the midcentury ranch for a new generation
2 min readSo I haven’t been making as much progress as I’d like on the Togstad project in August but it is for an excellent reason. Â I’ve been designing another project – a new Passive House residence to be constructed in the Bloomington, IL area.
While nothing in the design brief said “ranch” it is no coincidence that it has an elongated single-story profile and flowing open plan layout. I do have ranches on the brain. Here are some of my sketches from the Schematic Design phase.
  Continue reading “In other news: Design for a (ranch like) Passive House”
3 min readSaturday, I gave  a lecture at the MREA Energy Fair in Custer, WI about the joy of working with my parents to design their timber frame, straw bale, passive solar house, Underhill, completed four years ago.  Here’s some of what I said.
If you happened to attend that lecture, the work I’m doing now might seem very different.  After all, remodeling a 1950’s ranch LOOKs pretty dissimilar to building a timber frame, sod roofed house from scratch.  However, I feel strongly that both projects come from the same place – a desire to use buildings to live lightly on the earth.  Continue reading “In other News: Just Gave a Talk on Underhill at the MREA Energy Fair”
3 min readBecause, come on, why wouldn’t you?
I’ve spent the last two weeks struggling through the muggy heat to de-lead and prime the north and south walls of the house and prepping for my upcoming talk at the MREA Energy Fair but when I think about design, I’ve been thinking about concrete and wondering what I can make from it.  Pavers?  Planters? Benches?  The possibilities are endless.  Continue reading “And now I’m obsessed with concrete and want to use it everywhere”
