Posts Tagged ‘scale’

July 17, 2014

Why Some Modernist Homes Make Bad Neighbors

by: Taz Loomans

Tweet I grew up as an architect loving modernism and its clean lines, its spartan rectilinear shapes and its honesty of materials. But now that I’ve gotten some distance from my modernism-centric education, I see how modernism can go wrong, especially on a residential scale in established neighborhoods. As I’ve written emphatically before, I don’t think the solution is to copy historic homes, but to create a new contemporary architecture that reflects the materials, sensibilities and values of today while still honoring timeless and universal principles of being neighborhood and people oriented. Historic homes celebrated the front porch, for example,…

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October 04, 2010

Learning from European Cities: An Introduction

by: Taz Loomans

Tweet It’s good to be back in the Valley of the Sun!  I had a fantastic time in Europe and learned a great deal about how dense urban centers work.  I’d like to share what I learned over the coming weeks on Mondays in my Learning from European Cities Series.  It’s true that Phoenix will never be and shouldn’t be a reproduction of a European city.  We have very unique characteristics here, as well as a completely different climate and landscape, land availability, and cultural differences among other factors.  However, there are a few universal things that work well in…

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