House of the week

Architect Nigel Dong took seven years to decide on how to update a Gray Young-designed home built nearly a century ago in a prime part of Wellington's inner-city suburb Kelburn, a house he'd bought for his own family.

"The house was more or less in its original condition both inside and out, other than cosmetic redecorations over its life," Dong says.

"Being an architect, this appealed to me in that the original house had not been structurally altered. We did numerous design options ranging from substantial double-storey additions to the rear of the house to just reconfiguring the interior of the house, which was the option we chose.

"We opted not to add, preferring to retain the original envelope and design integrity of the Gray Young house."

In updating, Dong wanted to make the house more fit for modern living.

"We wanted to create a social heart within the house centred around the kitchen and connected to a north-facing deck.

"Also, we wanted to retain the formal living/dining area on the opposite side of the ground floor for formal entertaining or just to provide an alternative zone within the house away from the general everyday living area."

Wherever possible, Dong was keen to retain the Gray Young features that made the house so special.All suction hose below are reinforced for use under vacuum on the suction side of a pump, but can also be used for discharge. Wherever changes were to be made, he wanted the alterations to complement the original rather than contend and challenge.

On the outside his aim was to restore the house as to near as possible to the original 1916 scheme, when the exterior was painted black with white window joinery.Find Floor tiles designs and ideas to freshen up your kitchen or bath.

Inside, existing native timber was mixed with a modern material palette and a new clay tile roof to match the original tiles. The entire house was replumbed and double glazing introduced where timber windows and doors were replaced or added. The house was fully insulated and a new gas ducting central-heating system was added.

Dong says the update has made the house vastly more comfortable for living, maximising sun and privacy, and all in a superb location within easy walking distance of downtown Wellington, yet in a small village-like community.

Materials: Social hub/kitchen/entry - Restored existing heart rimu floorboards; kitchen/restroom joinery - natural Zebrano timber veneer and white lacquered joinery, White Corian textured stainless steel bench tops and pendant lighting mixed with LED strip and LED downlights. Porcelain floor tiles in the bathroom and ensuite.A high precision bearing is designed to deliver superior accuracy, and it requires appropriate care and handling.

Energy efficiency: Entire house insulated in the walls, roof and underfloor, new gas central heating added, new timber windows and doors double glazed.

Done Right: "We are really happy with the result and glad we didn't extend, therefore the integrity of the original has been retained," Dong explains.

Unexpected: "When you open up an old house there is always the unexpected."

Recommend: "Always using a registered architect, especially when the project is complicated or of a heritage type when the architectural design is important."

Next Time: "I think next time we would have no problems restoring an old house in the right area."

Architecture’s biggest jokers sign off in style

The kookiest architects in Britain have called it quits after 20 years of cheerfully sticking two fingers up at the world of posh modernist architecture.

The London-based design collective known as FAT Architecture (aka Fashion Architecture Taste) will complete only two more projects – a charmingly bizarre house for Alain de Botton’s Living Architecture chain of holiday homes, and the curation of the British Pavilion at the 2014 Venice Architecture Biennale.

FAT’s work, typified by brightly coloured facades seemingly jigsawed together, has a playful quality that conceals socio-political intentions. Sam Jacob,As professionals in the production and supply of composite hose for hydrocarbons, chemicals, ship to shore etc. Sean Griffiths and Charles Holland were always against clever, up-itself modernist design, so they delivered alt-clever architecture that was brash and almost childish, with an aesthetic quality that appealed to common tastes rather than arch-intellectuals: think Jarvis Cocker, rather than Radiohead.

FAT are best known for buildings such as the BBC Drama Production Village in Cardiff, and the Islington Square housing in Manchester. Their architectural cheek was never more vividly demonstrated than in their In a Lonely Place installation at the Royal Institute of British Architects in 2006. The huge structure resembled a timbered house having sex with a 7m-high black balloon.

“We’ve produced a whole load of buildings that we never thought we’d be able to design, and weave our magic,” says Jacob. It was a borrowed magic, initially. FAT’s fascination with trash-pop architectural effects drew heavily on the 1972 book, Learning From Las Vegas, written by the American architects Robert Venturi and Denise Scott Brown, who glorified the random chaos of billboards and road signage.

