At 1600 square feet it is a modest project, but this Santa Rosa, Calif., house caught the judges’ attention, however, and they labeled the MD Residence Best in Show for the 2010 Architect’s Challenge.

The judges said:

This home is a crisp contemporary glass pavilion. Just as the home floats above its California hillside site, the bowed roof form floats above the open and spacious interiors, surrounding the residents with the drama and beauty of the gorgeous setting. The arcing transom windows allow the floor to ceiling fenestration to visually ‘set in’ to the exposed wood ceiling. The resulting pavilion character is the product of the seamless relationship between indoors and out.

Proof that the best things don’t always come in large packages! The MD Residence was designed by Kent Chilcott of Kent Chilcott Studio. Marvin products in the house include clad patio doors, casements, awnings and custom curved-head fixed windows.

Over the next few months, we’ll be featuring the winners of the 2010 myMarvin Architect’s Challenge.

This custom-built residence, among the rolling fields, mountains and wooded trails of Vermont, is the perfect retreat for a family that enjoys hiking, horseback riding, swimming and skiing. The home’s design was influenced by the Vermont farmhouse tradition as well as by the owners’ Swedish heritage and minimalist style. Farm Villa synthesizes the modest, local farmhouse vernacular with the traditional Neoclassical European villa. Yet, while elegant detailing and proportions recall local and distant historic precedents, a contemporary, minimalist spirit infuses the interior.

The line between rustic and formal is blurred, yet the detail and craft are extremely refined. Proportion, scale and type of windows are integral to the success of the design. The windows also contribute to the house’s energy efficiency, helping to achieve Energy Star qualification and 15 percent less energy consumption than that prescribed by code.

Farm Villa was designed by John Tittmann of Albert, Righter & Tittmann in Boston. Marvin products in this house include Magnum Clad Tilt/Turns, Clad Ultimate Double Hung and Clad Ultimate Inswing French Doors.

It’s Gonna Get Ugly
This Old House
Desiring a room makeover? Just be grateful you don’t have one of these rooms in your house! You’ll laugh, you’ll cry, you’ll cringe.

Bathroom Sinks Made from Recycled Rubber Tires
Calfinder
It’s not beyond the prototype stage yet, but some clever designers have found a way to take old tires and turn them into sinks. They look cool and unusual, while being green. An idea whose time has come?

Green Remodeling Tips from Sarah Susanka
Charles and Hudson
We love Sarah Susanka and her vision for remodeling. Here, she shares her tips for green remodeling with Charles and Hudson.

How To Choose A Good Window
Re-Nest
Interesting article about windows from an (relative) “outsiders” perspective. We agree: “One of the first things people look to when designing or renovating a home is good, energy efficient windows.”

My brother Chris and I often hike the wooded areas that surround the Garden Home Retreat. Exploring the forest is a pastime that goes back to our childhood, and it gives us a chance to go over landscape projects we are working on together on the property.

On a recent walk we talked about building a little Gothic pavilion on a spot overlooking the Arkansas River. It could be a great place to sit and watch the river go by. We found the perfect location where the ground is level and then drops to a steep incline.  A small pavilion or belvedere would be an intriguing destination that one would come to along the woodland garden path. From the best we could tell it wouldn’t take much to open up a few views to the east and west looking up and down the river.

If you have been to the Retreat or seen photographs of the house, you know that it is all in the Greek Revival style; a Gothic structure would add a touch of contrast. I see it also being very rustic hexagonal building with five windows and a door. It’d be fun to use Tulip Popular bark around the windows.

Right around the time Chris and I began discussing the pavilion, Marvin Windows and Doors approached me about designing a window for their MyMarvin project.  Seeing as rustic Gothic was on my mind, I designed a window with a pointed arch made of rough, branches with peeling bark.  It would be perfect for my pavilion in the woods.

You can see my Gothic window design here.



Apartment Therapy recently featured some self watering planters — perfect for those of us with irregular schedules or who can’t quite remember that all living things need water! Now, they’re not completely maintenance free — you will have to put water in every so often. But once the water is in, you can sit back and watch your plants grow.

