ImaginativePRO Blog

NEW YORK ARCHITECT DAVID ROCKWELL AND C3 DESIGN TEAM UP TO BUILD PREFAB HOMES FOR LUXURY BUYERS

David Rockwell--an architect best known for theaters, grand restaurant interiors, and posh hotels--is getting into the prefab game. (Click Image To Enlarge)

ROCKWELL GROUP IS TEAMING UP WITH C3 DESIGN TO BUILD MODULAR HOMES FOR LUXURY BUYERS.

David Rockwell--an architect best known for theaters, grand restaurant interiors, and posh hotels--is getting into the prefab game.

David Rockwell, CEO and Founder of the Rockwell Group. (Click Image To Enlarge)

He has partnered with Fred Carl* of the appliance company Viking Range to build the first luxury prefabricated homes for Carl's new modular housing venture, C3 Design, Inc. 

He has partnered with Fred Carl of the appliance company Viking Range to build the first luxury prefabricated homes for Carl's new modular housing venture, C3 Design, Inc. (Click Image To Enlarge)

Rockwell says that the modular homes will offer "a luxury design at a less than luxury price."  He unveiled the Pinwheel series, a luxury line of prefabricated homes for luxury buyers at the Dwell on Design conference in Los Angeles in July 2014.

Scale model of a modular home called the Pinwheel series designed by C3 Design and the Rockwell Group that debuted at Dwell on Design 2014 in Los Angels in July 2014. (Click Image To Enlarge)

Prefab architecture is typically associated with affordable housing, not luxury design. Because prefab buildings are constructed offsite, then shipped for assembly, they are less resource-intensive than traditional buildings. Rockwell and his team hope that with some architectural finesse, they can create stylish digs with minimal environmental impact.  

Rockwell says that the modular homes will offer "a luxury design at a less than luxury price." (Click Image To Enlarge)

He said in a phone interview.  

"Prefab didn’t need to mean compromise in any way."

Ultimately, the architect plans to work with C3 to design interior additions like prefab wine cellars.

Rockwell unveiled the design for a house called "Pinwheel'"at the Dwell on Design conference in Los Angeles held in July 2014. (Click Image To Enlarge)

Creating a home that doesn't necessarily look like a cookie-cutter container became one of the key challenges.  Rockwell says.  

"When you have a building block like a rectangle, you don’t want to have a railroad situation.  That limitation became the key contributing factor to the design."

Prefab architecture is typically associated with affordable housing like this model, not luxury design. (Click Image To Enlarge)

His 2,400-square-foot house consists of four rectangular rooms arranged around a 500-square-foot interior courtyard. Rockwell was inspired by his childhood in Mexico, where "outdoor space was part of the lifestyle." The house features two bedrooms and two-and-a-half bathrooms, with a study that can be converted into an additional bedroom. The kitchen comes complete with a 10-foot-long marble island and professional grade appliances.  Rockwell says.  

"I love the fact that you have this little private retreat where you can entertain outdoors and it’s connected directly to the kitchen."

Because prefab buildings are constructed offsite, then shipped for assembly, they are less resource-intensive and eco-friendly than traditional buildings. (Click Image To Enlarge)

Since a prefab house can be shipped anywhere, Rockwell wanted to find a way to ensure the houses could fit into the local landscape, even if that landscape looked radically different from one buyer to the next. The exterior of the house will have a variety of aesthetics so that it can blend in just as well in Phoenix as it does in Honolulu. A hanging screen on the outside of the house--available in everything from steel to reclaimed wood to green landscaping--offers another way to give the house a more tailored aesthetic. Rockwell says.

"In a modular landscape, what we try to do is come up with a design that is very flexible."

His 2,400-square foott house consists of four rectangular rooms arranged around a 500-square foot interior courtyard. Rockwell was inspired by his childhood in Mexico, where "outdoor space was part of the lifestyle." (Click Image To Enlarge)

The more customizable a house is, the less it looks like it came straight off a conveyor belt.

For some, that means an eco-friendly way to build a swank vacation home. For others, it may make a carefully designed home a slightlymore budget-friendly option (prices haven't been released yet). Rockwell homes for the masses! Ish.

COMMENTARY:  For Rockwell, a majority of the inspiration behind Pinwheel’s design came from his upbringing in Mexico. The architect describes his childhood as one that was heavily vested in outdoor space. His connection with the outdoors motivated him to include a courtyard in Pinwheel’s plans. With this project, Rockwell and Carl really wanted to out do the notion of what prefabricated architecture could mean. They aimed to challenge the norms and prove that just because resources are limited, prefabricated doesn’t have to mean cookie-cutter looks and cul-de-sac dreams.  Together they want to tackle the notion that affordability and luxury are not mutually exclusive. Yeah, we’re listening, too…

The U.S. Prefabricated Housing Marketing

Prefabricated housing shipments for the U.S. are forecast to rise 13.6 percent annually through 2017 to 140,000 units, a vast improvement from the declines of the 2007-2012 period. Prefabricated housing will benefit from a rebound in housing starts. Both types of prefabricated housing declined steadily from 2002 on, and were hit hard by the housing market collapse that began in 2007. As the housing market and general economy recover, demand for prefabricated housing is expected to rise along with total single-family housing starts. Despite the promise of some reduction in construction costs, these products have had limited market penetration, in part because of consumers' familiarity with traditional construction practices, or in the case of manufactured housing, some stigma attached to the product itself. These and other trends are presented in Prefabricated Housing, a new study from The Freedonia Group, Inc., a Cleveland-based industry market research firm.

Overall, shipments of manufactured housing will reach 90,000 units in 2017.Demand for manufactured housing is concentrated in rural areas and in certain segments of the population -- particularly lower income groups such as young, first time home buyers and those over 55, such as retirees on a fixed income. Expected growth in these populations will boost manufactured housing demand. However, manufactured housing's market share is projected to drop from that of 2012 as the economy continues to expand and conventional mortgages become easier to obtain, and as new regulations make chattel loans (commonly used for manufactured housing) more difficult to secure.

For other prefabricated housing, demand is more evenly spread throughout geographical areas and the segments of the population. As such, demand is less affected by trends in certain areas or populations, and will more closely track demand for overall single-family housing. Therefore, market shares for other prefabricated housing types will be little changed, and demand increases will be similar to those for single-family housing overall.

The Global Prefabricated Housing Marketing

According to reports by Global Industry Analysts (GIA), the world pre-fabricated housing market will reach 827,000 units by 2017.   Growth in the world pre-fabricated housing market will be driven by the following key factors:  

• Continuous technological developments
• Positive governmental regulations
• Growing promotional activities of manufacturers
• Ongoing recovery in world economies
• Growing Demand in Developing countries of Asia and Latin America Key growth drivers in the World Market

DRM Prefab researched the global pre-fabricated housing market and produced the following detailed analysis:

Prospects for prefabricated housing market from DRM Investments LTD

 Courtesy of an article dated June 20, 2014 appearing in Fast Company Design, an article dated July 28, 2014 appearing in The Street, a press release dated June 20, 2014 issued by C3 Design, Inc., an article dated July 9, 2014 appearing in Urban Scrawl, and an article dated August 3, 2013 appearing in SlideShare

8 OF GOOGLE'S CRAZIEST OFFICES, DESIGNED TO FOSTER AND ENABLE INNOVATION

GOOGLE IS KNOWN FOR ITS ZANY OFFICE DESIGNS, FROM STROOPWAFEL CEILINGS TO SLIDES TO SCOOTERS. AND YOU THOUGHT YOUR OFFICE'S FOOSBALL TABLE WAS COOL.

While most of us 9-to-5ers hunch over in boxy, fluorescent-lit cubicles, feeling lucky if our office has a snack machine, the Google employees of the world are zooming around on scooters, slipping down tube slides, playing on their indoor putting greens, and gloating about the awesomeness of their offices. If they can even be called offices--the designs of these nerd playgrounds so outclass your average corral of homogenous desks that we had to round them all up in a grand, jealousy (and sometimes eye-roll)-inducing slide show, on the occasion of Google unveiling its new Mexico headquarters. As one Google spokesperson told the New York Times, designers of Google offices have but one goal: “to create the happiest, most productive workplace in the world.” Marvel at the most over-the-top workspaces of Google’s big happy techie family and lament not being better at computer science.

NEW YORK CITY

The off-the-wall design of this conference room in Google's New York City office uses cutaways of old iron bathtubs as sofas. (Click Image To Enlarge)

Occupying an entire city block, the New York-themed amusement park of Google’s Chelsea-based headquarters has hallways decorated with subway grates and fire hydrants, graffiti’d conference room doors, and chandeliers made of meat hooks, a nod to the nearby Meatpacking District. One conference room is set up like a tiny Seinfeldian New York apartment--think exposed brick, an electronic drum set, and awkward family photos on the wall. Victorian-style portraits of Star Wars characters decorate the library. Scooters provide its 3,000 employees transportation around the 2.9-million-square-foot building, which welcomes dogs.

GOOGLE NEW YORK -- Google’s Chelsea-based headquarters has hallways decorated with subway grates and fire hydrants, graffiti’d conference room doors, and chandeliers made of meat hooks. (Click Image To Enlarge)

GOOGLE NEW YORK -- Google's New York headquarters features a digital bookshelf. (Click Image To Enlarge)

AMSTERDAM, THE NETHERLANDS

GOOGLE AMSTERDAM -- Designed by local studio DDOCK, the Amsterdam office designs take inspiration from their location’s cultural history and visual flavor, capturing the playfulness inherent in so much Dutch design. (Click Image To Enlarge)

Designed by local studio D/DOCK, Google’s Amsterdam office designs also take inspiration from their location’s cultural history and visual flavor, capturing the playfulness inherent in so much Dutch design. The ceiling panels are designed to look like stroopwafels--that quintessentially Dutch gooey waffle-cookie. Maybe Googlers draw inspiration from sugar cravings? 1960s caravans serve as meeting rooms, complete with lawn chairs and fake grills.

