Chile in 1937 via video

This is a quirky little video about Chile in the late 30's. The Casino in Viña del Mar still looks like it does in the video. However, the park was redesigned and has a more mcm look to it. Also, the beach is more crowded with building, and there are a lot more people there. Still, Volcano Osorno looks pretty much the same, and still hasn't gone off (Yet...!). I figured you folks might like this.

Nautical House MCM Prt. Varas 2011

Nautical House MCM Prt. Varas 2011, a set on Flickr.

This home is a beautiful example of the Mid-Century Modern influence on some of the homes and architecture here in Chile. This particular home sits in a town known for it's architecture (mainly modern) and the high income average. Puerto Varas is also known for it's tourism because of the huge lake Llanuquihue (pronounced: Yan-key-way) that it boarders.

So far, no one that I've been able to ask knows when this house was built. By design, one would think that it was built in the 50's/60's, but many forms of constructions popular in the states during this time are still employed in current Chilean construction. Therefore, I approximate that this home was probably built in the late 70's or early 80's.

My favorite elements of this home:
- Captains Windows: While I've not been able to see the inside of the home, I can only image the view from the captains windows benches.

- Fireplace: This chimney has a sculptural quality and design to it. Being more than just a typical rectangle or tube, this chimney continues to change from every angle.

- Exposed Beams: On the right side of the house you will see a clear view of the exposed beams, lending even more to the nautical/mcm feel being cut at sharp angles.

- Cantilevered patio: Starting from the hill, the patio is fixed on a well thought out beams. As a patio should, it takes full benefit of vantage point, and incorporates elements of the house. Using beams that follow the same design as the roof beams used on the house, and being painted white like the bottom of the house, the patio really feels like it's a part of the house.

- Contrast Texture: While the color pallet of this home is simple, brown and white, it allows for the true appreciation of the design in the house. Using white on the hard concrete sets it clearly sets the hard material apart from the soft, but dark wood, creating a natural balance.

This is where you readers come in. I know I have seen other mcm homes and buildings with this same slated (captains window) style. Do you know of any examples,or what the style is called? Thanks for any help you may give.
Eric McGrew

Chile Mid-Century

Chile Mid-Century, a set on Flickr.

When my wife and I recently moved to the "south of Chile" (anywhere from the 9th region further down), we did it for the climate and the difference in the scenery. The culture here is very distinct from those of the more northern regions and we find life a little simpler because it has a far more country fill and pace to it.
As it can be said, we are extremely happy with our choice and can't image living anywhere else. To give an idea, I've been told that where we live now is very much like norther Oregon. Hey! That's funny, we always wanted to move to Oregon.
So, beyond the wonderful views and rainy climate, we find that there are other benefits to living here. One is that there is a huge German culture. Many of the people who live here still speak German from the fact that the are German. They also make great German pastries... yum...! Beyond that however, they also use some typical architecture of the German mountainous areas.
Then, on top of all that, you have the fact that, well... this place is hugely touristic and therefore, they have an incredible amount of Cabins here. Of course, most of the older hostles and houses follow the Germanic heritage, ie. Old style German farm houses. There are also, many influences in the local housing and cabins that are MCM because many people bought and built in the mid to late 60's here. Another incredible thing is, that, people have built homes that look like they are straight out of the 50'/60's, but where only built in the 90's/2000's. Regularly, you see summer cabin owners building new rentals that follow that mid-century vacation home style.

I'm trying to get more active in my blog here again, and hope to be able to share a number more of post on the MCM influences here in Chile, and especially here where we live. For more info on the local climate and tourism, you should check out my tourism site that I have. During the winter things are slow, but I should have move post there soon. You'll find it at www.jemandes.com
In the photos posted you can see some of this influence. All I can say is, if you get a chance, this is a cool place to visit.

Chile...My life now.

As many of you know, I live in Chile. This has not always been the easiest thing to do. You have to learn how to accept different living conditions and habits.Thing is, I'm not the easiest going person in the world, and can be somewhat opinionated. Especially when I know a better way of doing something. So, in the end, I would say that living here has humbled me greatly. That's not to say that I'm humble. Just more humble than I was before I got here. Also, I'm learning how to truly see things from the "other" persons perspective.

