2015 Matsumoto Prize

Vote for our Woung Residence! It has been nominated for the prestigious 2015 Matsumoto Price and is up for the Poular Choice Award. Follow this link, browse, and vote for (what else?) for the Woung Residence:

Matsumoto Prize - Popular Choice Award



 

 

my-modern

To promote my-modern.com, the one-stop access to modern services and professionals in Charlotte, we flooded uptown today with fresh flowers, heralding the timid spring.  We had a blast with our crew of 16 that included 4 cameramen, 3 actors, 3 musicians, 3 photographers, our trusted producer and chief trouble maker Barbra, and us two giddy Dialect Boys.

As before we had our purple people doing the deed, spreading joy and hapiness. We saw many smiles, laughing children, and also a few puzzled looks.

The Woung Residence - A Sneak Peak

   

 

Finding Art

 

Our first visit to the new UNCC building uptown offered a few good surprises today.  Chief among them a few moments of ad hoc and deliciously awkward questions that leaned out of each of Andreas Bechtler's works of art. We would expect that each visitor would be forced to contemplate their own set of reactions to his art; and so we urge you stop by and take look >> Center City Gallery <<.

Or if you are an online sleuth check out Charlotte Viewpoint's article >> Charlotte Viewpoint <<

 

And if your curiosity has been peaked, walk through the rest of the building and discover more and equally stunning modern work by other renown artist.  If you are as lucky as us you might even stumble into Crista Cammaroto, the ever so charming and engaging curator behind all things artful at the Center City Gallery.  She took a good chunk of time out of her calendar and gave us an inside look at her work and the artwork around.

We stumbled upon her path while we were searching for David Walters, Charlotte's own guru of urbanity, which had us also marvel at the student's work, becoming Masters of Urban Design.  We were leaving puzzling only at the architecture, which unfortunately left us underwhelmed, despite this one peek shown above with the stunning view of Charlotte.  While all its LEED accomplishment might be note-worthy, we do think that a good place the building did not offer.  Oh well. Talk to us and convince us otherwise.  We do love to discover what we cannot see.

my-modern - the new modern beat in Charlotte

We have joined my-modern.com, the new online market place and informational site of all things modern in Charlotte, NC.
A fun group of modern outlets that promote their contemporary fair through flash-mob-style art performances.  If you missed the first event watch it below.

“The Gruesome Belly – an Epilogue” or “The Power of Art in Architecture – a Manifesto for the Modern Experiential Being” or "Just a Few Thoughts"

There have been stories shared about patrons of Mark Rothko’s work breaking down in tears while viewing the paintings of his moody, expressive “multiforms”. Maya Lin’s design of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial has visitors descending along its sliced earth, lined with stark black granite, thoroughly overwhelmed with a profound sense of being.

A sense of connection to the inexplicable, to memories imagined, to tremors of fear, the gory pit of dreams, to lust, to yearnings, and everything else. Therein lies the power of art and the power of architecture.
Just know that every last bit of the built environment we create has the potential, demands the right, to bear that power. Whether well intentioned, haphazardly ignorant, or blatantly harmful, every bit of our built environment influences our perception of being and our expectations of living.

Now ask yourself, why you manage to surround yourself with buildings and structures depressingly void of life. It takes but being aware. It takes but you willing to taste every last fiber of your built surrounding and letting yourself succumb to its yummy.
Ask for your home, your place of work, and your communal spaces to be expertly designed and exquisitely crafted.

We were recently invited to present a group of students and faculty of the Art Institute of Charlotte our work as designers and builders of modern architecture. We titled the talk “The Gruesome Belly” and went on to hunt in our work for all those moments of tickling tummies, quivering guts, and internal butterflies. We wanted to understand and share, how we come about weaving these marvelous moments from small constructional details, from understandings of site and client, from a tedious design process, from listening to our instincts, and from playing with materials and construction methods.