GOOGLE AMSTERDAM -- The ceiling panels are designed to look like stroopwafels--that quintessentially Dutch gooey waffle-cookie. Maybe Googlers draw inspiration from sugar cravings. (Click Image To Enlarge)

DUBLIN, IRELAND

GOOGLE DUBLIN -- Top that with veritable jungles decorating workspaces, and Google's downright Dr. Seussian Dublin campus is possibly the most playground-like in the whole family. (Click Image To Enlarge)

Office foosball tables are old '90s startup news, but an office putting green? Top that with veritable jungles decorating workspaces, and Google's Dr. Seussian Dublin campus is possibly the most playground-like in the whole family.

GOOGLE DUBLIN -- Google's Dublin office is a spunky, brightly colored playground for nerds. (Click Image To Enlarge)

GOOGLE DUBLIN -- Lounge chairs, pool tables, and interesting light fixtures abound, all of which help create a relaxing, fun-filled work environment. (Click Image To Enlarge)

GOOGLE DUBLIN -- Office foosball tables are old '90s startup news, but an office putting green. (Click Image To Enlarge)

TEL AVIV, ISRAEL

GOOGLE TEL AVIV -- And, of course, there are Space-Age egg chairs. (Click Image To Enlarge)

Occupying eight floors of the Electra Tower in Tel Aviv, these offices look like what elves and fairies might build if they held board meetings. Designed by Camenzind Evolution in collaboration with Setter Architects and Studio Yaron Tal, the office features Space-Age egg chairs, ivy and flower-covered walls, shag carpeting, a Lego room, a tube slide between floors, and a view of the Mediterranean sea from the rooftop deck.

GOOGLE TEL AVIV -- Occupying eight floors of the Electra Tower in Tel Aviv, these offices look like what elves and fairies might build if they held board meetings. (Click Image To Enlarge)

GOOGLE TEL AVIV -- The office features ivy and flower-covered walls, shag carpeting, a Lego room, a tube slide between floors, and a view of the Mediterranean sea. (Click Image To Enlarge)

LONDON, ENGLAND

GOOGLE LONDON -- Google's London locale is anglophilic dreamhouse fit for Mr. Bean himself. (Click Image To Enlarge)

The trifecta of Google offices in London range from a space station-like space that seems straight out of a Stanley Kubrick movie to this happy kiddie funhouse to a decidedly homey anglophilic dreamhouse fit for Mr. Bean himself.

GOOGLE LONDON -- A conference room at Google London's 'Super HQ' (Click Image To Enlarge)

GOOGLE LONDON -- Google London's cafeteria offers employees a seeting area where they can meet in small groups. (Click Image To Enlarge)

MOUNTAIN VIEW, CALIFORNIA

The original global headquarters in Mountain View, California, the heart of Silicon Valley, is a sprawling, sun-drenched campus known as the Googleplex. (Click Image To Enlarge)

The original global headquarters in Mountain View, California, the heart of Silicon Valley, is a sprawling, sun-drenched campus known as the Googleplex. “It’s easy to feel like we’re back in college,” Googlers brag in their career page's description of the campus. Here’s why: hundreds of bikes and scooters provide transportation from the conference rooms to the bowling alley, the climbing wall, beach volleyball, and weekly “TGIF” celebrations. Whether hacky sacks are involved in those celebrations, we don't want to know.

PITTSBURGH, PENNSYLVANIA

This hanging netting makes the perfect place to hack, come up with new ideas or just relax at Google's Pittsburgh, Pennsylvannia office. (Click Image To Enlarge)

Google toned down the Google for its Pittsburgh headquarters, opting for exposed pipes and peeled paint to channel the Steel City's rough-and-tumble vibe.

GOOGLE PITTSBURGH -- For their Pittsburgh headquarters, Google opted for exposed brick and peeled paint to channel the Steel City's rough-and-tumble vibe. (Click Image To Enlarge)

GOOGLE PITTSBURGH -- The Pittsburgh office fills the penthouse of a 100-year-old Nabisco factory with pool tables and other crucial aids to techie focus. (Click Image To Enlarge)

ZURICH, SWITZERLAND

In this hammock filled room in Google's Zurich, Switzerland office, employees hang from hammocks or slings to hack, read, invent or just relax. (Click Image To Enlarge)

Zurich Google employees are called Zooglers. And they're virtually required to contract Peter Pan Syndrome in this fireman pole, slide, videogame, and hammock-filled workspace.

COMMENTARY:   No wonder Google seems to get the most talented software engineers and talent from around the world.  Google offices are no ordinary by any means, but represent a sort of fantasy land for hackers.  

Courtesy of an article dated April 10, 2014 appearing in Fast Company Design

DESIGNING THE RIGHT HOME WORKSPACE WITH 6 WAYS TO DEFINE YOUR WORKSPACE

Contemporary Home Office by Evanston Architects & Designers Kipnis Architecture + Planning

If you’re ever had the opportunity (some might say misfortune) of working from home, you know that the distractions are endless. Every time you look up from your computer, there’s a stack of personal mail that needs attention, a glass that should be washed or a household member eager to tell you a story. All you want is to be transported to a secluded island (preferably with Wi-Fi) so you can refocus on the task at hand. 

You deserve a dedicated space that promotes concentration and creativity, with a bulwark to protect you from diversions lurking around every corner. Here’s how to get it.

1. Create a Threshold

Thresholds help designate where work physically starts and stops. They are a visual cue that says, “Step into my office.” The sliding doors shown here not only help block out noise, but they also act as a visual indication to other residents that work is in session. If a separate, closed-off room isn’t possible in your living situation, look for places where you can introduce a threshold.

Modern Home Office by Brooklyn Architects & Designers CWB Architects 

This elevated loft area is an ideal work nook. As with a threshold, the level change indicates the point where a new zone begins. The stair takes you from the home’s living area to a defined space for working, even though no doors or walls are present.

Modern Home Office by San Francisco Architects & Designers CCS ARCHITECTURE

Outlining a work zone can be as simple as switching the flooring material, signaling a different space identity to the home’s other occupants.

Modern Home Office by Austin Architects & Designers Hugh Jefferson Randolph Architects

A dark band defines the wall opening leading to this understair work area. This visual cue makes the change in zoning apparent as you enter and leave.

Contemporary Home Office by Amsterdam Architects & Designers Saus Design

2. Allocate a Pinup Area

Show off examples of what inspires you to do your job. Leave a blank section of wall that can be filled with ideas as they develop. The pinup area could be a framed space for visual thinking. 

By locating this in your office space, you’re categorizing the tasks as work related, as opposed to writing them down in a notebook that might include a personal to-do list.

What Does Your Inspiration Board Say About You?

Contemporary Home Office by Dc Metro Interior Designers & Decorators Residents Understood

Or you could jot down ideas and keep track of tasks on an erasable surface.

Eclectic Home Office by Other Metro Media & Bloggers sarah & bendrix

Ask yourself: Do you work better when images and personal mementos that inspire you are pinned up in an orderly fashion?

Eclectic Home Office by Los Angeles Media & Bloggers Lisa Borgnes Giramonti

Or does it motivate you more to have a variety of colorful, overlapping content? Something that’s seemingly chaotic to one person may provide the perfect amount of visual interest to another. 

Determine which method positively impacts your creativity. The more you surround yourself with what you love, the more time you’ll want to spend in the space.

Contemporary Home Office by Denver Interior Designers & Decorators Kimberly Demmy Design

3. Get Equipped With an Ergonomic Chair

If you’ve ever worked from home, you and your couch may have a complicated relationship. It’s time to move on. The couch may seem comfortable at first, but over time you’ll feel it impacting your motivation as well as your spine. 

A proper chair and work desk will greatly increase your productivity. They will also define your office as a professional workspace.

Modern Home Office by New York Architects & Designers StudioLAB, LLC

The search for a great chair should be twofold. Get a chair that is a) comfortable and b) stylish — something practical and beautiful that you will want to spend hours in, because you will.

Modern Home Office by Houston Architects & Designers C O N T E N T Architecture

4. Centralize Your Technology Equipment

Invest in any equipment that you may need solely for your office environment. For easy access, place everything you use on a regular basis closest to your workstation. If your printer is in another room, you might find yourself leaving your office to pick up a print and getting lost in a variety of distractions.

Contemporary Home Office by Sydney Interior Designers & Decorators Kristie Paul

By confining equipment to one zone of your office, you may gain extra horizontal space for tasks that are not technology dependent — such as sketching and letter writing.

5. Know Your Personal Productivity Style 

Are you more productive in minimalist surroundings? Or do you need visual clutter to inspire you in your line of work? What might seem bland and lackluster to one person may be another’s ideal Zen zone.

 

If you are easily overstimulated, try stashing things behind closed doors and drawers, leaving just enough objects on your workspace to keep you on track.

Modern Home Office by Aspen Architects & Designers S2 Architects

When you combine open and closed shelving with multiple work surfaces, it’s an all-around win. This type of layout works especially well when more than one person (and personality) is sharing the space.

