2) The H.H. Champlin House - Taylor Johnson

This is a photograph of the H.H. Champling House in Enid, OK. Growing up in nearby Covington, OK, I was always in awe of this house. It was built in 1938 by H.H. Champlin, a local oil tycoon, and he had some amazing feature put in his home. There are over 40 rooms, each controlled by their own thermostat which require 67 to be installed. He also wanted cast bronze, double-hung windows only manufactured by a plant in Michigan and then wanted the windows to be glazed with violet ray glass made only in England. Currently, the house is on the National Register of Historic Places and the Oklahoma Historic Landmarks inventory.

--- 2 --- Blas House (Alberto Campo Baeza) - Luan Vinicius

Blas House is a project from the spanish architect Alberto Campo Baeza. The first time when I saw this project was in my university in Brazil during my first semester. I had never seen or known about Baeza`s projects. Blas House was the beginning to explore and discovered another amazing projects by this spectacular architect . What I love on this project is how it integrates with the site around and the amazing management on the use of simple lines and cold materials. The house doesn't look like it was built there, but that it was always in that place, like "it borned there". It is amazing how Blas House and the area complete each other without aggressivity. I love projects like Blas House which the architects try to figure out how to design projects that stabilize connections and intrinsic relations between the place where it is located.

Farm House - Simon Ott

In 2001, after living in Oklahoma for about six years, we decided to go back home to Oregon for a vacation.  Returning to the mountains covered in tall evergreen trees that had surrounded my family and I from birth as well as the peace and rejuvenating lap of waves on the coast made us realize how much we missed our home.  We returned to Oklahoma and put our house (from my previous post) on the market, sold it, and moved back to the Pacific Northwest with no place to land.  After spending three months in hotels and campsites searching all over for where we wanted to live we found this diamond in the rough.  

It wasn't even on the market but the realtor we were working with knew the owner had considered selling recently and called to inquire.  While he was showing it to us he actually fell through the porch.  It was a complete mess and somewhat frightening but we saw the potential.  The first picture was after considerable clearing of brush from the front of the house.  A remodel in the seventies had wrapped the house in aluminum siding and put (now failing) aluminum windows in.   The 1880's house was actually sitting on a boulder foundation.  Two boulders stacked on top of each other with shimming placed about every ten feet with a large beam laid across.  The house was surrounded by 2-1/2 acres located about 5 minutes from a picturesque downtown.  I think we did it justice - showing its true potential.  

1 - There's No Place Like Home - Hillary Kidd

     Although small, this house is very dear to my heart. When I am home from school I live here with my fiancé, Luke, we got the house about 2 years ago and have put a lot of work into it. Buying a house that needs a lot work done to it rather than one that is move in ready takes a lot of dedication. I don’t; think we knew exactly what we were getting into but it was definitely worth it. There is more character to the house and story’s to tell that you just don’t get with a new home.

     You learn a lot about a house when you decide to do this kind of work to it, for example, one of the bedrooms had five, yes five, layers of wall paper on the walls and after removing all of those layers we discovered wood paneling from the 70’s, as you can probably guess we were not too happy at this point. We ended up covering the paneling with wood from pallets and it turned out really nice.

     I really appreciate how much I learned during this experience about the house, myself and about Luke. It was a lot of fun doing it all together and we will always have something to look back on and be proud about.

-Hillary Kidd

(1) Trevor Morse: Cape Cod Homes

The style of home that always felt like home to me was a clean Cape Cod style home. This very identifiable type of house is important to me because it is the same as where I grew up. What is also interesting is the history of how these became so popular throughout the country and how they transformed over the centuries. Cape Cod homes have a unique identifier which is the shutters on almost all windows on the house. The modern version of this home came present throughout the country when people from New England moved west during the 1920s & 30s, branching off from the old Cape Cod Farmhouse which was typically constructed with stone during the colonial period. Today this style of home is seen in many different variations, with much more than the traditional smaller home. In all honesty this is what I am hoping the home I live the mass majority of my life in.

