Totally Awesome 'Penguin House'

You know I'm a huge fan of Japanese modernist houses. This one is genius.

'Penguin House' (aka Skin House Project #2) by Yasuhiro Yamashita of Atelier Tekuto.

Via the girl in the green dress

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).

Thinking of Eames ... Retro Modern Groove In Newer Designs

I'm really in to the Case Study Houses right now. My favorites are the simple ones like CSH#4 (which never got built) and CSH#21. But the more I think about what I want in a place for my family though, the more I start leaning toward something roomier like the the Eames House, CSH#8. I'm also inspired by the sort of retro vibe at DO Research, which always makes me think of the Eames. And I always really dug the Eames furniture, all of it, in a big way.

This documentary short by the Charles and Ray Eames gives you the spirit of the house:





A lot of recent designs evoke the Eames' groove:

Flatpak House from Lazor Office (images from the Flickr set)







EcoContempo 6030 and 6040 by Lavardera (images from LamiDesign Blog) - Greg, leave us a comment - were you inspired by Eames?





Royal Homes Muskoka Modern (images from Royal Homes site). By the way, nice mudroom. My chief gripe about most modern homes - no good entry for muddy feet. Come to Detroit in February and see what I mean.







I'd have said, "build me a house around this ..."

Image credit - Design Within Reach

... but Eames already did. And any one of these three new designs would do the trick too.

Fourteen hiveMODULAR Animations on YouTube

One more great development last week that I failed to mention yesterday: the hiveMODULAR blog directs us to YouTube where they have fourteen different video animations of various models. My favorite is this B-Line Small with a walkout basement.




Really cool. Definitely check out the rest. Nice animations of various B-Line, X-Line, M-Line, and C-Line, as well as their appearance on HGTV's What's With That House?


Video credit - hiveMODULAR on YouTube

Interesting Concepts From Danish Architect Soren Korsgaard

Everyone, everywhere, is working on prefab. New ideas are popping up like dandelions on the first pretty spring day. I was just browsing YouTube (inspired by this post on Equity Green) and hit on this concept:





Interesting. It's from Danish architect Soren Korsgaard. I checked his website, and the house is actually a vacation cabin. It has an interesting sliding doors strategy that allows the occupants to reconfigure the house for different views, privacy, shelter from changing winds, etc. Kinda neat.





I also saw this other cool house concept on his site, the "Standard House." It's anything but, though it would be great if it were, and everyone really lived in something like it. Check it out:







The house is designed to be built fast, to take advantage of passive heating and cooling principles, and will incorporate "root zone water purification." It's decidedly modern, and I like the simple solar shell concept.

It actually reminds me very much of a solar house some family friends lived in back in the 1980's when I was growing up. The design was very similar to this. On a cold but sunny winter day they'd have to open the windows to let out extra heat, yet in the summer all the thermal mass kept the house nice and cool.

Korsgaard's other works are interesting as well. I like this industrial-inspired multifamily concept, curiously called "commune housing" (made me think communist bloc, not communal living).





Cool stuff, I think Korsgaard is one to watch.

Image credits - Soren Korsgaard site

ARCHiNODE Studio, and the Fab Tree Hab - the technOrganic Future

I've seen this concept so many times before, in so many places, that I just didn't want to show it. But it's soooo cool, and today when I saw Shedworking post a YouTube video on it I just couldn't help myself. So here it is, the amazing Fab Tree Hab.




I must say, I blog about modernist houses, and yeah, I'm one of those people who love the "white box." But I really do believe that the future, the distant future that is, will be highly organic and deeply integrated with technology. We're already learning how living systems are vastly superior, how nature has solved problems that we can't yet touch, how adaptable and elegant it all is. To achieve sustainability, in the end, we'll inevitably arrive here.






Fab Tree Hab is the work of Mitchell Joachim and MIT colleagues Lara Greden and Javier Arbona. Joachim's practice, ARCHiNOD STUDIO, is firmly rooted in a brilliant vision of "architectural + urban + ecological design." I want to live in the future his work is pointing to:








Incredible. Want more? Check out the ARCHiNODE blog. Or check out Terreform, the nonprofit Joachim started with fellow architect Michael Sorkin (equally brilliant vision of an organic future) to "ascertain the consequences of fitting a project within our natural world setting."

These guys are doing radical stuff. They present a very exciting vision of the future. I wonder what it will take for us to get there, how long, how much pain before (will the world get worse before it gets better?), what will we lose, what will we give, what will we discover? I don't know, and even though I'm only in my mid-thirties I can't imagine I'll see it in my lifetime. But I know what I'm teaching my children.

From now on, I'll be on the lookout for more examples of this highly organic, technologically intertwined, vision, which I'll file in the category technOrganic Future.

Via Shedworking

Image credits - ARCHiNODE and Terreform sites

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.

Slow Home Wants to Empower You to "Take Control of Your Home and Community"

You've heard of slow food, and maybe slow cities. Now this great post on WorldChanging is introducing us to a great site called Slow Home. The slow home concept is introduced as a counter to mass produced housing, which it likens to unhealthy and unsatisfying fast food. It presents a lot of great ideas about what's wrong with American housing, and offers a different way.

