Rain Shine ...

... Standout, Atlanta Modern Tour of Homes. 

On a wet and chilly day (by Atlanta standards) we set out yesterday morning on the annual Atlanta Tour of Homes - an event given over to celebrating contemporary architecture in a city not known either for the love of modernism or the quality of it. 

The view above, from the terrace of one of the eleven we viewed, was the the best thing about this high-rise home - that view and the 1200-lbs door to the study. A pity, when all is said and done that's all the good there is to say. 

Beyond that, there were two standouts on the tour and the photo below, by photographer Paul Hultberg, is of one of them. The three-bedroomed house, the RainShine House, located in Decatur, Georgia, designed by Robert M. Cain, is a marvel of sustainable architecture.

Inside it was a most pleasing space using differing levels, clerestories, solids and voids to give a sense of comfort, utility and welcome. This house had more storage than any I have ever seen and that storage was used to partition areas. It had geothermal indoor comfort systems, rainwater and grey-water harvesting systems, Radon capture and removal, formaldehyde-free mdf, low-voc paints. It probably would be easier to go here to read more about it and to see names of all the companies involved in this, one of the South's most important examples of urban sustainability. 

The second standout for me was a traditional shingled house in the Ansley Park area of Atlanta that had been extended at the rear using a bang-up-to-date combination of glass and oiled steel. My camera ran out of memory at this point ... ! 

However, the two views below of the main sitting room do not do justice to the grey and silver serenity of this room and indeed the rest of the house. Whilst the older part of the house is as you see below, transitional in style, the portal to the newer part of the house was the old dining room - a room that still has its antique hand-painted Chinese wall-paper in faded sepia-grey tones, a non-competitive dining table, chairs and built-in buffet. The buffet, dado and trim had been dragged in a grey glaze to live comfortably with the silvery silk curtains and the wallpaper. The two light fittings above the table referenced old Chinese paper/bamboo lanterns and were augmented by diffident halogen spots. This room, when the table is set for dinner, crystal and silver glinting in candlelight, must be a wonderful place to behold and experience. 

As I say, my camera gave up - of all the times for it to do so.