Winterreise

Winter Panorama

As the snow and cold persisted, we felt sort of obliged to go out and capture some more of the fleeting wonderment of nature to save it, as it were, for enjoyment at a later day.  We first took a walk to Bryan Park, a designation where we normally go to get in a 3-mile run.  The park was quite deserted and the trails not yet all ploughed, as you can see from the picture above.  The frozen swimming pool and colorful water slides looked a bit surreal behind the wired fence.  Now that we've done a snowman, we thought we should also attempt a snow angel.  We picked out a pristine, snow-covered slope in the park and Kirk accordingly plopped down and waved his arms in the snow a couple of times.  I won't tell you what he proceeded to do next; you shall find out in the slide show later.  A big, friendly dog came trotting up to us shortly afterwards and unceremoniously wiped out the angelic impression in the snow, while his owner apologetically remarked on the ephemeral nature of things...

Next we drove up to the campus and walked around there.  The winding paths and footbridges over the little stream, not yet frozen, near Bryan House gave the IU campus a rustic charm in the wintry landscape.  Afterwards, we thought we should go a bit farther and see what the countryside looked like at this time.  The scenery on both sides of the hilly road to Nashville was indeed picturesque.  We drove past a couple of the quintessential Indiana red barns brilliantly silhouetted in the snow but couldn't stop to take pictures.  I suggested that we turn up one of the side roads to the T.C. Steele State Historic Park.  The last time we visited the House of the Singing Winds was in the spring last year.  The Steele's home site stood solitarily on a wind-chilled and snow-bound hilltop, a stark contrast to the verdant splendor when we saw it last.  We were surprised to see that the park was still minded by a woman all alone in one of the small buildings on the site. On the way back, Kirk admitted to being a little jaded after seeing so much snow.  

Here is a slide show of the pictures we took of our outing yesterday, accompanied by one of the songs of Schubert's Winterreise.  

  

YOLO

'YOLO', an acronym for "You Only Live Once", a slang term which had a meteoric rise and fall in the youth culture earlier this year, has in time trickled down to the general consciousness of the over-50s crowd, except that in its cross-generational evolution the term has acquired a more heightened sense of urgency.  No matter how rash the impulse is, for the young, to live dangerously, the notion that they may not live forever seldom enters their consciousness.  It's quite different for those over-the-hill, for whom death is no longer a possibility in the distant future but a foreseeable certainty which each one of us has to come to terms with.  As 2012 draws to a close, it seems appropriate to reflect a bit on what 'yolo-ing' may mean for some of us, though I feel rather terrified to do so for fear of sounding trite, which, I'm afraid, is unavoidable as the subject has been very thoroughly treated in both high and low-brow literature.

Holstee Manifesto

You all probably have seen this poster somewhere on the web before.  It expresses the YOLO sentiment, for the not quite die-hard cynic, pretty well, I think.  Make of it what you will, I keep the poster nearby my desk to remind me that my time is rapidly running out and I must not twiddle-twaddle it away.  In addition, I  also think that I need somehow to turn my attention more outward, outside of my own concerns, that is, and step out of my comfort zone, so to speak.  These are a couple of my year-end resolutions anyways.  Thinking about taking stock of one's life, I recently came across a TED talk called "A kinder, gentler philosophy of success" by Alain de Botton, a pop culture "philosopher", which I think may help reduce anxiety for some of us.  Here is another TED talk about doing something one loves by a female Palestinian architect, Suad Amiry, which is fun to listen to.

Here is to you "A More Adventurous Year, YOLO!" 
     

Greetings from Snowmiz

Snowmiz

Inspired by Judy's comments, our jolly snowman in the process of filling out has morphed into a snowmiz and now she is all decked out for a stroll in the park.  She bids you all a Good Day!









12.28.2012 Update:
After a night out in the cold, my snow lady did not fare any worse for wear; I hope she'll last a few more days longer.

    

12.29.2012 Update:
My poor snow lady was almost unrecognizable after another night out.

1.11.2013 Update:
Alas, such is the remains of my snowmiz!

Let it snow!

Merry Day-After-Christmas from Bloomington!

Kirk and I went out for a walk soon after breakfast to take in the snow condition around our neighborhood from the blizzard of Christmas 2012.  We spotted a couple of deer crossing the street into somebody's yard; we hoped they managed to find some shelter somewhere. The snow is forecasted to continue falling until 8 p.m. tonight, which makes for ideal conditions for building a snowman, my first, tomorrow.  Stay tuned.

Color Wheel House

Color Wheel House

"Color Wheel House" is the result of my latest attempt at house design, which I've been working on since August in fits and starts.  For an idle architect, designing houses is probably the easiest way to keep one's potentially marketable skills in tolerable condition and not to suffer them to rust.  As a way to explore the ever-growing arsenal of modeling tools available in software programs such as Autodesk's Revit, which, by the way, can be obtained for free in their educational outreach program, I systematically give myself design challenges, and for this project I explored the design opportunities in a steep site. 

The circular shape of the house grew gradually from a simple long box positioned at the crest of a hill with a mono-sloped roof opening to the south and views.  After several iterations, I settled on a circular shape design for its ability to open up the indoors to a greater panoramic view of the outdoors, to take full advantage of a steep site with spectacular views.  Circular walls, however, present considerable difficulties for modeling and, for that matter, actual construction.  [For the circular curtain walls in this project, I cheated by creating curved walls with glazing material, instead of painstakingly constructing each segmented glazed panel to make up the curved curtain walls.]   

The name, Color Wheel House, was derived from the geometry of the design, not vice versa, and it in turn gave me the idea of painting certain interior focal walls in various colors, loosely in a color wheel fashion.  There are many more ways to explore the color wheel conceit in the interior design but I chose to err on the side of restraint.

The front (north) side of the house is partially obscured and revealed by a series of circular garden walls, some pierced with vertical slots, and anchored in the center by a large deciduous tree with a circular bench built around it.  The house appears to be a one-story structure from the front but it's actually two-stories high, as the ground drops steeply down right along the center line of the house's circular footprint.  The back (south) side of the house is completely transparent but sheltered in the privacy of the thickly wooded surrounding.  A 15-feet wide deck, on both levels, wraps around the south side of the house, extending the indoor space to the outdoor.

The upper level of the house consists of a carport, an open living-dining-kitchen area, a powder room, and the master suite.  A circular staircase, protruding halfway out of the concave facade, is clad in glass which gives way, as the stairs wind down, to a half-circular wall painted bright red.  An exterior staircase on the east end of the deck provides easy vertical access in the back of the house.  

The lower level consists of an open recreational space with a kitchenette at one end, an office, a guest bedroom, a full bath, and generous storage space.  A lap pool is embedded in the lower deck and a small sauna is nestled into the hill side, next to the exterior staircase.  

Here are some computer renderings of the project. I hope you like them -

Upper Level Plan

Lower Level Plan

North Elevation

East Elevation

South Elevation

West Elevation

N-S Section through Spiral Stairs

E-W Section through Entry Court

E-W Section through Exterior Stairs

E-W Section through main public space

Entry Drive

Entry Walk

Front Lawn

Vestibule

Living-Dining Area

Kitchen-Dining Area

Master Bedroom

Master Bath

Family Room - Lower Level

Office - Lower Level

Pool Deck - Lower Level

North-East Perspective

Upper Level Walkthrough

Lower Level Walkthrough