Contemporary Home Office by San Francisco Interior Designers & Decorators Studio Revolution

6. Let the Light Shine In

Contemporary Home Office by Haddon Heights General Contractors Tyler Grace

It doesn’t take much natural light to fill a small space and elevate your mood. Working with the windows you have, let light be a space-defining tool.

Modern Home Office by Aspen Architects & Designers S2 Architects

When you combine open and closed shelving with multiple work surfaces, it’s an all-around win. This type of layout works especially well when more than one person (and personality) is sharing the space.

6. Let the Light Shine In

Contemporary Home Office by Bristol Architects & Designers moon design + build

It doesn’t take much natural light to fill a small space and elevate your mood. Working with the windows you have, let light be a space-defining tool.

Modern Home Office by Austin Home Builders Sett Studio

This unexpectedly placed window provides a connection to the exterior world while still allowing ample wall space for a television screen that’s used as a computer monitor.

Modern Home Office by Other Metro Architects & Designers 3rdSpace

The beauty of letting natural light in is that it usually comes with views to the exterior.Looking out to vegetation helps ease our mind and aids in contemplation and meditation. This simple strategy can be extremely powerful, and can affect your overall productivity within your work area.

Allocating a distinct workspace sets the foundation for a productive home office.

Courtesy of an article dated December 27, 2013 appearing in Houzz

HE HOBBIT HOUSE THAT IS RIGHT OUT OF A J.R.R. TOLKIEN 'LORD OF THE RINGS' FANTASY NOVEL, AND ITS FOR RENT IN MONTANA

Steve Michaels, proprietor of the Hobbit House, asks a reporter when he calls about his pet project.

“DO you have hairy feet?  Bilbo Baggins gets off on hairy feet. Hobbits have hairy feet. They also have hairy bellies. They eat about six times a day.”

If you are a J. R. R. Tolkien fan, this information is old news. But if its a new world your reaction is closer to,

“Hobbit? Short, some kind of elf, annoying. Bilbo? Bilious? Rocky Balboa?” 

And thanks to Mr. Michaels, you can spend the night in it. No need to bring slippers: a big hairy pair await you. Also a wizard’s hat, belonging to someone named Gandalf. How to get there? It’s a long, long journey, because wherever you live, it is not close.

Glorious August, the time for road trips. While it may seem that roadside America has been taken over by motel chains, one as sterile and uninspired as the next, this is not true: there are lots of rich and varied places to stay out there.

The Hobbit House, in northwest Montana, about a three-hour drive from Spokane, Wash., is a guesthouse. Number of units: one. But it is a large unit. The Web site, which the reporter studies before arriving, shows a 1,000-square-foot structure built into a hill, on a 20-acre site dotted with structures that range from small to perfect for squashing with your foot: a four-foot stump-shaped troll house, a few round-door hobbit houses with chimney pipes and several shoe-box-size fairy houses. 

The Hobbit House

View more documents from turk5555. 

Studying the pictures, the reporter has the sinking feeling that she will be spending the night at a miniature golf course. After arriving at the Hobbit House, this fear is quickly put to rest: there are no putting greens.

Mr. Michaels, who turns 63 this month and can be found at his own house across the road, is white-haired and as jolly as Santa, but with a much darker back story and some ambivalence about children. He makes his living as a broker of telephone answering businesses, running a company called TAS Marketing with his 59-year-old wife, Christine, who tends to practical matters like contracts.

But Mr. Michaels has also been many other things: a hypnotist; the author of a self-published self-help book called “How to Die With a Smile on Your Face”; something called a futurist, which seems to involve getting out of the city and arming yourself; and a llama rancher. He keeps four alpacas as pets; pilots what he calls his flying machine, a Buckeye Dream Machine-powered parachute; and gets about his 100-acre property in a Kubota RTV that resembles a hybrid golf cart and dump truck.

A HOBBIT, according to the literature, likes to be comfortable at home, and the guesthouse, shaped on the inside like an inverted bowl, is first class. Mr. Michaels charges $245 a night, and paid about $410,000 to build and furnish it.

There are granite counters in the kitchen, elaborate lighting and a Harmony audiovisual system. A gold ring, which figures prominently in hobbit lore, hangs from a rafter. The rustic wooden furniture is custom-made, and the headboards are embedded with the Hobbit House logo, a hobbit door with a red light — and on the headboards, it’s a real red light.

But what is a visit to the Hobbit House without a tour of the shire? Into the RTV we go, accompanied by Mr. Michaels’s dog, Libby, a collie-shepherd mix. Here is a tiny sod-roof house belonging to Frodo, a Baggins relation; there, in the trunk of a tree, is a mother-son fairy abode (complete with two doors). Not everything is hobbitically accurate: there is a two-foot-tall hairy-back frog, because Mr. Michaels figured that if hobbits were hairy, their frogs should be, too.

Mr. Michaels says, steering the cart toward the sod-covered roof of the life-size guesthouse. 

“And look. You can drive over the house, because it’s built into the ground. Right now, we’re 30 feet over your bedroom.”

Wahoo! Try that at the Best Western. The view of Mr. Michaels’s house across the road, beside the pond, is lovely, and there is an abundance of wildlife here, he says: they have seen coyote, elk, mountain lions, even a grizzly.

Does the wildlife ever damage those little structures?

Mr. Michaels says. 

“This spring we hauled almost a truckload of elk turd from the top of the Hobbit House.  On top of the house it’s nice and warm, and the grass comes in early, and they like to hang out there.”

Back at the guesthouse, we talk about the financial side of things. The Hobbit House was completed last fall, but the guest book shows only about 14 entries. How are they making a go of it?

Mr. Michaels says.  

“We’re not.  TAS Marketing is the way I make my money. This started out as a simple guesthouse, then my contractor’s son said, ‘Oh, it looks like a hobbit house.’ Then my imagination went wild. We read the book and watched the movies, and then we had to have a hobbit house, we had to have a troll house, we had to have the mushrooms. It’s all custom. I’ve got real rich taste.”

He later says.

“I have an addictive personality.”

What is the saga of this hobbit fan with the healing pyramid hanging from his neck, and from what exotic land did he emerge? Burlington, Vt., it turns out.

Mr. Michaels was the middle child of seven children, and his parents were strict and demanding. Also, they were poor. He got his brother’s hand-me-down socks, and in school, when the children took off their shoes to play a marching game, his too-long socks preceded him, flop, flop, flop.

At the urging of his father, a tool and die maker at General Electric, he attended Vermont Technical College after graduating from high school.

An instructor said one day.

“When you finish this, you will be able to fix a radio.”

Mr. Michaels thought.  

“I don’t want to fix the radio.  I want to be on the radio.”

So he went out to Eugene, Ore., and worked as a radio disc jockey while going to Lane Community College, living, he says, like a maniac: crashing cars, stealing food from grocery stores, racking up so many D.U.I.’s that a judge finally gave him the choice of going to jail or leaving the state. (He left the state.)

Eventually he went into sales, married and spent much time in metaphysical searching, exploring reincarnation and the power of the mind to heal physical ailments like cancer. (After the reporter tells him what she thinks of this — picture everyone in the Bronx doing the cheer that bears the borough’s name and you get the idea — he becomes guarded, but he does say that as a hypnotist, he regressed people to past lives.)

The Michaelses moved around, running a bed-and-breakfast in California, a llama ranch in Colorado. One day when they took a few of their llamas for a walk, a neighbor complained because they had walked across his property, and they knew it was time to move along.

They moved to Montana. Mr. Michaels’s communications business was thriving, but he had started drinking at night and smoking marijuana. Then, in the summer of 2004, some neighbors told him about a spiritual healer in Brazil named John of God, who could tell the state of your soul by looking at a photo.

Mr. Michaels sent the healer a picture, and it came back with a red X through it. His heart started pounding. He flushed all the pot he had just bought down the toilet, left his beer in front of a neighbor’s door, went up on the hill behind his house, where his first dog, One Eye, was buried, and wept. He reflected on his life, thought of all the hurtful things he had done as a young man and resolved to do better.

That was when he wrote his book about how to live a richer life and began giving “life assessment” workshops and playing Santa Claus in Trout Creek, intercepting the letters children sent to Santa at the post office and buying them gifts himself. He left waitresses $100 tips. He considered building a three-story lodge for his workshops, but the bank wanted to be too involved.

So the next thing you know, here comes the Hobbit project. Children were not admitted at first (Mr. Michaels did not want their sticky fingers on his expensive furnishings), but so many people wanted to bring them that they are now welcome if they are well behaved.

Mr. Michaels takes the reporter on a tour of the rest of his property: his three-bedroom home; the alpacas; the flying machine, which he has flown up to Cougar Peak (once a bald eagle with a fish in its talons flew alongside him). He seems to have bought all the toys he couldn’t afford as a boy, he is told.

Mr. Michaels agrees.

“There was a time my father wanted a pond on his property, and my brother and I spent two summers and a winter cutting down trees.”

He says.

“My brother and I worked for two summers, my father never even said ‘thank you.’ I decided to build my own pond, and I have a nice island out there and electricity on mine and a lighthouse where the lights go on.”

At the reporter’s request, they go up the hill where Mr. Michael did his vision quest, sitting beside the dog’s grave and thinking about what would become of his own spirit when he died. Four pets are now buried there, and when Mr. Michaels and his wife die, they will be buried there, too.

That evening, he and his wife invite the reporter to a supper any fat-bellied hobbit would appreciate: ribs made according to Mr. Michaels’s secret recipe, potato salad, huckleberry pie. Then it’s to bed.

