Deborah Carnes Christie describes herself as a lawyer, a dilettante and a designer. The 60-year-old Chapel Hill resident just added author to her list of titles. Her first book, “Green House, The Story of a Healthy, Energy-Efficient Home,” was published this week to give readers a sense of the step-by-step...
For those actively seeking a ready-to-go set of house plans for a modern, sustainable residence, Hometta may be the online source. Since its launch in concert with Dwell in Design in Los Angeles in 2008, Hometta has signed 35 architectural studios to showcase plans for proven, uber-cool homes. For a reasonable...
A lollygagger, Sharon Larson of Loll Designs says, is someone who works hard and plays hard too. She should know: her company caters to them. It makes what they call “outdoor furniture for the modern lollygagger.” Its products are made from 100 percent recycled HDPE (“That’s milk jugs and yogurt...
In the spring of 2010, Chris Colby of Spire Architects & Design in Millbrook, N.Y. will break ground on a traditional Cape-style home. It’s made of concrete, and it’s net-zero energy. “Our earlier net-zero designs were more contemporary,” he said. “But people here said they didn’t...
Jacob Marks is a history major turned furniture maker. He sees similarities between the two fields that are less than obvious to most people. “Both require skill, discipline and attention to detail,” he said. “But the design of furniture comes more easily to me than the writing of history.”...
For the past six years, Judith Shatin, professor of music at The University of Virginia, has enjoyed an office in the Stanford White-designed Old Cabell Hall on the Lawn. She has an inspiring view of Jefferson’s Rotunda.. “I happened to be sitting in Old Cabell, looking at that beautiful scene, when...
The assignment was hectic, interior designer James Saavedra said, but the solution was magical. Cisco Pinedo, president of CiscoHome, called him up a couple of years ago and asked him to come to his home, style it, develop a few custom pieces, and make it right for a Los Angeles Times photo shoot. ...
Nathan Wieler has rethought the links between ideas and the resources that make them real. He’s no stranger to cutting-edge concepts for 21st century living. In 1999, he developed Zoom Culture, a precursor to YouTube. In 2005, when he built the Original Dwell Home in Chatham County, N.C., The Washington...
It looks real, but it’s twelve and a half minutes of exquisite computer animation. All of it: The Louis Kahn-designed Exeter Library. His masterpiece in Bangladesh. Even Frank Gehry’s Walt Disney Concert Hall in downtown Los Angeles. Alex Roman (aka Jorge Seva, born in 1979 in Alicante, Spain) did it. He’s...
Michael Bustin, president of Meld USA, is entranced by a flexible, ecologically sensitive and design-driven solution for all kinds of interiors. “It’s an alluring, addictive material,” Bustin said of the cement-based eco composites and products he makes. “I can create anything – from warm...
