2016 : The Year Of Aesthetics

Russel Wright is an American industrial designer and architect that lived during the early to mid twentieth century. Many of Wright’s ideas and designs were considered to modern at time, drawing influences from not only ingenious designers like Frank Lloyd Wright but nature as well. Wright’s influences would lead him to create a design style unlike any at the time; a style that would eventually become almost standard in many homes in the United States. The designer Russel Wright and his wife, Mary Wright together published a guidebook known as Guide to Easier Living. In it contains numerous suggestions and thoughts on home architecture, interior design, as well as product design. Many of the thoughts and suggestions conveyed in the book can be seen in present-day design and architecture. Wright’s book also laid the groundwork for his home, Dragon Rock, which of itself possesses elements of design that are seen in today’s homes. Russel Wright’s Guide to Easier Living is clearly a response to interior design at the time; containing numerous design ideas, Wrights guide influences Wright’s own future works.

The bungalow design was influenced by a variety of social and economic trends that expanded the middle class and became a powerful means of transformation in American society. Arts and Crafts promoters associated the bungalow design with creative manual work, independence, and a way to return to manhood of common work practices. The bungalow

In A Home Is Not a House, Reyner Banham starts by arguing that the main function of the typic American house is to cover its mechanical structure. In fact, he states that the use of mechanical services in architectural practice varies constantly because mechanical services are considered to be new in the profession, as well as, a cultural threat to the architect’s position in the world. To show his argument, Banham states that American houses are basically large single spaces divided by partitions inside that give a relative importance to the use of internal mechanical services, causing a threat to the need of architectural design. Similarly, American cultural characteristics, like cleanliness and hygiene, also foster the use and need of mechanical

In March 2017, Graham Hill delivers his speech “ Less Stuff, More Happiness” at Technology, Entertainment, and Design (TED) to a group of sophisticated individuals to try to persuade them that less “stuff” does equal more happiness. Graham Hill has an idea that living in a 420 square foot apartment in Manhattan can be spacious and a person who has less “stuff” can create less of an environmental footprint. Hill is a strong believer that less equals more and he uses the mode of logic of logos, facts and statistics, to show the specific ways personal space changes. Hill uses common ground to give the audience a chance to think about the different strategies they can change their personal space.

Although many people would love to live a simplistic, on-the-go lifestyle, others would not. Tiny homes can seem to get a bit crammed for a larger family. One of the common conflicts of living in these tiny homes is the difference in “living by choice in a chic shack” and being “forced into a micro-room… because [that is] all [one] can afford.” For families with children, the 190 square feet of living space can become a claustrophobic’s nightmare. These tightly packed homes unfortunately will almost impossibly provide enough room for a larger scaled family. There is simply not enough living space. It is difficult to “imagine anyone… not going bonkers in them” ("Teeny House, Big Life"). Not to mention, the lack of privacy would be extremely high. The village-like neighborhoods that these homes are generally built in are based on the idea of social interactions with one another, ensuring that the residents in the area are able to “[foster] a strong sense of community.” Not every person desires to always maintain relations with local residents, so the idea of almost forcing conversation among people can, in some way, invade ones privacy. In addition, numerous limitations can come along with the possession of a tiny home. Restrictions are set depending on the community desired for the tiny home. Limitations on the structure of the tiny home are set. Fraying away from the status quo causes

Interior design and architecture are essential, and often overlooked, aspects of everyday life. In modern society people rely on function, durability, and visual appeal when selecting designs for their homes, businesses, and places of leisure. The way that a space is designed influences such things as mood, which, in the case of a business, can impact the productivity of employees and either draw or repel customers. In residential design, the design becomes very personal and, to be considered a successful design, must properly reflect the home owner while at the same time offering some practicality that makes the space livable. An effective design, for any space, must solve some problem, be it function, flexibility, or some other criteria. Simply solving a problem would not please the customer, however, unless it offered some visual appeal. Creating function with style is the real job of any interior designer, and is essential in a content society.

Furthermore, the Town House (O) is a sustainable environmental design project illustrating the relationship between human well-being, the welfare of the future generations and the natural world, through regeneration, the

A study published in Psychology of Aesthetics, Creativity, and the Arts found that watching famous television dramas can increase your emotional intelligence, and make you more empathetic.

There is a movement among architects, city planners, designers and real estate developers that desire to return to a simpler way of living. A way of designing communities that at its essence captures the design traditions of years past while also avoiding some of the pitfalls of modern city development. A desire exists to avoid the prefabricated homes and endless urban sprawl of strip malls that have arisen all over the modern American landscape. Some see this as a return to classical traditions of city design that incorporates the rich architectural planning of traditional, small southern towns. For these people, the

The increasingly popular tiny house movement has been mooted as a potential solution to some housing affordability issues. The movement originated in the US in the late 1990s, largely in response to housing affordability problems, the global financial crisis and the desire to live more sustainably. At the time, the tiny house movement was very small and localised; in the past decade, it has become increasingly mainstream.

“Human houses should not be like boxes, blazing in the sun, nor should we outrage the Machine by trying to make dwelling places too complementary to Machinery. Any building for humane purposes should be an elemental, sympathetic feature of the ground, complementary to its nature-environment, belonging by kinship to the terrain.”

First off, one of the early leaders in the construction of micro homes was Frank Lloyd Wright. He wrote a book titled “The Natural House” in 1950. With the ideas from Wright, architects and construction workers began the Tiny House Movement in the 1980s. Micro Homes started to boom in the early parts of the 21st century. The housing market crash, a crash that forced homeowners into foreclosure, in 2007-2008 made it that where people had to pay outrageous amounts of mortgages. In the past few tears, Jay Shafer, the founder and owner of Tumbleweed Tiny Homes, became the new leader of the Tiny House Movement. Shafer has written several books that have the topic corresponding to micro homes and the downsizing of a micro home.

Are Tiny Houses a key to Nantucket's housing shortfall? Many believe tiny houses are the solution to Nantucket's shortage of homes. While the opponents would suggest tiny homes will make Nantucket look like a trailer park. Though that may not be the case, a few modifications onto the house and it could look like a cottage. The best solution for this crisis are tiny houses because they provide a home that anyone can build and because of not having a mortgage and the mobility it provides. .

Everyday we live and move through spaces without realizing the influence they can have on our daily lives. Built environments are designed to directly affect behaviour and attitudes in a specific and intended way; this can be referred to as architectural determinism (Marmot 2002). Almost all architectural patterns use the physical arrangement of elements, and materials to influence behavior. This can range from placing design elements in specific places to encourage or discourage people’s interaction with them, placing them to prevent access to a specific area, or placing them to direct or

Home is the place one spends more time in their life and share special moments with family. Where one expects to live permanently carefree and feel protected under the roof of their house. One day I want to have a home that makes me feel well and where I can be safe and happy. The purpose of this essay is to illustrate the decisions I made about designing my future dream house.