Greg La Vardera's Work and Stock Modernist Plans Featured by New York Times

Today is a banner day, as architect Greg La Vardera's work and his excellent Vermont Plat House have been featured by the New York Times in the Great Homes section. It's a nice article about great architects who bring quality design to stock home plans, plans you can buy right on the Internet.

Greg does awesome modernist homes. I've mentioned the Vermont Plat House several times on this site. It's a modification of the standard Plat House plan, shown here. What can I say, beautiful house, great plan, amazing look. Soooo cool. It's little wonder this plan is a huge hit.





Here are a couple of other homes from his stock plans that I really like:

The Tray House - really nice floorplan. Absolutely nothing missing in this plan. I'm super picky about floorplans and yet I can't find any faults with it. This house would easily fit right in any suburban neighborhood, where I think modernist houses actually look out of place because everything else looks so McMansionish (at least here in Detroit), and where they are often - sadly - not welcomed by suspicious and closed-minded neighbors and their evil homeowners' associations. I don't mean to insult the design by saying it could fit in such an environment, I just mean this home has a very universal appeal (and as such is very appropriately categorized in Greg's "Zeitgeist House Group" of plans).






The Cube House - a cool three-story design. Another great plan, packing five bedrooms and a study in 2400 square feet! If you have big family this could be a great option. What kid wouldn't want to have one of those rooms on the third floor? I could also fulfill my Star Trek fantasy of belonging to the Borg Collective (where do I plug myself in?). Just kidding - I really love this house. I think I can safely say it's my personal favorite.






There are many others, and Greg introduces new ones from time to time. Check out his Modern House Plans site to see more. And don't miss Greg's great blog for lots of updates on his projects and many great pics of his work.

Want a totally custom home? Greg does that too. Give him a call or drop him a note. He's a super nice guy and a real talent. I think he'd be great to work with.

Congratulations Greg on the great recognition in the NY Times! Pretty cool. Well done.

Image credits - LaMiDesign

New Australian Mag on Sustainable Architecture

A cool new mag to look for: Green - Sustainable Architecture and Landscape Design. From Australia. A quarterly publication that's right up my alley. First issue just got published this month. I'll see if I can find it and do a proper review. For now, check out their website.

Via treehugger.




Image credit - Green magazine site

Check Out Architectural Record Online

I don't really know why I got interested in houses, especially modern and green houses, but I do know when: I was in college. I went to Purdue, and I spent a lot of spare time in the libraries looking for good books and digging out and going through old magazines. My favorite thing to do was to go up into "the stacks" in the HSSE Library. The stacks were five floors of old periodicals, filed neatly on massive shelves. The levels had low ceilings and narrow rows, and there were no windows, only bad fluorescent lamps. It was kinda creepy up there. I was always on the lookout for weirdos, but mostly I just ran across the odd grad student looking for a quite place to study, or once in a while some young couple making out.

I guess I was kind of a dork. Sadly, not much has changed! But there were bright spots. I came across Architectural Record, and soon started digging out all the "Record House" issues. And there I fell in love with modernist houses.

I still love checking out this mag, and the good news is you can see Record Houses online (at least a few years worth), and they also have featured houses in lots of neat categories like "California's Anti-sprawl," "Built Into Their Sites," and "Off the Beaten Path."

There's always something cool. Actually, I like the section on Unbuilt Houses the best. There are some really different designs. My favorite of the bunch is the "Distributed House" by OMA, which was designed for a beautiful island site in the Bahamas. To take advantage of the many different spectacular views available the home was programmed into many individual freestanding pavilions.

"The house’s diffuse site plan capitalizes on the many different views and landscape conditions on the island. A rolled-steel master bedroom rests on dunes and is connected to the beach with a bridge; a tower for children’s bedrooms on a hill provides sweeping views of the island; and a guesthouse overlooks the ocean and allows for autonomous hospitality. At the center of this group is a square-shaped dining room, which the architects liken to a “mini acropolis.” Its four counter-weighted walls easily open to transform the volume into a covered, outdoor eating area."

Sounds cool. Too bad it was never built! I always wanted to live in a "house" like that. I know what I want each room to do, what always spoils it for me is how do you put the rooms together in a way that makes sense. I guess that's what a good architect is for. Here are a few pics of the Distributed House concept:








There are more images online, plus lots of other neat houses, both constructed and never built. Give it a look. You don't have to be a dork to enjoy Architectural Record, and you don't have to dig around in dusty libraries either. There's a lot of great content online, and Borders (which was just a single campus bookstore in Ann Arbor when I was growing up there) is now a nationwide chain and you can usually find it on their shelves.

Image credits - Architectural Record site

New York Times Magazine Eco-Tecture Feature

All I can say is "Wow!" The New York Times has published a fantastic series of articles today in a feature in New York Times Magazine on "Eco-Tecture." It's like Christmas day in May!

