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tigerbus2-blog · 4 years

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Dyson Repairs

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#vaccum cleaner

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architectnews · 3 years

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Ten architecture projects from students at the University of Oregon College of Design

An urban agricultural centre that highlights all aspects of the food cycle and a design that explores the domesticity of public space are included in our latest school show by students at the University of Oregon, College of Design.

Also included are mass timber structural systems, a forest-based education centre and solutions to the housing crises.

University of Oregon, College of Design

School: School of Architecture and Environment Tutors: Peter Keyes, Judith Sheine, Howard Davis, Mark Donofrio, Hajo Neis, Esther Hagenlocher, Craig Wilkins, Kayin Talton Davis, Cleo Davis and Gerald Gast

School statement:

"University of Oregon's School of Architecture and Environment is nationally recognised for its innovation and sustainability research, including designing buildings, interiors, landscapes and communities.

"We are committed to the principles of civic responsibility, environmental sustainability, international understanding and interdisciplinary education. The School of Architecture and Environment is located on the University of Oregon campus in Eugene and at the historic White Stag Block in Portland. We are a vibrant, collaborative learning community.

"We help students develop the values, knowledge, skills and practices they need to create better architecture and environments that resonate with people and their cultural, physical and ecological worlds. We are dedicated to recognising designers' accountability for their impact on environmental, social and cultural systems.

"We emphasise collaboration and a non-competitive but rigorous learning environment and encourage a supportive studio culture through facilitated peer teaching and teamwork. The School of Architecture and Environment doesn't dictate a specific design aesthetic or ideology for you to follow. Instead, we encourage intellectual inquiry as to the basis from which you forge your design path."

Feed Your City: Nourish Lents by Hannah Zalusky

"Nourish Lents is an urban agricultural centre that highlights all aspects of the food cycle, from growing to compost in order to educate and nourish the community.

"As a model sustainable urban food centre, it aims to reduce food-related carbon dioxide emissions by recycling food waste and providing alternatives to animal meat consumption.

"The programme directly addresses the economic and social needs of the Nourish Lents community with a large flexible plaza, grocery store, food pantry and community garden plots.

"The on-site aeroponic vertical farming and insect farming will become resilient food sources for the local restaurant economy, and new food businesses can grow in the rentable kitchen and processing spaces."

Student: Hannah Zalusky Course: Davis, ARCH 586, Foodspace: food, architecture and the city in the post-Covid 19 era Tutor: Howard Davis

Industrial Metabolism by Brennen Donnelly

"This thesis project examined the ecological and industrial processes of a town along the Oregon coast where logging and agriculture have historically dominated the local economy.

"A master plan was proposed that introduced facilities to refine logging waste into biochar. This is fueled by an onsite methane digestor, sapling greenhouses irrigated by the effluent from the digestor, dowel-laminated timber manufacturing facilities to expand logging operations, and hangars for industrial drones for seeding and reforestation.

"The building most extensively developed was the Timber Research and Innovation Centre. Inspired by Coastal Oregon vernacular, this building was proposed as a setting for researchers, designers, foresters and fabricators to collaborate to ensure that the natural resource is sustainably optimised on all fronts. The Timber Research and Innovation Centre is the feedback loop for all processes onsite."

Student: Brennen Donnelly Course: Donofrio, ARCH 586 Building Economy Maintenance Ecology Tutor: Mark Donofrio

Landscapes of Care by Josymar Rodriguez

"Landscapes of Care is a research project developed in Oldtown, Portland. This is a neighbourhood where urban blight coexists with new developments, transition housing and numerous organisations catering towards the houseless population.

"It is an area where the public realm is home to many people. The project builds upon these questions: can we design cities beyond the monotone, oppressive and anonymous grey landscapes we are used to? Can we expand the limits of the domestic and transform our cities into landscapes of care?

"The design explores the domesticity of the public realm. It states that the domestic city comes from within, from the intimate and spreads towards the outside. Here, it expands the notion of home and those who comprise it.

"This project is the first step in that direction with public access services on the ground floor and housing at the top. It offers multiple outdoor spaces to build tight communities, connect with nature, enjoy yourself and the company of others.

"The domestic city takes every chance to build a sense of home in the public realm, where you can find spaces for contemplation, meditation, rest, work and make, cook, and eat, cleaning yourself, meeting, and interacting. The domestic city erases the limits of public and private, putting in place structures of care and solidarity to build a just world."

Student: Josymar Rodriguez Course: Neis, ARCH586 The EU-US International House, Innovation and Re-Generative Design Tutor: Hajo Neis

Transcalar Digestion by Billy Guarino

"Transcalar Digestion is the culmination of a two-term research studio that examined the problems associated with water quality and land exploitation in the Tillamook region of The Oregon Coast.

"The building, landscape and climate work in harmony to frame the crucial relationship between the water cycle, land management and water quality. As a result, the building programme is situated atop a hill at the Port of Tillamook Bay to capture views of the watershed and immerse itself in the forest.

"Here, an aquafarm-to-fork restaurant allows people to taste quality seafood that is harvested locally and sustainably, while a museum showcases exhibitions related to ecology, geography, local industries, forests and water quality."

