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The cold climate version of the Steel Case House is taking shape
the renderings are done, Design Prints prepared, and the web page coming together.
Technorati Tags: house plans, modern design, modern house, Steel Case House
Continue reading "Steel Case cold climate"Construction has begun on the first 0242 Plat House
After rain delays the site has been cleared and the construction of the first 0242 Plat House seems ready to begin in earnest.
I have started a new photo set for this design, but all you will find there at this stage is another photo of the view from the site. It looks quite nice. Updates will follow.
Technorati Tags: house plans, modern design, modern house, Plat House
Continue reading "0242 Plat House Construction Photos"the demand is here, the means are at hand One of the most frequent comments about the current offerings of modern prefab houses is that they are too expensive. Yet the only prefab strategy with a mature industry - the modular home industry - was founded on and derives a large part of its business from low cost, below market rate, housing. Why can't we deliver an affordable modern prefab through this industry. We can only speculate. My feelings are the initial customer base is affluent enough to first take the risk on this new market, and second to want better - this is what these early adopters are interested in. I also believe the designers regard modular as a mechanism to deliver high quality design and materials at a lower price in what they hope will become a mass production setting. In effect raising the bar for all housing by making a level of quality that was once considered "custom" into "production". This particular mindset is disturbing to me, not because I disagree with the goals of these designers, but because I fear it threatens to sideline the entire movement of new interest in modernism. It makes me fear that we are heading towards the same old erroneous conclusion: that modernism is more expensive. I don't dispute the right or desire of these designers to create this kind of housing, nor fault the people buying it now for wanting this kind of house. I'd like the same for myself, to design nice houses using nice materials and innovative construction methods with custom solutions specific to each person. But I will say that there is a failure to serve the entire modern market here. Since I got involved in this my goal has been to break down the barriers to building modern houses in the housing industry - basically I want it to be possible for anybody shopping for a new house in the USA to have modern as one of their choices. Thats it, a simple goal. Prefab has always seemed to me a tool to get to that point as it allows for an economy of scale at a time when demand is far apart and the market lacks the concentration that makes on-site spec building possible. But prefab is not the whole idea and I hate the idea of it crashing the whole movement. So now the cost question is creating a road block. It seems many people are waiting for more affordable options to emerge but still there is nothing available. I am now convinced that it is possible to build a decent modern modular home for below $100/sqft. The experience I've gained through working with the Sages has made this clear and as their home comes together I can see that it would be possible for more people if they had the Sages wit and determination to make this happen for themselves. But the Sages were willing to accept many things that don't typify the current offerings in modern modular. I believe that good design does not reside in expensive finishes and materials but in how you use the palette of materials you have at hand. Lets look at some of these items with the question in mind - are these things that I would be satisfied with in order to reach my cost goal. Keep in mind that this is a hypothetical material selections and it does not reflect the Sage's house, but is a combination of standard offerings from their manufacturer and other items which I have identified. (I will contrast these to materials we see in other prefab offerings) Exterior of the house: siding materials: vinyl or painted cement boards (vs galvalume, corten steel, wood) roofing materials: asphalt shingles (vs metal roofing, flat/roof deck assembly) windows: vinyl windows (vs aluminum, wood, clad wood) exterior doors: fiberglass (vs solid wood, stainless steel) Interior of the house: wall finishes: painted gypsum wall board major floor finishes: sheet flooring, carpet (vs hardwood, bamboo) kitchen cabinets: knock-down cabinets like Ikea (vs solid wood construction) kitchen countertops: plastic laminate (vs solid surfacing as corian, stone) custom casework: knock-down casework like Ikea (vs custom fabrications) bathroom fixtures: american standard brand (vs Kohler or other up-market fixture) bathroom finishes: sheet flooring (vs ceramic tile) interior doors: masonite faced (vs solid wood, wood veneered) Is this is the reality of building at this price point? The Sage's house will be between 60-70$/sqft with the addition of a good amount of sweat equity on their part. If all of their self installed materials happened in the factory they would be looking at between 90-100$sqft. Many of the materials in my hypothetical list are less expensive than the Sage's choices. So it is clear we can reach this today, readily. We know at least that much with this factory. What's stopping us from going there? I think a group of us can go there now. Is anyone willing to discuss this further? -- The discussion of this entry here really went over the top and overwhelmed the commenting system of the original post on the LiveModern blog, so I created a topic in the Dwell Forums where the discussion could continue. Please continue the discussion in the forums after you have read the comments here.
