MELLIN, Robert 1950-

PERSONAL:

Male. Born 1950. Education: Pennsylvania State University, B.Arch., M.Sc. (architecture); University of Pennsylvania, M.Sc., Ph.D.; McGill School of Architecture, M.Arch.

ADDRESSES:

Office—McGill University, McGill School of Architecture, 815 Sherbrooke St. W., Room 313, Macdonald-Harrington Bldg., Montreal, Quebec H3A 2K6, Canada. E-mail—robert.mellin@mcgill.ca.

CAREER:

Educator, architect, and author. Architect in private practice, St. John's, Newfoundland; McGill University School of Architecture, Montreal, Quebec, Canada, associate professor of architecture.

MEMBER:

Royal Canadian Academy of Architecture.

WRITINGS:

Tilting: House Launching, Slide Hauling, Potato Trenching, and Other Tales from a Newfoundland Fishing Village, Princeton Architectural Press (New York, NY), 2003.

SIDELIGHTS:

Architect, educator and author Robert Mellin's Tilting: House Launching, Slide Hauling, Potato Trenching, and Other Tales from a Newfoundland Fishing Village documents the architecture of a small village on an island eight miles off the coast of Newfoundland. Though working in Montreal, Mellin owns a house in the village of Tilting and has been involved in efforts to conserve the area's heritage. By analyzing how furniture, tools, houses, stores, and docks have been designed and built in the village, Mellin also captures the feeling of living in an isolated, self-reliant community that lives in a close relationship with its environment.

The harsh weather conditions and necessarily thrifty values of the island village have dictated that things are constructed in Tilting differently than they are in other communities. Many of the structures are built in one place and then moved to their final sites on horse-drawn carts; old boats are turned over and used as cabbage cellars; old barrels are fashioned into chairs. Local residents often make their own paint, furniture, and other household items. Mellin's book ends up "mapping out the history, work, and lives of the residents of Tilting, as well as the geography of the town and surrounding area," Mark Flanagan remarked at the About Contemporary Literature Web site. "Mellin hopes," added a reviewer for New England Journal of Antiques, "that Tilting's quirky vernacular architecture can inform contemporary architects—not in terms of imitating historical details, but rather as a reminder that the poetic aspects of technology need to be considered along with the values implied by planning and architectural decisions."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Architects' Journal, July 3, 2003, review of Tilting: House Launching, Slide Hauling, Potato Trenching, and Other Tales from a Newfoundland Fishing Village.

Country Life, June 26, 2003, review of Tilting.

Gazette (Montreal, Quebec, Canada), May 24, 2003, review of Tilting.

Globe and Mail (Toronto, Ontario, Canada), June 28, 2003, review of Tilting.

Islands, March 3, 2002, review of Tilting.

Library Journal, March 15, 2003, Russell T. Clement, review of Tilting, p. 81.

New England Journal of Antiques, April, 2003, review of Tilting.*

ONLINE

About Contemporary Literature Web site,http://contemporarylit.about.com/ (October 7, 2003), Mark Flanagan, review of Tilting: House Launching, Slide Hauling, Potato Trenching, and Other Tales from a Newfoundland Fishing Village.