R Sloan's Design Experiences

The RainShine House in Decatur, Georgia was created by
architect Robert M.Cain. It is a two-story, 2,800-square-foot home that features three
bedrooms, three and a half baths and some impressive sustainable
building materials and methods. Its name comes from the awesome design
of its butterfly roof, which is designed to capture rainfall for a rain
harvest system located in its basement (Rain) and oriented to maximize
southern exposure for a roof mounted photovoltaic system (Shine).
Beyond the fantastic eco features, the interior is very well-designed — I
especially love the use of color in the custom cabinetry.

More from the architect:

The living room, dining, kitchen and guest bedrooms are

sheltered by a unique butterfly roof structured with steel beams spanned

by exposed 1- 1/2” tongue-and-groove wood decking. The roof floats

above continuous clerestories allowing light to flood into the interior.

Light shelves around the clerestory sills bounce and diffuse natural

light throughout the interior.

The butterfly [roof] design, with it’s inverted gable, simplifies

rainwater collection, eliminates extensive gutter and downspout systems

and the associated maintenance headaches common in conventional gabled

or hip roofed homes. The home features large expanses of thermally

broken glazing with solar shades and operable windows. Spaces are

defined by “thick walls” containing storage, book shelves, niches,

pass-throughs, closets, audio visual equipment, systems, etc. Except at

certain utility areas, interior walls stop short of the ceilings and are

topped by glazing, thus enhancing the floating roof effect.

RainShine was constructed under the LEED for Homes Program Pilot

Rating System. Upon completion it was awarded the highest possible

rating—Platinum—having exceeded the requirements by a significant 11

points. The home is also certified by the Energy Star and EarthCraft

home programs. For More information on the sustainable aspects of

Rainshine visit the blog.

Photography by Paul Hultberg Photography.

[via Chictip]

Less is more? Many people might say it isn’t, but I’m pretty sure that when the subject is pictograms, it sure is! The best way to communicate something through an icon is often to make it as simple as possible, placing just the elements that really matter.

Here, we’ve got some great examples of pictograms. These are beautifully made, with attention to detail and crispy execution. Just to remind you that these are not freebies, but examples of good design… We would love to see some more works of these made by you people. So, do you got any icons/pictograms to show off? Drop us a comment! Don’t forget to check out each designer’s folio! I hope you all like it. Cheers. ;)

Rodrigo Müller

Rafael Nunjar

Sascha Elmers

Jason Hill

Sergey Punchev

David Galasse

Stefan Dziallas

About the author

March 30, 2010by Luke Wroblewski

In her Escaping Navigation Hell presentation at the Web App Masters Tour in San Diego, CA, Hagan Rivers outlined her use of application maps to get a 30,000 foot view of a Web application. Essentially, application maps are diagrams that illustrate the types of screens in an application and how they are related.

What I found most compelling about these diagrams is that they illuminate the core areas of focus within applications quite clearly. In fact, looking at various application maps you can really see key differences right away. Consider the application maps for:

In Hagan’s own words:

“Why do I make these maps? When I look at an application I look for it’s hubs. The hubs are the work areas – the place where the user creates things and does things to them. In complex applications (one with hundreds of screens, for example) there may be dozens of hubs and their relationships may be complicated. I use the Application Map to help me visualize these applications more clearly and to act as a foundation for the design of the navigation system.”

In you are interested in how these application maps are made check out the video by Hagan below or come to the Web App Masters Tour and get the inside scoop from Hagan herself. If you’re thinking about going you can use the promotion code LUKE when you sign up and save $100.

The New York Times

The Otto Fan

It’s August, and here in New York it’s hot, hot, hot. From what we’ve read, fans are more energy-efficient than AC units.* The New York Times recently went shopping for portable fans with Ron Rezek, founder and owner of the Modern Fan Company in Ashland. As Rezek says, “Portable fans are the ugly ducklings of the fan industry. Not many designers, including myself, have tackled them.” So what did they find? Some pretty cool looking fans, in our opinion…

The Otto Fan (shown above the jump): By Carlo Borer, $199 at Swizz Style. “If you want something you can have standing in the corner of your apartment half the year, this is a handsome object,” [Rezek] said. “It’s not encumbered with lots of details.”

Zippi fan with cloth blades, $19.99 at Vornado.

Deco Breeze Boom Arm Table Fan, $59.99 at Amazon

Propello Desktop Fan with Rubber Blades by Dan Black and Martin Blum, $139.80 at Black + Blum

See the rest of Mr. Rezek’s list and read the article at The New York Times.

*See Umbra on Fans vs. AC