You might have seen before the image of the library we created in the Schoenberg Residence, here in Charlotte. But maybe we haven’t shared a bit of the anecdotes around it. We placed it as the pivotal center between three bedrooms of the children’s wing. In conjunction with a daylight-flooded hall, it became a play and reading area for the whole family. Structurally the library slices through the building and cantilevers out on either end as bright red inhabitable boxes. The lower one hovers as a cozy small nook over the rear terraces of the home, providing the children a great vantage point to the family’s dinners, get-togethers, and garden life. The taller box houses the summit of the climbing library; a cushioned, windowed perch, a cocoon that envelopes with the quiet of a sound chamber. The sense of the winding and surrounding shelves and the torqueing climb of the platforms and irregular steps is that of being snuggly held.

Every visitor to this house, who has made the way up, descends with stories of a childhood tree house. The mother of the three children, however, confided to us that she would make her way to the library’s summit on restless nights; cuddled up in the perch, partly lifted up beyond the house’s roof line, partly enveloped by the branches of surrounding trees, and partly cuddled amidst her sleeping children.

In this library numerous small pieces came together for these moments to be allowed. As different in tone and intent as calculated engineered structure and a carefully calibrated color scheme. We listened to the clients’ stories prior to design and created a spot for the library in their budget and within their expectations towards our work. Plumbers, window companies, and framers had to be cajoled, code requirements mitigated, and the dimensions of lounging, sleeping, sitting, crouching, reading, and perching measured and tested. Daylight had to be understood, passive ventilation taken into account, the view lines to the street measured against infraction of privacy. Every last detail, whether practical, functional, ephemeral, formal, or otherwise wanted to be part in telling the same story.

Another time, the parents shared with us, they found the house washed in absolute silence. Alarmed, they canvassed the house, fearing the worst, only to find all three children peacefully reading in the library. All three draped picture-perfect on separate landings, surrounded by their belongings of books, pillows and stuffed animals.

As imperfect the anecdotes for this particular architectural moment might be, it might give a glimpse of the potential your man-made surroundings have. To leave them unintentionally dull could be seen as a crime. At the very least as a lost opportunity for a richer life.
We happen to believe that you owe it to yourself to elevate your being, to spoil your senses, trigger your imagination, and love to live through a richer physical world.

We shared a few of these stories and moments with the Art Institute and ended with a row of slides, without comment, urging our audience to see the same richness in these snapshots. We hoped that each one of these showed the depth of intention and process, even in the simplest of designs.

Maybe the following will do the same.

Hollywood is looking for Charlotte's Modern - Contemporary Homes in Charlotte, NC

Ever wondered why you see all these sexy, cool and modern homes on TV and in your favorite magazines?

Karl Golden, location scout for the Golden Globe winning TV hit "Homeland", which is filmed in Charlotte, called us up to take him on a tour of modern homes in the Queen City. He needed a good list for his clients.

So we shared with him a quick look at what the Queen City got to give. To share Hollywood's glamour with you and whet your whistle, let's share a few of the homes we pointed out to him.

First stop was, of course our own design and construction project, the "Schӧnberg Residence":

Schӧnberg Residence - Dialect Design

Schӧnberg Residence - Dialect Design

Schӧnberg Residence - Dialect Design

Schӧnberg Residence - Dialect Design

Next we pointed out the "Smith House" by New York architect Lindsay Myers Smith, the images are from the builder's facebook page, "Philip R. Thomas Construction":

Smith House - Lindsay Myers Smith

Smith House - Lindsay Myers Smith

This  photo of the "Carmazzi Residence" we found on "Triangle Modernist Houses". It was designed by Virginia based William McDonough Architects:

Carmazzi Residence - William McDonough Architects

Our good friend and colleague, Jim Warren, built this design by Charlotte's Stan Russel on Tippah Avenue. The image is also from "Triangle Modernist Houses":

Tippah Home - Stan Russel

Charlotte's Liquid Design came up with a modern group of homes on  Craig Avenue. The image is from "Charlotte Modern Realty" and good friend and realtor on all things modern, Gail Jodon:
 

Craig Avenue - Liquid Design

This house, we pointed out, is an absolute jewel. A very good friend of ours lives in it and did much of the work in its construction.  It's situated on a lake with gorgeous views and was designed by Mack Scogin Merrill Elam Architects:

Mack ScoginMerrill Elam Architects

As we pointed out to Karl Golden, there is a great array of modern homes in Charlotte. From Atomic Ranch to Midcentury Modern Homes, and contemporary residential architecture, we have seen some 300 structures in and around Charlotte. They range from small to large and various looks. There are many more modern additions and interior upfits to round off the picture.

