After living in their 1,225 sq ft home for two decades (above), the owners of this 1920s home on a b

Three Berkeley homes are featured on the American Institute bangkok cheap hotel of Architects second annual East Bay Home Tour which takes place on Saturday August 11. There are seven homes to explore in total: along with those in Berkeley, two are in Lafayette, one in Albany and one in Emeryville.
Not all the homes eligible for legitimate snooping have been realized with lavish budgets, although most have. The 2012 homes include an award-winning prefab house, two transformational renovations, and "net-zero" energy houses.
Berkeley bangkok cheap hotel s David Stark Wilson designed this 4,900 sq ft home (pictured above) bangkok cheap hotel in the city s hills and was involved with everything from the selection of the lot through construction. The owners, who wanted to build their dream retirement home, had lived in a Wilson-designed home before. The design begins at the curb, moves uphill past rusting steel planter beds, and springs from its double lot in a forest of slender steel columns supporting deep roof eaves. The emphasis is on views, building angles and material compositions. A central pool establishes the main axis from the outdoor fireplace at the rear of the site through what the architect has termed the "zinc canyon" of house volumes, then out to San Francisco Bay. A studio space perches above the garage.
After living in their 1,225 sq ft home for two decades (above), the owners of this 1920s home on a busy Berkeley street needed room for a growing family and they wanted a rooftop perch to capture views of the Bay. Architect Kerstin Hellmann replaced a bedroom with a beautifully crafted 3d puzzle of library, stairs and railings that lead up to a new 650 square foot rooftop addition containing bedrooms and a view deck. The original house was preserved below and the kitchen was remodeled. A rooftop addition sits above the remodeled kitchen in this 1920s home on a busy Berkeley street. Modern space rides comfortably on top of the traditional home's base. The architect celebrated vertical connections inside with a double height library and staircase that link the original house with a view deck above. Large doors, trellises and an outdoor kitchenette give the feeling of a small storefront café that has opened for lunch on the roof.
Designed by architect Charles Debbas for his own family, this house (above) appears deceptively solid and simple from the street. But once inside this 3,200 sq ft home, the visitor realizes that basic geometry is employed for maximum results. Each void punctured or carved from the solid cube-like building and each pillar or balcony extruded from it achieves a powerful and sculptural effect. At the rear of the home most rooms become entire balconies themselves, with glass walls that fold open and railings that border the interior space. When all of these are open, the house feels like a series of open "shelves" for living in the sun, breeze and view of the bay.
The AIA East Bay Home Tour is on Saturday August 11 from 10:00am to 4:30pm, rain or shine. Tickets are $40 ($50 day-of) and may be bought online at  AIA East Bay  or at its office in downtown Oakland, 1405 Clay Street, after July 30, or at the Doyle Street Café in Emeryville on the day of the tour. Advance-ticket holders are invited to attend  a complimentary Meet the Architects reception and presentation on August 1 st at 5:30pm. The architect for each home will be on-site for questions and discussion on the day of the tour. A self-guided, bangkok cheap hotel self-driven format allows  visitors to explore and become inspired at their own pace. Visit AIAEast Bay for details and tickets.
This reads as a very mean spirited and unnecessary comment; I rather doubt it comes from first hand experience. As one who has been in the house I understand why it was chosen for the tour; the design and craftsmanship are impeccable, showcasing the site and thoughtfully chosen materials. It may not be to your taste, bangkok cheap hotel but to denigrate the hard, honest work of another is a low blow. I m sure Mr. Debbas family bangkok cheap hotel is happy to have him as Berkeley should be.
I like all of these I ve noticed it s easy to do a contemporary home poorly, and very hard to do to them well.  The two contemporary homes look like they re done very well (and we re fans of David Stark Wilson s work)
Wish I could afford a super remodeling job on our house, but with the recession knocking me out of my corporate job, I m now in retail and other than our Ikea kitchen remodel this spring, we will never make it to Architectural Digest.
Or take the Arpeggio building as another typical example of modernist architecture.  If you look at all the apartment houses built in Berkeley before, say, 1930, I don t think you will find a single one as ugly as the Arpeggio building.
The difference is that earlier architects worked in a tradition that had been tested by time.  Modernists rejected everything before the twentieth bangkok cheap hotel century and tried to invent a totally new esthetic bangkok cheap hotel from scratch.
bangkok cheap hotel First off, full disclosure: I am involved bangkok cheap hotel with this tour and I think each of the houses has something to offer. I m also an architect so perhaps I have a bias toward architecture that pursues an idea rigorously, to an artistic end, but remains a good place to live daily. It s actually a pretty challenging puzzle bangkok cheap hotel to solve if you don t simply repeat what has gone before. With that said I invite you all to attend the tour, see the houses in their full 3d, real life, fallible, lovable, and beautiful condition and then decide what you like and don t like. Then perhaps consider the impact that the buildings had on you and what you felt when you were inside them. There is much more to architecture than photographs and clippings from history. Some very talented people put some serious effort into these homes and the results are worth experiencing, live. That s the opportunity available here
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