Another pleasing structure by Finnish architect Marco Casagrande. (See other projects here.) Called Apelle, it’s made to resemble a boat, and was in fact assembled by local boat carpenters. “Apelle is a wooden one family house located in Karjaa, Finland. The building rests in a natural harbor like a boat in a sheltering pocket surrounded by bed rocks and trees. The interior space of Apelle is a continuous tube that grows gradually along …read more

The largest clear-span wooden building in the world, constructed entirely without glue wood, was built as a U.S. military air station hangar. It is now the Tillamook Air Museum in Oregon. More info here and Wikipedia. It’s nice to see communities saving these old military hangars. It is a tragedy that Vancouver lost its 5 vintage military hangars at Jericho Beach in Vancouver in the late 1970s. They were beautiful. I heard about …read more

Antique kitchen door in German chalet, part of the set of UK film “Chalet Girl” starring Felicity Jones and Bill Nighy. Fluff film, but great set. Is this a common door design in the alps? I like it despite or perhaps because of its excess, both in aesthetic and the amount of wood used. Strange and beautiful.

Chandelier at Northern Rockies Lodge on Muncho Lake, Northern BC. Wooden rounds each hole-sawn to house a pot light. It was really quite beautiful. The lodge is on the Alaska Highway that stretches from Dawson Creek BC to Alaska. It was built in 1942 at the request of the US government, worried about Russia during World War II. The Americans supplied all the labour. It changed the entire region instantly. …read more

Perhaps I don’t understand the business side of design and furniture manufacturing, but I’m always confused by the fact that certain historic chairs get re-licensed and reproduced, while others fade away. Often the ones that fade away are the ones I like most, while the ones reproduced ad infinitum are not my favourites. I find this odd. Recently I bought a vintage 1970s (?) chair from a secondhand shop (photos …read more

Why do discoveries of ancient houses make me so happy? A 44,000 year old Neanderthal bone house has been found near Moldova in Eastern Ukraine. It’s a nearly circular structure made from woolly mammoth bone, and it’s 26 feet wide at its widest point – that’s pretty substantial, the same width as the little church I live in. The bone house is delicately decorated with carvings and ochre pigments. 25 …read more