Complex Order

After reviewing, peril, prospect, refuge, and enticement, there is one more pleasurable architectural characteristic highlighted in Winifred Gallagher's House Thinking. Grant Hildebrand called it "complex order."

Complex order explains why older suburbs have more charm than new subdivisions:

"This is because our big brains love to take in lots of information from the world and sort it according to fine distinctions. Thus we're bored by overl » READ MORE

November 07, 2006

1 comment  |  370 views

0

Enticement & Architectural Pleasure

 

Gallagher says, "everyone loves a surprise, and the quality of enticement gives a home some innately appealing frisson." (I had to look up frisson: a sudden strong feeling of excitement or fear, pronounced: free-SOH^N.)

To create a feeling of e » READ MORE

November 07, 2006

0 comments  |  362 views

0

A womb with a view

In my first post about the 5 characteristics of pleasing architecture that I gleaned from Gallaghers book, "House Thinking," I discussed the characteristic of peril and how it can add feelings of exhiliration to a house. Today, I'll write a little about refuge and prospect.

This is a picture of Frank Lloyd Wright's Taliesin West. Notice how low the ceilings are in this Frank Lloyd Wright-esque bedroom? Notice the big, bright view?

Wright call » READ MORE

November 07, 2006

0 comments  |  859 views

0

Is Your Home Dangerous Enough?

I've been reading Winifred Gallagher's book, "House Thinking: A Room-by-Room Look at How We Live."

In it, she highlights the work of Grant Hildebrand and his quest to discover the characteristics of "innately appealing architecture."

He began his research by asking why homo sapiens might be drawn to some places and repelled by others. With colleagues in the fields of biology, psychology, geography, he came up with five characteristics of an appe » READ MORE

November 07, 2006

1 comment  |  926 views

0

Custom "Design" Search with Google

Thank you Google Co-op! (RIP Rollyo)

The readers of Curbly now have a custom search engine for sites dedicated to design with the wildly creative name "Design Search Engine". (Please suggest a better one!) I created it last night when I heard about the new service. Click here to go check it out.

It's kinda plain looking still, but it works! Let me know if I left out any key websites.

November 07, 2006

2 comments  |  1072 views

0