Bare Hill Barn House

Without question, the coolest thing about doing Future House Now has been hearing from people who share my interest in better family homes, modern design, and greener living. I really didn't expect that when I started blogging but it's definitely got me hooked. And sometimes I'm fortunate enough to hear from someone who already took the plunge and is building their modern dream home.

That was the case again this week when I got an e-mail from Ben, who pointed me to his site, Bare Hill Barn House. Ben's blog chronicles his very cool project of dismantling, moving and then transforming a once forgotten barn into a totally hip modernist house.

What a fabulous study in recycling and reclamation. America is dotted with old barns, full of big hardwood timbers you can only buy at very high prices today. I really enjoy seeing someone make good use of these materials. There's an old barn not too far from where I live and every time I pass by it I look at those heavy oak beams and think "hmmm ... what if." Ben and his family have taken that idea to reality, and with a modernist twist.

Ben's site is really great. He does a wonderful job telling the story of what it's like to take on a project like this. He has lot of thoughtful posts about the nature of the project and some of the choices they've made, as well as the inspiration behind it. And besides seeing pics of the house's progress you'll also find video as well as great links to barn home resources.

Ben and his family should be in before year end. I know I'll be following along on Ben's site, watching as things progress. I can't wait to see the finished home!

By the way, Ben is working with JASONOAH Design Build on this project. The firm does some really unique and interesting work. Their theme is "designing and building for healthy, inspirational living." You can't beat that. Very nice. It's awesome to see yet another firm promoting great green design. Definitely check their site, especially their Chatham House. Really nice.

Image credits - Bare Hill Barn House site and JASONOAH Design Build for elevations and renderings (copyright).

745 Navy For Sale [sigh]

One of my dream homes is for sale. Sadly, it's in California, is listed for $849k, and only has one bedroom and one bathroom - while I live in Michigan with a family of four and a budget smaller than a postage stamp.

The luscious 745 Navy is on the market. Here are a few pics from the real estate site Curbed LA, and a few more from The Value of Architecture - Los Angeles, a site that showcases architectural properties with the goal of raising awareness of the value of good design. For the best pics, though, check out this excellent slide show from Bulldog Realtors.




745 Navy is a bright and breezy little bungalow of just 700 square feet. It's clean and casual. Just look at that translucent wall! Amazing! I just love that. I also like the concrete floors, the funky carpet treatment in the bedroom, and the fact that it's a remodel of an existing home. It's the kind of place I can easily imagine myself living in.

However, it's not quite the kind of place I can imagine my wife and two kids living in with me, although apparently there's an existing, approved plan for a two-story addition! But for now I think I'll just have to be impressed with it's sunny, groovy design and store away a few ideas for another day.

Quick Links to Some Cool Houses

Just taking a moment to turn your attention to a couple of cool houses featured elsewhere ...

I like this NY Times Magazine slide show of Thomas Phifer and Partners' intriguing Salt Point House. The Times piece just gives you a taste. Look at the slides on the architect's site. The exterior treatment is very unusual but the effect is great. Bravo. I love the interior too. Here's a couple of pics to tease you on over to both sites to look at the rest.

Image credits - NY Times Magazine

I dig this eco-infill house from Living Space 21 in the UK, highlighted by treehugger. The Brits are racing ahead with sustainable home design and alternative energy for real people and the country as a whole (while the U.S. lumbers out of its sleep). It's a good read - illustrates how to do it right to get more green projects actually built - so check their post.

Image Credit - Living Space 21

Kudos to the blog House for pointing out the Phinney Ridge House and Blip Design a little while back. It's a major remodel of an existing house that features Built Green certification. Love it.

Image credit - BLIP Design

Finally, the good folks at rolu dsgn have a great flickr page with lots more pics of the sea container vacation cabin being built by some of their friends at Hive Modular. If you couldn't get enough from rolu's post check there for more.

Eureka $mart House Energy Efficiency Challenge

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:

• Overall energy audit to identify energy problems and document what might be undertaken to make the home more energy-efficient by CMC Energy Services


• Whirlpool ENERGY STAR-labeled kitchen and laundry appliances


• Computer and energy-efficient electronics and wiring of the home by Consumer Electronics Association and their member companies


• Energy-efficient compact fluorescent lighting by OSRAM Sylvania


• Sealing of all air leaks by The Dow Chemical Company


• Appropriate insulation for the winner's particular climate


• Programmable thermostat


• Low-flow shower head


• Faucet aerators


• Ventilating fan, and much more

Sounds good. Enter here.

