Bits 'n' Pieces

Just a couple of quick things:

The wonderful blog DO Research has closed shop - it is already missed. The upside is they've bought land and are building a Flatpak. I am wildly jealous!

Read the story behind the sea container Holyoke Cabin on the Hive Modular blog. So cool.

Skinny Japanese Houses on eye candy (via Things Magazine). Only in Japan [sigh].

The amazingly hip Alan Family Happy New House is complete. Check it out in The New York Times. It turned out just like the renderings - very, very cool. It shows you just how much you can do with a remodel.

I just picked up a good book, Small Eco-houses. Loaded with interesting, green, modern homes from all over the world. Two thumbs up!

image credit - Amazon.com listing

Highlights From Last Week - LamiDesign IBU News, DO RESEARCH's Big Move, MKD mkLotus

So hard to get back into the swing of things. I'm one of those people heavily governed by inertia. When I have momentum I keep it until something slows me down or changes my direction. When I have to build up speed again it goes sooo sloooowly.

To make things easy on myself I'll recap some interesting developments that happened while I was away:

Michelle Kaufmann and her firm MKD introduced a new model of her very green, prefab homes - the mkLotus. As usual, top marks for modern style, sustainable design and materials, and viable prefab. Love the green roof on this one. Via Prefab Wednesday on The Good Human.

Image credit - MKD site

The wonderful blog DO RESEARCH sprang back into high gear and fired off a flurry of nice posts in the last week or so. It has such a wonderful feel to it. If you haven't visited in a while check back with 'em. The big news is that they're soon relocating back to the USA from Reading, and now the time has come to put research into reality for a new home ... what will they DO?

Finally, the biggest news of all. Greg La Vardera posted a sneak peek of the LamiDesign IBU Building System on his blog. This is his take on a viable, modular, sea container based housing system that can be convincingly pitched to building authorities. I think that Greg's experience with stock plans and the EcoSteel houses puts him in a good position to succeed. Should be really interesting to see what happens with this. These concept layouts show just how versatile the IBU system could be.

Image credit - LamiDesign Blog

I saw some other neat things around the web, and as always put them in my shared Google Reader in the sidebar (does anyone ever look at that????) so you can browse that if you want. But these three were the real biggies of the week. I'd say I missed a pretty big week :( but the good news is it looks like there'll be more to come!

See More of Uni's Inspiring Designs

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

Luis de Garrido's R4 House - Via treehugger.com

Oh, be still my heart. Every once in a while I find a house that is just sooo cool and sooo me. The R4 house by Luis de Garrido is one of those projects (the four Rs stand for Reuse, Recover, Recycle and Reasoning). Let's see ... shipping container construction (or as Greg La Vardera likes to say, IBU). Check! Green roof. Check! Renewable energy sources. Check! Modest size. Check! Low impact construction. Check! Flexible and affordable approach. Check! And hip, fresh design. Check!

This house has it all!

Via treehugger.com



Image credit - treehugger post

Jones, Partners: Architects - Awesome PRO/con IBU Homes

Container homes are one area of contemporary architecture that I find really fascinating. They're sooo different - a very unique and effective housing solution. Here's another firm that's doing amazing work in this genre: Jones, Partners: Architecture. You have to check out their site. It's a flash-heavy wonderland of images and ideas that you'll definitely enjoy if you like edgy but elegant design and a no-holds barred approach to housing. Very cool, very. Take their little "Taste Test" if you want to get a feel for just how different Jones, Partners are when it comes to their approach. It's a very thought provoking read.

Their PRO/con system (for Programmed Container) delivers some awesome homes. No wonder they call themselves the "Home of boss architecture - highly disciplined, reasonably priced." Boss might be an understatement. Bitchin' might be a better word. Bottom line, stunning, and I love what I see.

Take a look at their entry to the first Dwell Home competition:




The Jones site is loaded with pics. You can also see great images of their work, and get more info, at Modern Modular, a group that is working to sell and facilitate construction of high quality, modern and modular homes across the U.S. Jones, Partners is one of the firms they represent, so if you want a Jones house Modern Modular can help bring one to your neck of the woods.

Very, very cool. Take some time to browse the Jones site. Really amazing, intriguing and fun stuff. You will not be disappointed!

Image Credits - Dwell Home competition site

Check Out This Comic on the LamiDesign Blog!!!

I saw this funny comic on the LamiDesign blog - check it out. That's so me! My dream would be to build something really different and then show my parents, and see the look on their faces! They're pretty conservative, so it would be a lot of fun to shock them a little. Someday!

Japanese House Blog Houseco.jp

I really need to learn Japanese, if only so I can read this nifty Japanese blog I just came across. It's called Houseco, and the title is about the only thing in English. I had a little trouble navigating the site due to the language barrier, but I didn't have to make more than two or three random clicks to become completely smitten with it. Houseco is flush with great pics of modern Japanese dwellings. I think I could just surf this blog for hours looking at the many interesting houses it highlights. Here's a couple of examples, including what appears to be (maybe?) a pretty nice looking IBU home, which proves that great ideas are the real universal human language.




















Image credits - Houseco.jp

DeMaria Design's Redondo Beach IBU House and Logical Homes

I've been reading more about IBU homes on Greg La Vardera's blog. I have to say, the more I read about this type of construction from Greg, OMD, Hybrid Seattle, and others the more I'm thinking this is the direction for me to go when I start planning a new home for my family. This type of home is so fresh and exciting, and appealing also as a relatively cost effective solution.

The IBU house by DeMaria Design Associates that La Vardera highlights on his blog is really inspiring. You can see more of it on the DeMaria site, and read about it in an LA Times article. Honestly, if the images and article don't peak your interest I don't know what will. Still need more? Okay, how about this - the house has inspired a line of homes that DeMaria calls "packaged architecture." They should be available soon under the brand Logical Homes. Here's a pic.


I will definitely be keeping a sharp eye on this. And I'll be digging for more info on IBU and similar strategies. So keep checking back.

Image Credit - Logical Homes site

No Longer "Sea Container Homes" - Let's Start Calling Them Inter-Modal Building Units (IBUs)

I've been reading more of Greg La Vardera's blog. He has a great post on sea container homes, and why we need to start calling them something else. He makes some very good points with respect to the acceptability of these homes to housing boards, and the language used to describe them. Henceforth, he suggests the term Inter-modal Building Unit (IBU). Read the post on his blog where he explains this. If you're interested in container homes - now IBU houses - definitely read this post. Very enlightening.