ImaginativePRO Blog

THE MOOR HOUSE, A BEAUTIFUL, ECO-FRIENDLY AND WELL LIT AUSTRALIAN HOUSE, ONLY 15-FEET WIDE, BUT IT'S A DREAMHOUSE

Andrew Maynard, Australia's hottest young architect, has just unveiled a dreamy new addition to the back of an old Victorian Rowhouse in the Melbourne suburb of Fitzroy, Victoria. (Click Image To Enlarge)

AUSTRALIA'S HOTTEST YOUNG ARCHITECT HAS TRANSFORMED A SKINNY VICTORIAN ROWHOUSE INTO A DREAMY SUSTAINABLE DWELLING. IF ONLY EVERY SHOEBOX COULD FEEL LIKE A PALACE.

Only 15 feet wide, the Moor House is a beautiful mullet of a residence--business in the front, party in the back. Maynard avoided an imposing monolithic structure and opted instead to stack and stagger small cubes.  The front of the home was left as is, with a humble, aging white façade, but its back was removed to make way for a new solar-paneled, daylight-filled space.  The Moor House design is remarkable in its transformation of an aging and claustrophobic space into a thoroughly modern dream house, proving that bigger isn’t always better.  (Click Images To Enlarge)

One of Australia’s hottest young architects, Andrew Maynard, has just unveiled a dreamy new addition to the back of an old Victorian Rowhouse in the Melbourne suburb of Fitzroy, Victoria. Only 15 feet wide, the Moor House is a beautiful mullet of a residence--business in the front, party in the back. The front of the home was left as is, with a humble, aging white façade, but its back was removed to make way for a new solar-paneled, daylight-filled dwelling. Maynard's design took the rowhouse's traditional blocky, monolithic structure and divided it up into three staggered boxes, creating a hierarchy in space and a sculptural, modernized look. Working within a cramped area--15 feet is about the length of the average car--Maynard had to make the most of every millimeter.

A 15-foot wide space that makes people ooh and aah has implications that reach far beyond Fitzroy—what if such smart architectural planning could be applied to tiny apartments the world over, making all of our shoeboxes feel like palaces?  Maynard created a light well at the center of the house, illuminating rooms from three sides instead of just two.  (Click Images To Enlarge)

The diagrams for the house reveal inspirations as quirky as Miyazaki’s anime film Princess Mononoke, which encouraged designers to go for “an accumulation of little features that shapes the entire image.” By avoiding a single blocky unit and instead stacking and staggering small cubes, Maynard created a light well at the center of the house, which illuminates rooms from three sides instead of just two.

The kitchen's concrete floor soaks up thermal energy, helping to heat the house in winter.  Cozy banquettes and a built-in desk conserve space, while a steel-framed sliding glass wall converts the kitchen into an idyllic indoor-outdoor area, merging it with the timber deck.  Floor to ceiling windows allow for ample natural light, even while you're taking a bath.  (Click Images To Enlarge)

The eco-friendly structure is split into three volumes--one on the bottom floor and two on the top, which house bedrooms. Maynard tells Co.Design,

"The eaves allow sunlight to flood the internal space in winter (as the sun is low), while excluding the sun completely in summer (when the sun is high), which allows for passive solar gain."

Bright red paneling pops on the upper level’s façade, and an overhang shades the backyard, which is home to a lovely Japanese maple tree.  The diagrams for the house reveal inspirations as quirky as Miyazaki’s anime film Princess Mononoke, which encouraged designers to go for “an accumulation of little features that shapes the entire image.”  (Click Image To Enlarge)

Bright red paneling pops on the upper level’s façade. Cozy banquettes and a built-in desk conserve space, while a steel-framed sliding glass wall converts the kitchen into an idyllic indoor-outdoor area, merging it with the timber deck. Maynard says.  

"The thermal mass of the kitchen's concrete floor allows it to hold the heat from the sunlight that hits it.  It slowly releases this heat throughout the evening, passively heating the house. This works the opposite way in summer. As the sun does not hit the thermal mass of the floor directly it remains cool." 

transformation of an aging and claustrophobic space into a thoroughly modern dream house, proving that bigger isn’t always better. A 15-foot-wide space that makes people ooh and aah has implications that reach far beyond Fitzroy--what if such smart architectural planning could be applied to tiny apartments the world over, making all of our shoeboxes feel like palaces?

COMMENTARY:   I love the "smaller is better" design concept that the Moor House incorporates, and yet is still able to remain eco-friendly with solar panels for power and the central ceiling opening for lots of natural light during the day.  The kitchen concrete floor absorbs the suns heat during the day, and distributes that heat in the evening to conserve on energy.  It shows that you don't have to build big to incorporate these eco-friendly and practical features. 

Courtesy of an article dated November 4 2013 appearing in Fast Company Design 

A LOOK INSIDE APPLE'S SPACESHIP HEADQUARTERS WITH 24 ALL-NEW RENDERINGS

At this point, there’s a good chance you’ve seen pictures of Apple’s proposed new headquarters — a 2.8-million-square-foot spaceship parked in a verdant man-made forest in the northeast corner of Cupertino. Since the first dozen or so renderings trickled out in 2011, however, we haven’t gotten a much better sense of what all the new campus will entail or what it will be like to work there. Until now. Apple may be known for its secrecy, but buried in Cupertino’s municipal archive is a wealth of detail on the project — including more than 20 previously unseen renderings of the new campus.

Click Images To Enlarge

In these images, we see for the first time the space port-like entrance to the development’s subterranean parking lot, a cavernous cafeteria that spills into the grassy landscape beyond, and the glass pavilion that will serve as the entrance to Apple’s new underground auditorium — a secure lair where press will gather for future product launches. In short, these documents give us the most complete picture of Apple’s new home yet, a campus that Steve Jobs himself thought had a shot at being “the best office building in the world.” Here’s a peek at life in the mothership.

Click Images To Enlarge 

The Mothership

Apple Campus 2, which was approved by city officials last month, will sit on a 176-acre plot in the South Bay city of 60,000 — a site that was once home to HP and Compaq. If you’re an Apple employee who drives to work, you’ll enter the campus at a freshly constructed security point at North Wolfe Road, on the west edge of the site. The lucky ones will quickly be diverted into a discrete, futuristic tunnel, where a subterranean service road will give them access to a two-level, 2,000-space parking garage underneath the mothership itself. Otherwise, you’ll have to wind your way to the south edge of the campus to the above-ground parking garage — a pair of emory board-shaped structures, clad with solar panels and foliage. If you take advantage of Apple’s shuttle buses from elsewhere in the Bay Area, you’ll be dropped off at the “Corporate Transit Center” on the eastern edge of the site. From there a walkway, flanked by two Apple Store-white staircases, will lead into the mothership itself.

