space

parking lot 02

As we develop a project we go through a lot of drawings.  Elevations, plans, and details that all describe what materials are where and how they come together.  What we have to try not to loose in this process is the original ideas of the project that are usually more about space than the things that contain it.

I believe architecture is fundamentally about making space.  We compose bricks and steel, wood and dozens of other materials to make a building, but what we are primarily doing is creating space.  Images of architecture tend to highlight materials, colors and patterns and rarely do a good job of depicting the sense of space that is contained.  Imagining, shaping and coaxing that space is a strangely abstract and yet oddly physical task for an architect.  Although space is in a sense the negative of the container, I think for me it has a feel, almost a taste and smell, that I can get hold of, that is separate from the walls and floors, ceilings and windows.

parking lot 01

Colorado vernacular - adobe

barn

A number of months ago a wrote a series of posts about Colorado's vernacular architecture.  I attempted to categorize the vernacular buildings by the dominant material - log, stone or frame.  Sadly missing from that collection was the base building material used by the Spanish colonial settlers in southern Colorado - adobe.

As most folks know, adobe is a sun-dried, hand-formed brick made of local sand, clay, water and some binding fiber like straw.  Adobe construction has been used in many cultures and over thousands of years and is particularly well-suited to hot, dry climates because of its dense thermal mass.

house 01

store

In southern Colorado, along the east and west sides of the San Luis Valley, there are numerous examples of very old adobe structures, many of which have been slowly replaced with more conventional concrete block construction.  In fact, when white-washed, it is very difficult to tell at a glance if the underlying structure is adobe or concrete unit masonry.  The adobe construction is generally limited to single story rectangular buildings that could be simply spanned by vigas or lumber framed roofs.

P1070815

When left unadorned, the adobe bricks weather, their edges flaking off, creating a soft, pillowing profile that adds to their impression of mass and weight.  As a testament to their enduring nature, you can find many structures long devoid of their wood roofs and doors, with the adobe still standing.  The precious little dressed lumber that was used is placed to make uniform and contained window and door frames, further accentuating the adobe's soft forms.

window detail

I don't know where the line is struck in southern Colorado, but some place slightly north of Alamosa I would guess the use of adobe was found too incompatible with the increased snow and rain fall.  These adobe structures are certainly part of the Colorado vernacular environment and like the simple log and stone structures of the mountains, they are equally geographically limited.

house 02

and so we begin...

sz011

A number of months ago, immediately on the heels of the Fourmile Fire, I was hired by a couple who just lost their house to design another.  It has been a great process even in the face of that tragedy, with clients who reaffirm why I do residential design.  Their thoughtfulness and commitment to the project has no parallel in any other building type.

Today, at noon, we received our Building Permit from Boulder County.  True to their word, they greatly expedited the process, cutting it down from 6-8 weeks to about one.  My heartfelt thanks go out to the Land Use and Building Department staff, especially Kim Sanchez, Gary Sanfancon and Michelle Huebner who have made a painful process considerably less so.

sz012

So we begin.  Construction will ramp up here in a few days and I will be posting updates as we progress from excavation through foundations, framing, roofing, etc.  Additional special thanks goes out to Jeff Hindman, Kim Neill and the crew at Cottonwood Custom Builders who were brought on early in the design process and have helped guide the project and its budget to a success launch.

SZ southeast

Altona Grange hall

AG southwest

Just north of Boulder, Colorado is the Altona Grange Hall.  It is one of the original 492 granges in Colorado, established in 1891.  These buildings were built as part of the Grange movement of farmer solidarity known as the Patrons of Husbandry.  They advocated for modern farming techniques, water rights protections, bank farm loan policies and railroad price fixing.  The buildings become the social center, the "culture" of agriculture,  of often very isolated farming communities.

These are buildings built without architects, usually by the farmers themselves.  Unlike Europe where so many farmers live in town and migrate daily out to their fields, the homestead movement in the United States occupied the land in a much more dispersed fashion.  Farmers often lived great distances to cities or town and from each other.  These buildings are some of the richest examples of truly vernacular building in the West.

The Altona Grange has a long and rich history and is still a thriving enterprise.  http://altonagrange.pbworks.com/

I find the building fascinating in its lack of consistency to roof pitches, materials usage, etc.  As you can see, the siding and roofing changes for different locations, the various additions wrapping around the original building based on use and necessity, not aesthetics.  But what ends up is a really dynamic building.

AG south

AG east

This is architecture put together by the people who use it and have to maintain it collectively.  It is not graceful or delicate, but it has a solid presence that comes from occupation and some very clear relationships.  The main building is clearly dominant and the additions and sidecars are secondary.  You can tell from looking at the building that the main hall is the center of the community, the other forms are there to support that main function.  This is a simple, albeit not elegant, description of "spaces served and spaces in service" that Louis Kahn delineated in most of his better works and gives a building a clear sense of both its genesis and use.

AG sign

This modest building serves as a good lesson to architects designing buildings that stand isolated out on the plains.  A simple, strong form needs to be strongly articulated to sit in the massive panaroma of the landscape and the small additions lend human scale and occupation.  A beautifully simple building more satisfying that so many current architectural flights of fancy.