The reporter tries on Gandalf’s felt wizard hat (too pointy) and the fuzzy deer-hide slippers (too clammy) and, unable to figure out how to turn off the red light on the headboard, throws a blanket over her head and tries to sleep. It occurs to her that she is 30 feet under a hill and the deceased pets are across the road under another hill. It seems as if there should be something profound in this, but the reporter cannot figure out what it is.

The next morning, when she goes to her car, she sees muddy paw prints on the door near the handle, about the height of a hobbit, a bear cub or a dog — a mystery that will remain unsolved. Then it’s back on the August road.

COMMENTARY:   That's what I call vacation house that is quite literally out-of-this-world. Located in a remote section of Montana.  Where the sky is blue and clear during the day.  And you can really see the stars at night.  Located where there are wild animals roaming closeby.  Where the air is clean, and you can read and just kick back and release.  If you like solitude of living out in the wild, away from humanity, and tourist crowds, then The Hobbit House is for you.  At $245.00 per night, that's a real bargain compared to some of the high-priced hotels and resorts.  

The Hobbit House lies in the colorful forested foothills of the Cabinet Mountains up in the Shire of Whitepine Valley approximately 8 Miles S.E. of Trout Creek, the huckleberry capital of Montana and 16 miles N.W. of Thompson Falls. This lushly appointed Tourist Home is tastefully furnished with a crafted King Size Bedroom, HD-Blu-Ray Color TV, 3 Phones and Wi-Fi, XM Radio and a designer’s kitchen furnished with customized granite counters, and all the appliances and tools a chef needs for gourmet creations, including a deck with gas barbeque. This “Hobbit Experience” is a must see if you are into the imaginative and mystical. Another reason to visit Montana!  

To make reservations for the Hobbit House

Please email us [email protected] 

or 

call us at (406) 827-7200 
fax: (406) 827-4554 
Hobbit House of Montana
9 Hobbit Lane, Trout Creek, Montana 59874 

Here's directions to get to the Hobbit House.   Notice ~ Your GPS will not work in getting you to the Shire 

9 Hobbit Lane, Trout Creek, Montana 59874
(406) 827-7200 

From Spokane, WA via Sandpoint, ID on Highway 200: 
* From Spokane / Coeur d' Alene
* Go EAST on I-90 to Highway 95 North (Coeur d’Alene). LEFT at exit
* North on Hwy 95 to Sandpoint, ID
* Go through Sandpoint following 95 through a traffic light that states Hwy 200 straight ahead (heading East) 
* East on Hwy 200 toward Montana.
* Stay on Highway 200 thru Clark Fork, Idaho; Heron, and Noxon to Trout Creek.
* Go past Trout Creek about 8 miles and turn right just past mile market 37 on Whitepine Creek Road. Look for our Hobbit House Door Logo in Blue on the right.
* Go approximately 2 ½ miles to Hobbit Lane on right
* Park under trees in front of our Hobbit House sign
* Check-in at the house across the road 

** Remember there is a time change from Pacific to Mountain Time if you’re coming from Idaho ** 

From Spokane, WA over Thompson Pass Road: 
NOTE: This way of travel is closed in the winter months. 

• From Spokane / Coeur d' Alene
• Go EAST on I-90 to Exit 43 (Kingston). Turn Left
* Continue over free way and along the river to Prichard, ID (approx. 20 miles)
* Cross Prichard Creek
* Turn Right
* Go past Murray, ID
* You'll drive over Thompson Pass to Highway 200 (approx. 40 miles from Prichard)
* Turn LEFT at Highway 200 
* Travel approximately 12 miles almost to mile marker 37
* Just before mile marker 37 - Turn LEFT on Whitepine Creek Road. Look for our Hobbit House Door Logo in Blue on the right.
* Go approximately 2 ½ miles to Hobbit Lane on right
* Park under trees in front of our Hobbit House sign
* Check-in at the house across the road 

From Missoula, MT: (This route is 20 miles shorter) 
* From Missoula 
* Go WEST on I-90 to Exit 96 heading toward Kalispell (Highway 93)
* Stay on Highway 93/200 until you get to Ravalli 
* Turn left on Highway 200 heading to Thompson Falls. 
See directions from Thompson Falls. 

From Missoula, MT via I-90: 
* From Missoula
* Go WEST on I-90 until you reach St. Regis, MT.
* Take Exit 33 (turn Right) on Hwy 135 heading toward Paradise, MT.
* Go approximately 35 miles to Hwy 200
* Go left on Hwy 200 to Thompson Falls, MT.
See directions from Thompson Falls. 

From Thompson Falls, MT: 
* Travel approximately 16 miles almost to mile marker 37
* Just before mile marker 37 - Turn LEFT on Whitepine Creek Road. Look for our Hobbit House Door Logo in Blue on the right.
* Go approximately 2 ½ miles to Hobbit Lane on right
* Park under trees in front of our Hobbit House sign
* Check-in at the house across the road 

From Canada: 
* Go SOUTH till you hear the laughter of Hobbits...  

(8/11/11)

Courtesy of an article dated August 11, 2011 appearing in The New York Times Home & Garden

KNOLL'S 'ACTIVITY SPACES,' FURNITURE FOR TODAY'S MOBILE WORKFORCE WHO ARE NOT TIED TO A DESKTOP, BUT RELY ON MOBILE DEVICES

ANTENNA’S NEW LINE FOR KNOLL IS PURPOSE-BUILT FOR THE SPONTANEOUS WORK ENCOUNTERS THAT OFTEN SPARK INNOVATION.

By now, the concept of “spontaneous collaboration space” in the office is starting to fray around the edges. Despite the proliferation of zany themed meeting rooms, sofas, and bars in the workplace, there’s still no recipe for engineering the random encounters and unplanned work that can lead to breakthroughs. Sigi Moeslinger, one half of Antenna Design, says.

“Architects will often specify residential furniture like coffee tables and couches.  But spontaneous work still requires work space.”

Moeslinger and her partner, Masamichi Udagawa, have designed Bloomberg terminals,  MTA New York City subway cars, and JetBlue check-in kiosks. But for their latest project, the Japanese-Austrian duo bypassed screens and addressed the people who use them.

Activity Spaces, a line of furniture Antenna designed for Knoll, is designed for mobile employees who are no longer tied to a desktop, relying on tablets or phones instead.   Udagawa says.

“Many people don’t have a main computer anymore.  But generally, we still need a place to sit and put something.”

A desk or chair hybrid named Toboggan, designed for use with tablets or laptops, is the centerpiece of a new line of Knoll furniture by Antenna Design (Click Image To Enlarge)

The steel tube and bent plywood of the Toboggan looks like a mutated public school desk--it supports a variety of sitting positions plus a place to rest a tablet or notebook (Click Image To Enlarge)

Activity Spaces is built around a desk/chair hybrid named Toboggan. The steel tube and bent plywood contraption looks like a mutated public school desk--its legs wrap in a C from the desk to the ground up to the integrated stool, creating a lightweight structure that supports a variety of sitting positions plus a place to rest a tablet or notebook.  Moeslinger says. 

“It’s a kind of strange object, and we weren’t sure how people would interact with it.”

But an introduction at NeoCon last year left Antenna pleasantly surprised:  

“People would just intuitively take breaks to check their phones.”

She remembers.

“They got into it right away.”

Knoll Activity Spaces include a number of casual workspaces, including semi-secluded seating for open office plans. This image shows other pieces from the collection, which weren’t designed by Antenna (Click Image To Enlarge)

To assuage the constant lack of power outlets, they designed a stainless steel power block that supplies a charge (Click Image To Enlarge)

The lightweight Toboggans are designed to be moved and rearranged throughout the office, which introduced another problem: the inevitable lack of power outlets. So they designed a stainless steel pole dotted with outlets that supplies a charge wherever it’s wheeled.

Here's, the charging pole (Click Image To Enlarge)

There are also small tables and objects that provide a charge for laptops and tablets (Click Imaage To Enlarge)

Other pieces, like a rolling whiteboard and small tables that also provide a charge for laptops, also promote mobility within the office. The idea is to create a spectrum of spaces within the office, rather than the conventional binary of being at your desk or in a meeting.

A whiteboard on wheels is another lo-fi accessory (Click Image To Enlarge)

A view of the toboggan chair with the power pole

In an unexpected way, Antenna’s expertise in interaction design is what makes these plywood-and-plastic objects so intelligent. It’s not so much about the screen, but rather how and where it’s being used.  Udagawa told me.

“We approach furniture as an interface.  It can modify behavior, and help people make the transition into more open space.”

COMMENTARY:    Office workers no longer lay claim to just a small square of real estate but share ownership of all the spaces that support the multiple tasks they are called upon to perform. In the emerging workplace the whole office is my office. 

Today’s office contains individual assigned workspaces that Knoll calls primary workspaces, and non-assigned spaces that are held in common and occupied with others as needed, called activity spaces. Primary and activity spaces may be individual or shared, open or enclosed, depending on their intended function. Both primary and activity spaces require broad connectivity with ready access to power and data, and wifi capability.

Primary spaces, which are typically assigned open plan workstations or private offices, are
“home base” spaces.  Often configured to support heads-down, focus work as well as short interactions with others, primary spaces may be designed explicitly to support shared work as in a two-person workstation with a table between; or to support team work, as in a large table configuration.