Click Images To Enlarge

This massive donut of a building is the jewel of the campus. Designed by star architect Norman Foster, whose firm’s well-known works include the bullet-shaped Gherkin in London and the restored Reichstag in Berlin, the four-story ring will put 13,000 engineers and designers under a single curving roof. It won’t be the only place you’ll find Apple employees on site — a cluster of buildings tucked away at the southern edge of the campus will be reserved for R&D. But the spaceship is definitely the main attraction, and from what we’ve heard so far it should be no less cutting-edge than any Apple gadget.

Click Images To Enlarge

In a video Apple presented to Cupertino city officials last month, Stefan Behling, one of the Foster and Partners architects working on the project, summed the building up as “one of the most environmentally sustainable projects on this scale anywhere in the world.” The plan is for the facility to run entirely on renewable energy, drawing largely from on-site fuel cell plants and rooftop photovoltaic arrays. Natural ventilation and radiant cooling mean that the spaceship won’t need air conditioning for some 70 percent of the year. These green efforts are being overseen by Lisa Jackson, a recent addition to the company. If her name’s familiar, there’s good reason: Jackson headed the EPA for the Obama administration prior to joining Apple as environmental director earlier this year.

Click Images To Enlarge

The internal arrangement of the office is still something of a mystery, but it’s already come in for some skepticism. Some architects have raised doubts about the wisdom of a stubborn circular floor plan at a time where more flexible, reconfigurable workspaces are in vogue. It’s worth comparing Apple’s new circular home to the other headquarters Jobs had a hand in designing. As Buzzfeed recently reported, Jobs was heavily involved in the layout of Pixar’s campus, a 22-acre plot in Emeryville, CA the studio has occupied since 2000. Most notably, Jobs insisted on a huge, central indoor meeting place known today as The Atrium. Looking at the floor plan for Apple’s vast headquarters, it’s hard to envision a single similar place where Apple’s employees will naturally congregate.

Click Images To Enlarge

Still, the company insists that the floor plan is designed to promote collaboration. The inner and outer rims of each floor will be left open as walkways, allowing employees to circulate around the ring. “At one point in the day you may be in offices on one side of the circle and find yourself on the other side later that day,” Peter Oppenheimer, Apple’s CFO, told San Jose Mercury News last month.

“We found that rectangles or squares or long buildings or buildings with more than four stories would inhibit collaboration…We wanted this to be a walkable building, and that’s why we eventually settled on a circle.”

Click Images To Enlarge

There’s no doubt, though, that it will be a beautiful place to work. The renderings show a headquarters that borrows from the spartan aesthetic of the retail stores (whether or not they’ll actually fly iPod Nano banners, as shown in one of the interior scenes, remains to be seen). Employees will enjoy a massive 90,000-square-foot cafeteria carved into a section of the building, from which they’ll be able to stroll to the parkland on both the inside and outside of the ring. After that, they can head to the on-site fitness center situated just north of the main building.

Click Images To Enlarge

Earlier this year, Businessweek offered a glimpse into some of the details of the undertaking, noting “unprecedented” 40-foot floor-to-ceiling panes of concave glass that are being manufactured for the four-story facade.  Jobs boasted in his initial presentation.

“There isn’t a straight piece of glass in the whole building.”

The mammoth structure didn’t escape Jobs’ fanatical attention to the smallest details, either. According to the Businessweek report, Jobs found the industry-standard 1/8 inch breaks between surfaces too unseemly and demanded that the gaps in his new headquarters be no greater than 1/32 inch across. As Behling, the architect, says in the presentation video,

“This project is pushing the boundaries of technology in almost every aspect.”

Click Images To Enlarge

Bringing California Back to Cupertino

In the company’s own words, the new campus will offer “a serene environment reflecting Apple’s brand values of innovation, ease of use and beauty.” Despite the mothership’s sustainable credentials, though, the greenest part of the development isn’t even the building itself — it’s everything surrounding it. The renderings show something that hardly resembles a corporate campus it all. What it is, really, is a huge park.

Apple’s proposals describe the future landscape as “an ecologically rich oak savanna reminiscent of the early Santa Clara Valley.” Norman Foster says that Jobs wanted the campus to evoke the California of his childhood, one he “still remembered…as the fruit bowl of America.” What it all means is that David Muffly, Apple’s Senior Arborist, presumably has his hands full (yes, that’s his real job title).

Employees lounge on the lawn outside Apple’s future ringed headquarters. Image: City of Cupertino (Click Image To Enlarge)

Muffly and the other landscape designers on the job have plotted the site down to the very last tree. Inside the main building, not far from a sizable fountain, workers will enjoy a cluster of Apple trees. Over by the entrance to the cafeteria, you’ll find rows of cherries, plums, and apricot trees, with persimmons sprinkled just beyond those. More of the same will be found outside the ring, on the other side of the cafeteria, where employees will be able to dine al fresco in an area Apple’s calling “the glade.”

A dense perimeter of trees will ring the site, serving as a visual buffer from prying eyes outside. Below the main building, there will be a vast lawn, stretching down to the auditorium and parking decks below. In fact, to make room for this continuous green space, Apple is erasing Pruneridge Avenue off the map entirely (a vestigial nub will remain as an access road for an apartment complex that sits stubbornly next to the site.)

 

At a recent planning presentation with the city, Dan Whisenhunt, Apple’s senior director of real estate and facilities, put this dramatic transformation into numbers. Today, the site is 20 percent landscape — the rest covered by buildings and asphalt. By 2016, when the new Apple campus is complete, it will be 80 percent landscape. Currently, the plot has some 4,500 trees; when Apple is done there will be 7,000. The idea, Muffly the arborist says, is to “bring California back to Cupertino.”

 

Apple Campus 2 Presentation to the City of Cupertino on October 1, 2013 

An Underground Auditorium

The campus won’t be exclusively for the enjoyment of its employees. Every few months, a select group of outsiders will be allowed in to visit a separate structure nestled among the wildlife: Apple’s new corporate auditorium. Instead of meeting the press at a venue like the Moscone Center in San Francisco, Tim Cook has said that the intention is to summon reporters to its custom-designed auditorium for all future events. And from the look of things, it will be a nice place to see a product launch. Instead of a reality distortion field, the new 1,000-seat facility sits underneath an actual one, with a grassy runway leading up to the auditorium’s glass entryway. Visitors will enter through this stark glass pavilion — it’s topped with a saucer-like roof of its own — and descend into a subterranean theater for the main event.

 

The late Apple CEO Steve Jobs presented the plans of the new Apple Campus "The Mothership" to the Cupertino City Council in June 2011 (Click Image To Enlarge)

The auditorium’s design isn’t altogether unlike that of the Fifth Avenue Apple Store in New York City — one that Steve Jobs reportedly sketched himself in its earliest stages. And by all accounts, Jobs was hands-on in the development of the new campus, too. In the presentation video above, Foster recalls the genesis of the collaboration, when Jobs called the architect out of the blue one day in 2009. “Hi Norman, I need some help,” Jobs said, and three weeks later they were meeting in person. “One of the most memorable things and perhaps vital to the project was Steve saying, ‘Don’t think of me as a client, think of me as one of your team,’” Foster says.

