1. Beaver Brook School

    2013 Bathhouse Project

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  2. Hi. I'm Zeke Sikelianos, a designer, software developer, and new dad in San Francisco. This website is my application to the inaugural session of Beaver Brook, a design and building school in the woods of upstate New York.

  3. What is your interest in Beaver Brook School?

  4. I come from a family of artists and craftsmen, many of whom work with wood. Most of the work I do occupies the ephemeral space of the Internet, but I want to work on more tactile design projects that exercise both mind and body.
  5. My grandfather, Glafkos Sikelianos, was a boatbuilder.
  6. Uncle Poppy became a master carpenter.
  7. Uncle Chris, the last living elder of the Sikelianos family, builds houses in upstate New York.
  8. Here's a treehouse he's working on.
  9. My father, Jon Sikelianos, was a tree surgeon. This is him in Santa Barbara in the late seventies or early eighties.
  10. My brother, Joe Sikelianos, is an arborist. He owns and operates a tree service in San Francisco.
  11. My sister, Pouli Sikelianos, runs a sawmilling operation in Santa Barbara.
  12. (The list goes on.)

  13. What is something you've made?

  14. As a kid, I built a lot of treehouses and skate ramps. This is the first of two half-pipes I designed and built.
  15. With the help of my family, I built this adobe wall in 10 days with 600 adobe bricks at 35 lbs each, and 4 tons of dirt.
  16. I saved this clawfoot tub for many years, until I finally found a home for it.
  17. I helped my friends build a yurt on my property in New Mexico. Here's a shot of the rafters.
  18. I used to work for a multidisciplinary design firm. This marquis at the entrance to an amphitheatre is the largest architectural project I've worked on to date.
  19. Last year I helped my mother build a timberframe sauna in her backyard.
  20. The windows were the fun part.
  21. They said it couldn't be done, but I built a recreational corn bed.
  22. No nails were used in the making of this bed.
  23. While living in LA a few years back, I helped run the Sea Nymph aground at Machine Project.
  24. I built a meditation kuti on my aunt and uncle's property in upstate New York.
  25. My favorite part is the telephone-pole-style rebar ladder, the rungs of which can be pulled out as you ascend the tree.

  26. What skills could you contribute to this project?

  27. You know, like... nunchucks skills, bow-hunting skills, computer-hacking skills. Girls only want boyfriends who have great skills.

  28. Which skills do you want to learn at Beaver Brook?

  29. I want to learn skills that will help me build a comfortable home for my family. Topics I find intriguing on the Beaver Brook website include flooring, roof framing, window installation, door hanging, the hearth -- basically all of it.

  30. What's a building you'd like to make but haven't?

  31. First, a workshop. Then, a home.

  32. If civilization ended, what role would you play in the New Dawn?

  33. I'd be a teacher. I'd help kids become independent thinkers and motivated creators.
  34. Fin.