Student: Billy Guarino Course: Donofrio, ARCH 586 Building Economy Maintenance Ecology Tutor: Mark Donofrio

Gateway Elementary School and Civic Centre by Isaac Morris

"A generous ground floor public service and civic centre provide the platform to elevate an urban elementary school which utilises a standardised classroom module to create a village of learning for a free-roaming and self-discovering student experience.

"These elements are brought together via a generous pedestrian ramp which provides secure and universal access to the school, as well as creates spatial nodes of activity along the way."

Student: Isaac Morris Course: Hagenlocher, ARCH585 House of Learning Tutor: Esther Hagenlocher

Forest Stewardship Research Centre by Flynn Casey

"Located at the entrance to the McDonald and Dunn Research Forests near Corvallis, OR, the Forest Stewardship Research Centre (FRSC) is a facility for research and education focusing on the relationship between people and forests.

"The building leverages computational design and prefabrication to set a new standard for high-performance timber construction. It makes extremely efficient use of wood fibre, resulting in a lightweight structure that touches lightly on the ground, respecting the roots of the specimen trees surrounding it, as well as the archaeological Kalapuya land it rests on.

"The building is designed to be carbon-neutral in operation as well as construction, with the goal of meeting Living Building Challenge standards."

Student: Flynn Casey Course: Sheine, ARCH 585/586 Mass Timber Design Tutor: Judith Sheine

At the Intersection: Suburban Retrofitting by Holly Nuovo

"The single-family detached home, hovering like magnets five feet from the property line, turn their back on public space, privatising what used to be urban functions. Not just social division, these developments result in environmental disconnection.

"Fine-grain textures and proximities become a radical implication of the new urbanism created by banning single-family zoning. My project explores these potentials to conceive of the medium density home not as punishment but opportunity, not as an object but an ecosystem, where the house acts as a field rather than a mass, interacting with and influencing the interconnected forces that form our lives."

Student: Holly Nuovo Course: Keyes, Arch 585 Reframing Housing and Presentation Tutor: Peter Keyes

Peavy Lodge Forest Education Centre by Duma Nguyen

"Inspired by the structure of a tree, the Peavy Lodge Forest Education Centre looks to act as a beacon in the forest that also serves as a demonstration for mass timber construction.

"Peavy Lodge creates spaces of shelter similar to that of a tree overhang. The dynamic facade acts as a protective barrier from the elements resembling a tree's bark that breathes life into the building.

"Peavy Lodge's roof structure imitates the complexity of a forest canopy while allowing light to filter through openings in the roof, connecting users back to nature through the architectural structure.

"These elements combined create a beacon in the McDonald-Dunn forest that creates an ethereal, glowing object set in the forest scenery."

Student: Duma Nguyen Course: Sheine, Arch 585/586 Mass Timber Design Tutor: Judith Sheine

Green Works Progress Administration by Katherine Martin

"This project is about more than just the historic preservation of a beautiful building or a call for social justice in the face of rapid gentrification. It is also about more than providing easier access to a technical college education and more than a programme for America's most vulnerable to reinvent their livelihood.

"This project is about a 100-year-old building whose new life will allow itself (and the rest of us) to make it through the next 100 years. We need to start talking about buildings at the scale of centuries. This project hopes to begin that conversation and ask what it means to be truly sustainable, both for the climate and our communities.

"There is a lot of energy in the SoNo District between midtown and downtown Atlanta for a landmark proposal. From a climate perspective, utilising an empty building is the best strategy. The project preserves as much of the existing structure as possible, and any changes made to the facade or concrete system should have a restorative, performative, or programmatic purpose.

"The architectural strategy explored voids that enhance the daylighting and natural cooling properties of the structure. These voids also created large volumes suitable for workshops, the main programmatic element of the proposal.

"From a social sustainability perspective, this building provided a rich opportunity. In a rapidly gentrifying portion of the city, this project's unique history creates poetic statements about equity and justice in our inner cities. The proposal hopes to spark new life into this historic structure and help an often-ignored community, the homeless."

Student: Katherine Martin Course: Gast, ARCH 585/586 Linking Education and Architecture Tutors: Gerald Gast

Tools for Albina: Bstrong Learning Hub by Garrett Leaver

"This project is about intergenerational learning and Black youth. The traditional education system in America is broken, especially for students of colour.

"Learning comes from everywhere – it comes from the community and flows between generations. Noni Causey, director of The Black Educational Achievement Movement (BEAM), is rewriting education with Bstrong Learning Hub, situated in her home in Albina.

"As a student of Causey, I'm aware that its important to learn from professionals in our community in order to develop real-life skills. Here, I have imagined open source tools and an architectural tectonic to build momentum and change education.

"Detailed improvements to the site and street start to open up more conversations from the heart: bringing awareness to the history of Albina and other cities.

"Providing a safe, resilient forum for these conversations is first. A large covered forum and changes to the street front bring people in and maintain visibility. Next is introducing a sustainable, open architecture. Where the informality, lightness and tradition of the front porch are elevated. Inviting gathering, eating, and play around the corner.