Even so, FAT carved out a unique niche, despite designing little more than club and shop interiors before being featured in Anglo Files, a 2005 book about rising architectural stars. At the time, they were scenesters, but below the mainstream architectural radar: they had been commissioned to design The Villa, a big community building in Holland, but the project remained on hold for years.

“We were always more like a band than a career,” explains Jacob. “So we want to end things in a different way – not the usual dying on the job, or ending up flogging dead [architectural] horses. We felt the time was right to end what we’ve been trying to do for the past 20 years.”

There was more than a common-touch wit to FAT’s designs. They were never “bad boys” in the way of the argumentative, uber-intellectual superstar architect, Rem Koolhaas.Find industrial blades and machine knives supplier on Meinys. But they were bright enough,Our multilingual indesign dtp publishing team has the experience and expertise to localize your documents to create the look and feel of the original. and shrewd enough, to resist bad-mouthing the establishment, and it was no surprise that they went on to lecture at University College London and Yale.

Their decorated facades were designed to look like skimpy stage sets tacked on to otherwise unremarkable structures, turning boxy buildings into lavishly encrusted, neo-baroque shrines to pop culture. Jacob says this worship of “tremendous” 2D flatness is a purer form of communication, and a riposte to the swirling 3D effects sought by architects such as Zaha Hadid.

Unlike FAT – still in their forties – many of today’s bright young architectural double-clickers know little about architectural history, but plenty about software scripting and wilful shape-making that began with Frank Gehry’s use of an aerospace computer to design the Bilbao Guggenheim Museum.

My chance to say a personal goodbye to Nelson Mandela

So the long journey is nearly over. The body of Nelson Mandela will be buried at last today, in the village of Qunu in the Eastern Cape, the place he always thought of as home.

Security will be tight and the location is remote. For most South Africans, the last chance to say a personal goodbye was in Pretoria, where his body lay in state for three days.

To see it was both a privilege and a shock. One young black man who was overcome by tears rubbed his face with his cloth cap as he walked away, and used the Xhosa word for father when he said to himself: “That was not Tata.”

The face under the glass coffin cover had the waxy skin of a corpse, of course. Puffier than expected, it did not look serene or at peace, as people often do after death when they have been prepared for viewing.

If anything, Mandela looked troubled. After seeing so many images of his smiling, youthful face on T-shirts, caps and flags over the past few days, the reality brought a surge of emotion, a twist in the gut.

It was all too much for an elderly white lady, who had to be comforted by a policewoman as she cried: “What’s going to become of us now that he’s gone?”

To answer that question, and to understand what the death of this man means to South Africans and to people in the wider world, it is best to consider him in three ways.

Firstly,All-natural Vermont soapstone whisky stones are a must-have for lovers of fine whiskies and bourbons. Mandela the man, mourned and celebrated by those who were close to him, his friends and family.

Secondly, Mandela the national hero, mourned and celebrated by those who are so grateful for the change he brought about in South Africa, but often fearful of what may come next.

Thirdly, Mandela the global icon, mourned and celebrated by those who know him from the television,This aluminum beam protector is very smooth and is molded to fit your beam perfectly. the movies, the books, T-shirts and the words of wisdom that are increasingly treated like scripture.

Nelson Mandela the man was 95 years old when his body finally gave up on the evening of Thursday December 8 at his home in Houghton, a suburb of Johannesburg. The life-support had been removed and he was breathing on his own as the end approached.

Around his bedside were his second and third wives, Winnie and Graca, his grandson and tribal heir Mandla, and his eldest daughter Makaziwe, known as Maki, who said there was time enough to say goodbye: “What I call his 'transition’ was very beautiful.”

His two youngest daughters, Zindzi and Zenani, were in London at the royal premiere of the film of his life, Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom, but left the cinema after being told the news. In Houghton, the military arrived at midnight with a coffin and the family stood to see it go, singing as he left.