As with so many of Apple’s products, the unique blend of vision and precise detail won’t come cheap. Earlier this year, the Businessweek report put the project’s budget at $5 billion and growing. And again, the wisdom of the design is up for debate: there’s no telling if the ringed design floor plan will foster collaboration or stifle it.

Still, a stubborn adherence to a singular vision is what gave us trailblazing products like the iPhone and the iPad. Maybe the formula will work for a headquarters, too. As Whisenhunt, the Apple exec, told the Cupertino officials in October, when it comes to the new campus,

“You can be sure that, following Steve’s lead, we’ve used the same care and the same meticulous attention to detail we put into every Apple product.”

COMMENTARY:   It must've been a truly tense situation for Normal Foster, the architect who designed Apple's Spaceship HQ.  I have a feeling that Steve Jobs was involved throughout the concept and final design stages of the new headquarters building.  Steve Jobs can be very intimidating and demanding, and when he said, "I need your help," he was really saying I need your input to help me (Steve jobs) design a new headquarters building.  It is always about Steve--"Me, Myself and I."  Steve would never have it any other way.  If Apple is spending upwards of $1 billion for the new HQ building, it is his temple, his idea, his everything.  Norman Foster had absolutely nothing to do with the design of the new HQ.  That must've left Foster with an empty feeling inside, knowing, it was all Steve Jobs idea right down to the final nail, piece of drywall and placement of the trees on the property.   Please, if you think I am wrong about this, and have intimate knowledge how the design of Spaceship all came down, and who was really running the show. by all means speakup and call me out.      

Having said the above, I think Apple Spaceship is an ugly design.  It reminds one of a hulahoop or donut, nothing beautiful.  If Jobs wanted a minimalist design, with no sharp corners, he got what he wanted, but it is a damn ugly design that will never win any design awards.  Why didn't he design a building in the shape of the Apple logo (the apple) instead?  You could've seen it from outerspace and said, "See, down there, it's Apple Apple."  LOL  !!@@!!

Courtesy of an article dated November 11, 2013 appearing in WIRED

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

SEATTLE ARCHITECT DESIGNS NORTHWEST DESIGNS PUGET SOUND HOUSE THAT CAN WITHSTAND 330 MPH WINDS OR A TSUNAMI

Contemporary Exterior by Seattle Architects & Designers Dan Nelson, Designs Northwest Architects

The story of how a modest cabin perched on the edge of Puget Sound on Camano Island, Washington, became a sturdy modernist structure strong enough to take on no less than a tsunami is an interesting one. The owners contacted Dan Nelson, principal at Designs Northwest in Seattle, about a simple remodel for their small, classic fishing cabin. Plans were drawn and permits were issued. But the clients didn’t pick them up from the building department for more than a year. When they finally got around to it, they found that their permits had expired and the government had changed things.  Nelson says.  

“The Army Corps of Engineers redrew the flood plain map.  Now, by code, any home that’s built or remodeled in this area has to be able to withstand activity in a ‘high-velocity wind zone’ — which means a tsunami.”

Nelson says the news came as a shock to the homeowners — and to him — but they were able to turn the curveball into a positive design situation. The new requirements necessitated looking at the project in a different way, and the result is a stylish home that’s built for a storm.

Houzz at a Glance

Location: Camano Island, Washington
Who lives here: A couple and their 3 children
Size: 900 square feet; 2 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms
Year remodeled: 2013

Nelson says.  

“Basically we had to build a house that would rest on 5-foot piers and that could withstand 300-mile-per-hour lateral waves. If there were walls or windows below, they had to be able to break away.  We thought, Why not build it on 9-foot piers and give them some living space under the house?”

Contemporary Exterior by Seattle Architects & Designers Dan Nelson, Designs Northwest Architects 

That idea led to the creation of what the architects dubbed the Tsunami House. The main living space is on the second story; the lower level is what the family calls the cabana.

Contemporary Garage And Shed by Seattle Architects & Designers Dan Nelson, Designs Northwest Architects

The walls of the cabana are actually industrial garage doors the architects outfitted with fasteners designed to break away under the force of strong waves. The exterior — clad in metal and Vivix siding, a Formica-like product that can look like wood — can also stand up to the elements.

Contemporary Garage And Shed by Seattle Architects & Designers Dan Nelson, Designs Northwest Architects

When the garage doors are raised, the path that flood waters could take is clear. For most of the year, the owners use this space as an al fresco family room.  Nelson says.  

“One side opens to the beach, and the other opens to a sheltered patio." 

Contemporary Garage And Shed by Seattle Architects & Designers Dan Nelson, Designs Northwest Architects

The family furnished the room simply, with sturdy furniture. Code requires all finishes and fixtures in this area to be waterproof. Although it’s a safety measure, Nelson notes that it’s practical for a room that’s adjacent to the beach.

Contemporary Garage And Shed by Seattle Architects & Designers Dan Nelson, Designs Northwest Architects 

Futons are comfortable, are easy to move and can be extra beds.

Contemporary Garage And Shed by Seattle Architects & Designers Dan Nelson, Designs Northwest Architects

Two Murphy beds behind a wall of cabinets to the left of the seating area fold down to make more sleeping space for guests.

Contemporary Powder Room by Seattle Architects & Designers Dan Nelson, Designs Northwest Architects 

A guest bathroom is tucked under the metal stairs that lead to the family’s quarters. Opaque glass provides privacy while letting light from the main room flow through.

Beach Style Living Room by Seattle Architects & Designers Dan Nelson, Designs Northwest Architects

On the main floor, the kitchen, living room and dining room are located in one open space. The large windows slide open to embrace a water view.  Nelson says.  

“The original remodel was going to be very traditional.  But since we had the opportunity to start over, we did both traditional and modern plans. Their son, who wants to be an architect, convinced his parents they had go with the modern plan.”

Beach Style Living Room by Seattle Architects & Designers Dan Nelson, Designs Northwest Architects

The architect and interior designers at H2K created a subtle water motif throughout the house. In the living room, the rug has a colorful wave pattern, which is repeated in white in the plaster panels surrounding the fireplace.

Beach Style Living Room by Seattle Architects & Designers Dan Nelson, Designs Northwest Architects

There’s a bump-out in the living room.  Nelson says.  

“This allows a corner window, from which you can see Mount Baker.  It’s like being in the prow of a boat.”

Beach Style Dining Room by Seattle Architects & Designers Dan Nelson, Designs Northwest Architects

The house has many industrial elements; wood warms and softens the look.

Beach Style Living Room by Seattle Architects & Designers Dan Nelson, Designs Northwest Architects

The shed roof of the new house made room for a loft, accessed by a ship’s ladder.  Nelson says.

“Their daughter has taken over the loft space.”

Beach Style Bedroom by Seattle Architects & Designers Dan Nelson, Designs Northwest Architects

Sliding glass doors front the master bedroom.   Nelson says.  

“They give some light to the room, which has only one window.  And when the owners are there alone, they can open them and enjoy the water.”

