The SIX is a 52-unit affordable housing project provides a home, support services and rehabilitation for disabled veterans. It is located in the MacArthur Park area of Los Angeles. McArthur Park has one of the highest densities in the USA with over 38,000 people per square mile and a total population of 120,000 people in 2.72 square miles. Offering shelter and comfort, the SIX breaks the prescriptive mold of the traditional shelter by creating public and private "zones" in which private space is deemphasized, in favor of large public areas. The organization of the space is intended to transform the way people live-away from a reclusive, isolating layout towards a community-oriented, interactive space. The ground level contains offices, support spaces for the veterans, bike storage and parking while the second level has a large public courtyard. Surrounded by four levels of housing units with balconies wrapped with a wood screen made from recycle planking the courtyard has large openings with green roofs that visually connects the space to the street on the lower level beyond. This allows the tenants to enjoy a secured open space while still connecting to the larger community. The uppermost level has a green roof, large public patio and edible garden with panoramic views of the area. The SIX distinguishes itself from most conventionally developed projects in that it incorporates energy efficient measures that exceed standard practice, optimize building performance, and ensure reduced energy use during all phases of construction and occupancy. The planning and design emerged from close consideration and employment of passive design strategies. These strategies include: locating and orienting the building to control solar cooling loads; shaping and orienting the building for exposure to prevailing winds; shaping the building to induce buoyancy for natural ventilation; designing windows to maximize day lighting; shading south facing windows and minimizing west-facing glazing; designing windows to maximize natural ventilation; utilizing low flow fixtures and storm water management; shaping and planning the interior to enhance daylight and natural air flow distribution. These passive strategies alone make this building 50% more efficient than a conventionally designed structure.

The SIX is a 52-unit affordable housing project provides a home, support services and rehabilitation for disabled veterans. It is located in the MacArthur Park area of Los Angeles. McArthur Park has one of the highest densities in the USA with over 38,000 people per square mile and a total population of 120,000 people in 2.72 square miles. Offering shelter and comfort, the SIX breaks the prescriptive mold of the traditional shelter by creating public and private "zones" in which private space is deemphasized, in favor of large public areas. The organization of the space is intended to transform the way people live-away from a reclusive, isolating layout towards a community-oriented, interactive space. The ground level contains offices, support spaces for the veterans, bike storage and parking while the second level has a large public courtyard. Surrounded by four levels of housing units with balconies wrapped with a wood screen made from recycle planking the courtyard has large openings with green roofs that visually connects the space to the street on the lower level beyond. This allows the tenants to enjoy a secured open space while still connecting to the larger community. The uppermost level has a green roof, large public patio and edible garden with panoramic views of the area. The SIX distinguishes itself from most conventionally developed projects in that it incorporates energy efficient measures that exceed standard practice, optimize building performance, and ensure reduced energy use during all phases of construction and occupancy. The planning and design emerged from close consideration and employment of passive design strategies. These strategies include: locating and orienting the building to control solar cooling loads; shaping and orienting the building for exposure to prevailing winds; shaping the building to induce buoyancy for natural ventilation; designing windows to maximize day lighting; shading south facing windows and minimizing west-facing glazing; designing windows to maximize natural ventilation; utilizing low flow fixtures and storm water management; shaping and planning the interior to enhance daylight and natural air flow distribution. These passive strategies alone make this building 50% more efficient than a conventionally designed structure.

This is an organic Lime Wash done with a true lime wash product as opposed to a brick mortar or concrete that is often seen on new houses. This product can be applied as a solid coating making the surface completely white, or can be applied and "washed off" in many artistic ways, as seen here. If you hate your brick or just want something unique this is a great option! Photo credit: Jeff Murrey

The SIX is a 52-unit affordable housing project provides a home, support services and rehabilitation for disabled veterans. It is located in the MacArthur Park area of Los Angeles. McArthur Park has one of the highest densities in the USA with over 38,000 people per square mile and a total population of 120,000 people in 2.72 square miles. Offering shelter and comfort, the SIX breaks the prescriptive mold of the traditional shelter by creating public and private "zones" in which private space is deemphasized, in favor of large public areas. The organization of the space is intended to transform the way people live-away from a reclusive, isolating layout towards a community-oriented, interactive space. The ground level contains offices, support spaces for the veterans, bike storage and parking while the second level has a large public courtyard. Surrounded by four levels of housing units with balconies wrapped with a wood screen made from recycle planking the courtyard has large openings with green roofs that visually connects the space to the street on the lower level beyond. This allows the tenants to enjoy a secured open space while still connecting to the larger community. The uppermost level has a green roof, large public patio and edible garden with panoramic views of the area. The SIX distinguishes itself from most conventionally developed projects in that it incorporates energy efficient measures that exceed standard practice, optimize building performance, and ensure reduced energy use during all phases of construction and occupancy. The planning and design emerged from close consideration and employment of passive design strategies. These strategies include: locating and orienting the building to control solar cooling loads; shaping and orienting the building for exposure to prevailing winds; shaping the building to induce buoyancy for natural ventilation; designing windows to maximize day lighting; shading south facing windows and minimizing west-facing glazing; designing windows to maximize natural ventilation; utilizing low flow fixtures and storm water management; shaping and planning the interior to enhance daylight and natural air flow distribution. These passive strategies alone make this building 50% more efficient than a conventionally designed structure.