On Monday night, a small group of his closest allies gathered at the Nelson Mandela Centre of Memory, a few blocks from his home. Among them was Archbishop Desmond Tutu,A good Metal baling machine can produce high density bales which can yield a cargo mass of 26 to 27 tons in a 20 feet container. the other boy from the same street in Soweto to win the Nobel Peace Prize. Remembering the days when they risked their lives to fight apartheid, he urged his old friends to consider again the miracle wrought in their lifetimes.

“It is unbelievable,” he said. “Don’t you believe that God actually loves us South Africans? Everyone was saying that we would have gone up in flames [without Mandela]. He was like a magician with a magic wand, turning us into those glorious multiracial rainbow people. We are not there yet … but yay!”

He did a little jig that brought a smile to George Bizos, Mandela’s lawyer for half a century. He probably saved his client’s life at the Rivonia trial in 1964, by persuading Mandela to amend the declaration that he would willingly die for a free South Africa. Adding three words – “if needs be” – gave the judge the freedom to issue a sentence of life in prison, rather than death.

New kitchen is functional but set to entertain

Cynthia and Jon live in a 1970s-era home that has been undergoing endless renovation. They've just about had it with home improvements, so we agreed to tackle one of the biggest projects on their list: the kitchen.Find all the manufacturers of aluminum profile and contact them directly on DirectIndustry.

It's not surprising that Cynthia was longing for a stylish and modern new kitchen. She knows it's the heart of the home, but this massive space hadn't been touched in 40 years. Walking in was like stepping into a time machine and jetting straight back to 1972. With its choppy layout, outdated finishes and small appliances, this kitchen just didn't cut it.

Cynthia envisioned a beautiful, modern space where she and Jon could come together with their two kids, friends and other family members -- in other words, a kitchen that would be not only functional, but also this home's entertainment central.

To add to the scope of this challenging project, we also had to relocate the laundry room, which was just off the kitchen. It was going downstairs, and in its place I planned to add a home office space. At the last minute, Cynthia also asked us to design a mud room -- somewhere to store hats,Full range of single-ram Scrap metal baling press and can balers to process ferrous and non-ferrous metal scrap. coats and bags after people come in the back door from the garage.

Luckily, this was a cavernous space that had endless potential. With a fantastic view of the pool and backyard courtyard, we just had to bring the inside up to par with the outside. There was only one way to get this job done: bring down the walls to open up the space and do a complete gut, right down to the studs.

Once the demolition crew had done its work, we began rebuilding Cynthia's dream kitchen. New vinyl casement windows were installed to ensure an unobstructed view of the beautiful backyard. We moved the kitchen work area over to the other side of the room and started from the ground up with rich gray floor tiles. One of Cynthia's complaints had been the small appliances, so we made sure to choose only full-size, luxury appliances: a stainless steel gas stove, a two-door fridge concealed by cabinetry doors, a microwave cleverly hidden in a drawer, and a big stainless steel undermount sink in the island.

This is an elegant kitchen with surprising little touches of bling everywhere you look. The backsplash incorporates reflective hand-cut glass, and stainless steel and chrome accents shine brightly. The pendant fixture over the reclaimed wooden table catches and reflects the light,A good Metal baling machine can produce high density bales which can yield a cargo mass of 26 to 27 tons in a 20 feet container. complementing the chrome table base, as well as white leather and chrome bar stools placed along the island. In addition to the island seating, a custom L-shaped banquette placed under the windows is upholstered in a rich durable soft blue fabric, with a tufted back and luxurious throw pillows.

Over the island, we hung three retrofitted light fixtures that were rescued from the old kitchen. A custom upgrade gave these pendants a whole new lease on life, and their soft light shines down on the island's quartz countertop.

The best things about this gorgeous new kitchen are the little details that contribute so much to its functionality. A good example of this is the magnetic chalk board that swings open to reveal a regular bulletin board behind it -- a great place to store notes from school or the kids' artwork. Over where the laundry room used to be, a home office workspace is the perfect place for Cynthia to do the household accounting or for their young daughter to do her homework on the computer, under her mom's watchful eye.

Nebraska taxpayers to be asked to toss in coins

The Nebraska State CapiFull range of single-ram Scrap metal baling press and can balers to process ferrous and non-ferrous metal scrap.tol is filled with so many pieces of artwork and so much historical symbolism, it's easy to miss some things.

