Well, initially the blog post was going to be about the woman who just gave birth to octoplets (and who looks a bit like that other mom of many kids, Angelina Jolie), but my head is still spinning from the last post and comments as well as nearly coughing up a lung in the last three days. I have, boys and girls, a bad case of the flu. So bad that I've lost my voice--well, almost. I still have my blog!
So before I smear Vicks all over me and head off to bed, I thought I'd share this story: about a very cool treehouse designed by Swedish architects Tham and Videgard Hansson. I see this as being similiar to one of those concept cars the big auto manufacturers roll out every year: to use as a jumping off point to build a (hopefully) smarter, more efficient vehicle. Clearly you can't have a dwelling (or hotel room/suite) without a bathroom, or a ladder to enter the building. But the design of a mirrored cube suspended from a tree so as to better integrate into the surrounds--genius, I say. It's a 21st century version of the aesthetic Frank Lloyd Wright practiced with his iconic structure Fallingwater.
Part of the reason why I love Pittsburgh, as my friend Rich recently reminded me, is the embarrassment of riches we have here with regard to architecture. I love old buildings--from the gleaming wood newel posts, to the Italian tiled fireplaces, to the embossed tin on the ceilings. But there is something to be said of new architecture, too--of the clean lines and economy of space.
Now I'm not going to be calling the Hanssons to order one of their treehouses, but it does have me looking at modern architecture differently. And with that, I'm going to cough up my remaining lung...
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