Sharifi-ha House Uncertainty and flexibility lie at the heart of the design concept in Sharifi-ha House. The sensational, spatial qualities of the interiors, as well as the formal configuration of its exterior, directly respond to the displacement of turning boxes that lead the building volume to become open or closed, obtaining introverted or extroverted character. These changes may occur according to changing seasons or functional scenarios of floor plans. Like many other urban plots, the land for this project had a noticeably narrow façade-width compared with its length. Consequently, our expertise in transforming a two-dimensional façade to a three-dimensional one became indispensable. Here, the openness /closure of the building volume is a reference to traditional Iranian houses, which would dynamically serve as seasonal modes of habitation by offering both a Zemestan-Neshin (winter living room) and Taabestan-Neshin (summer living room) to their residents. In summertime, Sharifi-ha House offers an open /transparent /perforated volume with wide, large terraces. In contrast, during Tehran’s cold, snowy winters the volume closes itself, offering minimal openings in total absence of those wide summer terraces. In this project, the challenges to the concepts of open/closed typology (introverted/extroverted character) led to an exciting spatial transformation of an ever-changing residential building. The House is distributed over seven floors: the two basement floors are allocated to family conviviality, fitness facilities, and wellness areas, while the ground floor hosts parking and housekeeping rooms. Public activities all happen on the first and second floors, and the family’s private life takes place on the third and fourth floors. The project consisted of four major parts; the fixed volume of the structure, the void, and the fixed volume and the mobile volume, respectively. When the turning boxes are closed, the building captures sunlight throughout the space of the central void, which also connects the two fixed volumes by suspended bridges. The house adapts to the functional needs of its residents. For instance, depending on whether there is a guest or not, the guest room (located on the second floor) can be reconfigured for different purposes. Similarly, home office and breakfast room (turning rooms on the first and third floors) can change the formality of their appearance according to their residents’ desire. In other words, there is always the possibility of having different seasonal or lighting scenarios, some of which have been already considered in the BMS program of the project. From the initial design steps, we noticed that three pine trees outside could be incorporated into the spaces of the interior. Now, in the open mode of the house, the trees are pleasantly captured by the window frames. Stepping back for about three meters from the permitted construction boundary line allowed us to provide splendid daylight for the basement floors by inserting a glass fountain. The fitness and wellness areas are accommodated between this fountain and the basement pool where reflective installations reverberate the water’s radiance all over the space. The applied manufacturing technique for the turning mechanism was in fact a simple one; the same method which is currently employed in turning theatrical scenes, turning the floor of car exhibitions, steel companies and the shipping industry in Iran. But as our client himself was into importing CNC and other similar industrial German machines, he preferred the structural system to be fabricated in Germany. In doing so, he could engage his employees in the manufacturing process and thus train them for future maintenance purposes. Details of the handrails and air-penetration controlling methods were major issues considered in developing the design of the turning boxes. Designing foldable handrails and refining the edges of the boxes happened to be our feasible solutions. Considering the specialties of this kind of architecture, the structural system was inevitably a customized one. After digitally modeling the structure, a series of SAP2000 analysis were undertaken to examine static/dynamic performance of the proposed system. Being partially moveable is the dominant feature of this structural assembly, which was contemplated throughout the fabrication process by the German manufacturer company. The main loads all rest on the beams of the living rooms. Due to the various configurations the turning boxes may take, the loading calculation has been estimated based on the largest possible loading value applied to the system. Additionally, in order to prevent structural deformation controlling the probable vibrations in the turning boxes was taken into account during the design/calculations of the structure. The house was titled Sharifi-ha House, in honor of traditional Iranian mansions.

