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



 

 

Modern Homes for Sale in Charlotte

Ready for your own piece of Dialect Bliss? Own a modern home along the new light rail extension in Charlotte.

Nestled between Charlotte’s trendy neighborhoods of NoDa and Plaza Midwood, Belmont is the first stop from Uptown on the new Light Rail extension. Poised for a makeover, this established tree-lined neighborhood is preparing for a set of modern single-family homes by Dialect Design.

The renowned local design-build group has developed a custom series of houses between 2,030 to 2,450 square feet to meet Charlotte’s growing need for hip urban living.

The modern S-Series meets the growing trend with an elegant open floorplan, 4 bedrooms, 2.5 baths, and a second floor roof terrace with skyline views of uptown for selected sites. Starting at $305k Dialect Design is offering several pricing tiers with the option to upgrade. Standard are 10 foot ceilings, hardwood floors, and modern kitchen cabinetry.

Dialect Design has reserved selected lots in the up and coming Belmont neighborhood with proximity to the Charlotte’s Greenway system, the Light Rail, uptown amenities, and coffee shops, restaurants, and specialty stores of Noda and Plaza Midwood.

The Woung Residence - A Sneak Peak

   

 

“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 !

Dialect is Mad about Modern

Come and visit the Schoenberg Residence during the "Mad about Modern" home tour that Historic Charlotte, Inc has set up for the upcoming Saturday.

Saturday, May 14th

10 am - 4 pm

There are a total of eight mid-century and current modern homes on the tour. Our sexy baby you can visit at 4015 Arborway.

As you know the Schoenberg Residence is for sale and currently still available. Sooooo, if you have toyed with the idea come by on Saturday and take a tour. We'll be present to answer questions.

We'll see all of you on the tour, look at all of the homes, love modern , live modern!

Design with us for Free!

Ultra-small is beautiful for Japanese homeowner - CNN News

How about it? Could you imagine. Slim down your life to the essential in an urban setting?
Read the article at CCN.

Architectural Record - "Residential Showcase"

Architectural Record is featuring an image of one of our modern houses online! All right!

Just Gorgeous

This gorgeous small abode comes to us from "Trendir - modern house designs":

A tiny treasure in the Australian outback, this cool, tiny house design by Australia architects Casey Brown Architecture brings a bit of the unexpected into its natural surroundings. This prefab cottage measures only 10 by 10 ft., clad in copper with a glass-enclosed lower level revealed when the shades are drawn. This rustic house style boasts a simple cube shape with unadorned, unpretentious interiors with a relaxed, casual country-chic character. But there’s more to this countryside home than meets the eye. An eco sustainable home design, this compact house incorporates passive heating and cooling technologies, and a water-harvesting system for some keen “green” appeal.

To read the whole article go to: Trendir

Plastolux' Pick of the Day

Plastolux shared this modern house with us:

"I love this home by Stockholm based Widjedal Racki Bergerhoff. WRB is focused on smaller thoroughly designed private houses. The Casa Barone project is stunning with all the black, white and minimal space. Oh and I love how this home sits into the hillside. More after the jump."

http://plastolux.com/modern-minimal-black-and-white-wrb.html

Getting Our New Modern House Ready For The Web

We are getting our first "Pod" design ready for the web. We uploaded the floor plans on our Dialect Design page and will dazzle you with the exterior look soon. The idea behind this modern house design is that, as a base unit, it is efficient and small, and very affordable to build. In addition, you can choose several add-on units to increase the square footage. You can do that right from the get-go or later in the future, as your life changes.

The base unit, we call our P.1 modern house. The actual main floor is on the second level perched over an open and covered entertainment area or carport. This main floor is perfect for a single person or a couple. You can use it as your home, a guest suite, studio space, beach house, or mountain retreat. We worked on keeping the square footage small, but offering a spacious sense of living with all the amenities.

Here is a sneak peak:

We are finalizing the design of the exterior right now and will feature it online soon. We are also going to add more detailed information on our new info service on each set of modern house plans to give you the scoop behind the scene at http://www.coolmodernhouseplans.com.

By keeping this building small and economical, we are working towards a very low construction price, our self imposed 60K benchmark. The beauty of the design is its flexibility. You can start small and grow as your life style of finances change. Not only can you build out each base unit, but by exchanging the semi-exterior stair tower with a different "connector" you can string up several units and create a larger floor plan or community of living units. Each unit is designed to be used as a fully functioning dwelling, to be subleased again as your nest is emptying or you might need to rely on extra revenue.

We will add more pieces to the puzzle as we are working along. Make sure to stay tuned.