"Students want to meet professionals and learn directly from the source. So, flexible and accessible maker spaces are available. This is also an opportunity for home improvement for other residents in exchange for them teaching their own classes and community. This architectural system paired with participatory design and making allow for scalable change, that grows with the Black community in Albina."

Student: Garrett Leaver Course: Wilkins, Davis, Davis, ARCH 585/586 ReBuilding Cornerstones. Tutors: Craig Wilkins, Kayin Talton Davis and Cleo Davis

Partnership content

This school show is a partnership between Dezeen and the University of Oregon College of Design. Find out more about Dezeen partnership content here

The post Ten architecture projects from students at the University of Oregon College of Design appeared first on Dezeen.

#Architecture – Dezeen

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greenbagjosh · 4 years

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Downeast drive on I-95

Hi everyone We have to say goodbye to family in Bangor and then head south for the final stop of Summer 2010. A nice dinner of scrod awaits at the North Quincy Market.

It was the day after Independence Day. I woke up about 7:30 AM and met family to have breakfast. The breakfast room was full of children with their families. Breakfast was not very enjoyable but at least I was able to have some food and coffee.

We packed up the Impala to head south on I-95 and then I-295. We stopped in Augusta to have a look at the State House. I found it to be sort of "medium sized", close to that of the one in Providence, larger than the one in Concord NH but smaller than in Hartford CT. The only state house in the USA that is not bicameral is Nebraska. It has only a state senate. Everywhere else has both a house of representatives or assembly, and a state senate.

Going on I-295 to Portland, there is one toll to pay, until reaching south of the Maine Mall, elsewhere is free of charge. At the I-95 interchange with I-295 there is a toll booth where you take your ticket and then the final toll booth in Maine is just north of Kittery. Speaking of that section, between Wells and York, the traffic situation was backed up for miles. I think it took 45 minutes to be able to cross into Portsmouth, New Hampshire. It was during the peak of the travel season, Monday the 5th July 2010 being a legal holiday so everyone was rushing to return to NH, Vermont and Massachusetts, maybe even Connecticut, Rhode Island and New York.

When we crossed into New Hampshire, I-95 became the Blue Star Turnpike. It was only fifteen miles long in New Hampshire before crossing into Massachusetts. There was only one toll booth near Hampton NH, and at the nearby rest stop, there was one of the state liquor stores. I bought a couple of New Hampshire beers there.

Traffic went smoothly on I-95 in Massachusetts until we reached Wakefield. The last ten miles to the WTC Renaissance hotel would not be exactly the most pleasant. It was slow going between Woburn, Medford and Charlestown. It got a little better as we passed by TD Gardens and went underground to I-90. The car was parked at the Renaissance and we checked in. However there was some technical issue with our reservations, so we were delayed for a half hour.

My room in the Renaissance hotel was well equipped. It had laminated flooring, a USB outlet for my MP3 player, and a very nice view of the airport, the Waterfront and even the World Trade Center itself.

About 5 PM we took the SL1 bus into town. It went underground from WTC to South Station, then we took the red line to Downtown Crossing and the orange line to State. That was the closest T station to Quincy Market and Faneuil Hall. We found the Durgin Park very easily. We had a table in the upstairs seating area. I ordered the scrod with mashed potatoes and boiled broccoli, and a glass of Sam Adams. The wait staff did not bump into my chair as much as I expected them to. The meal was enjoyable.

We walked to the waterfront and we decided that taking a water taxi to the airport in the morning would be too much trouble, and the SL1 would be a better way.

My family had also wanted to see something that I may not find particularly interesting so they said I could do whatever I wanted the rest of the night, on condition that I join them at 6 AM the next morning to go to the airport. I agreed and then walked to the State station, went two stops on the orange line to North Station, transferred to the green line, and rode it to Lechmere, pronounced as Leechmere. Lechmere was up to the end of May 2020, a loop terminal station for the green line. An extension to College Avenue has started and it may be complete by 2022.

After Lechmere, I took the green line to Park Street and took a red line to Savin Hill. At JFK/UMass there is a branch also to Braintree via Quincy and Wollaston. I did not have time to take the Ashmont/Mattapan trolleycar line, so I saved that for a future visit a few years later. I also went to Braintree at that future visit at that same time.

I returned to South Station and transferred to the SL1 for WTC. I had a small cup of Ben and Jerry's ice cream at the little shop outside the hotel. Then I went up to my room, listened to some music and then went to bed. I had to wake up at 5:30 AM the next morning.

Tomorrow's adventure is taking the SL1 from WTC to the airport, attempting to fly to DFW but getting diverted to Austin's Bergstrom airport but eventually arriving a few hours later than expected. Hope you will join me then.

#I-95 #Augusta #State House #Boston #Maine #Massachusetts #New Hampshire #MBTA #Durgin Park #Scrod #Waterfront #SL1

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bigtinyworldtravel · 5 years

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We’ve finally made it!! Welcome to Day 1! We’ve been planning this trip for about three years now, and it’s always been something “out there” in the future. Now it’s here.