Beach Style Bedroom by Seattle Architects & Designers Dan Nelson, Designs Northwest Architects

In the small home, economy of space is paramount. The architects tucked a closet behind the bed and detailed it to make an attractive headboard. Wall-mounted light fixtures take up no floor space.

Contemporary Exterior by Seattle Architects & Designers Dan Nelson, Designs Northwest Architects

Nelson says that in the 20 years he’s been designing homes in this area, there has never been a tsunami, but that doesn’t mean one has never happened.  Nelson says.  

“Native American folklore suggests that in the early 1800s, there was a giant wave that caused a cliff to disappear from the island.”

Although there is no way to predict if another wave will come, the house stands ready. As the architect says,

“Without a doubt this is the sturdiest house we have ever built.”

COMMENTARY:    Talk about building a house that can withstand a Tsunami or hurricane winds of 330 mph "just in case" of that possibility.   This house must be built extremely strong.   A place I would want to be if faced with just in case of just such a natural disaster.

Courtesy of an article dated December 29, 2013 appearing in Houzz

RISING CONSTRUCTION COSTS GIVES WAY TO SMALL, BUT OH SO COOL MICRO HOMES, THE LATEST TREND IN AFFORDABLE HOUSING

This prototype house, developed by Priztker Prize–winning architect Renzo Piano, was installed on the Vitra campus in Weil am Rhein, Germany, in June 2013. The name Diogene refers to the Greek philosopher Diogenes of Sinope, who supposedly lived in a barrel in the Athenian agora to reject the amenities of civilized life. (Click Image To Enlarge) 

Three ingenious tiny homes feature the familiar peaked roof in unexpected ways

Diogene
80 square feet

The year 2013 may be remembered as the year when micro started to become cool. People had been talking about living in small houses as an alternative to oversize suburban houses and urban pads for decades, but a number of events and projects converged in 2013. In January there was an exhibition and news about microunits in New York City, matched by similar news in San Francisco and other cities. And then every month a new tiny prefab housing unit was unveiled, breaking out of the confines of the city and moving into nature.

The following three prefab dwellings each tap into the idea of home through the distinct gable form. One was designed by Renzo Piano for the furniture company Vitra. Another comes from Ábaton and was designed and built in Spain. The third is a Canadian product that was unveiled at the IIDEX Canada expo recently. Let's take a look at each and see how they compare. 

Modern Exterior (Click Image To Enlarge)

This prototype house, developed by Priztker Prize–winning architect Renzo Piano, was installed on the Vitra campus in Weil am Rhein, Germany, in June 2013. The name Diogene refers to the Greek philosopher Diogenes of Sinope, who supposedly lived in a barrel in the Athenian agora to reject the amenities of civilized life. 

Piano's interest in small dwellings goes back to his student days, but he didn't realize anything until Diogene in 2009. Following the project's publication in one of his monographs, he teamed with furniture maker Vitra to mass produce the model. 

The prototype on the Vitra lawn is considered an experiment that will be tweaked before production begins. 

Modern Exterior

Piano's design is easily the smallest dwelling of the three covered here, and this makes it as much a statement as anything. But Diogene is also a fully loaded package that, like an airplane, takes advantage of every square inch of space. This analogy extends to the aluminum exterior, whose windows and rivets look airplane-like. On the exterior we can see the photovoltaic panels and solar water tubes mounted to half of the gable roof. There is also a rainwater tank underneath the floor that, combined with a biological toilet, aims for the building to work off the grid.

Modern Bathroom

Given the size of the building, the openings are strategically located. Doors can be found on both of the short ends, allowing for more light and natural ventilation. The holes in one of the highly insulated panels above the door are part of a system that allows for fresh air within the unit when the doors are closed. 

Modern Living Room

The interior is separated into two zones, wet and dry; both are lined in wood. In the former are the bathroom and kitchen. Here we see the kitchen on the right, with the bathroom behind the door on the left. 

The orange door functions in two ways: In one position it closes off the bathroom from the kitchen; in the other position it closes off the wet and dry areas.

Modern Exterior by Other Metro Architects & Designers ÁBATON

ÁPH80
145 to 290 square feet

While Spain's Ábaton (Camino Alonso, Carlos Alonso and Ignacio Lechón) cannot boast of a Pritzker Prize, this did not stop them from tackling a similar problem with their design for a transportable house for two people. The abstract appearance of the project comes from its exterior articulation in cement board panels, some of which hinge and slide for windows and doors, opening up the otherwise sealed building. 

Modern Exterior by Other Metro Architects & Designers ÁBATON

The folks at Ábaton can boast that while the dwelling takes four to six weeks to manufacture (depending on its size, since they offer a range of footprints and amenities), it can be assembled in only one day. Even the largest model (almost 30 feet long) can sit on a truck's flatbed.

Modern Exterior by Other Metro Architects & Designers ÁBATON 

The gable-shaped ÁPH80 is fairly open in the middle and solid at the ends, owing to the placement of the living space in the middle of the plan and the bathroom and bedroom at either end. Layout options can easily change what fits where within the footprint (again, ranging from 145 to 290 square feet) — changing it from, for example, a full dwelling to just an ancillary building with only bedrooms, a dorm-style building with bedrooms straddling a bathroom, or a completely open-plan living area with a kitchen.

Modern Living Room by Other Metro Architects & Designers ÁBATON

The model shown here is the largest one; it has an open living space between the bathroom and the bedroom. Here we are looking toward the bathroom, which shares a wall with the kitchenette. The ventilated, gray cement board facade gives way to sustainably sourced wood inside. In between is wood framing and insulation.

Modern Living Room by Other Metro Architects & Designers ÁBATON

Looking in the other direction from the kitchen area, we can see the door to the bedroom, which has its own window on the short side. If we compare ÁPH80 to Diogene, each is lined with wood on the inside, but whereas Piano's design splits the internal functions into two down the middle, Ábaton's pushes the occupied area to one side, allowing the open side to function as the circulation spine.

Modern Bedroom by Other Metro Architects & Designers ÁBATON

The bedroom window is small but important, for it allows air ventilation throughout the whole interior. A similar opening is found in the bathroom, above the toilet.

The Bunkie
106 square feet

The team of Evan Bare and Nathan Buhler, with Jim Moore and Jorge Torres, developed the Bunkie as a prefabricated, multifunctional space that is just smaller than the square footage that requires a building permit in Canada. 

Modern Spaces

Modern Spaces

They envisioned the spaces being used as auxiliary buildings for the country's ubiquitous cottages. As with many small dwellings, the interior is as much furniture as architecture. In the case of the Bunkie, this is not surprising, given Bare's background in industrial design and Buhler's background in crafting furniture.

Modern Dining Room

Of the three prefab, gable dwellings presented here, the Bunkie is unique in how it the ends of the structure are treated. Rather than being predominantly solid, the ends are fully glazed. They also feature a chimney-like bump that accentuates the relationship of the structure to a diagram that says "home."

