Pre-Fab for Old Folks >> MEDcottage
I am fascinated by small-space dwellings and creative housing solutions (like cool new pre-fab designs after Katrina), so I loved this article in the Washington Post that I came across in researching potential ideas for a project we’re working on.
The issue of aging parents in our country is such a sensitive one, and so far I don’t think we’ve figured out a solution that really suits both parents and the caretaking kids. This idea thinks outside-the-box, compared to current solutions, by putting a self-contained “nursing home,” ironically, inside of a box. Could this be the answer for many people?
Here is the intro:
“The Rev. Kenneth Dupin, who leads a small Methodist church here, has a vision: As America grows older, its aging adults could avoid a jarring move to the nursing home by living in small, specially equipped, temporary shelters close to relatives. So he invented the MEDcottage, a portable high-tech dwelling that could be trucked to a family’s back yard and used to shelter a loved one in need of special care.”
My own grandfather lived with us from age 96-99, and my mom’s grandfather lived in a house on their property when she was growing up, which I think is so special, but it seems the most doable solution in our country for aging parents, given monetary restrictions and lifestyles, is nursing homes, which is often not what the parents themselves would prefer.
This seems like a great solution that could fit culturally for Americans– both the parents and caretaking kids have their own space, but they are in close proximity. Plus, this concept has provisions for the safety associated with a nursing home due to its clever added features like the medicine reminder and ankle-height camera monitors that feed into the caretaker’s house. Even if it’s not this exact design, this model could hold promise for further development of this idea.
Virginia has approved a new zoning law to allow for these structures– hope the rest of the country will follow suit!
LustList >> Outdoor Showers and Baths
I’ve always loved outdoor showers, and seeing this article in Travel + Leisure about the “world’s sexiest hotel showers” has had me thinking about them recently. Out of the fifteen showers T+L selected, only a few were outdoors! I couldn’t believe it. I think an outdoor shower is one of the best bathroom-upgrades a house or hotel room could have… There’s just not much better than taking a shower under the blue sky (or stars) with a breeze grazing your skin.
At top, the Sossuvlei Desert Lodge in Namibia. Above, Cocoa Island, Maldives.
The article reminded me of a hotel I stayed at in Merida, Mexico, in the Yucatan, called Rosas y Xocolate on a work trip in the fall. My absolute favorite thing about my room was the giant outdoor stone bathtub seperated from the rest of the bathroom by only a large glass door. The image below is from another room in the hotel, but shows the concept. The outdoor space around the bathtub is actually quite large, so you didn’t feel too closed in.
Another hotel we stayed at in the Yucatan, Hacienda San Jose, also had outdoor bath tubs, but with a much different feel. While Rosas y Xocolate is urban, hip, and modern, Hacienda San Jose is jungle-y, exotic, and ancient feeling.
Click through for seven more outdoor showers…
The following images are from Remodelista…
Milk Paint
Have you ever heard of Milk Paint? I just discovered it and am now obsessed.
It was created to be used as a paint for restoring antique furniture, so the colors are based on the colors used historically for both walls and furniture, and it has a totally flat finish. While I do love a good lacquered wall, on the other hand, I love paint with really rich pigment and a totally flat finish. Milk Paint actually comes as a pure pigment– in powder form– in a little brown bag and you mix it with water.
There are only 20 colors, which I think is brilliant, a la Farrow & Ball, because it means both that all the colors are good and that they all go well with each other. You can then mix any one of them with white to get other tints.
You can also mix it with a bonding agent they make and then it apparently will adhere to even non-porous surfaces, which for diy-furniture makeover types, is awesome.
And it’s self-priming, which is such a plus.
AND, as a bonus, it’s inherently totally non-toxic and environmentally friendly. All in all, pretty great product.
Website here.
Grafica Fidalga
The sheer existence of a company like this, still doing things the same way they’ve been doing it for years, and doing it because they love it, makes me feel a little bit better about the world. Oh, and the video is really well done.
“Grafica Fidalga, a printing press in São Paulo, Brazil, makes posters on a 1929 German letterpress using hand-carved wooden letters.”