Sharifi-ha House Uncertainty and flexibility lie at the heart of the design concept in Sharifi-ha House. The sensational, spatial qualities of the interiors, as well as the formal configuration of its exterior, directly respond to the displacement of turning boxes that lead the building volume to become open or closed, obtaining introverted or extroverted character. These changes may occur according to changing seasons or functional scenarios of floor plans. Like many other urban plots, the land for this project had a noticeably narrow façade-width compared with its length. Consequently, our expertise in transforming a two-dimensional façade to a three-dimensional one became indispensable. Here, the openness /closure of the building volume is a reference to traditional Iranian houses, which would dynamically serve as seasonal modes of habitation by offering both a Zemestan-Neshin (winter living room) and Taabestan-Neshin (summer living room) to their residents. In summertime, Sharifi-ha House offers an open /transparent /perforated volume with wide, large terraces. In contrast, during Tehran’s cold, snowy winters the volume closes itself, offering minimal openings in total absence of those wide summer terraces. In this project, the challenges to the concepts of open/closed typology (introverted/extroverted character) led to an exciting spatial transformation of an ever-changing residential building. The House is distributed over seven floors: the two basement floors are allocated to family conviviality, fitness facilities, and wellness areas, while the ground floor hosts parking and housekeeping rooms. Public activities all happen on the first and second floors, and the family’s private life takes place on the third and fourth floors. The project consisted of four major parts; the fixed volume of the structure, the void, and the fixed volume and the mobile volume, respectively. When the turning boxes are closed, the building captures sunlight throughout the space of the central void, which also connects the two fixed volumes by suspended bridges. The house adapts to the functional needs of its residents. For instance, depending on whether there is a guest or not, the guest room (located on the second floor) can be reconfigured for different purposes. Similarly, home office and breakfast room (turning rooms on the first and third floors) can change the formality of their appearance according to their residents’ desire. In other words, there is always the possibility of having different seasonal or lighting scenarios, some of which have been already considered in the BMS program of the project. From the initial design steps, we noticed that three pine trees outside could be incorporated into the spaces of the interior. Now, in the open mode of the house, the trees are pleasantly captured by the window frames. Stepping back for about three meters from the permitted construction boundary line allowed us to provide splendid daylight for the basement floors by inserting a glass fountain. The fitness and wellness areas are accommodated between this fountain and the basement pool where reflective installations reverberate the water’s radiance all over the space. The applied manufacturing technique for the turning mechanism was in fact a simple one; the same method which is currently employed in turning theatrical scenes, turning the floor of car exhibitions, steel companies and the shipping industry in Iran. But as our client himself was into importing CNC and other similar industrial German machines, he preferred the structural system to be fabricated in Germany. In doing so, he could engage his employees in the manufacturing process and thus train them for future maintenance purposes. Details of the handrails and air-penetration controlling methods were major issues considered in developing the design of the turning boxes. Designing foldable handrails and refining the edges of the boxes happened to be our feasible solutions. Considering the specialties of this kind of architecture, the structural system was inevitably a customized one. After digitally modeling the structure, a series of SAP2000 analysis were undertaken to examine static/dynamic performance of the proposed system. Being partially moveable is the dominant feature of this structural assembly, which was contemplated throughout the fabrication process by the German manufacturer company. The main loads all rest on the beams of the living rooms. Due to the various configurations the turning boxes may take, the loading calculation has been estimated based on the largest possible loading value applied to the system. Additionally, in order to prevent structural deformation controlling the probable vibrations in the turning boxes was taken into account during the design/calculations of the structure. The house was titled Sharifi-ha House, in honor of traditional Iranian mansions.

The FINNE Svendsen Building is a striking and highly energy-efficient loft building in Seattle’s Fremont neighborhood. The design and building process was unusual, since architect Nils Finne was both designer and builder owner. The client-architect meetings were brief! The building occupies a corner lot, with street facades on the south and west. The two street facades have a nuanced play of light and shadow. The walls of glass and wood are treated as folded planes, with each façade folding back and forth within an overall depth dimension of about 10”. On floors one and three, the large glass panels project forward, while on floor two, the glass is recessed. The pattern on floor two is an inverted version of floors one and three. The wood spandrel panels are custom-milled Western Red Cedar with a blackened stain. The live-work building creates large, open loft spaces on three floors, with high ceilings, huge windows and exposed long-span steel structure. The building can accommodate a range of uses, both present and future. The three floors of the building have 12-ft ceilings and 11-ft high windows with exposed structural steel supports and steel decking ceilings. The floors are clear-span without internal columns interrupting the work space. Mechanical air distribution is limited to the linear core on the northern side of the building, so work areas have clean metal decking ceilings with no ductwork. The building has in-floor radiant heating and cooling, resulting in minimal energy usage. Operating windows are placed strategically throughout the façade, allowing the building to be naturally ventilated in Seattle’s mild climate. The oversized window walls on the south and west also allow natural lighting to penetrate deeply onto the floor plate, keeping lights turned off for much of the daylight hours. A custom sapele wood front door presents a warm contrast to the building’s blackened wood cladding. A delicate screen of wood slats filters light into the main building lobby. The 3-story stair opens directly from the lobby and has been designed to encourage use on a daily basis, keeping elevator usage to a minimum. A three-story glass wall floods the stairwell with natural light, and the all-steel stair floats in the space. Custom-designed perforations in the steel stair railing panels provide unexpected shadow patterns when the late-afternoon sun shines into the stairwell. The building was designed to be a sustainable structure from the start, with 40% higher insulation values than required by code, efficient natural ventilation, large amounts of natural lighting, water-conserving plumbing fixtures, LED lighting, and locally sourced materials. Windows have high-performance Low-E insulated glazing and are equipped with concealed shades. The building roof has been equipped with photovoltaic panels for electrical production, averaging about 850 Kwh per year. The modest initial amount of PV panels will be expanded over time. The radiant hydronic heating and cooling system allows lower operating temperatures and higher occupant comfort levels. The 6” thick concrete slabs for the radiant tubes conserve both heat in the winter and cooling in the summer and provide great comfort for the feet. During the winter months, the radiant heating system keeps overall energy consumption to a very low level. The 9000 SF building costs about $35/month to heat! During the summer, the passive strategies of natural ventilation combine with the radiant slab cooling to minimize air conditioning load. Deep roof overhangs, built-in shades and high operating clerestory windows are also used to reduce heat gain in summer months. During the winter, the lower sun angle is able to penetrate into work spaces and passively warm the concrete floor. Low VOC paints and stains have been used throughout the building. The high level of craft evident in the building reflects another key principle of sustainable design: eschew “throw-away-ism” and make the building last many years!