It’s been a whirlwind of emotions for us, especially over the past month. This is what it really feels like to completely uproot your life and take the leap into the unknown.

Anticipation

By the time you read this, we’ll likely be in the air, just beginning a 38-hour journey to a continent rich in life – the source of humanity and home to some of the most fascinating and majestic animals on the planet. I’ve always wanted to visit Africa. I can’t wait to see all of the photography opportunities: wildlife, dunes, tribes, landscapes, trees, sunrises, stars – squee!

And that’s only one aspect. Then we’ll have the people and culture, the food and hikes. It’s unlike any place I’ve visited; I can’t wait to discover it all.

And that’s only one country! Europe will be entirely different: cities and architecture, history and art. Then South America: sweeping landscapes and breathtaking mountain ranges, ruins and llamas! Southeast Asia: people and beaches, food and scenery. And finally, to Australia and New Zealand (a second visit for me and new territory for Aaron): unique animals, coastlines, reefs.

This all lies ahead of us, and we’re excited for every moment of it.

Worry

But at the same time, we’re worried about all the little things. Do we have everything we need? Will we be able to get the things we don’t? What if something goes wrong?

We could drive ourselves insane with worrying about all the unknowns, but in the end, we recognize we can only plan for so much. Not everything will work out according to plan, so we have to be willing to be flexible. And some things will inevitably go sideways, but we try to anticipate what might happen, and protect ourselves as much as possible.

Safety is a legitimate concern, so we’re doing what we can to not make ourselves look like targets. We’ll try to blend in with the locals and avoid anything that makes us stand out as “rich tourists.” We’ll protect our valuables with “pickpocket-proof” pants and slash-resistant backpacks. We simply aren’t bringing our (sentimentally) valuable wedding rings (and we got placeholders, instead).

We’re also checking, double-checking, and triple-checking that we have all the items on our packlist, that we have all necessary cords for charging electronics, and that we don’t accidentally bring something out of habit we didn’t intend. In places where we might not have cell service or even an outlet to charge our gadgets, we’re bringing hardcopy backups.

I am also extremely protective of my pictures. I’m going to be carrying them around with me for the entire year we’re gone, so I have to do whatever I can to make sure they survive should something happen. I am taking with me two hard drives. They will be duplicates of each other, and they will never be stored in the same place; if I lose one, I’ll still have the other. I’ll be backing up to the cloud, as well, but that will only work when I have internet access. And my camera has dual SD card slots, so my camera will save pictures to both. After every shoot, I’ll remove one and keep it on my person. If my camera is stolen, I’ll still have the pictures.

We can only do so much, and in the end, we know we can’t worry about every little thing. Life will come as it comes.

Saudade

We are leaving a lot of things behind. We love our lives in Portland. We love the food and the quirkiness, as well as the outdoor opportunities and beautiful Pacific Northwest environment. We’ll miss the trees and waterfalls we know so well.

We’ll also miss the friends and family with whom we discovered them. As a military brat, relationships are very important to me. For someone who has never missed it with my family, Christmas will be very different for us this year. However, we hope some of our friends and family will come travel a bit with us. And we know the time will pass quickly and we’ll see them again soon.

The hardest separation, though, is from our kitties. They are our children, and we love them to pieces. Leaving them is very difficult. We’ll miss having them meow at us for breakfast each morning or having them snuggle with us with purrs at night. I’ll miss Holee lounging in my lap.. or Mochi rolling around on the floor.

But I also worry for their happiness. They won’t have us around anymore – to pick them up or brush them, to give them pixie kisses or butt scratches. Sure, they are in amazing hands, being fostered by my parents. But they’re still different humans to the kitties. Our girls have been adjusting pretty well, but Holee still can’t stand the other resident feline (Dolce), and Mochi is out-of-her-mind terrified of the puppy (Elee). I wanted to see them get more comfortable with their new environment before we left, but it takes time.

Stress

Who would have thought there’d still be so much to do even after we moved out of our apartment? Believe it or not, we’ve been a flurry of activity here in this final month.

We had to order the last remaining pieces of our travel gear. I was missing a shirt here, a hard drive there.. We needed our collapsable water bottles and our Namibia map. And then we had to pack it all. And weigh it. And make some sacrifices. And repack. And reweigh…

We wanted to make copies of our passports and laminate them. We had to finish the signup process for Servas. We had to look into travel health insurance and get our last travel rewards credit card.

Aaron has been planning the next phase after Africa (how does Latvia sound??) and making Couchsurfing requests. I’ve been sprucing up the website. We now have a customizable packlist you can download when you sign up for our newsletter! And did you notice our adorable new logo?? I’ve also been signing myself with a software freelancing agency so we have an income option while abroad (though I hope we don’t need it).

Digitally, I’ve also been making sure I have access to all my most important (and pretty) photos. That all necessary backups have been made, hard drives are appropriately stored, and software updates have been made. It’s a lot to think about!

And we’ve been settling the kitties in their new home. Encouraging them out into the rest of the house, despite the other animals in the household. Rescuing them from under the couch.. and from behind the washer and dryer.. and from on top of the cabinets.. and from inside the pantry…. Establishing them at a local vet and acclimating them to new household mealtimes. Poor kitties have been through a lot.

