Design Public

Yesterday I was perusing one of my favorite neighborhood shops, urban cottage, and I came across some beautiful beads. It turns out they were part of the Akola project. The Akola project is part of the Ugandan American Partnership Organization. The Akola project has employed over 90 widows to make necklaces that are sold in Atlanta Georgia and Greenville South Carolina, for the purpose of stimulating economic development and providing relief to widows in rural villages. The beads are absolutely stunning, by the way. To learn more go to TheUAPO.org; to purchase visit urbancottage-atlanta.com.

photo from UAPO.org

I’ve been meaning to tell you about this great book my Mom brought me as a hostess gift about a year ago. It’s a monograph of the work of Samuel ‘Sambo’ Mockbee, appropriately titled Rural Studio: Samuel Mockbee and an Architecture of Decency. I kept putting it off, because frankly, scanning stuff is a boring chore, plus, it’s really hard to pick just a few projects from this book. I doubt I can summarize it better than the book jacket:

For almost ten years, Samuel Mockbee, a recent MacArthur “genius grant” recipient, and his architecture students at Auburn University have been designing and building striking houses and community buildings for impoverished residents of Alabama’s Hale County. Using salvaged lumber and bricks, discarded tires, hay and waste cardboard bales, concrete rubble, colored bottles, and old license plates, they create inexpensive buildings in a style Mockbee describes as ‘contemporary modernism grounded in Southern culture.’”

This is the first project from Sambo I remember seeing back in architecture school. It’s The Cardboard Pod and is made from baled sheets of corrugated wax-impregnated boards:This is the incredible Yancey Chapel, built around an existing rusted trough and constructed from 1000 dirt-filled used tires:This property near The Yancey Chapel is called The Goat House, a former shed for animals that Rural Studio originally planned as part of an artists’ colony. The colony never, um, colonized, and the building is now a residence. You see the Chapel aesthetic influence on the structure: (more…)

It’s getting close! Tonight, don’t forget about Earth Hour, created by the WWF. No, not Junk Yard Dog and The Iron Sheik (OK, my WWF references are from circa 1984, when I actually attended some matches - scary that Hulk Hogan is STILL around and I saw him when I was in the 8th grade), the original WWF, the World Wildlife Foundation. From 8-9 tonight, turn the lights out and power down! Remember that unplugging coffee makers, cell phone chargers etc. saves a lot of energy every day. To sign up and for more information and tips, click here. If you are upset because 8-9 on Saturday night interrupts your Monk marathon, either get out some candles and read a book or go out and get a life!

I am almost as obsessed with fashion magazines as I am with home magazines (it used to be the other way around). The delivery of the huge W every month is always exciting and this month it is incredible. I am so glad to see that some people are working hard to make sure the rest of us do not forget that New Orleans is still in dire straits. The April issue of W has an amazing 60-page spread of New Orleans shot by Bruce Weber. Since shotgun houses have been on my mind this week (and I’ll be sharing some more about some other shotgun houses next week), I thought I’d share this image with you today. So many houses like this one were lost in Katrina. Let’s make sure they are not erased.

To learn more about how to help rebuild the 9th Ward, check out The Make It Right Foundation. This is a really cool project that deserves its own blog post, so I’ll tell you a little more about it next week. Explore the site - the pink project (the color is so very Christo) and the tour of the affordable housing is very cool and inspiring.

Also, on a disaster-related note, for those of you in the Atlanta area who would like to help out with the tornado recovery in Cabbagetown this weekend, click here for more information.

photos by Bruce Weber for W magazine

A few weeks ago I was in a bad car accident in Cabbagetown. After I pulled over and was starting to sob, a couple of guys came running up to make sure everyone was alright. They had heard the wreck from a park about three blocks away. It calmed me down immediately and made me feel so much better.  These are the kind of folks that live in Cabbagetown.  In fact, one of them, Ziggy, was quoted in the paper talking about the neighborhood yesterday - I had been thinking of him this week, because this weekend, his neighborhood was ravaged by a tornado. It’s been wonderful to see how this tight-knit community is pulling together to help each other.

