Tired of uninspiring, consumptive, toxic homes? Tired of the traffic jams, ugly mini-malls, crowded burbs and urban sprawl? Then check out Project Outrage from Slow Home. Sign their online declaration. Join others in voicing your disdain for the bad development. It's a cool project, and if nothing else, a great example that people are finally realizing how bad our housing and community planning really is, and are standing up for better.
Here's something I saw on Inhabitat today that looks extremely interesting - the World House Project:
"The Evolution of Home
The WHP is a multi-year, collaborative initiative led by the Institute without Boundaries (IwB) that will explore the evolution of shelter and plan for the next generation of holistic housing design. The project will build on the research concepts of IwB’s inaugural project, Massive Change, using the same method of interdisciplinary design innovation.The home is the intersection between the individual and society. On one end of the spectrum, urban sprawl and monster houses consume huge amounts of energy and pollute the atmosphere. On the other, over a billion people live in urban slums or in the streets without shelter.
The ambition of the World House Project (WHP) is to generate a system that achieves a balance between these extremes, and operates on the principles of sustainability, universality, technological responsiveness and balance, so that we may create dwellings that promote the long-term health of nature and human cultures."
The first straw bale house I ever saw was the (now very famous) Hay Bale (Bryant) House by Rural Studio, Samuel Mockbee's groundbreaking do/learn program at the Auburn University School of Architecture. I was hooked!
I've been a fan of Rural Studio ever since. Sadly, Mockbee passed away a few years ago, but Rural Studio is still going strong. Did you know they've got some blogs going to chronicle their amazing work? Yep, they do! Five of them, in fact.
The blogs give you a great peek at all the hard work that goes into making their projects happen. Since I focus on residential work, my favorite is naturally the Outreach Project $20k House Phase III blog. As the name implies, this is the third in a series of projects aimed at very low cost homes, in Rural Studio's great tradition of building for low income families. Here's some pics I've sampled from the blog's year of posts, to give you a feel for what they're building.
The other blogs are great too. They cover community projects, which is another area that Rural Studio has made amazing contributions to.
I know Rural Studio is very well known, and that I'm not breaking any ground talking about it here. But I wanted to remind everyone that the program is still going strong, and that you can get an up close and personal look inside Rural Studio projects on their great blogs. Go visit them, and leave them a comment, just to show your support.
I love science fiction, and naturally enjoy the Sci-Fi Channel from time to time. Of course, the new Battlestar Galactica is one of my very favorite shows. Now I have another reason to enjoy the Sci-Fi Channel - their $mart House Energy Efficiency Challenge. It's part of Sci-Fi's Visions for Tomorrow program, which promotes a positive vision of the future enabled by empowered individuals. The challenge highlights energy saving tips and technology by giving one lucky winner a $25,000 home energy makeover, including:
Speaking of the technOrganic future in my post yesterday, I'm reminded of another brilliant example - the C2C Home Winner, which I blogged about before. That was six months ago (have I been doing this that long???) so I don't think there's any harm in showing it again. Anyway, it's that awesome. Anyone who hasn't seen it should. For those of you who have, tell me is this not the coolest of cool. Personally, I can never get enough of it.
The most exciting element of the house is the organic skin used to generate electricity:
"Energy is neither created nor destroyed. It is collected and returned. This design utilizes timeless passive solar strategies by shielding unwanted summer sun and absorbing heat from low winter sun through its thermal mass. Active solar collection provides the main source of necessary electrical energy. The core extends vertically, clad with a super-conductive photosynthetic plasma cell skin that is able to generate 200% more electrical voltage per area than contemporary photovoltaics. Building on current research involving extracted spinach protein, this living skin is photosynthetic and phototropic it grows and follows the path of the sun, generating electricity in excess of single family needs. excess power is distributed to neighboring homes and street lighting infrastructure."
So I have to ask you, dear reader, are you up to the challenge? Because Architect Joel Karr is, and he's throwing down the gauntlet. The principle of the San Fran based firm Group 41, Inc., Karr is making a very unique offer. He's looking for an enthusiastic client, with land and ready to build, and he's willing to chip in the design for free. The catch? He wants to do a sea container home.
