Pretty Pretty Beds
Check out this mahogany bed made with peroba rosa. Peroba is a recycled wood, reclaimed from 100-year-old Brazilian barns. Bizarre and random and awesome. We all know the green movement can tend either toward the granola, or the purely theoretical design student aesthetic. The stuff at Bluehouse is delightfully well designed and eco-friendly. Check out their beautiful armories and hard wood flooring. All eco-tastic and well designed.
Victory Gardens
I love the Twin Cities. I really do. But here’s an example of a really cool, simple social program, and it ain’t here. Check out Victory Gardens. A small start-up non-profit dedicated to taking small urban plots of dirt and growing food, in San Francisco. And when i say small plots, I mean small. They’re transitioning “backyard, front yard, window boxes, rooftops and unused land into food production areas.” People have plots of dirt, which can produce food. Simple, elegant solutions. Taking inspiration from WWII era food production, Victory Gardens is (if it works) really impressive. If anybody knows of something like this in MSP let me know.
My first home…
…looks nothing like these. LivingHomes is a developer focusing on modular housing and sustainable architecture. They’re currently located out of southern California, so us middle-coasters are out of luck. Ray Kappe and David Hertz are their main architects, and their modernist design philosophies are apparent in their work. More than anything else, I was impressed with their environmental commitment to building homes with minimal ecological footprints. If you’re buying a house, think modular.