Activity spaces are “go to” spaces, that is, destinations for temporary group and individual work. They include:

• Refuge for focus work among one or two.  dddddddddddddddddddd  
  
• Enclave for small group interactions among three or four   
  
• Team Meeting for teams of five to eight dddddddddddddddddd
  
• Assembly spaces for conferences, lectures or training
  
• Community areas for informal socializing, eating or collaborating.
  

While layout, furnishings and technology will differ depending on the intended function of a given space, the sizes of activity spaces by type are relatively constant. Whether spaces support individual work, collaboration or more structured group activities, all must have qualities that make them places where people want to go.

Successful activity spaces attract, adapt and engage. They are appealing and comfortable, offer appropriate furnishings and technology, and provide multiple communication tools.  Activity spaces permit individuals and group members to shape their work experience by adjusting and reconfiguring elements in the space, and provide opportunities to express organizational culture.

Activity Spaces Defined (Click Image To Enlarge)

If you would like to learn more about Knoll's Activity Spaces line of communual and collaborative furniture designed for today's mobile workforce, you can download Knoll's Activity Spaces whitepaper by clicking HERE.

Courtesy of an article dated April 1, 2013 appearing in Fast Company Design 

THE HOBBIT HOUSE THAT IS RIGHT OUT OF A J.R.R. TOLKIEN 'LORD OF THE RINGS' FANTASY NOVEL, AND ITS FOR RENT IN MONTANA

Steve Michaels, proprietor of the Hobbit House, asks a reporter when he calls about his pet project.

“DO you have hairy feet?  Bilbo Baggins gets off on hairy feet. Hobbits have hairy feet. They also have hairy bellies. They eat about six times a day.”

If you are a J. R. R. Tolkien fan, this information is old news. But if its a new world your reaction is closer to,

“Hobbit? Short, some kind of elf, annoying. Bilbo? Bilious? Rocky Balboa?” 

And thanks to Mr. Michaels, you can spend the night in it. No need to bring slippers: a big hairy pair await you. Also a wizard’s hat, belonging to someone named Gandalf. How to get there? It’s a long, long journey, because wherever you live, it is not close.

Glorious August, the time for road trips. While it may seem that roadside America has been taken over by motel chains, one as sterile and uninspired as the next, this is not true: there are lots of rich and varied places to stay out there.

The Hobbit House, in northwest Montana, about a three-hour drive from Spokane, Wash., is a guesthouse. Number of units: one. But it is a large unit. The Web site, which the reporter studies before arriving, shows a 1,000-square-foot structure built into a hill, on a 20-acre site dotted with structures that range from small to perfect for squashing with your foot: a four-foot stump-shaped troll house, a few round-door hobbit houses with chimney pipes and several shoe-box-size fairy houses. 

The Hobbit House

View more documents from turk5555. 

Studying the pictures, the reporter has the sinking feeling that she will be spending the night at a miniature golf course. After arriving at the Hobbit House, this fear is quickly put to rest: there are no putting greens.

Mr. Michaels, who turns 63 this month and can be found at his own house across the road, is white-haired and as jolly as Santa, but with a much darker back story and some ambivalence about children. He makes his living as a broker of telephone answering businesses, running a company called TAS Marketing with his 59-year-old wife, Christine, who tends to practical matters like contracts.

But Mr. Michaels has also been many other things: a hypnotist; the author of a self-published self-help book called “How to Die With a Smile on Your Face”; something called a futurist, which seems to involve getting out of the city and arming yourself; and a llama rancher. He keeps four alpacas as pets; pilots what he calls his flying machine, a Buckeye Dream Machine-powered parachute; and gets about his 100-acre property in a Kubota RTV that resembles a hybrid golf cart and dump truck.

A HOBBIT, according to the literature, likes to be comfortable at home, and the guesthouse, shaped on the inside like an inverted bowl, is first class. Mr. Michaels charges $245 a night, and paid about $410,000 to build and furnish it.

There are granite counters in the kitchen, elaborate lighting and a Harmony audiovisual system. A gold ring, which figures prominently in hobbit lore, hangs from a rafter. The rustic wooden furniture is custom-made, and the headboards are embedded with the Hobbit House logo, a hobbit door with a red light — and on the headboards, it’s a real red light.

But what is a visit to the Hobbit House without a tour of the shire? Into the RTV we go, accompanied by Mr. Michaels’s dog, Libby, a collie-shepherd mix. Here is a tiny sod-roof house belonging to Frodo, a Baggins relation; there, in the trunk of a tree, is a mother-son fairy abode (complete with two doors). Not everything is hobbitically accurate: there is a two-foot-tall hairy-back frog, because Mr. Michaels figured that if hobbits were hairy, their frogs should be, too.

Mr. Michaels says, steering the cart toward the sod-covered roof of the life-size guesthouse. 

“And look. You can drive over the house, because it’s built into the ground. Right now, we’re 30 feet over your bedroom.”

Wahoo! Try that at the Best Western. The view of Mr. Michaels’s house across the road, beside the pond, is lovely, and there is an abundance of wildlife here, he says: they have seen coyote, elk, mountain lions, even a grizzly.

Does the wildlife ever damage those little structures?

Mr. Michaels says. 

“This spring we hauled almost a truckload of elk turd from the top of the Hobbit House.  On top of the house it’s nice and warm, and the grass comes in early, and they like to hang out there.”

Back at the guesthouse, we talk about the financial side of things. The Hobbit House was completed last fall, but the guest book shows only about 14 entries. How are they making a go of it?

Mr. Michaels says.  

“We’re not.  TAS Marketing is the way I make my money. This started out as a simple guesthouse, then my contractor’s son said, ‘Oh, it looks like a hobbit house.’ Then my imagination went wild. We read the book and watched the movies, and then we had to have a hobbit house, we had to have a troll house, we had to have the mushrooms. It’s all custom. I’ve got real rich taste.”

He later says.

“I have an addictive personality.”

What is the saga of this hobbit fan with the healing pyramid hanging from his neck, and from what exotic land did he emerge? Burlington, Vt., it turns out.

Mr. Michaels was the middle child of seven children, and his parents were strict and demanding. Also, they were poor. He got his brother’s hand-me-down socks, and in school, when the children took off their shoes to play a marching game, his too-long socks preceded him, flop, flop, flop.

At the urging of his father, a tool and die maker at General Electric, he attended Vermont Technical College after graduating from high school.

An instructor said one day.

“When you finish this, you will be able to fix a radio.”

Mr. Michaels thought.  

“I don’t want to fix the radio.  I want to be on the radio.”

So he went out to Eugene, Ore., and worked as a radio disc jockey while going to Lane Community College, living, he says, like a maniac: crashing cars, stealing food from grocery stores, racking up so many D.U.I.’s that a judge finally gave him the choice of going to jail or leaving the state. (He left the state.)

Eventually he went into sales, married and spent much time in metaphysical searching, exploring reincarnation and the power of the mind to heal physical ailments like cancer. (After the reporter tells him what she thinks of this — picture everyone in the Bronx doing the cheer that bears the borough’s name and you get the idea — he becomes guarded, but he does say that as a hypnotist, he regressed people to past lives.)

The Michaelses moved around, running a bed-and-breakfast in California, a llama ranch in Colorado. One day when they took a few of their llamas for a walk, a neighbor complained because they had walked across his property, and they knew it was time to move along.

They moved to Montana. Mr. Michaels’s communications business was thriving, but he had started drinking at night and smoking marijuana. Then, in the summer of 2004, some neighbors told him about a spiritual healer in Brazil named John of God, who could tell the state of your soul by looking at a photo.

Mr. Michaels sent the healer a picture, and it came back with a red X through it. His heart started pounding. He flushed all the pot he had just bought down the toilet, left his beer in front of a neighbor’s door, went up on the hill behind his house, where his first dog, One Eye, was buried, and wept. He reflected on his life, thought of all the hurtful things he had done as a young man and resolved to do better.

That was when he wrote his book about how to live a richer life and began giving “life assessment” workshops and playing Santa Claus in Trout Creek, intercepting the letters children sent to Santa at the post office and buying them gifts himself. He left waitresses $100 tips. He considered building a three-story lodge for his workshops, but the bank wanted to be too involved.

So the next thing you know, here comes the Hobbit project. Children were not admitted at first (Mr. Michaels did not want their sticky fingers on his expensive furnishings), but so many people wanted to bring them that they are now welcome if they are well behaved.

Mr. Michaels takes the reporter on a tour of the rest of his property: his three-bedroom home; the alpacas; the flying machine, which he has flown up to Cougar Peak (once a bald eagle with a fish in its talons flew alongside him). He seems to have bought all the toys he couldn’t afford as a boy, he is told.

Mr. Michaels agrees.

“There was a time my father wanted a pond on his property, and my brother and I spent two summers and a winter cutting down trees,”

He says.

“My brother and I worked for two summers, my father never even said ‘thank you.’ I decided to build my own pond, and I have a nice island out there and electricity on mine and a lighthouse where the lights go on.”

At the reporter’s request, they go up the hill where Mr. Michael did his vision quest, sitting beside the dog’s grave and thinking about what would become of his own spirit when he died. Four pets are now buried there, and when Mr. Michaels and his wife die, they will be buried there, too.

That evening, he and his wife invite the reporter to a supper any fat-bellied hobbit would appreciate: ribs made according to Mr. Michaels’s secret recipe, potato salad, huckleberry pie. Then it’s to bed.

The reporter tries on Gandalf’s felt wizard hat (too pointy) and the fuzzy deer-hide slippers (too clammy) and, unable to figure out how to turn off the red light on the headboard, throws a blanket over her head and tries to sleep. It occurs to her that she is 30 feet under a hill and the deceased pets are across the road under another hill. It seems as if there should be something profound in this, but the reporter cannot figure out what it is.

