> My love of buildings goes back to my childhood when my favorite toy was a huge dollhouse with two stories and a pink roof. It wasn’t so much that I played in it with dolls as I marveled at its construction. The scale of the stairs, the doors and windows, the placement of the bathroom and kitchen, the slant of the roof.
When I was six, my mom gave me a cute, German hand-painted toy room complete with furniture – a four poster bed, a hutch and a dresser. The windows had shutters on the outside and little cloth curtains inside. It was no bigger than a piece of modern day copy paper. I had this dollhouse until I was about 30 and decided to live in my pick-up truck. There was no room for unnecessary items. If I’d known then that I was going to have two girls, I’d have saved one or both of these building miracles.
As a young adult, I lived near a dollhouse store the size of a barn! I spent full afternoons in there gazing at the furniture and accessories, planning on owning another dollhouse someday. It never came to pass, though.
All these warm memories came rushing back this week when I read about an eco-friendly dollhouse! I want one!
> Back again to my childhood – when I was growing up outside of New York City, the Empire State Building was the tallest building in the city. Again, I marveled at the construction every time we walked down from the observation deck. I loved that building. I did not like that the World Trade Centers took away the Empire State Building’s tallest building status, but I don’t need to say anymore about that. Now this inspiring building is getting a green makeover! Serious Materials, a supplier of building materials for Passiv Haus’, is revamping the existing windows to make them more energy efficient. That is 6,514 windows being upgraded that will save a lot of energy and not take up space in a landfill. Bravo!
> I have been reading and posting a lot about reusing shipping containers for homes, offices, dorms and studios. I think it’s a great idea! Someone called me last year to look at their property. It was six acres, and two shipping containers were parallel with a concrete slab between them complete with radiant floor tubing in place. The project had been abandoned many years before that, but I thought, ‘Wow, what a cool listing to have! I’d love to market this place!’ The owners never did put it on the market, but they were way ahead of the times in their use of shipping containers. Here is another creative example of recycling them into a cozy home.
> I don’t have a story for this last article, but this school shows how buildings can fit their surroundings and communities, recycle materials, and save energy with materials and systems. I can’t believe I don’t have a story to relate to this! It just warmed my heart to read.
See you next week!
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