Home & Dining Channel: Offbeat Style, 2nd Edition
I’m back, with more great posts from around the Home & Dining Channel.
A big favorite of mine is Declutter It. I’m a five file cabinet, alphabetize my albums, tidy kind of girl yet I have the world’s sloppiest email. This week Julie has a great quick tip for getting your email into shape. Julie also recently featured a Shakhammer item. What the heck is that? Is is a chocolate shake? An organizing hammer? I guess you’ll have to go find out.
Is there a perfectly organized Offbeat home somewhere out there for Julie?
Maybe this:
It looks like a tent, but it’s not. It’s actually a new home design from Chilean architects FAR frohn&rojas. From the FAR website:
“The project breaks down the “traditional” walls of a house into a series of four delaminated layers ( concrete cave, stacked shelving, milky shell, soft skin ) in between which the different spaces of the house slip. From the inside out the layers build upon one another, both materially and geometrically, blurring the boundary between the interior and the exterior…The building’s most standout feature, an energy screen typically used in greenhouse construction, constitutes the outermost layer, creating not only a diffused lighting and comfortably climatized zone inside but also, through its folding and sometimes- reflective/sometimes-translucent surface, contributes to the diamond-cut appearance of the structure.”
That’s a lot to take in if you’re not an architect. I was just going to say, “tidy.” Still it is a great idea.
Treehugger says, “This is interesting because a traditional wall buries systems that age differently but all the layers are bound together; here the layers are separated and accessible.” That makes sense. In building re-design projects that I’ve been a part of, it’s often a middle layer of something that causing trouble — this effectively removes that issue.
Personally, I’m torn. I love the floor and like the clean lines (AND adore the great amount of open shelving). It has a wee bit of a sterile look to me though. Still, it was the most organized home I could find and the light access is amazing.
Tracey at Foodie Obsessed is pretty cool; she likes Amy Finley (The Next Food Network Star), the same person I like; well, after Jag left (yes I was shocked). And she can tell you how to get Paula Deen tickets.
Sadly, somewhat like the Heather chocolate dilemma, there are few homes made out of food or related to food. But I found an apartment building shaped like a food item.
This is the cactus shaped building. From Boing Boing:
“Rotterdam’s Urban Cactus housing project (UCX Architects) uses ingenious staggered terraces to make huge, sunny spaces… They placed the 98 residential units on 19 floors, using the pattern of outdoor spaces to determine the overall appearance of the project. The slightly irregular pattern alternates these outdoor spaces to create what are in effect double-height spaces. Each unit then receives more sunlight than a typical stacked composition.”
Neat-o. And yes you can so eat cactus! It says so right here. This is clearly a foodie structure.
Have you ever eaten cactus?
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POSTED IN: Home & Dining, Link Love
6 opinions for Home & Dining Channel: Offbeat Style, 2nd Edition
Julie
Jul 28, 2007 at 5:02 pm
I like that tidy house! I’ve never seen anything like that. Very cool. Thanks Jennifer!
Crabby McSlacker
Jul 28, 2007 at 11:18 pm
Great finds.
I love the fantasy that if I buy something like a desk or a wall unit or even an entire house with lots of slots and shelves and compartments for keeping things tidy, that I will actually put things in them in some sort of sensible order.
(And even the dog in that picture seems to know where he or she is supposed to be filed).
But alas, I can buy all the organizational space I want, but I still end up with stacks of junk piled everywhere unsorted, because, well, I’m lazy and furniture or design elements aren’t going to change that.
Unless they come with a scanner/robot that can collect my junk, sort it and file it in the right place… then bring on the tidy house!
Jennifer Chait
Jul 29, 2007 at 12:19 am
Well, I’m glad you like it Julie — granted it is easier to find a house that fits your blog than some of the other H&D blogs. You got off easy. I did find a wicked cool thrifty house though. So, Deb’s in luck.
Crabby — hey girl. Are you working this weekend? I don’t usually expect to see you around unless it’s a weekday. But as always it’s a pleasure. And you know you actually do seem like someone who might try all that organizing stuff but have it not help — so it’s funny you’d say that. If I see a good tidy robot I’ll send it your way.
Angelique
Jul 29, 2007 at 8:08 am
I’m with Crabby!
I am forever buying items to organize our household, but either they end up as “toys” (my son has turned plenty of baskets and bins into houses, steps, et cetera… and then has promptly destroyed them) or they wind up just making more clutter for me.
If I ever become wealthy (which I won’t, so this is a fairly moot point), I’ll pay someone to organize my house. But until that time, I guess I’ll just have to accept that I am doomed to clutterbugdom! :)
(Ironically, it doesn’t bother me all that much… in fact, I’m pretty comfortable working around leaning towers of books, papers, and god knows what else!)
As always, fun post!
Angelique
Jennifer Chait
Jul 29, 2007 at 10:12 pm
“I’m pretty comfortable working around leaning towers of books, papers, and god knows what else!”
That is my ultimate nightmare. I work mostly weekends and the day I clean house is Friday — to avoid that. If there’s a stack of something I honestly will not work; just stare at the stack. But sometimes I wish I was more like how you are. It would be easier to not have to clean up before working.
You might become wealthy one day. Never say never. Even if I was wealthy, I couldn’t have someone else clean my house. It would be too weird. Except for the mopping — that would be heaven.
Homemaking Around the Channel (July 31, 2007)
Jul 31, 2007 at 8:22 pm
[…] has picked out Offbeat Homes for the bloggers of the Home and Dining Channel. Check out the home she’s chosen for […]
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