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NEW: KATARXIS N°3
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KATARXIS N°2

New Houses

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Waller Residence, Baton Rouge, Louisiana (1974)
 
by Mike L. Waller
 
(The Charrette Design Group)
 
"This Queen Ann residence was partially dismantled and moved across town to a wooded site. An adaptive restoration was undertaken to return the house to its original 1898 Victorian detailing."

 The House in the Life of Man 

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 Lunuganga Estate in Sri Lanka (1984-Present)
 
by Geoffrey Bawa
 
(Photo by Hélène Binet)
 
The Aga Khan Award for Architecture

"The house, in the life of man, eliminates contingencies, it multiplicates its advices of continuity. Without it, man would be a dispersed being. It preserves man through the tempests of the heavens and through the tempests of life. It is both body and soul. It is the first world of the human being.
 
Before being 'thrown into the world' (as profess the fast metaphysics), man is laid into the cradle of the house. And  the house is always a large cradle. A concrete metaphysics cannot ignore this fact, this simple fact which is a value, a great value to which we return in our dreams.
 
Being is immediately a value. Life begins well, it starts enclosed, protected, luke-warm in the womb of the house."
 
 
Gaston Bachelard
 
"La Poétique de l'Espace"
 
(Published by Quadrige/ PUF, Paris 1953)  

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Keen Residence, Lake Osceola, Florida
 
by Mike L. Waller
 
"The Charrette Design Group"
 
"Located on a lake-front lot offering beautiful view opportunities, the design solution refers to the Louisana French Colonial Vernacular, which responds in an appropriate way to the climatical conditions of Florida and the clients' expectations. The deep galleries offer a commodious loggia space to enjoy the lush subtropical character of the lake site."

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Keen Residence, Interior Detail
 
by Mike L. Waller
 
"The Charrette Design Group"
 
"Finish details include long leaf heart pine floors and beams, functional louvered shutters fabricated of clear heart redwood, doors, windows, paneling, and cabinetry fabricated with Honduran mahagony and salvaged tide water red cypress."

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Waller Residence, Baton Rouge, Louisiana (1980)
 
by Mike L. Waller
 
"The Charrette Design Group"

"We have to show that the house is one of the most powerful forces of integration for thoughts, memories and the dreams of men."
 
 
Gaston Bachelard
 
"La Poétique de l'Espace"
 
(Published by Quadrige/ PUF, Paris 1953)

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Swindle Residence, Lake Osceola, Florida
 
by Mike L. Waller
 
"The Charrette Design Group"

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Flanagan Residence, Baton Rouge, Louisiana
 
by Mike L. Waller
 
"The Charrette Design Group"
 
"This speculative townhome program called for a 3 bedroom, 2 and 1/2 bath townhouse with a courtyard. The design solution refers to a regional vernacular, the "Victorian" creole townhome double, characterized by roof brackets, a style common to the New Orleans Vieux Carré."

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Barnett Residence, Winter Park, Florida (1989)
 
by Mike L. Waller
 
"The Barnetts were born and raised in Mississippi and wanted a home in the Southern Vernacular style of their home state. The design solution was a neo-classical raised cottage common to southern Mississippi."

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Barnett Residence, Garden View
 
by Mike L. Waller

"Ordinary people, on the other hand, always sensible, see no contradiction between new technology and historic design. They have no problem with owning a new car and a new but traditional house - each is a product of its own technological evolution, has its own technical traditions and responds appropriately to the traditions of society.
 
 If you accept that history, custom and tradition are an authentic part of modern society, then you must accept that their incorporation into architecture (or any other part of life) is an authentic, honest or true reflection of modern society."
 
 
Robert Adam
 
"Tradition and Architecture"
 
(Intbau Launching Conference, London January 2002) 

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Casa Morais Cardoso, Redondo, Portugal
 
by José Cornélio da Silva
 

 Some Houses  

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House on the New England Coast, Massachusetts
 
by Don Ritz A.I.A.
 
(Photo by Don Ritz)

Houses are not objects of consumption, nor of adoration. They belong to ourselves, our landscapes, villages and cities and share the sacredness of life and nature without becoming temples or sanctuaries. They are our most intimate places of private life and our most durable and dignified consacration of public space, of urban fabric and our most poetic contribution to enhance landscapes and by respectful punctuations mark the spirit of place in the most retired wilderness...
 
Houses can be simple, modest, rich and exuberant, complex or complicated, big or small, tight or ample, ceremonial or timid, etc. like their inhabitants..However houses remain houses and do not become the fluctuating psychograms of people, but remain the most harmonious and most cultivated constructions of a civilized microcosm in the image of the universe.
 
They express the most beautiful values and the most common and durable ideals of home and homeliness, the most precious foundations of urbanity and conviviality!
 
They are cristalizations -- of man's torments and restlessness into ideals of peace and culture, -- of man's most archaic
nomadic myths into ideals of place, of man's tribal instincts into ideals of community, family and civilization.
 
We carry the memory of a house within our hearts, -- a home we have had, we own or we dream of building... We can only live in peace and settle when we succeed in reconciliating our deepest and truest aspirations of home and dwelling with  real and authentic houses rooted in the truth of types, the plenitude of character and the poetry of style.
 
 
Sulein Silet
 
"A Scientifical Biography of Houses" 

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House Nelas, Portugal
 
by José Franqueira Baganha
 
(Photo by Da Silva & Baganha)