When we first got here, we chose to live relatively close to Santiago for convenience and due to all the necessary paper work that comes along with being a foreigner. The first town we lived in was quaint and very humble. I'm not saying that in a negative manner, just explaining the environment of the small town. Most people in this town work as agriculture workers and made somewhere between 10 and 20 dollars a day. This in turn, heavily dictated the local living conditions. We lived in one of the community housing projects. These are not looked at as being bad. It's the norm for most people and was a good way to get to know our neighbors, and integrate ourselves in the Chilean culture. Our neighbors responded well and made sure that we were well taken care of. They helped with all the details of small town living.

These included where to buy fresh fruit, veggies, and meat. Also, we learned how to move around on public transit. Not the funnest thing I've ever done, but none the less very interesting. All of this was vital to us growing as people, and we do not regret our decision at all. However, with everything good comes something umm... less good...?

This "less good" thing was the climate. While the area was absolutely beautiful in it's own right, it came at a cost to us. We come from Georgia and have rain just about every month.

When it's hot, we have AC, when it's cold... central heating. None of which we have in this region of Chile. When it is hot outside, it was even HOTTER inside. Rain...? There is rain, but it all comes down in 3 of the 12 months of the year. Notably, it is quite different from what we are used to.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not complaining about where we lived, just explaining the difference. These differences helped motivate us to look for a different area to live. Well...we found it. What do you know, we ended up in the south again. Just on the other side of the world.

Now we find ourselves in the 1oth region of Chile and about 13hrs from Santiago on bus. The climate is a moderate climate. It rains here quite a bit, almost everyday.

There are some weeks however that it doesn't rain at all. These are rare though. Another interesting aspect is that in the summer months, we have about 14 hours of daylight each day. By 6am it is completely lit outside, and it sets at 9:30pm or so. We live between two beautiful volcanoes, and yes they are active. There are waterfalls, cows, alpaca, sheep, horses, lakes, salmon, trout, rock climbing, trekking/hiking, snowboarding, and boating all in a 15 mile radius of our home. On top of all this, there are beautiful rolling hills/forest all around.

Our new house is in the middle of a farm that was settled 150 years ago, more or less, by german settlers. In fact, our little house is one of the original homes on the property.

It has been remodeled and has an addition that brings to the total size to about 785 sf. One portion of the home still has the original Larch tree wood shingles on the outside.

These shingles are interesting because larch tree wood is unique in the fact that when moisture is applied to the wood actually gets harder not softer.

The inside of the house has a "big" (by Chilean standards) kitchen, 3 rooms and a nice size living room. In this post you can see the living room and the outside, but the rest of the house we are still organizing as we just got here Tuesday and I didn't take photos of it.

One great thing about the inside of this house is, it has aged wood flooring in the majority of the rooms and real wood paneling for the walls. This creates a beautiful interior for our style and fits well with my designs.

Another plus is that I have the space to build more furniture and sculptures. Some of what I will be building soon are master and spare bedroom beds, desk, lamps, sofa, occasional chairs, and bathroom furniture and fixtures. So, of course keep an eye open for my new projects. For now I just hope you enjoy the photos of our new house and the surrounding scenery.

So in good Chilean... Chao (pronouced Tauuu...)

It's been a while, and...

As the title mentions, It's been a little while since I've posted, but this post doesn't mark a come back. Yet, that is... I have many things that I want to share with you folks. I've interviewed a very nice artist I found on Flickr and I really think that she deserves to have her interview posted. Not only all of this but, I have other things that I've had in mind for a while and want you all to see.

However, first I must explain that I haven't just been lazy. In fact, I've been very busy. Not at all with art or design, but with other important things. As some of you know, my wife and I live in Chile, and this provides for some unique opportunities. One of which is being able to enjoy the satisfaction of helping build homes for those who have lost their home in the earth quake that we had here in Chile a few months back. So as I said, I have not just been lazy.

