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!

Beijing architect lives in egg-shaped house

We were made aware of this article on Shine from Yahoo, today. How about going really small?:
>>

Beijing Egg House

The house fits neatly on the sidewalk.

Photo by: AFP / Getty Images

By Lori Bongiorno and Trystan L. Bass
More from Green Picks blog

Dai Haifei, a 24-year-old architect in Beijing, China, found an ingenious solution to live rent-free. He built himself a mobile egg-shaped house that is powered by the sun.
The 6-foot-high structure, which is small enough to fit on a sidewalk, is made of bamboo strips, wood chippings, sack bags, and grass seed that’s expected to grow in the spring.
The pod features a solar panel on the roof that powers a lamp in the cozy space. The house cost around $1,000 to build (6427 yen), according to China Daily.
It seems Haifei has taken the trend of living in tiny spaces to a whole new level. <<

You can read more and see lot of images at Shine from Yahoo.

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.

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.

NYTimes: Architects at Play, Dangling Medals

From The New York Times:

>> Architecture's luminaries gathered at Ellis Island to bestow their version of the Nobel, the Tony, the Oscar.

THE veterans debated over which was more memorable: the Versailles dinner, with fountains and all, for Tadao Ando, or the gilded reception for architecture's queen bee,Zaha Hadid, in St. Petersburg.Rem Koolhaas had his shining moment beneath the Temple Mount in Jerusalem, while the Clintons brought out the White House welcome mat for Renzo Piano in that heady, pre-dot-com-bust year of 1998.

But guests heading to the ceremony and dinner that awarded this year's Pritzker Prize— often called the Nobel of architecture —to Kazuyo Sejima and Ryue Nishizawa of the Japanese firm Sanaa were greeted by an altogether different sign of the times: a line leading to airport-like security.

On May 17, for the first time since 1983, when I. M. Pei was bestowed the honor at the Temple of Dendur at theMetropolitan Museum of Art, the Pritzker Prize ceremony took place in New York: specifically, on Ellis Island. And for the huddled masses yearning to partake in architecture's biggest night of the year, head lice exams gave way to X-ray scanners, as design titans, masters of the universe and assorted well-coiffed others awkwardly deposited their Constructivist jewelry and Ferragamo belts in plastic bins on conveyors.

"I wonder, just how much metal is Sejima wearing?" Anthony Vidler, the architecture dean at the Cooper Union, said jokingly about the night's co-honoree as he waited patiently for the boat to depart for the island.

Still, with buckles readjusted and bangles back on wrists, any inconveniences were soon forgotten as the evening took on a lightness befitting Sanaa's sublimely elegant buildings: the see-through Glass Pavilionfor the Toledo Museum of Art in Ohio; the undulating slice of Swiss cheese that is the Rolex Learning Center in Lausanne; the mesh-clad New Museum on the Bowery.

"Sanaa did my store on Crosby Street," said the fashion designer Derek Lam, sipping red wine as a string quartet played. "That's why we're here to celebrate them."

Jan-Hendrik Schlottmann, Mr. Lam's partner and the company's C.E.O., said, "Actually, Sejima was our first customer when we started the business."

"She got a black double-breasted trench coat," Mr. Lam said.

"It was more like a Bordeaux red."

"No, it was definitely black."

For her part, Ms. Sejima, who is doing double duty this year as director of the Venice Architecture Biennale, was standing with Mr. Nishizawa near the Peopling of America exhibition. A petite woman, she was coddled within the voluminous, definitely black, ruffle-dappled dress that the Comme des Garçons designerRei Kawakubo had made for her.

"I am very pleased to be here," Ms. Sejima said before flashing a warm smile and being whisked away for a cigarette break.

Founded by the late Jay Pritzker and his wife, Cindy, of the Hyatt hotel fortune, the Pritzker Prize was started in 1979; Philip Johnson was its first recipient. It has become architecture's most prestigious honor, its adjectival use signaling the subject's place in the pantheon of living architects.

In the first century B.C., Vitruvius assigned to great buildings the three attributes of firmitas, utilitas, venustas: firmness, commodity, delight. Pritzker winners receive a bronze medal inscribed with that motto and translation, and $100,000.

But perhaps it's the canonization of the Architectus Celebritatus, that exotic species also known as the starchitect — a crossbreed between temperamental artist and brilliant problem-solver, idealistic do-gooder and opportunistic megalomaniac, starchy geek and shameless glamour puss — that is the prize's most enduring legacy.

There, in one corner, were the lanky Thom Mayne (Pritzker, '05) and Renzo Piano ('98), grazing not far from Christian de Portzamparc ('94) and the silver-haired Richard Meier('84). Though not a Pritzker winner, Rafael Vinoly appeared, as he usually does, as the eight-eyed savant wearing three pairs of spectacles: on the nose, around the neck and propped on his head, all at the same time. <<

read the entire article here:

http://nyti.ms/cHmnJz

Symphony Guild Designer House Charlotte 2010

Yesterday was the big opening of the Symphony Guild Designer House in Charlotte. It is a gigantic fundraising effort for the Charlotte Symphony. This year local interior designers got to spruce up several Condos at the Metropolitan in Charlotte. Their work can be visited for the following weeks for an entry fee that benefits the effort.

The most modern piece was given to Monika Nessbach of Designbar and Sarah Rees Hamilton, a master suite, with bedroom, closets, and bathroom.

(This image is from a Charlotte Observer's web page. It shows the bedroom and the head board over the bed.)

(This image is also from the Charlotte Observer web page. It shows Sarah's amazing shoes in the redesigned closet spaces and the bathroom beyond)


They approached us to help them out with the head board for the bed and the tile work and mirrors in the bathroom. We went to work and started with blowing the heard board apart. We redesigned the whole thing into a multi-layerd, rambling set of boxes. They are partly usable with touch-to-push-open cabinets, shelves, ledges and hidden cubicles, and partly decorative elements.
We called up our cabinet guru Kevin Gavagan of Q Fine Cabinetry, who took the beast over and finished it brilliantly. He gave his talent and skills for free, as did Sam and Madalin Urs of Quality Floorz. Those two guys, our hardwood flooring and tile specialists, finished out the bathroom, a gorgeous mosaic tile work (we'll post images later [see more images at our architizer site]).

It all turned our beautifully. Both Monika and Sarah loved our work, and last night, the grant opening, was a total success.


(Here you can see the head board in progress in Kevin's shop)


(This is our sketch, from which we worked with everybody involved)


(And here is our own Jahan, Kevin, and Monika, looking over her plans, discussing the first steps.)


Please come out the Metropolitan an view the work. The opening times are:
April 17 to May 9th 2010
Wed -Sat 10:00a - 8:00p
Su 1:00p - 6:00p
1225 Baxter Street, Charlotte


Our contacts:
Moniks Nessbach - Designbar 704.488.5389
Sarah Rees Hamilton - Sarah Rees Hamilton, Inc 704.451.4103
Kevin Gavagan - Q Fine Cabinetry Inc. 704.277.6733
Sam and Madalin Urs - Quality Floorz Co. 704.905.1281


and of course yours truely:
DIALECT 704.763.0506 , 704.488.6811