We used: Custom cherry cabinetry in Arts & Crafts Shaker style by Kabinart in Boulder and Espresso stains. Liberty Hardware Venetian bronze 1-1/2" cabinet knobs. KitchenAid Architect II Series 22 CF counter-depth French door refrigerator. KitchenAid Architect Series II 27" convection single wall oven. KitchenAid 36" 6-burner dual fuel freestanding commercial-style range. KitchenAid Architect II Series 24" dishwasher. Sharp Insight Pro Series 24" built-in microwave drawer (Model #KB6524PS). Crystorama Solaris 12" wide pendant lights in English bronze. Granite countertops in Brown Fantasy. 3"x6" polished marble backsplash. Paint colors: Walls: Glidden Silver Cloud 30YY 63/024 Ceilings/Trims/Doors: Glidden Swan White GLC23 Robert B. Narod Photography

DHM Remodeling
Basement - contemporary basement idea in Indianapolis

Engineered cedar siding creates beautiful gray-blue tones at the exterior of the home, while adding a textural element to activate the simple exterior design.

Inspiration for a mid-sized transitional wooden u-shaped staircase remodel in New York with painted risers

New Installation of Red Oak Wood, 3 1/4 in width. White-washed Bona Stain was used, Bona Finish, as well as Bona Traffic HD. Dustless sanding.
Living room - contemporary living room idea in Detroit

Two Birds Photography
Kids' room - transitional kids' room idea in Chicago

When Cummings Architects first met with the owners of this understated country farmhouse, the building’s layout and design was an incoherent jumble. The original bones of the building were almost unrecognizable. All of the original windows, doors, flooring, and trims – even the country kitchen – had been removed. Mathew and his team began a thorough design discovery process to find the design solution that would enable them to breathe life back into the old farmhouse in a way that acknowledged the building’s venerable history while also providing for a modern living by a growing family. The redesign included the addition of a new eat-in kitchen, bedrooms, bathrooms, wrap around porch, and stone fireplaces. To begin the transforming restoration, the team designed a generous, twenty-four square foot kitchen addition with custom, farmers-style cabinetry and timber framing. The team walked the homeowners through each detail the cabinetry layout, materials, and finishes. Salvaged materials were used and authentic craftsmanship lent a sense of place and history to the fabric of the space. The new master suite included a cathedral ceiling showcasing beautifully worn salvaged timbers. The team continued with the farm theme, using sliding barn doors to separate the custom-designed master bath and closet. The new second-floor hallway features a bold, red floor while new transoms in each bedroom let in plenty of light. A summer stair, detailed and crafted with authentic details, was added for additional access and charm. Finally, a welcoming farmer’s porch wraps around the side entry, connecting to the rear yard via a gracefully engineered grade. This large outdoor space provides seating for large groups of people to visit and dine next to the beautiful outdoor landscape and the new exterior stone fireplace. Though it had temporarily lost its identity, with the help of the team at Cummings Architects, this lovely farmhouse has regained not only its former charm but also a new life through beautifully integrated modern features designed for today’s family. Photo by Eric Roth

Patio - small traditional backyard stamped concrete patio idea in Denver with no cover

Kitchen - kitchen idea in Raleigh

3 deep drawers with extra wide frames house spices and other necessities near the range. Hardware by Schaub & Co.
Inspiration for a timeless kitchen remodel in New York