Charlotte does know how to live modern and to do it right.

And hey – if Hollywood wants more, we’ll give‘em more!

We at Dialect have certainly experienced a vibrant new wave of Charloteans wanting to match their living quarters with their contemporary life style. And as our clients are finding comfort in knowing about the local modern market, and the freedom and playfulness to be had in modern homes, the variety of our modern homes and those of others is growing and getting more daring by the minute.

Live Modern!

add on  •  kitchen re-do  •  change the bathroom?

We've got a few ideas.

Put on the tea kettle. We’re coming over.

Free consultation from Jan. 15 – Feb. 15!

Call, email, text, facebook, twitter, link in, or messenger pigeon us to make your appointment - before our schedule fills up!

DialectDesign won't just think outside your box.

We’ll design it, we’ll build  it!

704.763.0506   •   704.488.6811   •   email   •   dialectdesign.com   •   facebook  

More Modern House Plans

More modern house plans on our new website Cool Modern House Plans Dot Com ! We are feverishly working on increasing our selection of modern homes.  Now that our stand alone site offers us all the bells and whistles of presenting contemporary houses nationwide, we are developing more products.

The C.1 is our newest modern plan .  It is designed for a sloped site and grand view, ideal for a mountain lodge or lake side cabin.  It offers a daylight basement and magnificent views through large picture windows, a curved metal roof and an open floor plan. You can't go wrong with this one.

We also slaved over a brand new rendition in our T-House series, the magnificent mac daddy drop dead gorgeous "T.2", 2,245 heated square feet jamb packed with pure modern sexy.  Glassed garage doors in the living room, sliding panels, open floor plan, concrete or optional exposed cmu walls, a flat roof box style, large banks of windows, a reflecting pool with rain water collection, and more.  This house is designed to be inhabited by a single family or to be used as a duplex. Have a look!

Cool Modern House Plans

We have worked on a major over-haul of our alternate site Cool Modern House Plans! Have a look,  Here we offer our sets of modern house plans that we sell nation wide as a good alternative for our local design build efforts. These home plans are quite cost-effective as a purchase and in terms of construction.  We are currently working on another modern house that we are going to  put online in the upcoming days.
We hope that the shopping experience is much more straight forward and this site and will make it easier for our customers to buy a set of construction drawings.
Go ahead and browse the selection of European style modern homes.  You will find contemporary box designs, butterfly roof homes, concrete walls, curved roofs, roof terraces, flat roofs, open floor plans, compact designs, pod houses, and lots more.

See you at Cool Modern House Plans !

Openhouse at Schönberg Residence with art by Regine Bechtler, Andreas Bechtler, and jazz by Great Architect

We enjoyed a great get-together at the Schönberg Residence, the modern addition we designed and built in Charlotte.

The home owners, Caroline and Matthias, invited us and a large crowd for a wonderful late summer evening. We toured folks through the modern home and received a lot of compliments and positive comments.

The most lasting words were from Andreas Bechtler, the Swiss art collector, who has worked with the world famous architect Mario Botta on Charlotte's new museum of modern art. He shared with us that our architecture was "most exquisite, even for European standards". This was after he studied all our details at length and discussed his Bechtler Museum by Botta and compared it with our work.

He showed his own personal art during the evening as well, but mostly his wife and artist Regine Bechtler with some breathtaking sculptures and paintings.

We were also happy to enjoy live jazz by Brent Bagwell and his drummer from Great Architect.

Take part in the wonderful evening trough the images below by Armando Bellmas.