Native Places is a collection of sixty-four watercolour sketches that are paired with mini essays about architecture, landscape, everyday objects, and nature. The sketches relate the delight found in ordinary places. The short essays, rather than repeat what is visible in the sketch, illustrate ideas and thoughts sparked by that image and offer a fresh interpretation of ordinary things. The goal of Native Places is, in part, 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 and human dignity; a highway rest-stop offers a glimpse of egalitarian society. This book also explores the belief that hand drawing and writing are not obsolete skills. Both disciplines offer us as citizens, the opportunity to develop a natural grace in the way we view the world and take part in it. AUTHOR: 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 restoring cities and nature. His buildings are specific to their region, using hurricane-felled cypress and rock from local quarries to connect the structure to its landscape. The airy breezeways, outdoor living spaces, deep overhangs, and wide lawns embody the romanticism of the South while maintaining a distinguished modernism.
SELLING POINTS:
Frank is recognised as a purveyor of good design by his students, peers, and clients. In 2013, he received the F. Carter Williams Gold Medal from the North Carolina chapter of the American Institute of Architects (AIANC), the highest honour bestowed upon a North Carolina architect. He holds numerous awards recognising his contributions to design and sustainability
Harmon’s firm, Frank Harmon Architect, has been named in Architect magazine’s Top 50 list three times
A graduate of the Architectural Association in London, he is 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 160 colour images