Disbelief

Speaking of getting used to things, even though we’re literally in transit, we still don’t believe we’re doing this. It’s always been something we’ll do “someday.”

Honestly, aside from all the hype we’ve been placing on this thing (and aside from orders of magnitude more planning involved), this has been just like any other trip. Book flights, pack bags, plan activities… none of that is different. We’re just planning many little trips back-to-back…-to-back-to-back-to-back.

We haven’t quite grasped the fact that this will be our new life. I suspect it still won’t really sink in until at least two or three weeks in, when we finally realize we’re not going home anytime soon… when it passes the point of a normal vacation. I also think we’ll treat the first few weeks much more like a vacation – going out to eat more, packing in activities, go-go-go-go-go-go-go… until we just wear ourselves into the ground and force ourselves to slow it down a bit. There will certainly be an adjustment period before we settle into a rhythm.

Pride

Regardless of the other emotions we’re feeling right now, we can’t help but feel a sense of accomplishment that we’re actually making this happen. We’ve heard so many people say they wish they could do what we’re doing (and we believe if it’s something you really want to do, there’s nothing stopping you!), but few actually do it.

We took the leap – as scary as it is – and we put it into motion. That’s the hardest part!

Now, we love sharing our story with others, and we can’t wait to share this journey with you. It’s all ahead of us. It’s a new beginning. It’s just getting started.

We are excited, nervous, a little homesick, overwhelmed, surprised at ourselves, and thrilled.

“It’s a new dawn; it’s a new day; it’s a new life…. and I’m feeling good.”

How do you feel leading up to a big trip?

If you like this post, please help us grow by liking it and sharing it on social media. We also welcome your comments below – we would love to hear from you!

Don’t miss out on new posts! Follow our blog for new posts every week.

Disclaimer: this post contains affiliate links. If you purchase using any of these links, we receive a small commission at no extra cost to you. This helps us keep traveling and bringing posts like these to you – everyone wins!

There have been a lot of #emotions leading up to our trip #aroundtheworld. We're finally in the air... and this is how we feel about it! #longtermtravel #worldtravel #travelanxiety #coupletravel We've finally made it!! Welcome to Day 1! We've been planning this trip for about three years now, and it's always been something "out there" in the future.

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vicostoness · 5 years

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Desk Countertop Material: No Longer a Mystery

The Appeal of Desk Countertop Material

December's workbench construction project generated a superb number of comments and questions from a lot of you. This tool is fantastic for people who don't have the opportunity to compare quotes or don't understand where to go to find one. Although many may consider turning to desks from any one of quite a few office stores when in need of excellent workspace, I am fond of an entirely alternative solution which works well in home or workplace. It is extremely easy to keep clean and is quite durable. Most laminate floors are made to be floating so I am not certain how you intend to fasten them down and should you do it could cause an issue with expansion and contraction. Maple is among the very best and most popular for butcher block counters as it's hard and has an obvious grain.

The Debate Over Desk Countertop Material

You're not likely to find LVL in a house center, but it's widely available in commercial lumberyards. As these are usually considered materials for walkways, there are varieties which are hard enough to be utilised as a countertop. After you have settled on the ideal workbench for your laboratory or cleanroom, it's the right time to add accessories.

Desk Countertop Material Secrets

The purchase price will be different based on the wood that you select. If you're looking for a top which can be easily stained dark colours, or in case you want to leave the concrete countertops the natural, grey color, then regular Portland is the correct alternative for the undertaking. Just take a look at the sort of materials readily available on the marketplace and the corresponding prices in the table below underneath our next subheading to find out exactly what you should be ready for just the materials only.

The Honest to Goodness Truth on Desk Countertop Material

It will be helpful for filling cracks and voids that the workbench might have. Unsealed wood may also harbor germs. Also, in the event the countertop is polished, the procedure can grind in the concrete, exposing aggregates. It is possible to use a commercial cleaner to keep the grade of the countertop material. This material has been the absolute most favorite cheap tile for a very long moment. Besides location and fashion, the material which makes up the countertop is among the most significant decisions you may make. If you're planning a kitchen renovation undertaking, do not go it alone. The kitchen is one of the most functional rooms of the house and thus should be renovated every couple of years. Though it might appear quite impossible to select inexpensive kitchen countertops that will provide your kitchen amazing appearance, You will soon discover it will not be that hard to discover various kitchen countertop in reasonable price and also gorgeous specifics. " " Read the full article

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mastcomm · 5 years

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No Budget for a Custom Kitchen? No Problem

People often assume that getting a gorgeous kitchen like the ones they see in design magazines would require draining their bank account. And often, they’re right: Building a custom kitchen with upscale materials and finishes can easily run into six figures.

What they might not realize is that there are cost-saving alternatives that can deliver a high-end look for a fraction of the price. One of the most popular, employed by a number of architects and designers, is building a kitchen with Ikea cabinets and then covering those cabinets with custom doors, drawer fronts and panels from companies like Reform, Semihandmade and Kokeena.

