The Dwell blog and a Dubai-based “ezine” named De51gn both feature long-awaited interior photos of Olson Sundberg Kundig Allen‘s Wabi Sabi House on Bartlett St. near Greenbriar. Doesn’t look like the house has been staged too heavily, but . . . isn’t that the point of “imperfect beauty”?
Have a look around:
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Like it? De51gn says developer Carol Barden plans to build “a series of Wabi Sabi Houses in Houston.”
- Slideshow: Wabi Sabi House [Dwell Blog]
- Wabi Sabi House by Olson Sundberg Kundig Allen Architects in Houston, Texas [De51gn]
- Not Lived In Yet: The Wabi Sabi House [Swamplot]
I love this house… except the use of bamboo. I do not remember if it is used on the landscaping, but find it odd in the stairwell. Other than that, I really like it.
The really high design way to make a mark would be to recognize wabi sabi in the Daily Demolition properties and then really apply the wabi sabi ethic. As good a job as this developer is doing, no designer is clever enough to make something rooted more subtly than time in a place can make it fit (or could when the surfaces were more responsive, unlike most postwar townhomes) – and of wabi sabi, no matter how impressive or unimpressive the result is, you shouldn’t be able to say, “it’s all just props.” Hope we see some rooted ones soon. We’ll never be so cut off from space that like New Yorkers we’ll have art purchases as our only feasible luxury touches (instead of homes, tools, cars, landscaping), but it’s likely that there is a good niche where a vintage house in town, rescued from the wrecking ball for a song and upsold as a local wabi sabi hybrid, could be more prestigious and buzzing than a palatial new place.
Nice! You have a very lovely house. I love the bamboo. The spheres placed on the deck scream injured little toe to me because I’m just a little clumsy :) so I would most certainly have move those elsewhere. They are very interesting. I would want to keep them just not at toe level. :) Let me know if the buyer needs an artistic roommate… nudge nudge wink wink.