The extra space created through the chimney-like extension is hardly wasted. The ceiling bows up in the middle to carve more space in the 106-square-foot room, and storage can be tucked up into the sides from the shelving below. Here we can get a good idea of how the perpendicular ends in the room are fitted out with flexible furniture — in this case open and closed storage, folding chairs that can be hung off the shelving, and a fireplace.

Modern Bedroom

The opposite wall is where the oh-so-important Murphy bed can be found. 

Modern Spaces

The solid top, bottom and ends of the Bunkie are made from insulated sandwich panels mounted to structural plywood ribs. The panels are ribs that are prefabricated offsite; the 15 pieces can then be connected onsite with nuts and bolts — with the glass and furniture, the Bunkie can be assembled in two days.

COMMENTARY:    Love the minimalist design and "coziness" of these micro homes.  In most cases they can be manufactured in just a three to four weeks (some in a few days0 and transported to the site and erected in a few days.  This sure beats waiting for a regular house to be designed and built, which can take many months, and require numerous inspections.  These micro homes are obviously not for everybody, but they do incorprate most of the comforts of home (provided you have simple needs), and can be located just about anywhere.  If you have access to power, water and sewage, you are good to go.    

Courtesy of an article dated November 2, 2013 appearing in Houzz

HOW A SWEDISH ARCHITECT TENGBOM, HOPES ITS "SMART STUDENT UNIT" PODS WILL SOLVE THE HIGH COST OF STUDENT HOUSING

A few years ago, Swedish student housing company AF Bostäder stuck a young woman from the city of Lund inside a tiny house-box--not even 10 meters squared. (Click Image To Enlarge)

HOUSING IS EXPENSIVE.  SO WHY NOT HAVE STUDENTS LIVE IN CUBES THEY CAN AFFORD? THAT'S THE IDEA BEHIND THE "SMART STUDENT UNIT." 

A few years ago, Swedish student housing company AF Bostäder had a young woman from the city of Lund inside live in a tiny house-box--not even 10 square meters large--to test the idea of a cheap, cheerful, and environmentally friendly “smart student unit" that included a toilet, kitchen, and bed.  Linda Camara of Tengbom Architects, the company behind the 2013 iteration of the living pod--a petite vision in pale wood offset with lime green plant pots, cushions and stools, says. 

“I think she still lives there.” 

It was to test the idea of a cheap, cheerful and environmentally friendly "smart student unit" that included a toilet, kitchen, and bed. (Click Image To Enlarge)

"I think she still lives there," says Linda Camara of Tengbom Architects, the company behind the 2013 iteration of the living pod--a petite vision in pale wood offset with lime green plant pots, cushions, and stools. (Click Image To Enlarge)

The premise for the cube, which has been in the works since 2007, is reasonable enough -- students live and die on cheap housing, but everyone needs a toilet. (Click Image To Enlarge)

The premise for the cube, which has been in the works since 2007, is reasonable enough: students live and die on cheap housing, but everyone needs a toilet. It’s taken six years to whittle the tiny houses down to the current cross-laminated wooden test model form. The large kitchen was squirreled away in the original blueprint, but Tengbom redesigned it as the prime area after student feedback. The current space-efficient design, complete with a patio and vaulted sleeping area, lowers standard rent rates by 50%--music to the ears of any economically bereft twentysomething.

It’s taken six years to whittle the tiny houses down to the current cross-laminated wooden test model form. (Click Image To Enlarge)

The current space-efficient design, complete with a patio and vaulted sleeping area, lowers standard rent rates by 50%--music to the ears of any economically bereft twentysomething. (Click Image To Enlarge)

Swedish housing regulations require student apartments to cover a minimum of 25 square meters, but Tengbom’s cubes, designed for students at the University of Lund, are the first known exception. (Click Image To Enlarge)

Swedish housing regulations require student apartments to cover a minimum of 25 square meters, but Tengbom’s cubes, designed for students at the University of Lund, are the first known exception.  Camara says.  

“We have a huge lack of student units in Sweden.  Social sustainability is to get more cost-efficient buildings fast and with high quality.”

"We have a huge lack of student units in Sweden," says Camara. "Social sustainability is to get more cost-efficient buildings fast and with high quality". (Click Image To Enlarge)

The units are built with cross-laminated wood sourced from Martinsons, a local manufacturer. (Click Imge To Enlarge)

The small surface area of each unit, combined with minimal transportation costs for local renewable construction materials, drives down the units’ carbon footprint. (Click Image To Enlarge)

And students won’t be freezing their socks off. "To endure the Swedish winter we need to insulate them," says Camara. "Cross laminated wood is enough for other types of houses or in warmer climate". (Click Image To Enlarge)

The units are built with locally sourced wood. The small surface area of each unit, combined with minimal transportation costs for local renewable construction materials, drives down the units’ carbon footprint. And students won’t be freezing their socks off.  Camara says.  

“To endure the Swedish winter, we need to insulate them.  Cross laminated wood is enough for other types of houses or in warmer climate, and the final version must last for 100 years at least.”

Each cube arrives on site as an Ikea-style flat pack--the test model took less than a week to put together.

Camara and the team at Tengbom will roll out a mini village in 2014, with an initial test run of 22 units arranged in blocks of eight. She’s thinking of ways to develop the project so tiny towns pop up on university campuses across Sweden, although Camara can’t promise that every unit will come with the swish green hammock hanging from the kitchen’s pseudo-ceiling in the prototype. She says.  

“The design you see here is like a concept car.  This is the dream version--and we will fight to make it real.”

The current smart student unit prototype is available for viewing until December 8 at The Virserum Museum in Sweden. For the Swedish students holding keys to the inaugural cube rollout, pooping, eating, and sleeping like a high-functioning hamster could be the new definition of the good life.

COMMENTARY:   The rapid rise in housing construction costs has driven up housing prices everywhere, not only in Sweden, but in all developed countries.  This often means higher rents, and Sweden is proof of this trend.  Linda Camara of Tengbom Architects, the firm that designed the first prototype for the "smart student unit" pod, appears to be on the right track.  I like minimalist design, functionality and practicality of the pods.  It is probably too confining for some individuals, but would be a perfect place for deep concentration and studying.  I could certainly see how some universites might flock to such a concept.  The shift to smaller, minimalist apartments is already here, especially in countries with high population densities and a lack of living space.  The pods do not take up a lot of room, and if each unit could be pre-fabricated, could be easily constructed by a couple of people in just a few days.  The units should be comfortable in both winter and summer, so they will require good insulation to keep the people cool in summer an warm in winter.  Looking forward to seeing the production model, and the finished product on university campuses throughout the world.   Linda, good luck to you.   

Courtesy of an article dated September 17, 2013 appearing in Fast Company Exist 

HOW GLUCK+'S 'THE STACK,' A MODULAR PRE-FABRICATED APARTMENT BUILDING COULD EASE NEW YORK'S HOUSING SHORTAGE

GLUCK+ WILL SOON COMPLETE THE MOST CHALLENGING CONSTRUCTION PHASE OF THEIR NEW MODULAR RESIDENTIAL STRUCTURE, THE STACK. TURNS OUT, IT WASN’T ALL THAT DIFFICULT.