“Ikea makes a great box,” said John McDonald, the founder and chief executive of Semihandmade, a company based in Monrovia, Calif. And inside its Sektion cabinets, he added, Ikea “uses the best hardware you can get.”

Those hinges, drawer slides and other pieces, he said, are from Blum — the same brand of hardware that many custom cabinetmakers use, although Ikea’s products are far more reasonably priced.

Nathan Cuttle, an interior designer who founded the New York-based Studio Nato, has built numerous kitchens with Ikea cabinets and custom doors from Reform and Semihandmade. “We’ve done some tight-budget projects,” he said, “but still wanted them to be unique.”

For the kitchen of an average one-bedroom apartment, “we’re not going to spend $40,000 on the kitchen cabinets, because we don’t have the budget,” he continued. “We’re going to spend maybe $1,500 to $2,000 on cabinets from Ikea and then have, say, $5,000 of custom fronts and panels.”

We asked designers and manufacturers to walk us through the process.

Find Your Inspiration

The first step in creating a kitchen you love is figuring out exactly what you want by searching for inspiration in design books, magazines and online sources like Pinterest, Instagram and Houzz.

Do you prefer upper cabinets or open shelves? Do you want an island? Do you like doors or drawers for the lower cabinets? Do you want custom panels to cover the dishwasher and refrigerator, to give them a built-in look?

Also consider the design and color you want for the finishing doors, drawer fronts and panels by browsing the offerings of custom door manufacturers, either online or in their showrooms. Semihandmade offers a range of choices, from paint-ready blank panels to designs from Instagram influencers like Sarah Sherman Samuel. Reform, a company from Copenhagen with a showroom in Brooklyn, N.Y., sells designs by European architects and designers like Bjarke Ingels Group and Norm Architects. Numerous other companies, including Kokeena, The Cabinet Face, Dunsmuir Cabinets and Scherr’s, offer many other choices.

Create a Preliminary Layout

Measure your kitchen floor and walls. Then begin designing the layout of your kitchen with Ikea’s online kitchen planner.

“You can put the dimensions of your kitchen into it and play with all the different configurations,” said Whitney Menefee, a founder of Townsend Interiors, in Portland, Ore. “Even if you have no design experience at all, you can use that software to design your kitchen,” she said, by selecting and placing cabinet boxes on a floor plan. It automatically generates a shopping list of parts.

Ms. Menefee has designed many custom kitchens for clients, but turned to Ikea’s kitchen planner when she sought a more affordable option for her own home. She later worked with Portland-based Kokeena to develop custom doors, which evolved into Townsend Home, a new collection of cabinet doors that Kokeena now offers to all customers.

If Ikea’s kitchen planner leaves you scratching your head — or if you just want a second opinion — there are other options.

Ikea offers free design consultations online and in its stores. And firms like Inspired Kitchen Design will plan Ikea kitchens for a flat fee, using custom doors and details, if desired.

“Forty-three percent of the designs we do use custom doors,” said Michael Toth, the owner of Inspired Kitchen Design, estimating that his firm designs more than 250 kitchens a month, for $295 each.

Mr. Toth’s team of designers plan a kitchen from start to finish, using custom “hacks,” he said, like cutting an Ikea cabinet down to a smaller size or adding panels around an island, which can sometimes be difficult for homeowners to achieve on their own.

Contact the Door Manufacturer

Once you have a preliminary design and a style of door selected, share your plans with the custom door manufacturer.

“We recommend the client gives us an Ikea drawing with the Ikea fronts and side panels on, because then we know exactly what is needed,” said Jeppe Christensen, a founder and the chief executive of Reform. “We also tell them to include handles, so we can see where they want the doors hinged.”

Then the company produces a quote for custom doors, drawer fronts, panels and other elements as replacements, while confirming the details of the design.

“There are always some small adjustments,” Mr. Christensen said, so don’t buy the Ikea components before making arrangements for the doors. “It’s really important for us to make sure that there are no other requirements beyond what the drawing shows — and there often are.” That includes awkward corners and soffits that may need to be addressed.

The company also produces filler strips and toe kicks that match the doors, to give the kitchen a perfectly finished look.

Russell Edwards, the chief executive of Kokeena, noted that door manufacturers can make many other components, too. “We can make a custom box, like an open cabinet,” he said, that matches the doors. “And floating shelves.”

Place the Orders

When your kitchen design is finalized with the door manufacturer, it’s time to order the parts.

To ensure you have everything you need from Ikea, Mr. Christensen and Mr. Edwards recommended providing a complete kitchen design, with Ikea doors, drawer fronts and panels, to the retailer, and asking a sales associate to remove those finishing components from the order.

“When you go to order it from Ikea, you take your entire list, but say, ‘We’re doing custom,’” Mr. Edwards said. “They’ll eliminate just the doors and drawer fronts from the cabinets.”

And don’t worry about insulting Ikea — the company doesn’t flinch at this sort of order.

