WORK - LIVE - GO!

A study in restraint

Architectural student Hank Butitta was tired of designing buildings that weren't real for clients that didn't exist. He wanted to do something real, to work with his hands and put his ideas into practice, so he bought a used school bus and converted it into a clean, modular live/work environment. He presented his bus for critique - complete with a kitchen, bathroom, beds, storage, and even a floor made from recycled gymnasium maple. Imagine his fellow students, with cardboard models, digital fly-throughs and paper renderings - I'll bet Hank's crit put some of them to shame.

 

 After his final presentation,  Hank and his co-conspirators left  for a 5,000 mile tour heading West. Summer's winding down, but they have just about reached the halfway point. 

On the Road Again

We applaud the practical ingenuity of a student stretching the conventional boundaries of study. His modular work/live space is well thought out and neatly executed - bravo to Hank.

 

You can see more photos, video, and follow their travels over at Hank Bought a Bus. (via Home Designing, Gizmodo, Le Monde Tue Nini)

Public Transportation

Addison is bringing bike repair to the people. For those who are lazy, preoccupied, procrastinating or simply too cheap to keep their bikes in good running repair, he could be your savior. If you stop in at Insight Coffee at 8th & S on a sunny Saturday morning, you might just find him outside the front door, laying out his tools and portable bench. He's been around the bike scene in Sacramento for some time, including a stint at Edible Pedal.

Addison's neat little pop-up street shop

What we like best about his operation is the thoughtful setup of his mobile shop. A place for every thing, not  too much everything, Just what's needed for a quick Saturday morning repair. It all breaks down to fit on a Surly trailer for the trek back to his permanent shop at 23rd & S Streets.

Stop by for a nice hot coffee, freshly and expertly brewed, and  get that nagging shifter or dragging brake cheerfully adjusted by an expert - while you sip.

Who knows? you might learn something new about your bike and have a better ride home to show for it.
At the very least you could have a friendly conversation with a knowledgeable fellow, trying to make the city a better place for bikes.

You can also find Addison at his shop, Public Transportation, near the corner of 23rd & S Streets in Sacramento

Free Mending Library

 Michael Swaine mends clothes for people for free. Let me repeat that. Michael Swaine - an artist and ceramics instructor at CCA - takes a day each month  for mending, sewing and repairing clothes for people in the Tenderloin neighborhood in San Francisco. He calls this the Free Mending Library and he's been at it for more than a decade.

 What first caught our eye is the simple economy of his operation. His rolling cart with a foot-treadle sewing machine, mending storage and built-in umbrella is spare and to the point. Michael started this - project? endeavor? -  as "Reap What You Sew" pushing his cart around town, basically looking for people who might want his services. Before long he figured out two things: 1) the Tenderloin was the most interesting neighborhood for human interaction, and 2) it's easier for people to find you if they know where you will be.

Michael eventually settled in outside the Luggage Store, an art collective at 509 Ellis Street, where he mends for free on the 15th of each month. He has hope that the Free Mending Library will expand naturally, as others with talent or time show up to simply help fix things - be that clothing, appliances, resumes or whatever. All are welcome - to give help, accept it, chat, debate or just share some time.

This may be a trend - the Amsterdam the Repair Cafe was founded 3 years ago, with all the community and government support one might expect from the Dutch.

In San Francisco, Michael Swaine remains a solo act, but there is real work happening here. Not commerce, not emerging technologies, not automation. For Michael the reward is that human interaction.


You can read more about the Free Mending Library HERE.  thanks to Darby Minnow Smith and GRIST.
You can see a short feature HERE

Wherever you go, there you are.

Looking at the Creative Caves where people do their work, we are drawn to those who buck convention and do it wherever they happen to land. No ergonomic studies, market research, triple-net leases, office furniture, telephone systems, alarms, professional liability insurance, ad nauseum. Some people simply leap into the void and find their calling. And it's thrilling when it works, as in the case of Alison Turner.

It seems Alison was a slave to her Blackberry and the treadmill of unseemly corporate life. In spite of the great pay, she threw off the yoke and hit the road, stumbled alone in the wilderness for a time, then found herself a new life's purpose. It's a beautiful story - maybe a fantasy for most - but there is wisdom in striving to live up to this simple axiom:

"Every day, try to do something that you love."