The meat of the site is a rich folio of projects, products and people that exemplify slow home concepts. There are tons of pics of great houses. I'm like a kid in a candy store clicking through them. There's even a "Slow Home TV" section with lots of cool videos. There are interviews with architects and product designers, videos of their houses, and many episodes of the "Slow Home Reports."

The site is interesting and informative. It's an instant favorite for me. I've only been able to get through a small fraction of it - there's a lot of material - but I just couldn't wait to bring it to your attention. You'll want to read the WorldChanging post, and visit the site yourself, but let me leave you with one more thing from Slow Home, the best part of all - the Slow Home "10 Steps:"

1. GO INDEPENDENT

Avoid homes by big developers and large production builders. They are designed for profit not people. Work with independent designers and building contractors instead.

2. GO LOCAL

Avoid home finishing products from big box retailers. The standardized solutions they provide cannot fit the unique conditions of your home. Use local retailers, craftspeople, and manufacturers to get a locally appropriate response and support your community.

3. GO GREEN

Stop the conversion of nature into sprawl. Don’t buy in a new suburb. The environmental cost can no longer be justified. Re-invest in existing communities and use sustainable materials and technologies to reduce your environmental footprint.

4. GO NEAR

Reduce your commute. Driving is a waste of time and the new roads and services required to support low density development is a big contributor to climate change. Live close to where you work and play.

5. GO SMALL

Avoid the real estate game of bigger is always better. A properly designed smaller home can feel larger AND work better than a poorly designed big one. Spend your money on quality instead of quantity.

6. GO OPEN

Stop living in houses filled with little rooms. They are dark, inefficient, and don’t fit the complexity of our daily lives. Live in a flexible and adaptive open plan living space with great light and a connection to outdoors.

7. GO SIMPLE

Don’t buy a home that has space you won’t use and things you don’t need. Good design can reduce the clutter and confusion in your life. Create a home that fits the way you really want to live.

8. GO MODERN

Avoid fake materials and the re-creation of false historical styles. They are like advertising images and have little real depth. Create a home in which character comes from the quality of space, natural light and the careful use of good, sustainable materials.

9. GO HEALTHY

Avoid living in a public health concern. Houses built with cheap materials off gas noxious chemicals. Suburbs promote obesity because driving is the only option. Use natural, healthy home materials and building techniques. Live where you can walk to shop, school and work.

10. GO FOR IT

Stop procrastinating. The most important, and difficult, step in the slow home process is the first one that you take. Get informed and then get involved with your home. Every change, no matter how small, is important.

I like those a lot. Not a bad manifesto. Slow Home is a site you won't want to miss. Check it out.

Future House Now is Amanda Congdon's "Blog to Follow" on ABCNews.com!

Wow - big day for Future House Now. My little site was featured today on Amanda Congdon's video blog on ABCNews.com as a "Blog to Follow." It's a very short mention at the end of her weekly video, which covers a range of topics, but I thought it was pretty neat.

Watch it here.

New Video Preview of Building Green - First Full Season Coming Very Soon on PBS

Folks, don't forget to check your local TV listings next week - Building Green is coming soon on PBS. Take a look at this just-released preview of their upcoming first season:





Host Kevin Contreras' house is wonderfully green, and so beautiful. But did you watch the whole clip? Because if you didn't, and if your tastes are on the groovier side (like mine), you'll really like the last few seconds. There are shots of some really eco-hip modern homes that you won't want to miss, and that have me looking forward to catching every episode of Building Green.

I've seen a few of the pilot episodes and they were really good. I'm told they've re-edited the shows for this first full season and that they're even better - plus there are new episodes that didn't air in the pilot run. It's looking like a great first season. The episodes are set to start airing sometime this month on PBS, so check your local listings.

Straw bale walls, blue jean insulation, natural finishes, radiant floors - OH MY!

Tune in to Building Green!

Modern Landscaping on Hive Modular House - Rosenlof/Lucas Get it Right!

I get a lot of inspiration from Preston over at Jetson Green. His site is really great, and he's so good at finding neat stuff. Yesterday he had post where he's run across a great blog, Nashville Modern Prefab, and put up a YouTube video of a 3-D model of a new Hive Modular house being built for the blog's author, plus links to some other Hive Modular related videos. Great stuff.

I have to say, I really liked the video of the original Hive Modular B-Line House prototype in Minneapolis (below). It's done as a video invite to an open house featuring the B-Line as well as the cool modern landscaping done by Rosenlof/Lucas Landscape Design and Installation. I love the house, as I've posted before, but the landscaping was what really caught my eye.





I love the low-impact driveway and the gabion fence. Both those designs are now stored away in my mind for use on my family's future home. These guys are doing some cool stuff. You've got to take a look at the photos of their work on their site - 49 pics in their slide show - and click over to the rolu|dsng blog. You will love it. Not to be missed.

Landscaping is so critical. Your house has to harmonize with the site, and your landscaping has to respect the site as well as enhance the structure of the house. All the pieces need to fit together. A big lawn and a long, hard-surfaced driveway can be very high impact. The guys at rolu show how to put it all together, in modern style, with clever green designs. Just awesome.