Our architect, Della Hansmann, has recently started to collect her thoughts and experience into a comprehensive blog Dwelling Places: Let’s Design the World as if People Mattered which focuses on residential, small and green design.

If you are interested in any of these topics, you’ll find a lot to like in Della’s blog.  Her interests are omnivorous.  Her insights are keen as well as green.  You’ve read her guest posts on this blog in the past.

You’ll find some unusual features at Dwelling Place.  I asked Della why she has included them.

Denise:  You have a feature called Place Descriptions.  What’s that about?

Della:  Some of my favorite places are places I’ve never been except while reading a book.  I want to explore spaces that have only been imagined, but have a lot to teach us.  For example, the opening paragraphs from J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Hobbit, which describes the hole in the ground where Bilbo Baggins lived.  That was first read to me when I was three, and it made a big impression.  I have always revered coziness.

Good authors go to great effort to create a scene.  They understand how powerfully setting and character influence each other.  We shouldn’t discount spaces just because they are imaginary.  All good building starts in the imagination.

Denise:  I see you have a feature devoted to Quotes. Why?

Della:  We save quotes because they speak to us and cast their topic in high relief so we can examine it.  I have an ever-snowballing collection, and I want to share some of my favorites that pertain to architecture and design.

Denise:  Where I’m Coming From, that’s a broad category.

Della:  I use it anytime I want to share the background for my perspective.  I’m always curious to learn what has given bloggers their insight, so I will share my professional experience and how it applies to what I think.

Denise:  Opinions/Rants – this should be interesting.

Della:  The blogger’s opinion is the base material of any blog.  For the moment, this blog has a creative team of one, but I want it to grow as soon as possible.  I’m reaching out to my designer buddies who graduated with me from the University of Minnesota in 2008.  We scattered to the four winds and between us have a broad perspective on the world of design today.

Denise:  Technicalia – what’s that?

Della:  This will cover vocab, design technique.  The devil really is in the details.

Denise:  So, big picture — how did you get interested in architecture?

Della:  I was drawn to how buildings and their inhabitants interact when I traveled around the world in 2002 studying environmental issues and social justice.  Housing is at the heart of everything.  So I came back to the States, got a master’s degree in architecture in 2008 and am working for my architect’s license.

..Whole Tree headquarters

Della is currently employed by Whole Tree Architecture and Construction, (see New York Times article), a vividly green design/build firm nestled in  Southwestern Wisconsin.