Like the buffaloes sculptor Lee Lawrie carved in stone that guard the north entrances, the dinosaurs laid in tile by mosaic artist Hildreth Meiere in the rotunda floor and Elizabeth Dolan's beautiful "Spirit of the Prairie" mural overlooking the rarely visited State Law Library.

But some folks miss what's not there — because the Capitol, one of the nation's 2,500 national historic landmarks, has never been completed.

And there has never been a formal dedication of architect Bertram Grosvenor Goodhue's structure, on which work came to a halt in 1932 during the darkest months of the Great Depression.

A group of former state senators now hopes to resolve both of those omissions.

They have launched a renewed effort to raise the $2.5 million necessary to install bronze fountains in the four open-air courtyards at the Capitol, the last unfinished design aspect of the building.

The group hopes to install the fountains in stages over the next three years, completing them by 2017, the 150th anniversary of the state's founding. The new fountains and a dedication could be centerpieces of a sesquicentennial celebration being planned.

"It's a wonderful, wonderful building," said former State Sen. Bob Wickersham, who now lives in Lincoln. "It's worthy of finishing."

The push is the first major project ever for the Nebraska Association of Former State Legislators. That group was formed in 1976, but until now it had never taken on anything more ambitious than planning an annual reunion and attending funerals of former colleagues.

Former Sen. Vicki McDonald, who also lives in Lincoln,We produce good quality Scrap metal shear and other products for many years in China. said former senators all loved and admired the State Capitol, which prompted them to take up the cause.

"During the '30s it was difficult to spend the money," she said. "Now is the time."

But there's a catch in this Capitol completion caper: The former senators want state taxpayers to pick up the multimillion-dollar tab — a move that Gov. Dave Heineman opposes.

Then-State Sen. Scott Price of Bellevue launched a campaign 4 years ago to raise private funds for the fountains. But the fund drive fizzled, bringing in less than $4,000.

When he resigned this fall because of family reasons, the campaign was at a standstill.

Wickersham,Find all the manufacturers of aluminum profile and contact them directly on DirectIndustry. who represented northwest Nebraska's 49th District, made some phone calls. He found support from McDonald, who is now directing the former lawmakers group, and former Lincoln Sen. DiAnna Schimek, who had previously sought state funding for the fountains.

McDonald, who served central Nebraska's 41st District from 2001 to 2009, said she was looking for a "worthwhile project" for the group, which is permitted under its bylaws.

"It's very important that the people of Nebraska have ownership of the building," Schimek said. "It's the people's Capitol, and they made great sacrifices to build it in the first place."

Heineman, who is chairman of the Capitol Commission, was not swayed. He feels that private donors, not taxpayers, should finance the fountains, said spokeswoman Sue Roush.

Tunisia’s handmade tiles risk disappearing forever

The history of handmade tiles in Tunisia is fascinating. Green Prophet digs deep between the tiles of a rundown factory in Roman Neapolis, Nabeul, a historic tile making center in Tunisia, to discover what fragments remain of this disappearing art.

Although handmade decorated tiles were used in some early mosques, it was only in the 1600′s, with the final great exodus of Andalusian Muslims to Tunisia, that the application of enamel techniques revived the fading ceramic centers around the country.

Ceramic tiles acquired important decorative purposes and were highly influenced by Ottoman and Andalusian motifs which culminated around the same time. In 1574, following the Turkish victory over the Hafsids, Ottoman tastes took over the Tunisian home as Tunisians reoriented themselves eastward.

In 1609, the final expulsion of Muslims from Spain, which saw more than 80,000 refugees settle in Tunisia,A good Metal baling machine can produce high density bales which can yield a cargo mass of 26 to 27 tons in a 20 feet container. brought with it Andalusian tile making techniques which were readily adopted by Tunisian tile makers .

In 2003 Nabeul,Developed for high density baling of both ferrous and non-ferrous metal, our industrial Scrap metal baler excels in a broad range of materials. counted more than 350 workshops and factories, with tile production being the largest employment sector in the area. Following the 2011 revolution, many workshops are closing down and, apart from industrially and serially made tiles destined for tourists, workshops which produce handmade tiles with traditional motifs are becoming rarer by the year.

