

mid century modernism goes traditional

Having begun my architectural education in Southern California, Mid-Century Modernism (and especially Richard Neutra*) has always held a place of honor in my personal canon – MadMen be damned.  Among the Eastern variants of that style, the Harvard Five are most likely the most influential. Today’s work is a variation on Eliot Noyes’ own home at New Canaan, CT.  Effectively, I’ve taken the iconic…

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