Via Climate Progress

Dwell.com's Video Series "Building Green in Harlem" - Green Brownstone Remodel

I really don't know how I missed this, but the good news is I found it just in time. Dwell.com has been running a series of videos on their website about the Building Green in Harlem project - a modern and eco-conscious brownstone renovation. There's a new episode every Tuesday, and they're up to episode #9. Episode #10 is supposed to be the finale, so in just a few days you'll see the finished house as the homeowners move in. That's great, because if you haven't been following it already you've got some time to catch up before seeing the conclusion.

To get you started, here's Episode #1. Click on over to Dwell to see the rest.

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

See Great Construction Images of Nearly Completed Happy New House

A while back I blogged about the Alan Family's Happy New House - a groovalicious remodel aimed at transforming a small mid-century home into something more suitable for a busy, modern family. It's a smart and spirited design that's sure to brighten your mood. Personally, I'm in love with it.



The remodel includes a major addition, and the home isn't finished yet, but the site has been getting updated with pictures of construction. They recently added a page on finish details, which means they're getting close. You should pop in and take a look if you haven't visited in a while. Some of the construction pics are great teasers of what the finished house will be like. Here's a couple of examples:






Nice, huh? You bet! I am really looking forward to seeing this house when it's all done. It has everything going for it: a famous architect, high style, modest size (just 2,000 sq-ft for a family of five), lots of light, and bright colors. So cool!

Image credits - Happy New House site

Cool Green Homes from Famed Architect Steven Holl

Today in Wired there's a great multimedia feature on famed architect Steven Holl. Holl does wonderful, forward-looking work and incorporates a lot of green elements in his designs. The Wired piece shows off ten of his projects (selected from Holl's new book). One of them is a cool house in Hawaii. The two L-shaped structures mimic shifting tectonic plates, a nod to the island's volcanic geology - very clever. I like the look, and the solar paneled roofs. Doesn't look like a bad place to live, now does it?




Here's another totally hip house from Holl's website - the Little Tesseract House in New York. It's a 1200 square foot addition to an existing, small stone house. The addition makes for great solar design with huge banks of south and east facing glass planks that absorb winter sun and release it back into the house at night. A small man-made pond next to the house is fed solely from rainwater collected by the roof, and in the summer it helps cool prevailing breezes flowing toward the house, which are scooped up by wide-opening windows. The house has a "chimney" design with openings on the upper floor to help ventilate warm air. A green roof of sedum tops off the addition, and PV panels on the roof of the original structure provide what little power the house needs.






This is one of the slickest houses I've seen. I like the green features and the funky look. Of course, it's actually Holl's own. His weekend house, in fact. Personally, I think it would make a fine full-time residence.

You can also see and read a lot more about the Little Tesseract House in the excellent book The Green House: New Directions in Sustainable Architecture.




Image credits - Wired, Steven Holl Architects site, Amazon.com listing

Learn How Your Household Consumes Resources - and What to Do About It - at LowImpactLiving.com

If you want to learn more about your household energy consumption, and how to reduce it, look no further than Low Impact Living.




This great site has an "impact calculator" that can give you general reports on how much energy your household consumes (your home plus transportation) and offers green projects to reduce consumption, room by room. Here's one report on a typical American home:






The listings of potential improvement projects that accompany these reports show you how much money it will cost, how much savings it generates in terms of both dollars and environmental impact (energy, water, waste, CO2), as well as how long the payback period is. Links take you to product listings to help with the project, or let you search for contractors in your area to help you out. In fact, Low Impact Living has an extensive Products and Services page to help you make your green project a success. Low Impact Living shows you real ways to save energy and money, and tells you how to get it done.

There are also great pages that help you learn more about your impacts - both the resources you consume and the resulting wastes you generate. There are also guides to green alternatives like solar and wind power, hybrid cars, carbon offsets and green insulation. Overall I'm finding it extremely informative.

The Low Impact Living site is very well done, easy to navigate, and absolutely loaded with useful information. It's probably the most practical green resource for your home that I've come across yet. It's a straightforward guide to how households consume resources, what happens when they do, and what to do about it. Give it a click!

Image credits - Low Impact Living site

Great Book: Redux - Designs That Reuse, Recycle and Reveal

A key element of green building is reuse or recycling of materials that are already converted. Salvaging materials otherwise destined for the dump can help you save money and reduce the total embodied energy of your home. And it's usually a very opportunistic sort of thing, which ultimately gives each project its own unique character.

That's exactly the point of a fantastic book by Jennifer Roberts: Redux - Designs That Reuse, Recycle and Reveal. I like that a lot, but it's the "reveal" part that I like best. The book gives readers one example after another of eco-hip homes bursting with personality as well as environmentally friendly design and construction.


Redux's three main sections cover Renovation, Adaptation and New Construction. For every project featured there is a specific rundown of what reclaimed materials were employed, a "reuse recap," as well as a list of other green features. Scattered throughout Redux's 160 pages you'll also find little sidebars called the "Inside Scoop" which include real gems of wisdom including, among others, "tips for buying salvaged wood," "old stuff to be wary of," and "tax deduction for deconstruction." The many, many color pictures throughout the book are guaranteed to inspire.

