what is GIMMEESHELTER?

GIMMESHELTER is an exploration, a research project with a site and a client but no schedule and no budget.

GIMMESHELTER will be a virtual sketchbook, pinup board, preliminary review, and precedent binder.

I hope to record the design from precedent to final design, a running narrative chronologically available for my client's (my dad's) review.

When I was working on my thesis in college, I sketched on a 9" roll of trace - I bought an 18" roll and cut it in half on the bandsaw in the woodshop - felt tip pen and alcohol based markers (brand?). When used on trace, the markers bled and looked like watercolors. I specifically chose lighter colors that had this effect, and got into the habit of using brown, green, and blue almost exclusively. I never ripped off the trace. I rolled up the drawn-on end and kept unrolling the unused portion to draw on. By mid-semester we called it the scroll but it was useful to be able to scroll back and forth through designs and thought processes. Even if the sketches ended up as a dead end, they were an ever present reminder of the continuity (or discontinuity) of the design. I admit that sometimes it was counterproductive to have a continuous record. Sometimes I thought too much about a sketch rather than trying something out and being able to tear it off and start over. The scroll became a relic. But there was something truly valuable in it too. Rolling through enabled me to quickly regain design momentum. Professor Doug Harmon even joked (he was serious) that I should design a contraption that would help me quickly scroll back and forth. The design record and momentum is what I want to replicate here. A scroll for the digital age...and one that I can tear off and edit if I like. Because of my office job, the design of this project will not be as ever present as one would like. This way, I will be able to quickly re-immerse myself into the work. And be able to share it with my client - my father - 1200 miles away.

The GIMMESHELTER project is the design of a guest house / retirement cottage for my parents adjacent to the house I grew up in in Ridgely, Maryland. I can thank Al Gore, Katrina, and my father's 50th birthday for this "commission". He wants a house that he can retire in (practical), smaller than the five bedroom (six?) house we grew up in and easier to take care of. He has an interest in building green, the environment, and a concern that climate change could bring a hurricane up the peninsula (much more research needed on this one). So at this point his parameters include an energy efficient cottage with a structural "core" that can resist category x force winds. Everything else is on the table. This is where the research begins. We have talked about houses published in Arch Record, I have posted pictures onto Snapfish but our discussion was limited by the format. I wish that we could sit down together at the dining room table every weekend but for now this will have to do. I will be posting precedent houses soon. Here we go...