In the 1920s, modular, prefabricated housing was at the forefront of modernism’s cause, the clarion call that galvanized avant-garde architects to action. They developed innovative construction techniques that promised to standardize the construction of the house (or more accurately, the apartment unit) and make it reproducible like a car or radiator. Needless to say, their efforts never went mainstream.

The Stack pre-fabricated apartment units being positioned on the building one-by-one by a huge crane (Click Image To Enlarge)

A century later, modular housing is only now getting on its legs--in New York, at least. A Bloomberg-sponsored competition earlier this year asked architects to design the “micro-units” that some say could cure the city’s housing shortage. The submissions made use of prefab construction methods, with modules being built then shipped to the site and hoisted into place. The winning design will be built as a case study next year, but if anyone is wondering what the future looks like, then take the A train to 4857 Broadway in Manhattan.

The Stack - Individual modules in the process of being placed one on top of the other (Click Image To Enlarge)

On a sizable, mid-block site in Inwood, near the northernmost point of the island, what might be New York’s first prefab steel-and-concrete apartment building is taking shape. The Stack, a seven-story moderate-income residential project by Gluck+ architects, champions an exciting modular building method, one with a rich heritage but that has too rarely been implemented.

 

The 50-foot-wide, 150-foot-deep lot is sprinkled with a few cranes and what look like trailers but are actually building modules. From across the street, pedestrians stop in their tracks as each of the 45-foot-long oblongs seemingly takes flight. They’re slotted into place with some grace, at a pace of four a day. All of the 56 boxes are expected to be installed by next week, followed by three months of “zip up” before the first occupants move in in October. Including off-site assembly, the building will take a mere 10 months to finish--six months less than would’ve been required using traditional construction methods.

The Stack - The third floor modules are in place and the fourt floor modules are being placed (Click Image To Enlarge)

The whole process is more assemblage than construction, as evidenced by the remarkably “dry” stacking procedure (see the time-lapse video above). The modules are built off-site, inside a hangar-like factory in rural Pennsylvania, whose controlled, lab-like conditions are repeatedly praised by the project’s chief architect, Peter Gluck.   He tells Co.Design.

“Normal construction is a nightmare, but by building indoors, away from the elements and with a concentrated group of crew members, you can easily supervise what’s being done, whereas in normal construction, that’s really hard to maintain.”

The modular construction forces the architects to make all design decisions ahead of time, meaning that the building blocks are shipped to the site with all their features and interior partitions preconfigured. This cuts down on on-site operations and the many mistakes that inevitably arise from them.

 

The video captures the last few months or so of construction, but mostly spotlights the stacking process, which make the modules look like giant Jenga pieces neatly filed into rows. For the time being, the units are shrouded with protective coverings, masking the pixelated facade underneath. When it’s unveiled, though, the neighborhood will welcome a dynamic new street front, while the city will have ushered in a new chapter of its building tradition. Maybe.

The Stack Time Lapse from GLUCK+ on Vimeo.

COMMENTARY:  I don't know when The Stack will be finished, but I would be very interested in seeing what one of the modular pre-fabricated apartments look like once they are outfitted.   The individual units will supposedly be "below market" price for similar spaces based on square footage.  

I think that modular pre-fabricated housing during an era of rising construction and land costs is the wave of the future, and a possible roadmap to affordable housing for the younger generation. 

Pre-Fabricated Construction Industry Overview

According to market research firm Highbeam Business, the prefabricated wood components industry includes many products, including premade panels and sections for chicken coops, farm buildings, geodesic domes, marinas, sauna rooms, hotel rooms, and decks. The industry is fragmented and entrepreneurial and is represented by a wide range of companies. By far the largest segments of this industry are modular single-family homes, multifamily units, and institutional buildings including hotels and motels, schools, hospitals, and prisons. According to Dun and Bradstreet, prefabricated wood buildings represented a nearly $3 billion industry in the United States in 2009.

Organization and Structure

The advantage of prefabricated wood building products is that they save builders money. Because large pieces of the structure come from a factory and are designed for quick and easy assembly on-site, builders reduce on-site costs, such as labor, workers' compensation, and insurance. Assembly-line production also allows prefab manufacturers greater quality control.

The largest segment of the prefab wood products industry is single-family homes. Homes built using prefab units are called component, or prefabricated, housing. Typical prefab housing products include roof trusses, wall frames, and floors. Many builders also use pre-made wall units complete with insulation, plumbing, wiring, ventilation systems, and doors.

Builders of both detached and attached homes with prefab products use a systems approach to building, which is a hybrid of site-built and manufactured housing. The four types of systems-built housing include precut homes, for which all lumber and materials come to the site already cut; panelized homes, for which the main wall panels are shipped to the site, often with plumbing and wiring already installed; sectional or modular homes, which are 80 to 90 percent complete when they leave the factory and have cabinets and flooring already installed; and log homes, which are factory-made kit homes.

Current Conditions

According to Dun and Bradstreet's 2009 Industry Reports, 1,950 establishments employed 33,781 workers in the prefabricated wood building industry in the late 2000s. About 94 percent of establishments employed fewer than 100 people. Because the production of prefab buildings, unlike traditionally built housing, is not dependent on weather conditions, there were manufacturers in every state. Pennsylvania was the number-one state in terms of number of establishments operating in the industry, with 139, followed by North Carolina with 101 and Wisconsin with 100. Texas, however, which was home to 78 firms in the business, accounted for $647.9 million of the total $2.9 billion in sales. Pennsylvania had $304.7 million in revenues; California, $221.7 million; North Carolina, $113.6 million; and Minnesota, $111.6 million.

Many industry experts saw an opportunity in the slow U.S. economy of the late 2000s. The fact that prefab buildings were less expensive to construct boded well for the industry. As stated inProfessional Builder, " Builders and homeowners alike are seeing the benefits that factory construction ... can provide."

Industry Leaders

In the late 2000s, top U.S. firms engaged in the manufacture of prefab wood buildings, including homes and other structures, included Cavco Industries of Phoenix, Arizona, with $105.4 million in 2008 sales and 660 employees; and Skyline Co. of Elkhart, Indiana, with 2008 sales of $166.7 million and 1,300 employees; and Horton Homes Inc. of Eatonton, Georgia, with annual sales of $145 million and 1,450 employees in the mid-2000s. Several industry leaders in this sector also had revenues from mobile and manufactured homes.

Research and Technology

Most technological advances centered on prefab housing's advantages of low cost, ease of construction, and uniform quality. Prefab makers also developed products to compete with traditional construction markets, such as high-rise buildings. For instance, component makers in Japan marketed sections and panels for medium-rise apartment buildings as high as five stories tall.