When I got the PR statement on the offer I was more than a little intrigued by Joel's bold bid to attract a client, so I spoke with him on the phone today to find out more. We had a great chat. Like so many architects, Karr is really excited about building with sea containers. He likes the green aspect, the reuse of something discarded. "So many of them are just designed and built for a single use," Karr said, and "you see yards full of derelict boxes." He called building with shipping containers "a solution to a blight." Well said. I couldn't agree more.
Karr is also fascinated with the design possibilities afforded by the unique nature of sea containers. He likened working with sea containers to playing with kids' building blocks, and talked about "creating an architectural language that is truly scalable, but modular." "You really can think limitlessly," Karr said. Listening to him, I got a great sense of his passion for design and his desire to challenge himself, and challenge paradigms, with the unique possibilities that sea container building affords.
Much to my surprise, Karr's unique offer is born out of frustration. He's been trying to find a client to do a shipping container project with, but although many people are interested, none have been willing to go that route. And to make matters worse, Karr sees far more enthusiasm being turned in to action outside the U.S., and he wants to change that. "When the rubber meets the road the vast majority just don't have the guts." He said his offer is "a challenge, a call to arms."
I'm with him! We talked about how hard it is in the U.S. to really do something different. Everyone wants to, but at the end of the day our culture just doesn't support it. In my opinion (John Commoner talking here, not Joel Karr) we still have too much of a Puritan conformist streak to really let ourselves go for it. The so called Silent Majority, for lack of a better term, has a way of quietly discouraging that. We all know we're supposed to cut our grass, and keep our house looking the right way. Nobody wants to be that character in the neighborhood that everyone is whispering about. I think a lot of architects, like Joel, want to see that change. It's in their nature. I hope they succeed.
I asked Joel what his ideal client would be. "Do they have the imagination?" was his response. He's looking for someone who is willing to do something really different. He remarked that lots of architects do concept sketches to satisfy their need to build. Karr prefers not to do that, so as not to limit his clients' imaginations. "My outlet is to shake people out of their complacency."
This is not a contest where Karr will select just one winner. "I'm willing to do as many as come my way if people are serious." Karr is looking for people who have land, and who can show a financial commitment (he isn't going to do a design for free, then not see it built). And he really wants a site in a rural area, where it is easier to work through the permit process for something so unique as a container house, and where the site and surroundings will provide him with more freedom to explore the design possibilities of such a unique system of building.
Karr is ready to go green to, very green. So all comers, be ready to talk about alternative energy. "I'd love to do one completely off the grid," said Karr. Of course, he noted that whatever he does will be in the best interests of the site and the client's desires. But he wants someone with an open mind who is willing to explore green design with him.
I'd love to take him up on his challenge. I want something as different as Joel is describing, but my wife and I are still a few years away from starting our dream home. But I'm sure some of my readers must be ready, and for those of you who are I really encourage you to get in touch with Joel and talk to him about it. It was a great pleasure speaking with him today. I could hear his enthusiasm and I got really excited listening to him talk about sea container homes. It could be a unique way to get a great design at a bargain rate. It's worth checking out.
You can e-mail him at joel@group41inc.com (please, serious inquiries only) or follow the general contact info listed on the Group 41 website.
I wasn't at all surprised to get the press release today on the Wired Home by Living Homes. Wired has for a long time given good coverage to modern, green homes that embrace technology as well as good design. And working with Living Homes is a perfect match. Living Homes produces stunning modern luxury homes to the highest LEED standards. The house will showcase many aspects of green design and construction including prefab, reclamation and reuse, infill, sustainable materials, LED lighting, efficient appliances, the latest in solar power ... you name it this house will have it. As for technology, you don't have to worry, the house will have the latest and greatest of everything, of course (c'mon, this is the Wired Home, so expect a lot - you'll get it).
It's a big home, over 4,000 square feet, and it will cost millions. I tend to advocate smaller homes and affordability for regular families, but I'm not about to fire any criticism at the project, because it is meant to be a showcase house, and all showcase houses are top end. This project is already underway, and will be completed and open to public tours by this fall. A percentage of the proceeds from ticket sales will go to Global Green USA.