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Alright, with long waiting lists for spots in community gardens, yet lots of yuck all over our cities, there is an alternative. Guerrilla Gardens are launching a coup on all neglected and abandoned open spaces across the world.

This week I received an issue of GOOD magazine in the mail for no reason. I love it when that happens. Somehow this relatively new magazine’s first four issues flew right under my radar. It’s a pretty cool magazine - it’s bi-monthly, it’s printed on recycled paper, and the $20 subscription fee goes to the charity of the subscriber’s choice. If you need to overdose on goody-goody-ness, click here. It’s pretty inspiring.

My favorite feature is a blurb called “Horticultural Jamming.” It’s about a “cadre of illicit (more…)

Have you got an old bike that’s taking up space in your garage, or one that’s been hanging from your ceiling with flat tires for two years? It’s sad, out of shape and it wants to be used. Why not give it a free trip to Guatemala or Africa? Why not recycle it so that someone who will actually use it can have a chance?

In Chicago this month, Bike (re)Cycle Chicago will be collecting used bikes on Saturday, May 5 and Saturday, May 12. Drop your bikes off from 9:00 a.m. - 1:00 p.m. at the following Chase location. (more…)

The Palm Cottage Before:

and after:

Oh my word, I have been meaning to write about Jane Coslick for years now. Seeing her latest cottage in the May issue of Cottage Living reminded me. Jane takes run down sad shacks on Tybee Island in Georgia (near Savannah) and turns them into the most vibrant and funky cottages. Her award-winning preservation efforts have prevented a lot of McMansionism and helped the island retain its casual charm. I think her own website says it much more articulately than I could ever paraphrase:

“Jane Coslick’s Designs and Restorations embraces the cottage lifestyle: open, friendly, and simple. Jane’s lovingly restored homes are painted bright colors– trimmed in crisp white, and are full of funky furnishings, many of which she designs herself. Jane blends the quirky with the quintessential and fills her homes with delights at every turn. Her passion for restoration and design has been recognized locally, regionally and nationally.”

Luscious Little Cottage:

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Since I mentioned Treehugger yesterday, I thought it was fitting to let you know about how you can hug a tree.  The Cultural Landscape Foundation and Garden Design are calling for nominations for Landslide 2007 .  In a nutshell, you may nominate your favorite significant tree (I suppose "significant" implies that a Charlie Brown evergreen is not really what they are looking for, but the tree from A Tree Grows in Brooklyn might work, if it exists and if you know where it is), orchard, park planting  or other horticultural feature that has survived against all odds, miraculously demonstrating its ability to stand steadfast in the face of natural and cultural challenges.  The winners will be named "Heroes of Horticulture."

Nominate your Hero of Horticulture here .  The deadline is April 15, 2007.  The winning plant or landscape will receive some serious landscape architectural glory.  Also, please note that TCLF is "the only not-for-profit foundation in America dedicated to increasing public awareness of the important legacy of cultural landscapes and to helping save them for the future." 

JUST AN ASIDE:  I really like Garden Design.  They feature some great projects and the photography is beautiful.  In November’s issue I wanted to blow up and frame their photographs of various barks.   Does the new affiliation with ASLA mean that there is no more Landscape Architecture magazine?  The ugly layout of L.A. used to annoy me when I had a subscription.

* I spend a lot of time over at Treehugger’s blog yesterday, and wanted to pass on the TH guide to giving green.  According to TH, there is a 24% increase in trash at holiday time!  For some great green gift ideas and sources, check out this guide.  Be aware of all the shopping bags that go to waste - try to bring your big old canvas L.L. Bean tote with you to the mall.  If you forget, be sure to recycle your used bags.  Also, be aware of how you wrap.  People don’t seem to carefully open the presents, smooth out the paper, and put it in a drawer for reuse like my grandfather used to anymore!

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