According to a statement emailed by Janice Simonsen, Ikea’s senior public relations specialist in the United States: “While we encourage customers to create their own style with Ikea cabinets, we do believe they should be able to design a kitchen that expresses their own original style — this is why we sell modular systems.”

Ikea usually has its cabinet components in stock, so they can be bought and brought home on the same day, or arrangements can be made for quick delivery.

The custom door manufacturers, however, have a longer turnaround time, because the pieces are made to order. Semihandmade and Kokeena, for instance, typically ship doors in two to six weeks. Reform makes its doors in Europe, so the lead time is typically 10 to 14 weeks, delivered. (Depending on your renovation schedule, you may want to order the custom doors long before you intend to tear out your old kitchen and buy the Ikea components.)

Install the Cabinets and Doors

Ikea kitchens are based on a modular system that can be assembled and installed by a homeowner who is handy with tools, and putting on doors and drawer fronts is one of the most straightforward parts of the process. Whether the doors are from Ikea or a custom manufacturer, they come predrilled for hinges and screws.

“You can build it yourself,” Ms. Menefee said. “I installed all the doors in my kitchen. Building the Ikea kitchen is the difficult part, but not impossible. It just requires patience.”

For those who don’t have the skill or inclination to build their own kitchens, there are plenty of options for finding a contractor who can do the work. Ikea works with Traemand, a company in which it has an ownership stake, to offer an installation service to buyers.

Custom door manufacturers and kitchen design firms have their own lists of contractors to share with clients across the country. Online services like Sweeten and Houzz can also help homeowners find contractors.

Of course, recommendations from friends and neighbors are often best of all.

Finish Up

While cabinet installation may be a do-it-yourself project, some of the finishing touches are best left to professionals. Licensed plumbers and electricians should complete any work on pipes or wiring, along with the installation of plumbing fixtures and built-in appliances.

There is also an opportunity to upgrade the look of your kitchen further with the counters. Ikea sells many types of affordable counters, including wood and laminate, but there is no requirement to buy them with the cabinets.

Choosing something different can add to a kitchen’s custom look, and there is no shortage of choice, from natural stone like marble and granite to stainless steel.

For one Brooklyn kitchen, Studio Nato splurged on counters and a backsplash made from basalt. “We just used a local countertop fabricator to come in and template the kitchen and then do the install,” Mr. Cuttle said, after the cabinets were in place.

The resulting look? “Super upscale,” he said. No one would ever know that inexpensive cabinets were hidden underneath.

For weekly email updates on residential real estate news, sign up here. Follow us on Twitter: @nytrealestate.

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biofunmy · 5 years

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The Trees and the Forest of New Towers

This article is part of our November Design special section, which focuses on style, function and form in the workplace.

Michael Green has seen the future of the building industry, and that future is wood. Lots of wood. The Vancouver-based architect is among the most ardent proponents of what is known as mass timber, prefabricated structural wood components that can be used to construct buildings — even large-scale buildings — faster, with less waste and eventually with less money.

Most crucially, Mr. Green and others say, building with mass timber can ameliorate climate change because it produces less in greenhouse gas emissions than construction with concrete and steel. And wood has the benefit of storing the carbon dioxide trees absorb during their growth, keeping it out of the atmosphere indefinitely.

“Roughly 11 percent of the global carbon footprint is related to what buildings are made out of,” said Mr. Green, whose mass-timber projects include the T3 office building in Minneapolis (the name stands for timber, technology and transportation) and a pair of buildings for Oregon State University’s College of Forestry, including a research and development facility for the school’s TallWood Design Institute.

Over the next 40 years, he added, it is estimated that nearly 2.5 trillion square feet of new construction will be needed to support growth in the world’s increasingly dense urban areas, according to the 2017 Global Status Report issued by the United Nations Environment Program. “If we continue to build the way we are,” Mr. Green said, “we are absolutely not going to meet any kind of climate objective, and we’re going to change our children’s future forever in a pretty bad way.”

While cutting down trees to make buildings may not sound environmentally sensitive, mass timber supporters argue that wood could be harvested from sustainably managed forests.

Increasing numbers of architects, developers, governments, educational institutions and corporations are embracing wood. In Biel, Switzerland, Swatch Group just completed three buildings said to be among the largest timber construction projects in the world. Designed by Shigeru Ban, an architect admired for his innovative use of wood, the complex includes a serpentine company headquarters wrapped in a spectacular latticed timber facade.

Notably, big players in the tech world are adopting wood. Microsoft is using mass timber throughout its new Silicon Valley campus, while Sidewalk Labs, Google’s sister company, has plans for a new waterfront district in Toronto consisting of wood buildings, some as tall as 30 stories.

“We’re past the tipping point in the acceptance of wood,” said Thomas Robinson, founder of the Portland, Ore., firm Lever Architecture, which recently completed the Nature Conservancy’s local offices and community center using Forest Stewardship Council-certified wood and is working on an expanded mass-timber headquarters for Adidas. “The people who are the innovators, looking for the next thing, a richer experience for their employees or how they live, they’re turning to mass timber.”

The benefits are aesthetic and environmentally responsible, he added. “People just connect to wood in a way that is visceral.”