I think we'll see a lot of neat stuff come out of this project, and I'm looking forward to seeing it when it's done. Should be cool. Certainly looks great. Read the press release on the Wired Home site for full details.
Image credit - Wired Home site
If you read dwell on a regular basis you've no doubt seen the work of husband and wife architects Beat Schenk and Chaewon Kim. The couple, and their unique homes in Cambridge, have been featured twice in the modernist mag. The first house was a great remodel, and then they built three more on their site. But have you also seen the website for the couple's practice, Uni, or Uni's blog, or have you watched them on HGTV's fun show What's With That House (episode HWTH-309)? You can see tons more of Uni's four great houses at these resources. The Uni main site also has lots of links to other places where their work is featured, and more great images there too.
Here's a couple of pics from their blog that I like:
I admire Uni's minimalist style and their DIY attitude. They do great things with simple materials, and they show that high style can be had on a budget. Here's something to watch for - on their main site they show the four houses they've already built, and it looks like two more are coming! No pics yet, but the site shows an "XL," and a "+" which I can't wait to see!
There's also an "H" shown on the site, which Uni designed as their entry to a competition for a wilderness base camp (the Palisades Glacier Mountain Hut Competition). A very cool design for a cool contest. The "H" is based on modules of standard ISO sea containers clad in transparent materials, stacked like building blocks, and powered by the sun. How cool. Here's their entry board:
Good stuff. Definitely a team to keep watching.
Image credits - Uni's Blog, Uni main site
I just stumbled on a really amazing and impressive international architecture contest run by the Institute for Advanced Architecture of Catalonia. It's the Self Fab House competition, which invites design proposals for self-sufficient housing. This is the second running of the contest. Entries opened in April, close in September, and results will be announced by November of this year.
Take a look at the top projects from the first Self-Fab House competition. Stunning!!!!
And it looks like the first running of the competition spawned a book
Via Archidose (A Daily Dose of Architecture).
Image credits - Self Fab House Competition site
There's a neat post today on MoCo Loco about a design competition in Toronto tied to the city's architecture and design festival called Twenty + Change. One of the featured projects is Donald Chong's Galley House, a slim infill design that's really turning heads.
It's always fun to see what people do with tiny, overlooked lots like this one. The Galley House is small but stunning. Though it is only one room wide, and looks quite narrow from the outside, on the inside it gives the impression of overflowing with space. Here's a few more pics from Chong's site:
The Galley House is a head turner, but it doesn't overpower the neighborhood it's living in. Inside, however, it has a bold, sculptural quality. The spaces are flooded with natural light. I really like the outdoor living spaces Chong incorporated too. It's a great example of doing a lot with just a little space.
You can read a little more about Chong at this page on the IDS07 show.
Via MoCo Loco
Image credits - Donald Chong Studio site
A long while back, when natural homes first sparked my interest, one genre in particular that I was fascinated with was rammed earth. I spent a lot of time searching for articles on builder David Easton and the elegant earthen houses constructed by his firm, Rammed Earth Works. As far as sustainable and natural building methods go, I still find rammed earth highly appealing. If you live in an hot, arid climate I cannot really think of any better construction method. Unfortunately, though I've always wanted to live somewhere like that, I don't - I live in Michigan. Rammed earth isn't quite right for our wet and cold winters (though some form of earth construction could be), so I had filed rammed earth away for that "someday maybe" scenario.
Not too long ago, however, my interest in earth building was renewed when I came across a great blog called Earth Architecture. Dedicated to earthen construction, the site's title block proclaims "One half of the world's population, approximately three billion people on six continents, lives or works in buildings constructed of earth." It's a great blog, well done and packed with interesting examples of earth buildings of all types.
A recent post on Earth Architecture highlights a housing competition won by UNC Charlotte students who utilized rammed earth construction, solar panels, and great outdoor living spaces all wrapped up in a very elegant modern design. I really like the house. Definitely check out the original post on Earth Architecture for more details and links to the competition's site and info on UNCC's entry.
Here's the UNCC entry board:
My love of rammed earth construction is renewed!