May 11, 2010
Curated by:
Eliza Coleman
Section:
Masters and Their Crafts
Labels:
masters and their crafts, must see, typography, video
Curated by:
Eliza Coleman
Section:
Masters and Their Crafts
Labels:
masters and their crafts, must see, typography, video
(Still) Made Here
GREAT article here on the trend of consumers wanting to know the source of their products and food, as well as the story of the company.
As we all know, buying local and handmade is very important to the eco movement, but this article, which is by a trend-watching firm, also discusses the added status that luxury goods companies can attain by making it known through their marketing that they use traditional methods and eschew outsourced production. So true and very interesting.
See previous posts on this topic by clicking the “provenance you can believe in” tag directly below this post.
If you like Andy Goldsworthy >> Arte Sella
Like Andy Goldsworthy, the artists taking part in Arte Sella create their works on site using materials from the area, which in this case happens to be a forest outside of Padua, Italy.
However, unlike Andy Goldsworthy’s art, and most earth art really, where all you see as the viewer are the resulting photographs of the work, with Arte Sella, all of the artists are brought to one location to create their pieces, so you get to wander the forest and see the works in the environment where they were created. Pretty cool concept.
One of my favorite experiences ever was the Venice Biennale, for the adventure of wandering the city and the gardens, in and out of buildings, looking at art, and I think this would be a similar experience– except in the woods, and with art created from and for the woods.
Not to say that one would be better than the other, but just another experience in any way like the Venice Biennale is definitely on my list of things to do.
Arte Sella website here.
via Black Eiffel
LustList >> Chalk Paint Walls
I love chalk paint walls. Beyond their practical use, I love two very specific things about them.
I love a highly pigmented matte paint, and chalkboard paint has exactly that quality.
Secondly, I love handwriting, so the fact that having a chalkboard adds handwriting as a major component to a room is pretty cool.
Don’t you love it when you walk into a restaurant and the menu is written on a chalkboard? That always seems like a signal to me that I’m going to like what’s about to happen. It just makes the whole experience feel a little more intimate and personal.
Above, in a modern setting, it looks perfectly clean and contemporary, while below, in a more bohemian room, when covered in tear sheets and lots of eraser marks, it looks casual and artsy. (Also, brilliant way to allow kids to write on the wall. Oh, and I love the shelf that goes above the door in the photo above.)
I think it actually gets even more appealing after lots of erasing has occurred and it has those milky swaths and swirls criss-crossing it, but it can also have a really graphic quality if kept clean and dark like the image below.
Click the jump for more…
This person takes the practical usage very seriously.
I think these two are actually paintings, but I kind of like the idea of hanging a giant chalk paint-covered canvas or board on your wall, as though it’s art, and then people can write and draw on it and it would continuously change.
It could even take on a very Cy Twombly-esque appearance, like this one below…
Inge Morath’s Iran
This book, Iran, by Inge Morath, as featured by the NYT T Magazine, looks so fascinating. Morath, an Austrian-born photographer who later married playwright Arthur Miller, was sent by Holiday Magazine to capture images of Iran in 1956, putting her in the country at a peaceful time between the 1953 coup and the 1979 Revolution.
Though she was instructed by Holiday to capture two largely predictable themes– mosques and Persian rugs– she delved much deeper than that and captured everything from the ruins of Persepolis, to the Shah celebrating the new year, to children at work. The resulting photos give a rare glimpse into the country at peace.
Love this, from the NYT Magazine: “As “Reading Lolita in Tehran” author Azar Nafisi says in an essay about Morath’s work, ‘In some of Morath’s photographs I felt that there was an affinity between that feeling of being overwhelmed by a past that is so huge and a present that is evasive and inaccessible.’”
Click through for more photos…
Makes me so curious to know more about Iran, both then and now… seems like all we usually see is very one-dimensional view of a country so rich with history, culture, and beauty.
From the NYT T Magazine, article here.
Book available on Amazon here.
Provenance You Can Believe In >> The L.L. Bean Bag
Love these behind-the-scenes, see-how-it’s-made videos…
I think we as consumers are definitely going to keep moving in the direction of wanting to know the story behind the product and where it came from, and even paying more for something just because of the story, whether bags or food.
Here’s a quick one on the classic L.L. Bean “Boat and Tote” Bag.
