Lead Paint: Striking a Balance Between Hysterical Hypochondria and Cavalier Ignorance
I have done a lot of stupid things in my life, but as a father now of three children, I now take time to consider my actions the health and well being of my kids. The case in point is the renovation of the house we just bought. For the past twenty-odd years, I have [...]
Tumbleweed Tiny House Company Workshops, Toronto July 17-18th (2010)
Back when the miniHOME SOLO launched in 2006, I was in communication with Jay Shafer, founder of the Tumbleweed Tiny House Company because of our shared passion for tiny, efficient home design. Over the months and years following, our paths crossed online a few times, and just when Oprah’s O at Home featured the miniHOME [...]
The Eco Trailer Park
While smart growth and eco-developments have become part of the mainstream planning dialogue, trailer parks demonstrate a form of sustainable infrastructure and development patterns that already exist. The oft-snubbed trailer park is probably the most overlooked form of sustainable and affordable housing, a true diamond in the rough. With a little help from green design, [...]
George Orwell, "Politics and the English Language," 1946
I have taken this essay not only in its original sense, but as a kind of design manifesto. We cannot continue to do what we have always done. The formal expressions of architecture must tie back to meaning, and this meaning must connect architecture to the earth. The source of all metaphor is our experience [...]
The Green Machine
Think going off the grid means a big cash outlay for secluded land and solar panels? Think again. Vancouver eco-activists have figured out a way to go easy on the earth, and the pocketbook. July-August, 2002, by Rebecca Atkinson EXPENSIVE AND EXCLUSIVE, GREEN HOUSING IS TOO OFTEN RESERVED for those in the middle-age, high-income bracket. [...]
