November 2012

tour: in-progress renovation of midcentury ranch

Homeowner Paul Hickman (owner of Urban Ashes) is opening the opportunity to experience a rare hands-on opportunity to visit an in-progress transformation of a historic mid-century modern ranch featuring a multitude of unconventional and reclaimed materials from the site and beyond.

The next installment of the Visible Green Home™/Behind the Drywall™ Tour showcases the “story” behind a home and the owner’s 18 years of professional experience specifying sustainable finishes and materials as a consultant/designer. This mid-century modern, dubbed “Rancho Deluxe”, is being revived utilizing many of the same materials deconstructed from the site during the renovation. With these materials from the site, along with other unconventional and reclaimed materials, Rancho Deluxe creates a unique sense of place that respects the history of the home while looking to the future. Where new materials and fixtures are required, the focus is American made, locally sourced, or reclaimed whenever possible.

Guided tours will take place on Saturday and Sunday, December 8th and 9th, 2012. The event is free however; pre-registration is required by visiting www.behindthedrywall.com or by calling 734-619-8024.

Some key materials and their stories:

• The original Redwood clapboards, unearthed under the 1970’s vinyl siding, will be repurposed as siding for the new Urban Ashes studio on site.
• The old vinyl siding went to another homeowner to clad a new addition and garage.
• All of the ½” rigid foam from under the vinyl was salvaged and is being reused on site as a component of the new thermal envelope.
• The new exterior house siding and trim is sourced from 100 year-old Michigan barns, once at the heart of the state’s agriculture infrastructure, and now diverted from the landfill.
• The concrete patio material, removed to insulate the foundation, was salvaged and will be utilized on site for retaining walls and as broken pavers.
• The existing interior doors, plumbing & lighting fixtures, laminate flooring, appliances and mechanical fixtures not vintage to the house or era, were donated to local charities or relocated to new homes.
• All of the new interior doors will be vintage “Miracle” doors sourced through Reclaim Detroit from deconstructed Detroit homes slated for landfill.
• New flooring, trim, and cabinetry designed by the homeowner in a 1940’s style, will be crafted from trees downed by the Dexter Tornado of 2012, and from the only large tree removed from the site necessary to fully expose the solar array used to power the home and studio year round.
• The new interior color palette, designed to pay homage to the 1940’s, will be created using petroleum-free, non-toxic, plant oil-based paints.

About the Tour Organizers

This tour is being organized by a collaborative of local companies which include: Meadowlark Energy, Architectural Resource, Urban Ashes, Thrive Net-Zero Collaborative, Renovo Power Systems, Wood Window Repair, Land Architects, Brian Schmidt Carpentry, Nicki Wilson Lighting, Big George’s, Bgreen Today, Neighborhood Roofing, 2nd Chance Wood Company, and Reclaim Detroit. For more information go to www.ranchodeluxe.info

Lecture: Furniture Design as Art: Eames Furniture History (Kalamazoo)

Of interest to a2modern!

Art League Lecture: Furniture Design as Art: Eames Furniture History

Dates: Wed Dec 12, 12
Time: 10:00am
Location:
Kalamazoo Institute of Arts
314 S. Park St., Kalamazoo, MI 49007
Kalamazoo, MI
Contact:
(269) 349-7775
Carla Atwood Hartman, the granddaughter of Charles and Ray Eames, will discuss the history of the famous Eames furniture design and lead a tour of Good Design: Stories from Herman Miller at the Kalamazoo Valley Museum after the lecture reception.
Free for Art League Members/$10 KIA Members/$12 general admission/$3 students with valid college ID.
Early in their careers together, Charles and Ray Eames identified the need for affordable, yet high-quality furniture for the average consumer — furniture that could serve a variety of uses. For forty years the Eameses experimented with ways to meet this challenge, designing flexibility into their compact storage units and collapsible sofas for the home; seating for stadiums, airports, and schools; and chairs for virtually anywhere.

Their chairs were designed for Herman Miller in four materials — molded plywood, fiberglass-reinforced plastic, bent and welded wire mesh, and cast aluminum. The conceptual backbone of this diverse work was the search for seat and back forms that comfortably support the human body, using three dimensionally shaped surfaces or flexible materials instead of cushioned upholstery. An ethos of functionalism informed all of their furniture designs. “What works is better than what looks good,” Ray said. “The looks good can change, but what works, works.”

For more information: http://www.kiarts.org/event.php?calendar_id=13&event_id=643