Technorati Tags: modern design, modern house, modular house
Continue reading "the Cost question"the cold climate version of the 0357 Steel Case House
This is a modification of the original 0357 Steel Case House to prepare it for colder climates. The thrust of it is the replacement of the concrete block wall with a 8" sips panel wall. It is looking a bit like this under way:
Technorati Tags: house plans, modern design, modern house, Steel Case House
Continue reading "also in the works"I have a 1935 edition of the Funk & Wagnalls dictionary that was my dad's.
It was my dad's "old" dictionary and he gave it to me when I was a little kid and I still have it all dog-eared and cover fallen off till this day. Its got these thin onion skin pages and always seems to have the best definitions, the occasional precious illustration, and a little bit of prose when it helps explain a word. About 10 years ago I looked up the definition of House and I always thought that what I found was a great definition of House and Home:
house, 1 haus; 2 hous, n. 1. A place of abode or shelter. 2. A building for human beings to live in; the building or part of a building occupied by one family or tenant; dwelling place. 3. Something regarded as a house; place that provides shelter, living space, etc. 4. Any place where something is thought of as living, resting, etc. See HOME.
home, 1 hom; 2 hom. n. 1. One’s fixed place of abode; family residence. 2. A congenial abiding place. 3. In games, a goal. Home, from the Anglo-Saxon, denoting originally a dwelling, came to mean an endeared dwelling as the scene of domestic love and happy and cherished family life, a sense to which there is an increasing tendency to restrict the word - desirably so, since we have other words to denote the mere dwelling-place.
Home’s not merely four square walls,
Tho with pictures hung and gilded;
Home is where affection calls
Where its shrine the heart has builded.
adding depth to 3d images has long been the holy grail of 3d modeling
We have all experienced stereoscopic images. We have stereoscopic vision, so everyday sight is what I am talking about. The few inches between our eyes provide a slightly different view point. For any given surface that we see one eye sees a little bit more or a little bit less of it. While the difference is very slight it is sufficient for us to judge distances in 3d space. This is something we have not really been able to capture when we do drawings. While we have gotten pretty good at depicting 3d space the images don't create the sense of relative depth that our two eyes provide.
There have been many attempts to provide this vision to flat images, and we are pretty familiar with them I'm sure. With the advent of photography early on there were efforts to make 3d images with special viewers and cameras that took two images with the required offset. We have probably used a "View Master" image viewer which worked on the same principal. I'm sure that you have tried a blue/red filter glasses to view images or movies in 3d. These rely on the filters to deliver the proper image to each eye. More recently this has been done more effectively with polarizing filters on the projectors and viewers glasses. Sometimes the effect can be achieved by simply staring into the distance with the respective images directly in front of each eye.
The two images below are such stereo images, each slightly offset from the other.
Another way to put the images together into a 3d view does not require you to feed the right and left images discreetly to each eye. Its been found that if the right and left images are presented sequentially, alternating in the same space that your mind will read the spatial depth in a similar manner. If you click on the images above such a sequencing will load. The depth of field in this image will exaggerate the effect - it will look a bit like an earthquake but nothing that will make you nauseous!
Technorati Tags: house plans, modern design, modern house, Steel Case House
Continue reading "stereoscopic viewing"and then drag
Technorati Tags: house plans, modern design, modern house, Steel Case House
Continue reading "click"There is always more to do, but what first for 2005?
I have not decided yet. I cranked out three sets of Construction Prints since this summer, finishing 4 total in 2004. For a few months I'm going to just do some work that I enjoy. But for now, over the holidays I'm going to just throw up some images, finish up some of the writing I started, and heck maybe finish the sink saga...
Continue reading "moving forward"An item in the News section of Architecture Magazine describes my stock house plans.
