Frank Harmon, FAIA, has compiled his Native Places blog, which pairs essays and sketches, into a new book from ORO Editions. Harmon, who recently retired from teaching and practicing architecture, is known for his site-sensitive, regionally appropriate, and sustainable residential and public work. The 168-page book is available for order online from ORO at $24.95.
The book and author description from the publisher:
“Native Places is a collection of sixty-four watercolor sketches paired with essays about architecture, landscape, everyday objects, and nature. The sketches convey the delight found in ordinary places. The short essays, inspired by the sketch, offer a fresh interpretation of what we might have taken for granted . The goal of Native Places is, in fact , to transform the way we see. Through its pages, barns become a guidebook to crops and weather; a country church is redolent of the struggle for civil rights ; a highway rest stop offers a glimpse of egalitarian society.
Native Places promotes the belief that hand drawing is not an obsolete skill- that sketching offers us an opportunity to develop a natural grace in the way we view the world and take part in it.”
Frank Harmon, FAIA has designed sustainable modern buildings across the Southeast for 30 years. His work engages pressing contemporary issues such as placelessness, sustainability, and restoration of cities and nature. His buildings are specific to their region, such as the use of hurricane-felled cypress and rock from local quarries to connect the structure to its landscape. Airy breezeways, outdoor living spaces, deep overhangs, and wide lawns embody the romanticism of the South while maintaining a distinguished modernism. Frank is recognized as a purveyor of good design by his students, peers, and clients. In 2013, Frank received the F. Carter Williams Gold Medal from the North Carolina chapter of the American Institute of Architects (AIANC), the highest honor bestowed upon a North Carolina architect. Holding numerous awards recognizing his contributions to design and sustainability, his firm, Frank Harmon Architect has been named to Architect Magazine’s “Top 50” list three times. A graduate of the Architectural Association in London, Frank is a professor at the NC State College of Design, has taught at the Architectural Association, and has been a visiting critic at Harvard, the University of Virginia, and the Rural Studio at Auburn University. A noted writer and illustrator, Frank uses hand-drawn sketches and mini-essays to examine the relationship between nature and built structures in his online project: Nativeplaces.org