Seth Gebhart: Housing Compound- Freetown, SL

This is a compound or a house that is located in Freetown, Sierra Leone. Sierra Leone is located in the northwestern part of the African continent. It has recently been in the news frequently due to the Ebola outbreak. The compound here serves as a home to around 75 orphans who have either lost their parents to disease, war, or natural causes. The compound itself is made up of 3 main buildings, as well as 1 large courtyard area, and a maintenance room for the electrical generator that is ran at night. The compound sounds quite large, but is actually not as big as you would think for housing nearly 75 orphans. The compound to me, brings back many good memories. Although it is not nice, or "comfortable" living- the environment of people and tight knit areas of open space make it great. Because there are so many people living here, I was always able to enjoy playing soccer, basketball or talking or drawing with some of the orphans. It never failed that there was something to do in the open areas that the compound provided. This home is built for interaction with people it seems, as it has so many open areas- it has only 3 rooms in the entire compound that is completely closed off. The library, one private room, and as well as the bathrooms. Because of this all the other areas are wide open spaces and open for talking and interacting. This interaction is something that I learned was important when designing my own housing. In addition, it teaches about the dangers of dealing with open areas and the safety and health concerns that also must come with designing open areas with high population.

#1 Home sweet home - by Blenda Araujo

I came from Pedra Azul, a small city in the middle of Jequitinhonha, a valley very well known in Brazil. The Jequitinhonha Valley is known for its variety of gemstones, colonial-era towns, unique handicraft, beautiful landscapes and also because it is one of the poorest and remotest parts of Brazil. Pedra Azul has approximately 30,000 people and has a colonial-era aspect in housing. 

Colonial-era aspects in housing.  Pedra Azul, MG - Brazil.

My house is a small colonial house that had 14 rooms (including 3 basements) and one big back yard that went from a street to another in the original project. But it suffered some modifications during the years, now it has 13 rooms and half of the back yard (because it was too big that could fit another house, then we sold it). 

The good thing about growing up in a house like that is the many possibilities that it gave to me as a child. I used to play in the back yard with my brother and cousins, climbing the trees, running around and getting dirty of mud. My cousins used to tell me stories about the old basements to scare me during the night, and also about the weird noises that the dinner room's floor made. The dinner room's floor was made of wooden planks and especially during the night the noises from the wood planks started, I never knew if it was wind or something else.

My cousin and my brother sitting by the front door, 1989. The front door of my house nowadays.

This house mean so much to me that I could talk about it forever. It has been in my family for 3 generations and I hope that this house will stay for many other generations that will come.

The dream Home - Nathalia Linhares

(Source) 

This house is located  in my hometown, Joao Pessoa-PB, Brazil,  right next to the beach. I always passed by and admired the way that was built because it  integrates the location and the environment around it. I have never really entered this house, but since I was little I wished to lived there. After I started the architecture course in Brazil, I discovered that this house was planed from one of my professors, then he showed the class some pictures of the interior and I fell completely in love with it. It is not a fancy or the best house that I have ever seen, but is the one I wish I have lived in.

(Source) 

1) My Small Home/Town - Taylor Johnson

I came from a small town, as you can see from the Google Maps image. I love my home and I am lucky enough to have never moved, except when I came  to the University of Oklahoma. One good thing about living in Covington was that all of my friends were within walking distance. I grew up with the same kids since Kindergarten and I enjoyed that. I also enjoy my house because we have done some work to it over the years, such as a new porch, paint, new floors, etc. I feel like these activities helped my family grow together and create something great at the same time.

1 - A place to call home - Barbara Franco

  I live on campus, in a place called Traditions Square. It is a complex composed by 3 stories apartments where 2 or more people share common spaces, such as the living room, kitchen, restroom and laundry, and each person has their own bedroom. In my case, I share the apartment with three girls. This apartment is special to me because it represents a new moment in my life, with more independence and responsibilities. The best part is that I share the space with people from different countries, with a different culture, resulting in a very interesting experience. It is possible to notice how one space can gather so many different characteristics and how it became a comfortable house for all of us, even though we are miles away from our home.