Web tour: NYT: Opinionator musings via Living Rooms

logo by The New York TimesHave you been following the Living Rooms series which The New York Times launched in June? It explores my favorite topic -- home: how it reflects who we were, are, and aspire to become. 

Most recently, author Elizabeth Hawes wrote in “Our Buildings, Ourselves” about her lifestyle change when she moved from an elegant Upper West Side c. 1908 apartment house to an expansive Tribeca loft, built a couple of decades earlier. In her tale of a well-heeled life, home is an opportunity to sample an alternative identity. The same could be said for another post “How the West Won Me” by author, New Yorker Winifred Gallagher about her vacation home in Dubois, Wyoming. 

In “Home for Life” author Allison Arieff writes about the impact of the recession on our perceptions of home as a place to live among a community, rather than as a real-estate investment. Her choice of home, like those of Hawes and Gallagher, offers insight into her priorities, and, ultimately, who she is too.

Sometimes the best way to get to know folks is to visit their homes. Short of that opportunity, their descriptions of their homes may be the next best thing (especially if they're authors).

Read my review of Winifred Gallagher’s House Thinking here and catch my thoughts on my home here.

by Katie Hutchison for House Enthusiast

Web tour: Azby Brown

Samurai House & Garden image from Just Enough by Azby Brown. (Those samurai really knew how to live.)With his 2005 book The Very Small Home: Japanese Ideas for Living Well in Limited Space Azby Brown made a welcome appearance on my radar. He’s an architect and design theorist originally from New Orleans who’s been living in Japan since the mid ‘80’s. An interest in traditional Japanese wooden architecture initially attracted him to Japan, and the adaptation and reinterpretation of that tradition in contemporary Japanese architecture and design continue to intrigue him today. He’s the director of the Future Design Institute in Tokyo at the Kanazawa Institute of Technology.

His latest book Just Enough: Lessons in Living Green from Traditional Japan explores how sustainable practices of the Edo period can inform how we shape a sustainable future. For an informative introduction to Brown and Just Enough, check out this interview on Seeds and Fruit. You can also see and hear Brown highlight the book and its mission on this TEDxTokyo video or catch his Pecha-Kucha presentation in Tokyo. Additional information is available on the Just Enough website.

In a recent post by Brown in the Atlantic he shares a more personal example of a Japanese approach to sustainability, which could also inspire sustainable approaches elsewhere. It’s the story of his neighbor’s urban farm in “the middle of Yokohama, a progressive city of 3.6 million”. As with the lessons in Just Enough, Brown appreciates that often successful, Japanese solutions recognize how everything is inter-related. 

It is in many ways common sense, that issues of energy, water, materials, food and population are intertwined, yet sometimes we need to be reminded how a healthy, interdependent, renewable system has worked and can work in order to imagine how it might work in a different time and place.

by Katie Hutchison for House Enthusiast

Backyard retreat web tour, house tour, and garden tour all-in-one

Did you see The New York Times article last week about the garage retreat near Seattle?  It's a fun and sophisticated 250-square-foot getaway.

A small space of one's own, beyond the hustle and bustle of everyday life, can remind us of life's simple pleasures. Such little buildings generally tread lightly on both the environment and our pocketbooks, while recharging our spirits.

The design of small retreats, backyard and beyond would be a great topic for a book, don't you think?  I thought so and was working on such a book a couple of years ago. Unfortunately, it fell victim to the publishing industry's downsizing which began in mid-2008. I still believe there's a book there, waiting to be discovered.

You can sample a Katie Hutchison Studio small retreat design by visiting the Manchester Garage/Garden Room page in the KHS architectural portfolio.

I imagine my fascination with the topic started with my childhood backyard retreat and was reinforced by my mother's current, petite summerhouse in her Connecticut village. I wrote about her garden and her little retreat in a House Garden Primer.

Get a peek at her garden summerhouse in this short Flip video.

by Katie Hutchison for House Enthusiast

Maine Museum of Photographic Arts

Browsing through the recent Art Issue of Maine Home + Design magazine I discovered an exciting development -- the Maine Museum of Photographic Arts. It's in an early fund-raising stage. Inspired by a well-received 2009 photography exhibit co-curated by gallery owner Elizabeth Moss, the new Maine Museum of Photographic Arts (MMPA) hopes to represent the work of 200 contemporary photographers, film/video makers, and new-media artists working in Maine. Their first goal is to create a virtual museum comprised of a full-featured website to display artists' work, interviews (via podcasts), resources, and more.

Elizabeth Moss Gallery and Maine Home + Design magazine are holding a MMPA fund-raising exhibit titled Capture: 50 Photographic Artists to run April 2 through May 9, 2010 at the former W.M. Home located at 190 US Route One, Falmouth, Maine. Nearly 100 prints and a sampling of new-media works will be on display. Attend the opening reception April 2, 2010 from 5-7pm.

Of the 50 featured photographers, a few caught my attention: Jeffrey Becton, Tonee Harbert, Christopher Becker, John G. Kelley, Scott Peterman, and Cig Harvey.

Visit the MMPA Kickstarter site to view a quick video about the museum and to become a founding contributor. Spread the word in support of the photographic arts.

by Katie Hutchison for House Enthusiast

Web tour: House museums on Squidoo

Hancock Shaker Village Laundry and Machine ShopYou may recall my recent web neighbor post about Fivecat Studio and their blog Living Well in Westchester. In my post I referenced their Squidoo lens "Your Complete Guide to Residential Architecture", which is an extensive compilation of links. I suggested they include a section devoted to house museums, and now they have. Scroll down through their updated guide to link to house museums from around the country.

I've written here about several notable New England house museums, like Hancock Shaker Village in Pittsfield, Mass. (which is shown above); Philip Johnson Glass House in New Canaan, Conn.; Gropius House in Lincoln, Mass.; and Yin Yu Tang in Salem, Mass., which I mentioned in my last post. I expect to explore and share with you additional compelling regional house museums in the coming months. Meanwhile, consider those I've already featured. You might be surprised by the unique architecture and history not far from your back door.

by Katie Hutchison for House Enthusiast