Shipping container motel honors 2nd life of salvage by Kirsten Dirksen on October 17, 2020 On a former ranch in Round Top, Texas (population: 91), Flophouze hotel is made of six converted shipping container cabins …
Buys ’50s home to fix it, falls for its indoor/outdoor mastery by Kirsten Dirksen on September 26, 2020 In 1949, Wells Blackshear and his son Harold began designing and building their own home in South Austin, guided by …
Thrifty couple builds self-reliant, $60K homestead & workshop by Kirsten Dirksen on August 15, 2020 Marlena and Eugene built their homestead in Blanco, Texas using salvaged windows, doors, wood flooring, tile, a bathtub, a lot …
Texan maker’s underground survival bunkers are real batcaves by Kirsten Dirksen on June 29, 2020 In Cormac McCarthy’s “The Road,” protagonists are surprised by marauders, but are lucky to find a well-provisioned survival shelter. In …
Dan Phillips turns backyard scraps in whimsical Texan houses by Kirsten Dirksen on April 4, 2017 Transforming wine corks and bottle caps into flooring, cow bones into countertops, frame samples into ceilings and old deck boards …
Kasita: tiny prefab home-as-a-service for post-land urbanism by Kirsten Dirksen on July 24, 2016 Professor Jeff Wilson wants to create the “iPhone for housing”. He thinks we need to shed our preconceptions of housing …
A spaghetti western on lean urbanism (documentary) by Kirsten Dirksen on May 11, 2015 What makes a good shelter? For thousands of years we’ve been attempting to regulate the idea. Even the bible had …
A spaghetti western on lean urbanism (documentary trailer) by Kirsten Dirksen on May 3, 2015 It’s undeniable that building codes save lives, but something has changed in the past couple of decades. Now, thanks to …
From Gotham to isolated, code & debt-free West Texas estate by Kirsten Dirksen on November 17, 2014 Seven years ago John Wells sold his heavily-mortgaged home in upstate New York and bought 40 acres in West Texas …
Marfa’s restored trailers from the nomadic recreation heyday by Kirsten Dirksen on August 20, 2014 Two hundred miles southeast of El Paso and 800 miles west from Austin, Marfa may be isolated from major cultural centers, …