There are quite a few options out there, but our favorite is the Grobal Self-Watering Planter designed by Karim Rashid (see some of his work for the myMarvin project here). The Grobal comes in enough colors to satisfy any decorating scheme and features Rashid’s signature curvy lines. With something as easy as this, there’s no excuse not to try growing something this summer!

Photo courtesy of A + R

If you are lucky enough to be able to hang up your “Gone Fishing” sign and head out to the lake, hopefully you are also lucky enough to have a beautiful retreat to go to when the day is over.

For architect Andrea Swan of Swan + Simmons in Minneapolis, a modern fishing camp should use its site to the best of its ability. The Swan Fish Camp, located in Isle, Minn., near Lake Mille Lacs, looks deceptively simple. But its clean lines and restrained aesthetic are the result of careful design planning by Swan. The house is situated on the northern edge of the property to capture the view corridor through a grove of existing birch trees, while allowing optimal southern light exposure to interior and exterior spaces. Marvin products, including Ultimate Casements, Clad Venting Picture Window, Direct-glaze Round Tops, sliding doors and in-swing doors, help to maximize the light exposure.

The Swan Fish Camp is a modern, efficient dwelling for the age-old Minnesota pastime of going up north, heading out on the boat and waiting for the fish to bite.

New England? No, this house is located in the heartland of Madison, Wisc. It takes its inspiration from the shingle-style houses of the 1800s, with a modern twist.

This lake cottage is a modest house — only 2,190 square feet. But it packs a wealth of features into its space. Designed by Arleta Chang of Jarvis Architects in Oakland, Calif., the house’s rooms have bright pops of color and distinctly designed personalities.

Since the house is located on a narrow lot in an urban area, it was important that the property allow passersby to also enjoy the lake view.  The entrance is two steps above the main level and has a lake view, but the horizon is revealed only after stepping down to the living spaces. A garage and boathouse complete the luxuriously simple lake life.

Numerous Marvin products were used in this lake cottage, including clad in-sash round tops, eyebrow and half-circle units, casements, awnings and French doors. To learn more about this project and see more pictures, visit the Architect’s Challenge page.

Down in the Low Country of South Carolina, there’s a beautiful house that looks as if it has seen a lot of Low Country days. However, it is actually a new house, built by Helga Lilley of Gorgeous Green Home Design in Okatie, S.C.

The house is called Oldfield, and it is also Lilley’s home. The house’s traditional look hides its very modern credentials. It was designed to make maximum efficient use of daylight and fit the lifestyle of the occupants. Oldfield also is a green house and achieved EarthCraft House™ Platinum Certification.

One unusual aspect of this house is that it is located in a hurricane zone and therefore must use windows and doors that can help protect it against the storms. Oldfield uses StormPlus products from Marvin to create a beautiful, energy-efficient look that will still meet building code requirements.

Oldfield combines the best of the past and present for a home with Low Country style and green sensibilities.

John Senhauser, FAIA of John Senhauser Architects in Cincinnati, designed a beautiful home, also in Cincinnati. The Lamson/West Residence is a modern log home, built on a beautiful wooded site. As beautiful as the site was, the trees made it a challenging project.

Senhauser ended up designing the host to respect the land it was on. One unique feature of the home is that it bridges 40 feet across a creek  to preserve the natural drainage pattern.  And there’s a very green roof–grass as a matter of fact.

Walls are from local cypress and a wall of windows lets light flood the Lamson/West Residence.

Besides all the house’s green features, it is beautiful, well-designed, livable and one of the winners of the myMarvin Architect’s Challenge.

The Lamson/West Residence featured clad casements, awning windows, Ultimate French Doors and picture units with Simulated Divided Lites and spacer bars from Marvin Windows and Doors.

We’ve written before about the myMarvin Project, and I think these new videos warrant another mention. Sandee Awalt, architectural project coordinator at Marvin Windows and Doors, took design inspirations from garden home designer P. Allen Smith and photographer Mark Laita and turned them into actual, functional Marvin windows. These videos document that process.