CELEBRATING, RAIN AND SHINE The house called Rainwater is a complex composition of four simple volumes — residence, guest house, office, garage — each capped with a planar steel roof rakishly tilted to channel water down to a single cantilevered corner. — Published 2001.0110
	MOCKBEE SOUTHERN GENIUS Earlier this summer, Alabama architect Samuel Mockbee picked up the phone and found out he was a genius. Not just a genius, mind you. But one of only three in the entire profession. — Published 2000.0823
	INSPIRED BY GAUDI, BUILT BY HAND Sitting in Beth and Will Hathaway's family room in Portland, Oregon, I'm amazed that there's more than a hundred tons of concrete and dirt hanging over my head. The south-facing room, the focal point of the house, is bathed in light. So much daylight filters through four floor-to-curved-ceiling windows and two skylight domes, that I can comfortably pour over a puzzling array of structural contours on a blueprint even though no electric lamps are lit and it's drizzling outside. — Published 2000.0726
	DIRT-CHEAP HOUSES FROM ELEMENTAL MATERIALS Every day, a growing number of apprentice home builders travel deep into the California desert for a chance to commune with Nader Khalili, an architect who is single-handedly trying to wean the world off of two-by-fours, steel, and concrete. "We send our children into the world with the notion that a house must have a pitched roof, a square window and a chimney," Khalili says. "How can they ever imagine they can build something beautiful out of dirt?" — Published 2000.0621

Ted Katauskas