First of all Architecture Magazine is a so called professional journal, meaning that the content is industry specific, the advertising industry specific, generally the kind of thing that only architects are reading. So where as I am eager to have news of my stock plans published, I've never cared much if they were covered in the professional press because I'm not racing to show this off to other architects. Never the less I know I must promote what I'm doing in all directions as press can lead to other press in other locations. I have Architecture Magazine on my press release list along with a few other such publications. When I got a call from the magazine asking questions about what I was doing I was pleasantly surprised. But I've had similar calls before and when the contact did not respond to followup emails just figured it was a dead end as that just happens sometimes. Much to my surprise when I cracked the magazine today there were a few images of the houses in a piece taking an entire page column. I'm curious where it goes and if it generates any interest from other publications who seem to sit on the fence waiting to see who covers what.
I feel sort of mixed about the piece which is titled Drops of Modern in a stock-plan sea. I can't decide if the mood of the piece is "hey look at the interesting thing this guy is doing" or "hey look at this guy hitting his head against the wall"!
the houses that appeared:
Technorati Tags: house plans, modern design, modern house
Continue reading "Architecture Magazine dips a toe"I promised to come back with some actual photos of this completed house.
Peter forwarded a group of great black and white photos of his hillside house that I had posted earlier. I realize that it is difficult to understand a house just by looking at the floor plans and section - it can be too abstract so I hope these images are helpful.
This first image is the living room which is at the lowest level at the back of the house.
This gives you a good idea of how the spaces step down the hill and are interconnected. The next photo is from the guest room at the entry level in the front looking back towards the living room at the rear and the master bedroom above.
And the exterior, the front of the house next:
and then the side, you can clearly see the hill side here:
and finally the rear which overlooks the small stream and the garage and pavillion beyond.
Thoughts and questions about the house are welcome. I want to convince Peter to do the work required to offer this as a stock plan.
Technorati Tags: house plans, modern design, modern house
Continue reading "more images of hillside house design"More photos arrived today.
I've posted three more exterior shots and two more interior shots. The exterior does not look much different but it is nice to see the house from a different angle. The interior shots show the last of the windows going in, and paint beginning to go on.
Technorati Tags: house plans, modern design, modern house, Tray House
Continue reading "Tray House Construction Photos part4"That's it, the Construction Prints are complete - one more design available!
We are happy to announce that the Construction Prints for the 0380 Cube House are complete and available now. We are very pleased to have it available and look forward to seeing it realized. The completion of this plan crosses another milestone as the anniversary of our 2nd year online slipped by unnoticed. Back in January 2003 we had promised to extend our introductory discount till we had six different plans complete and available. We are very proud that this day has arrived as the 0380 Cube House is the sixth complete design. It is not that we are eager to raise the price, we are just very happy to have at least a rudimentary selection of different designs that can begin to address a variety of different living situations. There is now some choice, and from the beginning creating choices for people who wanted modern houses was our number one goal. The introductory pricing will remain until the end of December for those who care to take advantage of it. Starting in 2005 our two year grand opening will finally come to an end!
More progress, new photos
I have received new photos from my customers and have posted some on the photo set at Flickr. The house is fully sided and most of the exterior work looks complete. Inside all the drywall work looks done, and wood trim underway. They say they will be in the house in January.
One thing I have not discussed relative to this instance of the Tray House is deviations from the plans. These things are immediately obvious to me, and I assume the design savvy readers here will also take note of these things. Deviations are going to be par for the course with stock plans and I don't really regard them with any criticism. I think it is valuable to consider the fall out of these changes however as they can have a ripple effect. If you think these things through you will know better how they affect other parts of the design. Sometimes these issues are purely technical, and sometimes aesthetic, but they tend to get tangled together.
For example the builder of this house used roof trusses rather than roof rafters to frame the roof. That in of itself would not necessarily cause other changes, but somewhere in the process a decision was made to support the trusses that were above the bay windows on a header above the window rather than a beam spanning the entire bay window opening at the wall as specified. What this did was create a variety of span points in the trusses which I am guessing make it easier to make the trusses with the bottom cord extending all the way out under the eave. This created a horizontal eave where the design called for an eave that followed the roof slope. It also required headers to carry the roof load above the bay window units which now had to be pushed downward, almost to the floor to make room for them. Small decisions can propagate little changes in this way. We can always help you to think them through so you are satisfied with changes that may result.
Technorati Tags: house plans, modern design, modern house, Tray House
Continue reading "Tray House Construction Photos part3"