WE GOT BLOGGED

http://www.coolmodernhouseplans.comGrassrootsmodern.com has picked us up on their blog. A wonderful write up about our website on modern stock home plans at DialectDesign.com:

"Dialect Design
20Apr09
Last week I touched on the subject of stock modern house plans. I wanted to throw one more hat into the ring. Dialect Design is an up an coming architectural duo based out of Charlotte, North Carolina. Both founders John Nourbakhsh and Toby Witte have an international background and an obvious love for modern design. On their website they have 3 modern stock plans available with one more (a 60k house) on the way. Full floorplans can be reviewed before purchasing as well as the estimated price per square foot to build. All the plans claim a $105 sq/ft construction cost but I’m sure that price would balloon depending on where you live. Prices for stock plans start at $1,400 and include 6 printed sets of drawings with all the usual goodies.
Modern stock house plans from Dialect Design."

Thank you Creede for the kind words, exposure and your absolutely fascinating site and blog on all things modern at Grassrootsmodern.com !

Also see our work on modern house plans at Cool Modern House Plans

A European Style House For An Affordable Price

The present worldwide economic strain has changed the expectations home buyers have of their houses. They need to be affordable and efficient. And they need to be able to adjust, once their situation improves again. Our new P.1 home is designed as a European style house that can do that for you.
It starts at a 24 feet by 24 feet one floor base unit. It will offer all the amenities you expect from your modern dwelling. The base unit will be designed to be affordable to build. Keeping local building cost and current local prices for trades and materials in mind we are aiming at a $105 per square foot price, giving you a European style house for $60,480 construction cost. This price will have to adjust, of course, to your local pricing standards and the final design. The cool thing about this concept is for one that it is designed to function in many different ways right of the bat. It could be your starter home, an independent guest house, a home office, a rental unit in your back yard, a vacation cottage in the mountain or at the beach, an addition to an existing house, and much more. Secondly this “pod”, as we call it, is also conceived to be able to grow right from the beginning or in the future as your needs or economic outlook changes. In other words this pod can function as a base unit that can be added on with one or more additional pods. By offering this you can have an affordable European style house that can serve any life style and change in lifestyle. If you are a single parent with in-laws living with you, a single professional with a home office, a larger family with a independent live-at-home teenager, a couple of two, or anyone else, this simple and affordable European style modern house could be ideal for you.
We are interested o get your feed back at this point of the game to see our planning challenged and adjust to your input. Please write as an email at info@dialectdesign.com, if you are interested and want to keep in touch, or comment to this blog. Please also visit our online selections and ability to order a set of modern home plans at http://www.dialectdesign.com and at http://www.coolmodernhouseplans.com/

Why Modern?

It is our view that modern design and architecture is a continuation of a great history of building and design ideas and methods. Modernity today is explorative into the way we live and the way we build, further developing time tested means.
Often it finds itself demonized in comparison to what is considered “traditional”. It could not be further from the truth. The architecture that is being sold as “traditional” is too often a rather new and recent form of bad habits cultivated by a building industry only interested in itself. In contrast the contemporary houses, such as they are being featured by dwell magazine for example, are actually developing our traditions. They incorporate new needs, habits, and materials often quite elegantly.
We ask just the same of our technology. Our new cell phone can only be considered “good” if it is the newest most recently developed version of its former self. Our houses and built environment need to be considered in that way, too. What we are also asking, though, from it is warmth, richness of memories, and a time-enduring sense of home. Well designed contemporary buildings are best equipped to meet those demands and to do it in a manner fitting with our contemporary environment, materials, and environmental concerns.
We strive to do just that. Please visit our selection of contemporary houses. And please do it, if you just want to get your whistle wet.

Also comment on our posts at our blog: dialect design - modern homes & contemporary art!

Modern Homes Made Possible

There is every reason why you should be able to enjoy a wide range of choices on contemporary home plans, ready to be purchased online. This offer has been available for traditional homes for a long time. The same can be had for the modernity you crave. A great number of concerns that some of you bring to the selection of your future contemporary home can be met with pre-designed blue-prints. Open floor plans, multi-functional spaces and uses, innovative materials, green choices in products and building methods, a sexy modern look, and new thinking on the arrangement and necessity of certain rooms can all be addressed. It is our belief that we can meet many of your wishes with the home plans we offer. And we believe we can meet the expectation of high quality with an affordable price. With the launch of our new service, we will increase the number of choices. As we forge ahead, we will take suggestions and whishes and incorporate them into the development of our product line. This is an exciting new venture for us as we are looking forward to designing more modern homes.

Visit us at Cool Modern House Plans

Please visit our selection of modern home plans.