The next morning, when she goes to her car, she sees muddy paw prints on the door near the handle, about the height of a hobbit, a bear cub or a dog — a mystery that will remain unsolved. Then it’s back on the August road.

COMMENTARY:   That's what I call vacation house that is quite literally out-of-this-world. Located in a remote section of Montana.  Where the sky is blue and clear during the day.  And you can really see the stars at night.  Located where there are wild animals roaming closeby.  Where the air is clean, and you can read and just kick back and release.  If you like solitude of living out in the wild, away from humanity, and tourist crowds, then The Hobbit House is for you.  At $245.00 per night, that's a real bargain compared to some of the high-priced hotels and resorts.  

The Hobbit House lies in the colorful forested foothills of the Cabinet Mountains up in the Shire of Whitepine Valley approximately 8 Miles S.E. of Trout Creek, the huckleberry capital of Montana and 16 miles N.W. of Thompson Falls. This lushly appointed Tourist Home is tastefully furnished with a crafted King Size Bedroom, HD-Blu-Ray Color TV, 3 Phones and Wi-Fi, XM Radio and a designer’s kitchen furnished with customized granite counters, and all the appliances and tools a chef needs for gourmet creations, including a deck with gas barbeque. This “Hobbit Experience” is a must see if you are into the imaginative and mystical. Another reason to visit Montana!  

To make reservations for the Hobbit House

Please email us [email protected] 

or 

call us at (406) 827-7200 
fax: (406) 827-4554 
Hobbit House of Montana
9 Hobbit Lane, Trout Creek, Montana 59874 

Here's directions to get to the Hobbit House.   Notice ~ Your GPS will not work in getting you to the Shire 

9 Hobbit Lane, Trout Creek, Montana 59874
(406) 827-7200 

From Spokane, WA via Sandpoint, ID on Highway 200: 
* From Spokane / Coeur d' Alene
* Go EAST on I-90 to Highway 95 North (Coeur d’Alene). LEFT at exit
* North on Hwy 95 to Sandpoint, ID
* Go through Sandpoint following 95 through a traffic light that states Hwy 200 straight ahead (heading East) 
* East on Hwy 200 toward Montana.
* Stay on Highway 200 thru Clark Fork, Idaho; Heron, and Noxon to Trout Creek.
* Go past Trout Creek about 8 miles and turn right just past mile market 37 on Whitepine Creek Road. Look for our Hobbit House Door Logo in Blue on the right.
* Go approximately 2 ½ miles to Hobbit Lane on right
* Park under trees in front of our Hobbit House sign
* Check-in at the house across the road 

** Remember there is a time change from Pacific to Mountain Time if you’re coming from Idaho ** 

From Spokane, WA over Thompson Pass Road: 
NOTE: This way of travel is closed in the winter months. 

• From Spokane / Coeur d' Alene
• Go EAST on I-90 to Exit 43 (Kingston). Turn Left
* Continue over free way and along the river to Prichard, ID (approx. 20 miles)
* Cross Prichard Creek
* Turn Right
* Go past Murray, ID
* You'll drive over Thompson Pass to Highway 200 (approx. 40 miles from Prichard)
* Turn LEFT at Highway 200 
* Travel approximately 12 miles almost to mile marker 37
* Just before mile marker 37 - Turn LEFT on Whitepine Creek Road. Look for our Hobbit House Door Logo in Blue on the right.
* Go approximately 2 ½ miles to Hobbit Lane on right
* Park under trees in front of our Hobbit House sign
* Check-in at the house across the road 

From Missoula, MT: (This route is 20 miles shorter) 
* From Missoula 
* Go WEST on I-90 to Exit 96 heading toward Kalispell (Highway 93)
* Stay on Highway 93/200 until you get to Ravalli 
* Turn left on Highway 200 heading to Thompson Falls. 
See directions from Thompson Falls. 

From Missoula, MT via I-90: 
* From Missoula
* Go WEST on I-90 until you reach St. Regis, MT.
* Take Exit 33 (turn Right) on Hwy 135 heading toward Paradise, MT.
* Go approximately 35 miles to Hwy 200
* Go left on Hwy 200 to Thompson Falls, MT.
See directions from Thompson Falls. 

From Thompson Falls, MT: 
* Travel approximately 16 miles almost to mile marker 37
* Just before mile marker 37 - Turn LEFT on Whitepine Creek Road. Look for our Hobbit House Door Logo in Blue on the right.
* Go approximately 2 ½ miles to Hobbit Lane on right
* Park under trees in front of our Hobbit House sign
* Check-in at the house across the road 

From Canada: 
* Go SOUTH till you hear the laughter of Hobbits...  

(8/11/11)

Courtesy of an article dated August 11, 2011 appearing in The New York Times Home & Garden

NANO HOUSES: SMALL, MINIMALIST AND ENVIRONMENTALLY-FRIENDLY HOUSES WITH ALL THE COMFORTS, COULD BE THE FUTURE OF HOUSING

"Nano House," a new book by Phyllis Richardson, compiles outstanding examples of small-scale living.

Studio-apartment dwellers may feel reasonably content living a small-scale existence. But if transplanted in the country, how many would opt for a similarly sized house?

Driven by a commitment to reduce energy consumption and built space, there’s a growing trend among the eco-conscious to build tiny homes. A new book, Nano House by Phyllis Richardson (Thames & Hudson), gathers 40 of the best-designed examples from around the world--all of which showcase an appreciation for the efficient use of space, materials, and resources.

Will they inspire “real housewives” of Beverly Hills to abandon their McMansions, short of a foreclosure notice? Not very likely. But they may get a few die-hard city slickers wistfully contemplating a simpler life.

Check out the slideshow of 7 houses from the book. And if you want more, it's available for $20 from Amazon.

Fablab House, IAAC with MIT Center for Bits and Atoms, Spain, 635 sq. ft.

The pointof Fablab House is to get as much solar energy and provide as much living space in a compact, thermally efficient, and low-cost structure. According to the team, it's a "paraboloid section positioned for suitable solar tracking and deformed in appropriate steps aimed towards an optimal orientation for summer (narrowing to the west, widening eastward, and flattening towards the zenith of 70˚)." Since the project was designed for the hot Madrid summer, the group created shaded outdoor space by raising three legs of the building off the ground. 

Since the project was designed for the hot Madrid summer, the team created shaded outdoor space by raising three legs of the building off the ground. The legs contain services, equipment, and water.

The house is built solely of wood, cut from laminated timber using CNC technology.

Click Images To Enlarge

Blob dmvA Architecten, Antwerp, Belgium, 215 sq. ft.

It took a contractor six months to hand-craft the ovoid shape of Blob, a guesthouse out of polyester. The interior is lined with a gridlike storage system, which also has compartments for lounging and sleeping. The nose of the blob and a side door can be opened to create an airy pavilion.

The interior includes 360 degrees of shelving stacked four levels high, skylights and windows to let in natural lighting and a built-in shower.

Click Images To Enlarge

Blob looks a lot like a big Easter egg.  Here's the exterior view with the sidedoor and front open to let in air and sunlight.  The bottom image shows Blob fully-closed to reveal its egg shape, almost spaceship-like in appearance.  Imagine a cluster of Blobs in different colors.  Just wished there were more windows.   

Click Images To Enlarge

Click Image To Enlarge

Villa Hermina HSH Architekti Cernin, Czech Republic, 635 sq. ft.

This box on a hill has two attention-grabbing features: its Pepto-colored exterior and its interior slant. The color refers to the designers’ favorite building, Ludwig Leo’s Versuchsanstalt fur Wasserbau und Schiffbau, in Berlin, whose external pipework is painted pastel pink. The steep incline is in part a response to the client’s request for a movie theater with raked seating. The lower level is connected to the upper by bright-green ramps, which provide more floor space than traditional stairs. The floors are covered in an anti-skid material common in sports facilities.

The steep incline is in part a response to the client’s request for a movie theater with raked seating. The lower level is connected to the upper by bright-green ramps, which provide more floor space than traditional stairs. The floors are covered in an anti-skid material common in sports facilities.

Click Images To Enlarge

Roll-It Institut fur Entwerfen und Bautechnik University of Karlsruhe, Germany, 6 ft., 6 inch x 10 ft.

Designed by students Christian Zwick and Konstantin Jerabek as a competition entry, Roll-It is the ultimate mobile home. Not only does its barrel shape allow it to be easily transported but its interior rotates like a round Rubik’s cube. It’s broken into three rings: at one end is a sleeping/living area, at the other is a kitchen and bathroom hub, and in between is the “corridor,” which can the user can turn by walking up its slope like a hamster wheel. Apart from providing exercise, the middle wheel functions as a dial to rotate either of the outer rings into the desired position.

The interior is broken into three rings: at one end is a sleeping/living area, at the other is a kitchen and bathroom hub, and in between is the “corridor,” which can the user can turn by walking up its slope like a hamster wheel. Apart from providing exercise, the middle wheel functions as a dial to rotate either of the outer rings into the desired position.

Click Images To Enlarge

Sunset Cabin Taylor Smyth Architects, Lake Simcoe, Ontario, Canada, 274 sq. ft.

Sunset Cabin's architect Michael Taylor describes this one-room house, located on the southern shore of Lake Simcoe, as a “simple but sophisticated Canadian bunkie.” Despite its seemingly complex pattern of louvers, the entire structure was constructed from prefabricated sections in four weeks.