Look at these titles:

"Why Are They Greener Than We Are?" - comparing Europe and the U.S.

"The Accidental Environmentalist" - Shigeru Ban!

"The Road to Curitiba" - green urban planning in Brazil

"An Eco-House for the Future" - modern, sustainable style (awesome house!!!)

"The Native Builder" - Green and modern meet vernacular roots in Australia

"The Zero-Energy Solution" - Home solar-hydrogen systems will power our future

There is a ton of material here, and more from their archives too, plus some video and slideshows. It all looks great. I guess I know what I'll be doing for the rest of the evening. You should do the same, give it click and start reading!

Daylighting Article in Innovative Home Magazine - Parans Solar Lighting

I'm one of those people who suffers bad from seasonal affective disorder. In the summertime I can go on very little sleep and always feel great. In the winter I can hardly stay awake an hour after the sun goes down, which is only about 5:00 PM here in Michigan. It's like I run on sunlight. When I don't get enough I'm a totally different person.

As a "light person" I tend to like really bright rooms. I want all the lights on all the time (which drives my wife nuts). Of course, that can be hard on the wallet and on the planet. I like houses that let the light pour in, which is probably a big part of what draws me to modern homes. But you've got to design for it. Daylighting is an all too often overlooked aspect of home design that makes a huge difference in how the house feels to live in.

The new summer 2007 issue of Innovative Home Magazine has a great article on daylighting called "Here Comes the Sun." It talks about insulated daylighting panels (IDPs) that let in soft light yet don't overheat the house, the good old Solatube, and a slick new take on skylighting, the Parans Solar Panel. With this system, special rooftop mounted panels collect sunlight, which is then distributed through a house via fiber optic cables. It is eventually diffused and distributed into a room by a Parans Luminaire, which helps recreate the feeling of natural sunlight indoors.




This is soooo me. What a great technology. High tech innovation has finally come to housing in a big way. By the way, the Parans system can include, as an option, tracking systems to help the rooftop panels collect maximum sun, and Luminaires paired with fluorescent lighting for the hours when the sun isn't shining. Pretty slick.

Our houses today may be the modern manifestations of our primitive ancestor's cave dwellings, but there's no need to live in the dark. Thankfully, there's some great technology out there to make your house sunny and bright, naturally.

Oh yeah - I almost forgot, the article in Innovative Home also talks about Shigeru Ban's Naked House, the ultimate example of a daylit home (and one of my favorite houses - it's just amazing).

Image credit - Parans site

Canadian House & Home Magazine "Go Green" Issue

Darnit, I was just at the book store looking at magazines, and somehow missed the Canadian House & Home "Go Green" issue - which sounds pretty good in this post from treehugger.

Here's the link the Canadian House & Home website - the mainpage says the digital edition is coming soon. I'll be waiting!

Image credit - treehugger post

Some Great Magazines to Check Out at Your Local News Stand

If you're interested in modern homes Dwell is most likely the first magazine you reach for at your local news stand. Me too. It's clearly the defining standard for periodicals on modern homes. In fact, when a new issue arrives in my mailbox I pretty much jump around like a little girl at a Britney concert. Hey, it's okay, I'm not afraid to admit it. Don't be afraid if you have to get that off your chest too.

But there are a host of other interesting magazines out there that you ought to take a look at too. And I'm not just talking about the standard fare like Metropolitan Home or House Beautiful. Those are nice magazines too, but let me recommend a few others.

One that's been around for a few years is Natural Home. This magazine has been out for a few years and is focused on healthy living in green homes. It has more of an earthy-crunchy style than a strictly modern mag like Dwell, but in terms of non-toxic living this periodical is pretty hard to beat. The current issue is a good representation of typical content: articles on building a better strawbale, three steps to clutter-free living, and living in eco-communities. Great articles and photos throughout. Also be sure to check out their web page on the Natural Home Showhouse 2007, a green remodel of a 1920's Brooklyn brownstone.

I also like Modernism Magazine. This one is dedicated to the whole spectrum of 20th century modern homes, and you're as likely to see a story on an Eichler as you are a green prefab built very recently. Very well done periodical. You might enjoy the links page on their website too. Lots of interesting resources there.

Innovative Home is a very new magazine that I like a lot. Published quarterly, the winter 2006 issue on newstands now is only the third printing. Look for lots of great features on modern homes, green building, prefab, sleek appliances, alternative energy, the latest in home technology, and better communities. Every page is a feast of rich images and interesting ideas. From what I've seen in the first three issues I'm eagerly awaiting more.

Next time you're at Borders or Barnes and Noble don't forget to take a look at the Australian magazine Houses. I don't know what it is about Australia, but down under they have some of the neatest modern housing going (every one of them seems to have a rainwater catchment tank too - cool). Sleek and sophisticated homes are standard fare for Houses, and you will find yourself turning each page with increasing delight. This magazine is definitely not to be missed.


Image credits - from the websites of each periodical