vine street modernist salvage historical permaculture ecotopian re-activation

Project Details

Project Description

Architecture has a certain relation to civilization and is an expression of the times.
In the production of buildings, our historic civilization has consumed vast quanities of energy, raw materials and degraded habitats, rock, soil, air and water. Our current civilization, unfolding an epoch aware of system dynamics, is developing methods of creating buildings by using materials already fabricated, extracted from the waste stream while reducing energy used to create new materials.

With discipline, architects can envision the expression of this epoch and act accordingly. We need to engage and build with any material, including salvage, to solve architectural problems of light, proportions, detail, space, form and community.

Repairing and recirculating the Vine Street historic property adds neighborhood value as a shared home for transient students and wine country hospitality workers. The historic façade contrasts with new windows and sunshade organized on one rectangular area of new construction. Interior tile in color related patterns, indirect and colored lighting, re-fabricated shower and screen doors are re-used in new context.

Gathering and refabricating salvage was slower than ordering a product designed for a function. New community zones of designer fabricators adept at re-creating building components could organize shops around building materials waste stream to provide unique products and with beneficial economic impact.