Click Image To Enlarge

Lumenhaus, Virginia Tech University, Solar Decathlon Europe 2010, Spain, 667 sq. ft.

Lumenhaus beat out 17 other research universities for the Solar Decathlon title. This unit adapts to changing weather conditions with high-grade insulation, solar panels, and a centrally controlled energy system. A series of sliding doors was inspired by the mushrabiyahfound on traditional Arab houses. The stainless-steel screens feature a sophisticated pattern of disk-shaped cutouts; The rotation of each of the 9,000 disks was determined by Grasshopper software, which was used to calculate the angle of the sun and the degree of visibility in different areas of the house. The higher the disk placement, the more light is let in.

Click Image To Enlarge

House Arc Joseph Bellomo Architects, Hawaii, 753 sq. ft.

The idea for this house has its origins in a bike shed. The eco-minded California architect Joseph Bellomo partnered with the cycling enthusiast Jeff Selzer to design a bike-storage unit that could be installed in parking lots, parks, and city centers. The result was the Bike Arc, a structure made of curved steel ribs and covered in semi-opaque polycarbonate. Bellomo adapted the model for housing, using the same basic shape but with the addition of cedar cladding (which can vary depending on what’s locally available) and sliding glass doors. The house can consist of two modules--one with a kitchen and living area, the other with sleeping quarters--that are joined by a breezeway. Bellomo envisions the Arc being used as a prefab housing solution for people who have been displaced by natural catastrophes.

Click Image To Enlarge

COMMENTARY:  Now that's what I call compact living at its finest.  The Nano Houses are sleek, modern, minimalist in their design concept and designed to optimize limited space.  Small by normal home standards, but sufficient for a single person willing to live in tight quarters, but at a very low price.  If you can find a small plot of land, let's say somewhere on a bluff overlooking the sea or valley below, that has plenty of trees, plants, flowers and shrubbery, now and that would be heaven for a guy like me.  I could blog there all day in absolute comfort.  Bar-B-Q on the wooden desk or small balcony, and we are in business.  

So instead of having to buy a new house when you have to move, you simply take your Nano House with you.  Now that's what I call mobile housing.

Courtesy of an article dated November 12, 2011 appearing in Fast Company Design  

 

IKEA'S CHIC NEW PS COLLECTION CALLS BACK TO THE COMPANY'S RICH 60-YEAR DESIGN HISTORY

IKEA PS Collection for 2012 - Pictures of working people by Anna Efverlund - $39-$99 (Click Image To Enlarge)

IKEA TO ITS DESIGNERS: MAKE OUR OLD STUFF BETTER.

Furniture designers don’t often get the chance to correct their mistakes: Their products are on the market for a couple of years and, with few awesomely popular exceptions, eventually get dropped from their manufacturers’ catalogs to make room for new stock. But Ikea, the go-to big box for affordable Scandinavian design, has given its designers the opportunity to revise their work (as well as that of their predecessors), adding increased functionality and sustainability.   Janice Simonsen, Ikea’s design spokesperson, says.

“[We] challenged our designers to bring their designs forward with innovative products that belong in the future.” 

IKEA PS Collection for 2012 - Bamboo dining table by Jon Karlsson - $179 (Click Image To Enlarge)

IKEA PS Collection for 2012 - Bamboo frame side talbes by Henrik Preutz - $29-$49 (Click Image To Enlarge)

IKEA PS Collection for 2012 - Chest of pine wood drawers by Ehlen Johansson - $399 (Click Image To Enlarge)

The results make their debut at the Milan Furniture Fair as part of the company’s PS collection, a curated series released every three years. This time around, the 60-year-old company decided to revisit its past as a way of creating pieces that address today’s needs for more flexible solutions to small spaces: chairs stack, furniture can transition from indoors to outdoors, a children’s table contains built-in storage, and various products have been upgraded using green materials such as bamboo.

IKEA PS Collection for 2012 - High-back armchair by Ebba Strandmark - $89 (Click Image To Enlarge)

IKEA PS Collection for 2012 - Pendant lamp with LED light diodes by Henrik Preutz - $99.99 (Click Image To Enlarge)

IKEA PS Collection for 2012 - Sofa by Nike Karlsson - $899 (Click Image To Enlarge)

Whereas the brother-and-sister design team Knut and Marianne Hagberg reimagined one of their own designs from the ‘80s, turning a children’s foam indoor chair into a plastic, stackable armchair that can also be used outdoors, Nike Karlsson updated a ’70s metal tube sofa with pocket springs, which not only add comfort but are easy to recycle.

IKEA PS Collection for 2012 - Three pot vertical plant stand by Nicolas Cortolezzis - $39.99 (Click Image To Enlarge)

IKEA PS Collection for 2012 - TV bench by Lisa Widen and Anna Wallin Irnarchos - $179 (Click Image To Enlarge)

IKEA PS Collection for 2012 - Armchair made from wood plastic composite - $59.99 (Click Image To Enlarge)

And while the inspiration for these and the rest of the 46-pieces are from the past, they should not be mistaken as being from another era. Peter Klinkert, Ikea’s PS project leader, says in the press announcement. 

“In the design world, it’s sometimes fashionable to talk about vintage and release new products in old styles.  We always said that we don’t want to relaunch old things. It’s not IKEA PS. It’s not new and developing IKEA onward.”

The PS Collection will roll into stores in August.

COMMENTARY:   Ikea's PS Collection is stylish and chick and priced just right for today's contemporary consumers.  I love the sofa an TV stand the most.  If you have a small space, and don't have a lot of money, IKEA is the way to go.

Courtesy of an article dated April 18, 2012 appearing in Fast Company Design

NEST LABS SECOND-GEN LEARNING THERMOSTAT RECEIVES RAVE REVIEWS, BUT HONEYWELL SUES FOR PATENT INFRINGEMENT

The Nest Thermostat prominently mounted on a wall in a modern day home

THE NEST LEARNING THERMOSTAT, INVENTED BY THE IPOD’S ORIGINAL PRODUCT MANAGER TONY FADELL, IS A GOOD CASE STUDY IN MAKING SMALL, THOUGHTFUL IMPROVEMENTS THAT HELP USERS.

When we first sat down with Tony Fadell, the CEO of Nest and the inventor of the Nest Learning Thermostat, we asked him what made Steve Jobs so great. Fadell is, perhaps, one of the best-qualified people on the planet to answer. He’s the one who first pitched the idea of an iTunes/iPod ecosystem. He’s the one who Steve Jobs hired to bring the iPod to life. And, working with Jobs, he shepherded 18 generations of iPods, and the first three generations of iPhones. At the time, Fadell simply said

"Steve had a way of scoping the problem bigger. He could just look at a problem and find the solution by thinking larger."

Tony Fadell, is the Father of the Apple iPod, and now runs Nest, creator of the Nest Learning Thermostat (Click Image To Enlarge)

That lesson certainly explains how Fadell arrived at the Nest Learning Thermostat, a simple, high-end device which has about as much in common with a regular thermostat as the first iPod had with an iRiver MP3 player. Unlike the thermostats you know, it learns your living patterns and senses whether you’re at home, managing your energy use. Programming it is a matter of adjusting a dead-simple, dial interface. When combined with an iPhone and web app, Nest is a solution to a much bigger problem of how much we know about our energy use, and how we learn about it.

 

But just a few months after the Nest’s introduction, it’s clear that Fadell and his new company also took another Apple lesson to heart: the constant need for tiny tweaks that are laser focused on making the user’s life easier. And also: the need to introduce big changes to the consumer slowly, over time. By looking at how Nest’s second-generation thermostat has evolved, we can see those two crucial ideals at work.

RETHINKING THE SET-UP EXPERIENCE

As Fadell has told Fast Company, one crucial element of its success was that its unboxing experience immediately worked hard to enchant the user with its ease and refinement. It was (and is) the iPod’s very first statement about how the device itself works, and its attention to detail. Along those lines, Fadell’s team made the Nest unboxing and install easier with a custom, ergonomic screwdriver for hanging the thermostat, and a level for indicating whether the device was hanging straight. Fadell told us. 

"This isn’t cheap.  But when you take it out of the box, you want it to be easy to install--at all costs."

Along those lines, the second-gen Nest boasts clever improvements. For one, the connectors on the backplate, which link the thermostat to your HVAC system, have been rethought. Previously, the layout meant that you’d have to push down on the connector with one hand, while threading the wire with the other. (You can see this layout on the left, below.) But the problem was that the push-down tab was too close to the opening for the wires, meaning your fingers would bump into each other. Now, they’ve solved that by placing the push-down tab on the opposite end of the assembly. Check out the new design (on the right below):

Click Image To Enlarge

Another subtle, but rather thoughtful detail that Nest thought about was the actual act of screwing it into the wall. Virtually every home today is dry wall; unfortunately, dry wall is an annoying surface on which to hang things. If you’re screwing into it, you usually have to use an anchor. If you’ve ever used one, you know they’re fussy and messy, and if you don’t get the hole right, you simply tear up the wall completely, leaving behind a divot nearly as wide as an iPod Shuffle. So instead, Nest actually engineered a new type of screw, which can grip into dry wall directly, without needing an anchor at all. Note how widely spaced the threads are. This is so that they can grip into the powdery dry wall, without having it crumble around the screw:

Click Image To Enlarge

To some people, those two changes would seem basic, perhaps even minor. But then again, how many companies can you think of that would spend so much time thinking about how users place their fingers when installing their product, and what the entire experience is like, from the very first unboxing to the screwing-in? As important as those human-centered solutions are, what’s just as important is the fact that they were a priority. Again, how many companies would have even thought to make these changes? And how many would think to release these changes fewer than six months after their first-generation product hit the market?