You can read all bout Alison and see her great photos here:  http://www.alisonslife.com/

The Italian Job

Bicycle component maker Campagnolo has manged to avoid the exodus to China that seems to drive all business, like lemmings, to seek the cheapest possible labor. Italian craftsmen, each at their own stations, continue to craft the finest racing components in the world from their bright and airy plant in Vicenza.
Campy has a very loyal following, largely due to the gorgeous, sexy and sensuous quality of their racing products. We like their adherence to old-world standards, and not just from a nostalgic viewpoint Campy, like Ferarri or Rolex, remains THE world standard for quality and innovation in the cycling world.

Get the full story here - BICYCLING

Working Outdoors

As summer winds down, Herman Miller Lifework posts a question and a roundup of  outdoor work spaces. An Aeron Chair in a zen garden looks pretty sexy in a photo; but could you actually do computer work there? Let's hope the sprinkler timer is off!

Get the full story HERE
 Here at Whereuwork we remain uneasy about knitting widely different work and leisure activities together. Is anything gained by 'working' on an ipad in a park? We suspect that both realms are diminished - one's appreciation of nature as well as one's ability to do meaningful work. Multitasking can be overrated.

Letterpress Fetish

Letterpress printing has a cult status among graphic artists. It is mythical, reaching back in time to when printing was a very physical act - before the clicking & dragging disconnect of digital art and web pages.

Paul Shaw from Print magazine recently spent a weekend near Milan with Lucio Passerini, an Italian typographer of some reknown, and he wrote up a nice non-print profile of their visit. What Whereuwork likes so much about this report is the focus on Lucio's workshop - Il Buon Tempo - the physical space where he creates.

Type Banks

My childhood Saturdays were often spent playing in the pressroom of a weekly newspaper. My father was editor, reporter and chief bottle-washer in a pre-offset world. The smells of molten lead, ink-soaked wood and crisp newsprint come rushing back to me, looking at this photo.I long for the physical constructs of the printed word.

Get the full story here - IMPRINT

Izzy's Funhouse

When the Circus came to Town.

We have heard stories about the wild and playful places where some people work - the Google and Pixar palaces with loads of kids toys for grownups. They sport foosball tables and basketball hoops to fool with while they wax creative. Forced fun for a captive audience, these corporate idea mills cannot hold a candle to Izzy's Funhouse.

He's a pinball wizard, that has to be a twist...

 Izzy is an artist and commercial photographer who collects iconic trappings of 20th century American life - such as Halloween masks, paint-by-number kits and pinball machines. It turns out that a photo studio and amusement arcade can coexist quite nicely. Mechanical Pinball and arcade machines reached a zenith of popularity in the 1960's, sucking kid's quarters like slot machines. These were sturdy workhorses, designed for punishing use. Many machines are still in existence, though they now could use some TLC, if not outright rebuilding. Izzy is a handy guy, and so a corner of the photo studio has become a dedicated renovation shop for vintage arcade games.

Pre-circuit board technology

The inside of a vintage pinball machine is a collection of coils, switches, solenoids, lights and levers. This is old-school analog technology at its best. Needlenose pliers, dust brush, tweezers and a soldering iron are the preferred tools here.

The studio is in a nondescript one-story business park, about as anonymous as can be. Izzy says he misses his old Midtown Sacramento studio with its friendly neighbors, restaurants and services in easy walking distance. But more space, better layout and lower rent just make good business sense. Between photo assignments he tinkers with an old wood-rail machine, preparing for the Pacific Pinball Expo in September. It is an enviable creative environment in which to work, with stress relief always right at hand. Eat your heart out, Pixar.

Izzy Schwartz is an artist, commercial photographer and arcade aficionado residing in Sacramento. His work can be found HERE 

DIY Bike Shop

Over in Minneapolis, a couple blokes have started an alternative to the full-fledged bike shop. Maybe you are a rider who has dropped a chain or snapped a cable on the way to work; or some nagging adjustment you meant to make slipped your mind and is bugging you. Old alternative - take the bike to a bike shop, navigate through all the beautiful but pricey new bikes, find the repair counter, drop it off for a few days, figure out how to get by without your bike and pay an irritating bill. NEW alternative - pull into the Bike Fixation, swipe your debit card and choose your pleasure (tube, tire, lube, cable etc.) put it up on the repair stand, use the provided tools  and viola - a self-actualized improvement to your steed, right before your eyes.

Sure, it's not for everyone nor every situation, but it's a great idea for some and seems like a good way to encourage riding and demystify repair. A go-to, public work station with key bicycle tools - a whereuwork gem.

Get the full story HERE