Mr. Green, who is consulting with Sidewalk Labs on its proposal for Toronto, said mass timber should be embraced for buildings much larger than residential and low-rise structures, which now account for most wood construction. When the seven-story T3 Minneapolis (designed with DLR Group) was completed in late 2016, it was the tallest wood building in the United States. An eight-story residential building in Portland, Ore., called Carbon 12, has since been built.

A second T3-branded property is planned for Atlanta, and other projects are in the works for Nashville; Denver; Austin, Texas; and two are planned for Toronto.

At the end of last year, the International Building Code was changed to allow wood buildings of up to 270 feet tall, or the equivalent of about 18 stories, from 85 feet. The United States code won’t adopt the revised standards until 2021, but some states will allow projects based on the new criteria to be submitted before then.

In Europe, where mass timber began gaining traction nearly 20 years ago, encouraged by aggressive climate policies, wood buildings are rising to new heights. Last spring the 18-story Mjostarnet office and residential tower by Voll Arkitekter in Brumunddal, Norway, became the world’s tallest mass-timber building at 280 feet (including an openwork wood structure on its top).

Just a few months later, the HoHo Vienna, a mixed-use building designed by Rüdiger Lainer + Partner, was nearly the same height but had six more floors.

Enthusiasm for timber, however, is not universal. Some environmental groups have raised concerns about the effects of scaling up wood construction, especially without universal commitments to sustainable forestry. Skeptics also note that there is limited data on mass timber’s long-term impact on atmospheric carbon levels — the full benefit of which is possible only if the wood components used are recycled and not allowed to decay at the end of a building’s life.

There are also deeply ingrained fears around wood and fire safety, and both the International Association of Fire Chiefs and the National Association of State Fire Marshals opposed the recent updates to the International Building Code, arguing, among other things, that additional fire testing is needed before mass timber can be safely used in tall buildings.

Those who favor timber, however, say far taller wood buildings are possible. Prominent architecture firms like Skidmore Owings & Merrill, PLP Architecture and Perkins & Will have done studies for wood-framed skyscrapers between 40 and 80 stories. The Japanese timber company Sumitomo Forestry has proposed an 1,100-foot, 90-percent wood tower for Tokyo that would be the country’s tallest building of any type.

“We’re already designing at 35 stories,” Mr. Green said, citing a tower he conceived for a development proposed for the Porte Maillot area of Paris.

To be clear, timber advocates are not pushing for a return to old ways of building, before devastating fires prompted large cities like New York and Chicago to ban most new wood construction in the 19th century. Mass timber refers to a variety of different types of engineered wood components, the most common being cross-laminated timber (known as CLT) and nail-laminated timber (or NLT), in which multiple layers of wood planks, stacked at 90 degrees, are glued or nailed together under pressure to form structural panels. So-called glulams, which are made in a similar fashion and have been around for more than a century, are typically used for long elements like beams and columns.

Mass-timber components have a resistance to burning that is relative to their thickness, as extensive tests conducted by the United States Forest Service and the American Wood Council at the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives Fire Research Laboratory and elsewhere have demonstrated. When mass timber is exposed to fire, the outer layer chars, slowing the burn and creating a protective barrier around the core. In multiple fire tests, mass timber’s performance has consistently exceeded building code requirements.

Wind becomes more of an issue as buildings get taller, one reason that most mass-timber buildings higher than several stories are hybrid structures, incorporating some concrete, steel or both to provide rigidity and weight.

For now, a lot of mass-timber projects are about recapturing the spirit of old industrial wood buildings, albeit updated with 21st-century comforts and technology. In Toronto’s Distillery District, the New York firm SHoP Architects plans to use mass timber for a sprawling five-story retail and office complex inspired by the area’s historic buildings. It will be SHoP’s first mass-timber project, after plans for a much-anticipated 10-story residential tower in Manhattan fizzled a couple of years ago when approvals stalled.

“People want to live and work in these kinds of buildings — they have a sense of connection to the material,” said Chris Sharples, one of SHoP’s founding partners. “And what we’ve seen from fabricators and builders is that there’s a 35 percent drop in construction time for mass-timber buildings, which means the carrying costs are less.”

And, he said, the work sites are quieter and cleaner, generating less waste. “When you live near a job site, it’s noisy, with all of the trucks — it’s a horrible quality of life,” Mr. Sharples said. “You see these wood buildings go up and it’s like a barn-raising in the middle of your block.”

Ultimately, economic and quality-of-life factors are driving mass timber as much as global climate considerations. “People don’t do this for the environmental reasons,” Mr. Green said. “I may, but my clients want to know it’s cheaper.” And it is getting cheaper, as the industry expands and supply chains are developed. Mr. Green’s firm was acquired by the building technology company Katerra, whose enterprises include one of the world’s largest CLT plants in Spokane, Wash.

While he imagines explosive creative possibilities for architects inspired by future technologies like 3-D-printed wood, Mr. Green said climate considerations were paramount. “We need to change the conversation around what to celebrate in architecture,” he said. “This movement is about switching out the concept of what good design is. There has to be a new framework of what we see as beautiful.”

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