Opening Monday: Gail Peter Borden Density Frames at USC

More info here. 

Hometta's nottoscale in the NYT Style Section

It's no secret we love Thursday. Among other reasons: it's the day the big national papers release their style sections, and we anticipate a little extra visual inspiration. We greeted one recent Thursday in San Francisco, reading the papers and plotting our day of architecture and Gertrude Stein consumption at a very delicious (and very tiny) local restaurant (thanks, Urban Spoon!). 

Image via New York Times.In between chatting with tne neighbors at our family-style table and enjoying our strawberries with nuts on toast, we were enchanted by the home on the front page of the Times and its connection with its stunning desert locale. And then, a dawning realization: that place looks familar! Sure enough, though it took a bit of hunting through the story to find the name of the architect, he's one of ours: Peter Strzebniok of nottoscale.

Farm:table. Highly recommended in San Francisco

We love it when that happens. And it's not the first time, either.

Crank House Plans Go Live

Crank House by over,underPlans for Crank House by longtime Hometta partners over,under are now available for sale online. Go see!

Hometta and over,under previously collaborated on the Welcome Hometta show at their pinkcomma gallery in Boston. Read Dwell's interview over,under, in which they discuss their work with Hometta, here. 

Multiple Hometta Studios Honored with AIA, Residential Architect Awards

For Hometta studios, winter and spring have brought a flurry of awards and recognitions. We can hardly keep up, but here's trying:

Gail Peter Borden and Kiel Moe have been honored by the National chapter of the AIA as outstanding young architects.

Gail Borden's Book Material Precedent

Read more on Northeastern Unversity's website.

James Evans of Collaborative Designworks was awarded an AIA Houston 2011 Design Award for the Hyde Park Double. 

Hyde Park Double by Collaborative Designworks

The R-House, designed by Hometta's DellaValle Bernheimer (in collaboration with Architecture Research Office) to meet the stringent energy-conservation standards of the German Passivhaus movement, won a 2011 Housing Award from the national AIA.

R-House

And as if that's not enough, Residential Architect recently recognized Johnsen Schmaling Architects and Alterstudio Architects in their 2011 Design Awards. JSA received a merit award for a house under 3,000 square feet for the widely published OS House in Racine Wisconsin, and Alterstudio received a merit award for a house over 3,000 square feet for the East Windsor Residence in Austin, Texas.

OS House, image by John J. Macaulay, via Johnsen Schmalling ArchitectsEast Windsor Residence, @JH Jackson Photography, via ArchDaily.

Hometta Problem Solvers

Originally designed as a guest house for a larger dwelling, the Dogtrot Casita works equally well as a stand-alone house. Its intelligent use of light and the interplay of indoor and outdoor spaces (including a small private courtyard) make it feel more spacious than its 620 square feet would suggest. We were able to visit the site of the casita, where the owner, an artist who works in the KRDB house adjacent to the dogtrot, took a break from working in her studio to let us take a peek.

She had it outfitted with minimal but colorful furniture and accessories, and made the most of the house's indoor-outdoor interchange with a creative combination of white gravel beds, succulents, and a small but thriving herb garden. The little courtyard was so calm, fragrant and happy; we didn't want to leave!

Coming soon to Hometta Live, our video podcasts featuring KRDB, the Dogtrot Casita, and Krager's next ambitious problem-solving venture: the first ever (that we know of) net-zero energy neighborhood, the SOL development in central East Austin.