The story of this project’s origin is told Elsewhere [link]. This piece will provide the design Program, the architectural philosophy behind it and the Design Development drawings that will demonstrate proof-of-concept, costs and construction issues.

This work is a building addition, a piece of furniture, and a sculpture all rolled into one. It is also a personal gift from me to Gail. A PLACE for her to think, read and write. A perch that overviews Elsewhere [link] and glimpses the ocean.

This work is designed to be a gift to Gail both from me and her community. ART [link] is one of the greatest and most human of expressions that can be made. Often, art is made in the general sense in terms of who it is made for. It is always intimate to the artists, of course, but far more rarely for the user of the object. I want to capture (one view) of the essence of Gail with this project and have those that work on the piece, with me, also be able to also make an intimate contribution in their own personal way.

The work cannot avoid being my work and an expression of my architecture - yet it can be an intimate crafting of a space that expresses one facet of Gail and makes a PLACE where she can do her own art.

This intimacy, the making the object of the object, Gail herself, and the intension of the work as a place for her work determines the entire program of the piece and will drive every design decision. Gail is intensely in love with Northern California and the Elsewhere environment. This is HOME to her. She is building community here in ways that has not been possible for her for many years. Therefore, the idiomatic aspects of this region are important content for the appropriate rendering of the work.

In addition, the HOW this environment is made (while always important in any project) is mission critical in this case. It must be a celebration and and community response or there will be something missing from the ESSENCE of what this is.

From my standpoint, there are a number of things I have long wanted to explore. The Bay Area has been my spiritual home from the day I first stepped foot in San Francisco [link]. Architecturally, the work of Greene and Greene, Bernard Maybeck, Wurster, Warren Callistar - along with all the informal Northern California Art idioms - has long attracted me. This work is not my personal style, it is historical to me (although it is still an active living agent in the area) and it is not to be employed causally as a default habit (as it unfortunately so often is). My own traditions grow out of Wright, Schinler, Goff (and, of course, these will find their way into this work). In addition, there are a number of architectural ideas that have persisted in my own approach that find their way “home” in this project such as the use of “extreme” verticality [link] in intimate scale contexts, the concept of laminating a structure and then “carving” it to the exact shape desired, making space for specific tasks or functions, and, building EarthShips - boat-like structures [link].

In place, the setting is Earth, California, Northern California, the Redwood Coast, Elsewhere in descending clusters.

In time, it is the bridge from the 20th to the 21st Century, post dot.bubble, [link] post 9-11, post Bush “election” [link].

In the history of MG Taylor, this time is the transition from the first complete cycle of formation and Gail’s “return” to non-profit work with the formation of TomorrowMakers [link]. As I am continuing the MG Taylor work and Gail is starting TomorrowMakers, for the first time in over two decades, our work life (although we are still doing the same work) is logistically and organizationally, largely separated. Our major interactive time has, since the 70s, been in the workplace not the home. Now, just the opposite is true. Elsewhere, as we develop it, will reflect this new dynamic. It will become important that we each have some separation of workplace as we will be responding to a different rhythm and set of circumstances. Most of my work involves travel and time at our Nashville facility and the many client environments that we have made. My time Elsewhere is devoted to rest, reflection and abstract work and study - and design. Gail is starting to write. Writing is the kind of activity that requires, for most persons, a place with a high privacy quotient. These factors play directly into the design assignment of the “Nest.”

Tiffany Lamp; Flower; Tree House; Nest; Tower; Carving; Sculpture; nature/human co-design; These are the metaphors that come to mind. Success will be when all of them apply in some way and, at first glance, it is not clear which one is the most precise meaning. Is this a nature-made, a human-made artifact? It is industrial or hand-crafted? Is this a modern or historical structure? Is this for recreation, for study, for work? The answer should be YES (!) to all these questions. This mixed metaphor requirement is driven by a major aspect of the building’s theme: integration.

The THEME (or values which drive the design choices): Integration; Past, Present, Future continuity; Right Livelihood [link]; Active Retreat (repose); Nature. The Practice of tranquil, Purposeful Living; In the world but not of it; with respect for all life forms - co-design with it.

Metaphor and Theme determines the choice of Symbols [link]: In but not of requires the presence of the Observer Consciousness. The view, from the perch, of the Elsewhere World stimulates the observer. The trunk base and flower top of the structure directly references the dominate features of Elsewhere: redwood trees and rhododendron flowers. Writing, distilling a lifetimes experience to make legacy is a Trust - Gail will walk up to the place dedicated to this sacred function. It is not a casual place nor is it time-pressured or utilitarian - all bad symbols of work; It is exuberant and playful [link]. This is a place for harvest and celebration.

There are several functional requirements of the project: Gail’s work area, a protected (from deer) garden, skylight to the Bedroom, Bedroom access to the back deck, and energy collection.

The roof area - 888 square feet - over the Bedroom and carport is to provide solar collection, raised herb and vegetable beds (free from deer) and two small sitting decks. There will be raised flower beds and pots around the parameter, eliminating the need for railing at the edge. They will be built at various heights - these and the facia trellis will breakup the line of the roof, which is at an unfortunate slope, and create an encasement shielding the exposed solar collector. Other than decking, the area for planting and solar will be split about 75/25 (netting about 100 square feet of collector and an equal amount of reflective surfaces [link]). A significant amount of the Nest’s energy can be collected from this roof. Total energy independence for the entire property is the goal - however, this is a challenge given the landscaping and will take many additional collectors carefully placed [link].

The NEST, itself, is neither a room nor a workstation - it has the requirements of both without the unnecessary aspects of a conventional room nor the limitations of a workstation. A variety of functions have to be served: meditating, dreaming, thinking, reading, journaling, writing, corresponding, conferencing, intimate scale dialog with one or two; and, a variety of tasks have to be supported: computer work, printing, archiving, meeting, virtual communications, light eating/drinking.

The greatest functional requirement if the “nest” is to be a PLACE that supports Gail’s creative process and sense of individual security and privacy. The Pattern Language [link] principles that are relevant and have to be addressed are:

This addition ties together several spaces, that today, are poorly connected. The south-west patio, the back porch, rear yard and the bedroom [link]. The Base will come down at the intersection of all these, will connect them and act as an interface. The transition, at present, is awkward and lacks grace.

Architecture, by the nature of it, is a long-cycle dialog that takes place in formal and informal ways. Human requirements and expressions are remarkably stable. They change and evolve while constantly folding back on themselves and finding fresh insight in “old” ideas. The technology of buildings - and the technology used in buildings - is changing rapidly. SPACE - and its meaning - is consistent and changes very slowly. Steward Brand addresses the nature of different social time scales and rates in The Clock of the Long Now [link]. The Long Now Foundation [link] is building a 10,000 year clock to explore aspects of this idea.

In modern times, the making of a building has become a commodity-making process. The ACT of placing a building with the earth has lost significance; it is ascribed no moral relevance; no sense of the special. This is unfortunate. This false modernarity fosters a cold mechanical approach limited only by linear economics. “What can I afford?” replaces “What beauty and value can I co-create; what can I experience; what gift can I give?”

Building on an explicit architectural heritage is adding bricks to the edifice of ARCHITECTURE as a 10,000 year story. It anchors past present and future in a single continuity of time and space. It makes PLACE in all the meanings of the word. It is capable, then, and only then, to express the essence of life and to bring meaning to a single human life.