Image credit - Casas del Quinto Sol competition site
A little while back I did a post on a favorite book of mine, The Home House Project, which chronicles the Southeastern Center for Contemporary Art's competition aimed at drawing out great home designs that also address issues of affordability and sustainability. Page after page features fresh and funky houses that make you rethink all your old ideas about what a house should be, and leaves you feeling that a great house really can be had on a reasonable budget.
Of the many great houses in the book, one of my favorites was the VW House, a modular prefab concept by nottoscale architecture + interior design. It's a great looking, design - clean and hip. Very modern is now. I loved it right away.
Style aside, the best part of the house is its concept. The VW House evolved into notoscale's Modulome prefab system. You may remember how in a recent post I was ranting about why can't we have a modular prefab system that lets us adapt and change it as our families grow, letting us build what we need, when we need it, adding on more modules as required and as our budgets allow. Well, that's what the Modulome system is meant to be. Prefab 16x48x10 ft. units can be bolted together, stacked and skewed, in just about whatever configuration you can dream up. You can build what you need, and add extra modules later when you require more space. And much like the way a car is built, the basic structure of a Modulome is a "chassis", upon which interior components can be arranged to meet each client's individual needs. Interiors can be configured with the same kind of creative variety as the overall exterior structure. Inside and out, Modulome's vision is to give you, the owner, what you want, while still take advantage of the benefits of prefab.
I just think that's great. Prefab has great promise, for the reasons we've all seen and heard before - quality, speed, cost, etc. But I also love the way nottoscale is showing us how prefab units can also be employed creatively to deliver unique and inspiring designs. Too cool!
Modulome is still in the development stages. But guess what, the first prototype house is being built this year. The Rondolino House will be erected on 40 acres of Nevada desert between the mountains and Death Valley. With a limited budget and a remote site, prefab was an obvious solution. The house is also being constructed to accommodate off-the-grid living and take advantage of passive solar heating and natural cooling techniques.
It's a great-looking house. Take a look at these images that nottoscale very generously provided me with so I could share them with you:
I really like the outdoor living spaces and the day lighting. It's a sleek and modern design - elegant in its simplicity. I'm really looking forward to seeing the finished home later this year. The Modulome has great promise, and I am sure we will see more of these sharp houses in the future.
Image credits - nottoscale architecture + interior design
Wired has a couple of great pieces on their site about OpenHouse - an exhibition dedicated to "architecture and technology for intelligent living." The homes are spectacular and innovative. I think it is safe to say you have never seen anything quite like them. Radical. I was blown away.
Here are just two of the ten featured projects: The Dunehouse (top) and the ThinkingAhead! House (bottom). Note the ThinkingAhead! house is by the Mexican firm Rojkind Arquitectos, who I mentioned in an earlier post.
If OpenHouse doesn't get you excited about the future of housing I don't know what will.
See the Wired articles:
"Inside OpenHouse's Blueprint for the Future"
"House of the Future Taps Nature for Novel Designs"
Image Credits - OpenHouse site
Here's a favorite home of mine that stands for everything FHN is about. It has been out there for quite a while, and you've probably seen it talked about at a number of sites, but I just love this house and always find myself going back to it. There's a dedicated website for this house, which has a number of interior and exterior renderings (some of which I've sampled below).
I like how different this house is, and not just different for the sake of being different, but with a functionality and a purpose. It is modern, minimalist, and green. Obviously it is a very conceptual and forward-looking home. I don't know what it would cost to actually build it, if it can really be built today. I don't believe the photosythetic/phototropic spinach "skin" used to generate electicity is on the market, though it is a subject of significant research. But certainly the use of a living roof, rainwater catchment, greywater systems and solar orientation are well within reach.
What I think I like the most about this house, however, what I find myself very drawn to, is its simple floorplan and the scale of the rooms. This house fits my ideal for a modest family home nicely. Setting aside the particular exterior aesthetic and the high-tech aspects of the design, I think this is a great, simple floorplan that can be easily adapted to fit almost any reasonable budget and a variety of construction methods, including prefab.
Also see C2C-Home.org for info on the competition and other top entries.
Image Credit: cradletocradlehome.com