Japanese companies were leading technological advances in other areas of the industry as well. Shimizu Corp.'s Smart System, introduced in 1993, was designed to cut the number of man hours required to complete a 20-story office building 30 percent. The Smart System uses a network of nine computer-controlled cranes that scale the frame of the building and automatically attach components.

Technological developments that competed with the wood component industry included advances in wood substitutes. Producers in Saudi Arabia, for example, mass-produced prefab aluminum houses and buildings. Similarly, manufacturers in Poland shipped prefab metal and reinforced plastic components. As of 2005, metal building systems continued to dominate the U.S. prefabricated industry (by a margin greater than 50 percent), with wood, plastic, and cement systems competing for the remainder of the market.

Another trend in the industry involved "green" construction practices. Michelle Kaufmann, called the "high priestess of green prefab design" by Earth 2 Tec, touted the environmental benefits of prefab building through her firm, mkDesigns, which she sold to Blu Homes in 2009. Blu Homes has developed a hybrid prefab building system in which the structures are completely built in the factory and are then collapsed, or "folded" into modules for shipping. Maura McCarthy, cofounder of Blu Homes, commented on the firm's partnership with Kaufmann in a October 2009 Residential Architectarticle:  She said.  "We're hoping we can couple the factory-building technologies and shipping efficiencies that help us make our product less expensive in general with her [Kaufmann's] products."

Courtesy of an article dated July 16, 2013 appearing in Fast Company Design and a research study titled "Prefabricated Wood Buildings and Components SIC 2452" appearing in Highbeam Business

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

INSIDE GLIMPSE A NYC PENTHOUSE APARTMENT WHERE YOU ROCK CLIMB TO GO UP, AND USE AN 80-FOOT SLIDE TO GO DOWN

At the very top of the American Tract Society Building sits the penthouse apartment with the half-Moon windows and 90-foot stainless steel slide (Click Image To Enlarge)

AN INVENTIVE TAKE ON AN OLD SPACE GOES WELL BEYOND THE TYPICAL LANDMARK RESTORATION.

 

The American Tract Society Building is one of the oldest surviving skyscrapers in NYC. Tucked away inside is a four-story, 6,500-foot expanse with full panoramic views of the city. It had never been inhabited, until now.

This is an 80-foot slide hiding in a historic, NYC skyscraper (Click Image To Enlarge)

It’s part of a residential makeover of an amazingly luxurious, four-story penthouse (Click Image To Enlarge)

The slide brings you right into the living room (Click Image To Enlarge)

It's whimsical and austere. The original arched windows and many of the original steel beams stayed intact, but the verticality has been transformed with bold, playful features. Hotson has said that he wanted to “constantly exploit the fact that we’re sitting on top of a skyscraper in Manhattan.”

It’s a celebration of the apartment’s vast, vertical space of the old steel-frame building (Click Image To Enlarge)

Here’s where the ride ends (Click Image To Enlarge)

Don’t worry, everyone watching TV is used to the giggles by now (Click Image To Enlarge)

And while a glance at the dizzying array of beams hanging overhead demonstrates that idea, it’s a concept taken to new heights with an 80-foot slide that snakes straight into the living room, a clear bridge that appears to float in midair, and handholds that allow you to climb a central support beam like a rock wall. If you make it part way up, you can lounge in the “nest,” an intimate nook squeezed within the structure’s girders. From there you can keep climbing to an almost attic-style space.

But the slide is just one way to have fun. Handholds accent one of the main beams, coaxing you to climb up. If you’re bold enough, you’ll reach the "nest," a space tucked in between girders (Click Image To Enlarge)

You can descend from each level of the penthouse using the slide, but you have to climb the center support beam to go back up.  Don’t worry, they have safety equipment (Click Image To Enlarge)

Aside from these whimsical touches, the space is a celebration of geometry. Here’s the skylight in the foyer (Click Image To Enlarge)

Of course, what you miss in these still photos are the incredible facets and “voids”--the geometric frames within frames that connect rooms like fractals. There’s some stunning camera work in the embedded video that illustrates these moments better than words can, and they reveal a level of design thinking that transcends what one might otherwise pigeonhole as an 80-foot-long gimmick.

View of the third level looking down to the living room area below (Click Image To Enlarge)

The very top level houses a sort of perch for transcendental meditation and thought (Click Image To Enlarge)

The ground floor houses the an expansive all-white living room with panoramic view of the New York City skyline (Click Image To Enlarge)

But I mean, what a gimmick!

The apartment has 360-degree views of the city (Click Image To Enlarge) 

COMMENTARY:   I just love this penthouse apartment.  It is so different, so radical in its design, conjures feelings of heaven, living in the clouds.  That 80-foot slide looks like a lot of fun. I don't know if I could master the art of rock climbing in order to go up from one level to the next. That's probably the biggest negative, but it also says, that for every pleasure, there must be some pain. I love New York City. There is no city anywhere like it in the world. And to be able to cherish the grandeur, majestry, culture and skyline of the city from an old turn-of-the-century skyscraper is simply magical.  I can visualize myself sitting in the "nest" surfing the net for my next blog post, while sipping a glass of cab with toast and jam.  

David Hotson

The architect that redesigned this magnificent New York City penthouse apartment is David Hotson.   David Hotson was born in Pennsylvania and raised in rural Colorado and southern Ontario Canada.  After completing a Bachelor of Environmental Design degree from the University of Waterloo, where he was awarded an Ontario Association of Architects Prize, David applied to the Yale University School of Architecture –where he was admitted the following fall.

David Hotson, the New York City-based architect who designed the NYC penthouse apartment (Click Image To Enlarge)

Early Work and Collaborations: In the first years of independent practice David Hotson began a long period of collaborations with Yale classmate Maya Lin, acting as the executive architect on a series of projects that she attracted as her Vietnam Veterans Memorial –designed while she was an undergraduate at Yale- was completed to wide acclaim.  Early projects included the Museum for African Art in SoHo, a suite of offices and galleries for the Asia/Pacific-American Institute at New York University, and an apartment for software entrepreneur and art-world philanthropist Peter Norton.  

From these early collaborative experiences the office has developed an extensive track record of working in association with artists, designers, and other architects to execute projects with demanding detailing and progressive design values.  The body of collaborative work undertaken by the office has included projects with noted architects such as David Adjaye of London, Santiago Calatrava of Valencia and Zurich, Hayaki Kita of Osaka, and Ricardo Legorretta of Mexico City, and other architects, artists, and designers based in the US, the UK, the Netherlands, Germany, France, Spain, Switzerland, Hungary, Armenia, and Japan.  

Ghislaine Vinas

Born in the Netherlands and raised in South Africa, Ghislaine brings a special blend of international sensibility, intuitive style, humor, irony and refreshing enthusiasm to her work. She is driven daily by her passion for interior design and especially by color.  Ghislaine and her team thrive on collaboration and although the backbone of their work is a strong clean refreshing look, they dare to go "off roading" by experimenting with and exploring many areas of design.  