Two firms that feature prominently in the book are Leger Wanaselja Architecture and Arkin/Tilt Architects. Both are masters of green design and make substantial use of reclaimed materials in the homes they do. In fact, I think it's safe to say they've taken it to a high art form, and the result is distinct styles that cannot be mistaken for the work of anyone else.

Here's just a couple examples of the works of each that are featured in the book:

The Dwight Way project in Berkeley by Leger Wanaselja is a remodel/addition urban infill project that features nine housing units. Besides adapting a rundown site on a brownfield property, the architects used old car parts, old street signs, salvaged wood and high recycled content in countertops, insulation, and concrete. Some of that reuse is subtle, but some of it is right in front of you. Not subtle, but not in your face. It looks great. All I can say is that this is one of the coolest places I've ever seen and that I'd move in there in a heartbeat just from seeing the pictures.




Arkin/Tilt's D'Souza / De La Torre Residence is a new construction suburban family residence. You simply cannot look anywhere in this house without spotting recycled materials, though everything looks completely appropriate and tasteful. Wall and bookshelf framing is reclaimed wood. Trusses are from salvaged beams. Old vinegar barrels were deployed as ceiling decking. The garage doors were taken from an old elementary school. The roof shingles are made of recycled tire rubber. Kitchen counters are made from recycled glass. The house also uses solar electricity from grid-intertied PV panels, a most excellent geothermal system, and a unique staircase / cooling tower for natural ventilation. It's also modestly sized at 1823 square feet. Perfect! This is what suburban homes should all be like!




Other great homes featured in the book include OMD's amazing Seatrain House, Locus Architecture's groovy nowhaus 01, and many more.

Redux is a fabulous book. It's definitely in my top three favorites and I simply cannot recommend it highly enough. Pick up a copy. You will not be disappointed.

Image Credits - Amazon.com listing, Leger Wanaselja site, Arkin/Tilt Site

Cool Modern Pad on Long Island

Check out this great NY Times article about a cool modernist pad on a sliver of land on Long Island. I love the idea of small houses that live large, and this one is a great example of that concept being put to work. The "telescoping" design is particularly interesting. There's a nice flash slide show that has some of the concept sketches including a floor plan drawing. They pack a lot of house in the modest 800 square feet.

The article is part of the Times' new "Sketch Pad" feature, a monthly piece on how architects show the potential in otherwise unattractive properties. I'll be looking forward to future articles.




Via MoCo Loco and Apartment Therapy (both great sites).

Image Credit - NY Times article

The Alan Family's Happy New House by Architect Neil Denari

Here's a website and a home you just can't resist - The Happy New House. The site outlines the Alan family's home remodel, transforming a 1,000 sq-ft mid-century home into a 2,000 sq-ft 21st century marvel. What's special is that the Alan's are a family of five, with three daughters in elementary school, middle school, and high school. You can imagine how living space was at a premium in a small, older home. Like a lot of families they've outgrown their space and need a home that enhances, rather than hindering, the way they really live.




The concept renderings of the remodel/additions (underway as of last summer) are stunning. Yet the modernist design does not ignore, but rather embraces family living. Probably the most important page on the whole site is the one called "The Family Brand." It outlines their strategy and tactics for meeting the specific needs of the Alan Family. I find it incredibly useful to think of home design in these terms. Here's how they conceptualized the project:

Family Brand Attributes:
• Artsy but not artsy-fartsy.
• Cultured by not elitist.
• Spontaneous but not disorderly.
• Creative but not obsessively so.
• Informal but not messy.
• Into macs + iPods but not techie.
• Enjoys the finer things of life but not extravagantly.

Strategy:
• Stay connected as a family.
• Grow as individuals.
• Live in “the now.”
• Encourage the enjoyment of momentary pleasures.
• Remain flexible.
• Anticipate family’s future needs.
• Connect to the natural environment.

Tactics:
• Create privacy realms for individuals.
• Create public realms to encourage “elbow-rubbing” opportunities.
• Provide multi-use “flex space” for varied family activities.
• Create a sanctuary to counter-balance the daily stress of the outside world.
• Reduce clutter.
• Connect to backyard by creating an outdoor living room.
• Provide ample + convenient storage.

One thing I particularly like about this house is the master bedroom suite. It's a simple and practical, yet really attractive approach to the space that I'm going to keep in my scrapbook. I also like the kitchen. Notice the washer and dryer tucked away beneath the kitchen island. Clever. Another cool idea to squirrel away for later.




The remodel/addition was designed by L.A. based architect Neil Denari, for whom stunning modern work appears to be the norm.

Image credits - The Happy New House website