INTRODUCING BIG SHIFTS SLOWLY

Fadell told us previously.  

"If we’d come out with the iPhone of home-energy management, people would just get confused."

Meaning that if the very first Nest thermostat had boasted all of the functionality and features that Nest plans for it, it would have been too confusing a product to get mainstream adoption. You have to let people buy into a device first, before building a world of functionality around it. Thus, Nest 1.0 was basic by design. And the current generation introduces a far richer set of features. But they live behind some very simple changes to the mobile and laptop apps.

Click Image To Enlarge

Nest clearly wants to move in the direction of becoming not just a thermostat but a central nexus for managing your energy use. (Think here of the way an iPod is not merely a music device but is also connected to a famously well-developed iTunes ecosystem.) They’d like for the thermostat to be a smart device, capable not just of reacting to your commands but helping you live better, using less. Along those lines, look at the new app for managing the thermostat. One bar tells you how much heating or cooling you used on each day. (Green Arrow.) If your energy use is relatively high or low, an icon tells you what was behind the changes. (Blue Arrow.) And if you want to see an energy bar with finer detail, there’s an expanded view that tells you exactly what went on. (Red Arrow.)

USER-CENTERED DESIGN IS THE BEST MARKETING

A skeptic about all of this would point out that thermostats aren’t at all like iPods. You don’t buy them every two years. You don’t want to think about them. They’re designed to be taken for granted. But Nest--along with any top-notch designer--would probably say that wanting to interact with a product is precisely the problem that design is supposed to solve. By offering delight where there was once annoyance, the hope is that you can draw your customers in closer. And once you have them close? Well, look at what Apple did. How many people who first bought iPods then upgraded to iPhones? How many people with iPhones later bought a Macbook Air?

Sure, there’s a sense in which the Nest seems almost over-designed--all of this care for a one-time experience of screwing it in might seem excessive. But the fact is that user-focused design is also a form of good will--and a better sort of marketing than any ad could ever be. What happens if Nest starts creating all kinds of other products, for keeping track of your home or, hell, even managing your entertainment and utility bills? Consumers won’t forget the experience they had. And it will sell them on the next new thing.

COMMENTARY:    I first covered the Nest Learning Thermostat in a blog post dated October 26, 2011, and was very impressed with the amount of venture capital (estimated at $50 to $80 billion) that Tony Fadell had raised from VC's, including Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Myers.  You see folks, it helps to be a former Apple alumnus and creative genius behind the iPod.  I described Tony's new thermost as a "hot idea, whose time has come."  Was I right?   

I don't have any sales figures to give you, as Nest is very glum on this topic.  

The Reviews

The Nest Learning Thermostat reviews are very good to excellent:

The N.Y. Times says:

"The Nest is gorgeous, elegant and very, very smart."

Slate says:

"If you're in the market for a new thermostat, get this one."

Amazon.com listed 24 reviews averaging four stars (out of five stars) and it broke into Top 100 in Home Improvement.

CNET says:

"The Good: Easy to install and easy on the eyes, the Nest Learning Thermostat learns your heating and cooling preferences over time, so you don't have to set it. Wi-Fi networking and a tasteful app let you control and monitor your Nest from afar."

"The Bad: At $250, the Nest is so very expensive."

"The Bottom Line: The Nest Learning Thermostat makes home climate control, yes, interesting. With lovely design, charming extras (it reports the weather!), and integrated Wi-Fi, this thermostat of the future can restart an industry."

Honeywell Sues Nest

On February 6,  2012, Honeywell, a company long known for its commercial and residential thermostats, filed a patent infringement lawsuit against Nest Labs. 

The suit claims the Nest Learning Thermostat infringes on seven of Honeywell’s patents, spanning categories as generic as a “natural language installer” (a set-up menu, by any other name) to an “HVAC controller,” a standard component of any temperature control system.

Honeywell environmental and combustion controls president Beth Wozniak said in a statement issued the same date as the lawsuit filing.

“Competition is good and we welcome it, but we will not stand by while competitors, large or small, offer products that infringe on our intellectual property.” 

As for Nest, the company is keeping mum on specifics: Nest Labs spokeswoman Kate Brinks said in an e-mail to Wired. 

“We have not yet reviewed the actual filing, which we learned about this morning through Honeywell’s press release.  We will provide comment once we’ve had the opportunity to review it.”

Tony, welcome to the world of patent infringements.

Courtesy of an article dated April 16, 2012 appearing in Fast Company Design

 

 

HOW HERMAN MILLER'S KAIZEN MANUFACTURING PROCESS ADAPTED FROM TOYOTA CAN FINISH A NEW AERON CHAIR IN 340 SECONDS

Completed Aeron Chair (Click Image To Enlarge)

USING TECHNIQUES IMPORTED FROM TOYOTA, HERMAN MILLER HAS ACHIEVED STUNNING EFFICIENCY WHILE EMPOWERING ITS WORKERS.

Amidst all the doom-and-gloom about the death of American manufacturing, the one, simple fact that’s usually forgotten is that we’re still the world’s No. 1 manufacturer. No joke, and not a typo: We produce one fifth of the world’s total manufacturing output.

Herman Miller factory worker assembles Aeron chair (Click Image To Enlarge)

Herman Miller puts all Aeron chairs through stringent quality control tests to insure quality and reliability (Click Image To Enlarge)

Herman Miller puts all Aeron chairs through stringent quality control tests.  Here test chairs backs are pulled by cables numerous times to insure quality and reliability (Click Image To Enlarge)

The difference between how Americans once made stuff and how that stuff is made today is that manufacturing in the U.S. has reached a stunning level of efficiency that can be hard to really comprehend. Unless, of course, you visit a factory like the one that makes Herman Miller’s Aeron chair. We recently did, and saw a process which has yielded a 500% increase in productivity and a 1,000% increase in quality since 1998.  Those numbers sound made up, but bear with me for a second, and I’ll explain.

 

The Kaizen ("continual improvement") process that yielded all those results was imported directly from Toyota, in the 1990s. At the time, Herman Miller was hoping to bring down costs in order to stay competitive across the world. And Toyota was hoping to build better relationships in the U.S., as part of its effort to build more cars in America. Herman Miller’s present EVP of operations, Ken Goodson, eventually cajoled Toyota into making Herman Miller one of the first companies in a pilot program to teach American companies Japanese manufacturing techniques. Toyota eventually sent Hajime Oba, a legendary manufacturing genius, to lead the lessons. (Oba himself, humble to the end, prefers that he be called sensei or coach.)

The sloped feeder that delivers chair bases to the worker use gravity rather than machinery to do the job--thus decreasing the breakdowns. (Click Image To Enlarge)

Herman Miller assembly worker places paper wrapping on completed Aeron chair for packing (Click Image To Enlarge)

Herman Miller assembly worker takes notes on production performance to insure everything is going according to plan (Click Image To Enlarge)

Kaizen, as many people will tell you, isn’t about grand ideas or huge structural changes. Rather, it’s about tiny improvements that accrue over time. So for Herman Miller, these involve adjustments as minute as the placement of a bin of washers so someone has to reach over 6 inches less, or the height of an assembly line, so people don’t waste a fraction of a second bending over.

The process is as important as the results: It’s the individual employees on the line that are suggesting these improvements. At Herman Miller, they average 1,200 "plan-do-check acts"--that is, little proposed changes to the assembly process--ever year. Eric VanDam, Herman Miller's director of operations in seating says.  

"The biggest thing is to empower people to change the work in ways that matter to them." 

All of these tiny improvements, in the course of 13 years, have meant that a new Aeron chair, which used to come off the line every 82 seconds, is now boxed and finished every 17 seconds. A decade ago, an Aeron took more than 600 seconds in total to build. Today, it’s about 340. Meanwhile, safety metrics have improved by a factor of 6. Quality metrics have improved by a factor of 10. A single Aeron takes one fifth of the labor to make that it once did. The actual factory itself is 10 times smaller.

Today, Herman Miller is doing far more with the same labor force that was once producing a sum total of five different office chairs. Today, they produce 17, using roughly the same number of people. And all the while, lead times have shrunk from two months to as little as 10 days.

You might think that all this means that Herman Miller should be running into a practical limit in how efficient they can be. But they’re still getting improvements of a quarter to a half of a second at a time, month by month. They’re on track this year to beat all their records--again.

COMMENTARY:      I wish I could put together a new office chair in 340 seconds.  If you have ever had to put together an office chair, or even a wodden desk, it can be a very time-consuming and frustrating experience, even with a set of written instructions to work from.   SmartFurniture, Herman Miller's San Francisco distributor, makes it look easy in this video.

 

I do love Herman Miller office furniture, especially those ergonomic and comfortable Aeron chairs. I view them as a form of art, not just office furniture.  Plus, they are 100% made in the U.S.A.  They are a bit pricey, but you get what you pay for.  Herman Miller products are sold only through authorized office furniture distributors.    

The basic price for the Aeron chair is $629.00, and can be customized with lumbar support adjustment, leather arm rests, fully-adjustable arm support and other goodies.  It costs $50.00 extra to buy one fully-assembled.   Beware of cheap foreign imitators.  There are several of them out there, but they are just not the same thing. 

Courtesy of an article dated March 28, 2012 appearing in Fast Company Design