Ghislaine Vinas is the Dutch interior designer that designed the interior of the NYC penthouse apartment (Click Image To Enlarge)

Ghislaine Viñas established her interior design studio in 1999, when commissioned to do the complete build-out of a 9,000-sq-ft office/art gallery in the Starrett Lehigh Building in New York's Chelsea art district.  Since then she has successfully completed many projects, both commercial and residential, ranging from New York City, including apartments, townhouses, lofts and an art gallery in Chelsea, to offices and homes in Los Angeles, New Jersey, Holland, Pennsylvania and Connecticut. Ghislaine has chosen to keep her office small so her clients can expect a very “hands -on” personal approach as she works through the project.  Ghislaine Viñas Interior Design embarked on their first hospitality project in 2012 and they are currently developing a product line on top of many other exciting design projects.

Ghislaine Viñas Interior Design was awarded the Interior Design Merit Award for "Best of Year" in the residential category  in 2007, 2008 and 2011 and won Interior Design Best of Year award in 2010.  In 2007 she won the Pantone "Color Outside the Lines" competition for color use in residential interiors , as well receiving third place in the Electrolux, "The lived-in Kitchen", design competition and honorable mention in the same competition in 2012.   The firm was awarded the prestigious Benjamin Moore Hue award in 2010 for their use of  color in residential interiors. Ghislaine has been featured on various TV programs including HGTV, Open House New York and IDTV “Designing New York”.

Ghislaine's work has graced the covers of countless magazines and she has been published in magazines and newspapers worldwide including Interior Design, New York Times, New York Magazine, Departures, Frame,  O At Home, Dwell, Elle Decor Japan, England and Mexico as well as Architectural Digest in Russia just to name a few.

Ghislaine studied interior design at Philadelphia University and moved to New York right after receiving her degree. Ghislaine now lives in New York City with her husband and their two young girls.

Courtesy of an article dated March 26, 2013 appearing in Fast Company Design

HOW "MY MICRO NY," A 300-SQ FOOT MICRO APARTMENTS PROJECT IN NEW YORK COULD BE THE WAVE OF THE FUTURE IN HOUSING

"My Micro NYC," a micro-unit scheme designed by nARCHITECTS that won the city’s AdAPT NYC competition. (Click Image To Enlarge)

NEW YORK’S FIRST PREFAB APARTMENT TOWER WILL RISE IN 2015. ITS 55 UNITS WILL BE VERY, VERY SMALL.

Mayor Bloomberg inspects the model unit at the Museum of the City of New York (Click Image To Enlarge)

 

On Tuesday, Mayor Bloomberg--trailed by his perpetual entourage of news cameras--stepped through the door of a tiny but neatly kept apartment. He explored the model unit, which currently sits inside of the Museum of the City of New York, pulling down a trundle bed and peering inside of unexpected storage spaces. There wasn’t much ground to cover (only 300 square feet, in truth), and soon Bloomberg migrated to a podium to introduce the unit as the winning design in his AdAPT NYC competition, which seeks to imagine the future of housing in New York.

the building, which will contain 55 micro-unit apartments, will be the first prefab tower in New York city (Click Image To Enlarge)

Of course, it’s unlikely that Bloomberg will ever live in a “micro-unit,” but his administration is betting that millions of other New Yorkers will like the idea. Specifically, the city’s 1.8 million households of one or two people, a demographic that has ballooned over the past two decades, growing far beyond the roughly 1 million studio and one-bedroom apartments available in Manhattan.  Mayor Bloomberg explained. 

“The city’s housing stock is misaligned with the changing demographics of its population, largely because of outdated housing codes that prevent the construction of smaller units," 

 
Inside, the 300-square-foot units are designed to appeal to young professionals (Click Image To Enlarge) 

AdAPT is part of a grand experiment to change that. On a plot of land in Kip’s Bay, the city has agreed to suspend its current housing codes and allow the construction of a tower consisting solely of micro-units under 300 square feet. The winning AdAPT proposal, by a team including nARCHITECTS, developers Monadnock, and the Actors Fund HD, will begin construction on the site next year. Their scheme, "My Micro NY," calls for nine stories of long, thin units stepped back from the street. Each apartment will be prefabricated in the Brooklyn Navy Yard and arranged on site using a crane, saving precious construction days and millions of dollars.

The units are divided into a 'toolbox,' which packs a bathroom, kitchen, and fold-down table into a compact box, and a 'canvas,' the window-facing tabula rasa that can function as a bedroom, or living room, or study (Click Image To Enlarge)

nARCHITECTS, who’ve been building living spaces in New York for more than a decade, designed the units to be a bit like a cabin on a ship--full of hidden details. Each unit is divided into a "toolbox," which packs a bathroom, kitchen, and fold-down table into a compact box, and a "canvas," the window-facing tabula rasa that can function as a bedroom, living room, or study. A juliette balcony lets in air, and over head, a step ladder leads to a storage space equivalent to that of a VW Jetta. The firm’s design will pack 55 of the modular units on site, with nearly half priced below market.

A juliette balcony lets in air, and over head, a step ladder leads to a storage space equivalent to that of a VW Jetta (Click Image To Enlarge)

Some may disagree with Bloomberg’s approach to the housing shortage. Richard Florida has argued,

"Increasing density in urban cores isn’t always the right path toward building communities, providing a counterpoint to urban economists arguing that we need more flexible land use, more flexible building regulations, that we need to build more housing in some of these very precious urban areas which don’t want any.”

Florida suggests that cities which expand “out, not up” will breed healthier and more creative neighborhoods. In other words--the city should be looking at how to lure tech startups to Queens and the Bronx, not figuring out how to fit more people in Manhattan.

The units will be constructed by Capsys, a prefab company based in the Brooklyn Navy yards (Click Image To Enlarge)

But as long as Manhattan exists, there will be people chomping at the bit to live there--so why not design a better model for how we use space in these hot-commodity neighborhoods? AdAPT isn’t so much about planning how a city should grow--rather, it’s acknowledging how the city is already growing, and planning accordingly.

Wherever you fall on the continuum of Jane Jacobs to Michael Bloomberg, there are plenty of alternative proposals on view in Making Room: New Models for Housing New Yorkers at the Museum of the City of New York. Check it out until September 15.

COMMENTARY:   Micro apartments maybe new in the U.S., but they have become mainstream in other countries like China and Japan where buildable land is at a premium, construction costs are high, and population densities are high.  The only alternative is to go vertical with buildings consisting of hundreds of micro apartment units.  Checkout these 330 square foot "make your own" micro apartment units in Hong Kong:

 

And look at how this Japanese family lives in a very small urban house built between two buildings:

 

In a blog post dated November 10, 2012, I profiled the Keret House, a 4-foot wide house sandwiched within the space of two buildings. The Keret House, was conceived and finally built by Polish architect Jakub Szczęsny and finally finished at the end of 2012.

The Keret House (Click Image To Enlarge)

Courtesy of an article dated January 25, 2013 appearing in Fast Company Design