Once all this is done, I hope to get back to the blog a bit more, but we will just have to see how life goes. For now though, in a few free moments that I had and with some scrap materials I had laying around I painted the art you see here. It's not on a finished piece of board, but then again, I did for the joy of doing it, not to create a super refined piece of art.

Hope you enjoy it.

Eric

Earth Quake

Well, this post doesn't have anything to do with art. This is all about the earthquake that surely, each of you have heard about. My wife, Rojito, and myself are fine. We are still without electricity and internet. I'm writing this post from the house of our friends. The area where we live was hit hard, but not the hardest. Here in Placilla, the quake was about a 7.5 or so. Even though that's nothing to snicker at, the majority of the houses are fine and no one here in our población/town have been seriously injured or died. However, many of the houses are more than a 100 yrs old had did collapse in part, or completely. So as of this point, we are fine and waiting for the supermarkets and gas stations to open, and who knows when that will be. For now though, here are some photos of Placilla. Also, as time goes on, I'll be adding more photos. As the amount of time i have is limited to upload and post, please use my flickr link to see the photos.

Buffet or Dresser?

This is a question that came up recently on my Flickr account (and yes... I am posting this tonight just because of you Tikimama). So as Tikimama was looking thru my photos she saw the doors slide to one side. Therefore she though that I was making a simple buffet, and this is where my story begins.

Ok, so we live in Chile South America, if you haven't seen from some of my other posts. We chose to live here based on a number of things. We ended up picking a small town a few hours south of Santiago. By the way, I mean SMALL! The community is about 10 miles in length by about 6 miles wide. In this sector there is only a population of about 8000. It is mostly vineyards, Kiwi vineyards, apple orchards, cherrie orchards, and... oh yes, did I mention vineyards? The area is fairly poor. Not extremely, but none the less poor.

Just to give an example, I bought a Suzuki Samurai 1998 and now all our neighbors think we are rich. Very few people here have cars, and for this reason, we drive very little. Plus gas is like 3 to 4 dollars a gallon on a regular basis.

It's very calm here, with hardly any crime or violence. The most common crime is that someone's bike, cow, or horse is stolen. I'm not joking about the animals. Everyone works in agriculture. It's E-X-T-R-E-M-E-L-Y rare to find someone that works in another field.

That's a short cap to help explain a little about the buffet/dresser that I'm building. There are very few places available to rent here in this town. The one we found is small. It is about 400 sf, and all kinds of oddly laid out. We have a 10 ft x 20 ft bottom floor where the bathroom and kitchen is and a 10 ft x 20 ft upper lever which is our living and bedroom.

When the buffet/dresser is finished, the Tv will sit on top of it and that is the reason that I am making it like I am. See, I wanted something that looked like a buffet while looking at it, since... I will be doing a lot of looking at it. This being the case, plus the fact that we still don't have a place for our... oohhh... I'm blushing... je je je under ware, I decided to make one the other. I hope you got all that.

The front will have the two sliding doors. One will have a Witco-ish design on it (which I cut today). The other will just be a solid stained door with a handle. The inside of the cabinet will have 6 drawers with a shelve-less compartment in the middle. This compartment will be about half way accessible while the sliding doors are move all the way to one or the other sides. There will be 3 drawers on each side. The draw back to this is that you can only access one side or the other at one time. Oh well I guess... the things we do for looks.

I have changed the legs from the drawing a little bit. The legs will now be 9 inches tall and the overall piece will stand 29 inches. This is in comparison to the 4 inch legs as original and a 24 inch standing hight.

All wood is Eucalyptus plywood with raw edges. I love plywood and the layers that can be seen from the ends.

Really for now, that's all I have. I will post again when it is finished, or at least close to being finished.

Note: I am by no means an experienced wood worker and am always looking for information on the subject. Especially in connection to mid-century modern woodworking. Also, sometime tomorrow my editor and chief will edit this and make all my mistakes go away. Enjoy the raw art NOW before it is erased from humanity for ever.

Check out my Flickr

amidstmod@yahoo.com