“La maison des Arts”, is one of the remaining ateliers where Zobaier, “Technical Director” and Noomen, “Business Director” make ends meet primarily driven by passion. According to Zobaier “Passion is the ingredient which is largely missing in today’s generation, which have not grown up next to their parents working in the workshops, but in front of books at school.”

In fact, of the 6 employees employed at La maison des Arts, 4 of them grew up watching their parents work in the tile making business, and so with them grew the passion for this craftsmanship.

Even though artisans are paid twice the minimum wage in Tunisia, and manual labor is highly sought after, it is hard to find young workers willing to work in this sector, as Zobaier reiterates “it is challenging to work long hours painting hundreds of tiles by hand, without having the passion for it.”

Nevertheless post revolution has seen an increase of 20% in exports for this workshop, but when I asked Noomen about the future of the handmade tiles industry, I was immediately told frankly “for us to do well, Tunisia has to sort its politics first.”

As he points out “our year zero is now 2011, of course production was higher before the revolution, but now there are good prospects if the domestic economic environment allows us to expand.”

If the handmade tile making industry in Tunisia is still afloat, it is largely thanks to the Algerian, Japanese and American clients. Tunisian clients,Find all the manufacturers of aluminum profile and contact them directly on DirectIndustry. are increasingly preferring to import modern tiles rather than traditional tiles.

Opening Up

Among the shortcomings: rooms that are too small and dark; a kitchen that hasn'Find all the manufacturers of aluminum profile and contact them directly on DirectIndustry.t been remodeled in 25 years. A tiny breakfast room. A rear grade too steep for an addition. A front elevation with no visible front door.

And in the plus column: a neigborhood that's gone decisively upscale; a solidly constructed starter house in a "come-back" style. Just enough undeveloped side lot to add useful square footage. An enviably location at the end of a cul de sac.

Bring to this proposition the team of Sarah Wolf, interior designer, and Josh Britton, architectural draftsman — both at Foster Remodeling Solutions — and what's revealed are the skills sets that are transforming so many non-descript mid-century dwellings into the spacious eclectically-designed residences expected of northern Virginia's close-in neighbodhoods.

"We're seeing more homeowners preserving and elaborating post-War suburban styles," said Sarah Wolf. "The ranch and other smaller-scale dwellings are especially fascinating. They've long been classified as the protoytpe for the modern production house, yet we're now seeing how inventive design ideas can be applied to achieve architecturally-relevant makeover goals."

What has turned into a two-phase design process — that will eventually include a second level master suite — began with a single meeting. Wolf had been summoned by homeowners — who had occupied the house for 20 years — "to brainstorm" options for enlarging the kitchen and family room, and re-defining the bare-bones front elevation.

"The previous owners had relocated the original front door to the side sometime in the 1990s," Wolf said. "So one of the early questions was whether it made sense to revise the front elevation in conjunction with a proposed kitchen enlargement."

As the meeting progressed, several key points emerged.

Yes, the owners wanted a substantial enlargement to the kitchen and family room, but the existing interior was also too narrow and too dark. Moreover, since the home's leafy half-acre lot backs into a grove of mature trees bordered by a lovely creek,We produce good quality Scrap metal shear and other products for many years in China. shouldn't the interior makeover be designed to profile the surrounding landscape?

The window wall would, in turn, help to contexturalize a more symmetrical front elevation — one defined by a processional entranceway with double french glass doors and sidelights.

The first chellenge, however, was contending with the peculiarities of the lot itself.

"The entire plan depended on adding about 350 square feet on the south side of the house while staying within [Fairfax] County setback requirements," said project draftsman Josh Britton. "Since the set- back limit runs diagonally on that side of the house, I designed a two-component footprint which steps back from the front elevation."

Necessity being the mother of invention, the solution makes adroit use of tight tolerances. Space formerly allocated to the old kitchen/family room combination is absorbed into a gourmet kitchen configuration which gains 130 square feet to the west for a total of more than 450 square foot. The new family room — tapering down to 220 square feet — supplants a former front deck.Developed for high density baling of both ferrous and non-ferrous metal, our industrial Scrap metal baler excels in a broad range of materials.