Jul
08
That is approximately 1/3 of the pile of crap I brought home from Dwell on Design to sort through and eventually, in some form or another, write about.
The LA Convention Center is BIG (and NOT easy to navigate) and the eye candy was plentiful. Designers and creators were on hand to chat at almost every booth, and as an added bonus for a PreFab fanatic like myself, the exhibition floor was {as always} literally litered with mini-homes, each one it’s own unique architecht-designed floorplan and range of materials – some of which were being autioned off on eBay (for really, quite an impressive bargain) while modernists strolled through.
I was amazed by the perfect blend of modern rustic luxury I found in the Reclaimed Space house {pictured below} and intrigued by the concept of the eco-friendly Hybrid House [from Sander Architechts] “part prefab, all custom” as their literature so elequently puts it. I was thrilled to finally see IQ Haus in person (some of my favorite siding options in the industry) and it’s always nice to see the stunning quality of Marmol Radziner’s Skyline Series (part of the Dwell Homes Collection) as a periodic reminder as to why they seem to price their floor plans so far above most of their competitors.
We brought Dee, which in retrospect, was il-advised {except I don’t regret it one bit because she got to sit for portraits with the incredible Sarah Wert of [San Francisco Based] Modern Kids Photography – teasers below} because she wasn’t quite big enough to take advantage of the Modern Family Lounge (although it was not to be missed if you are a fan of modern nurseries and children’s products that blend beautifully with your grown-up decor without sacrificing whimsy.)
The Outdoor exhibit was enough to tempt me to want to hold up my nearest bank branch and make off with the lot of it {odd that I think it would be easier to rob a bank than individual vendors at the the LA Convention Center, but the mind is a weird and wonderful thing…} most notably (for me) the breathtaking (and massive) Ancient Olive Trees which stood in massive wooden planters every 20 feet or so throughout the outdoor exhibition, hung with eye-catching orange and white Hanging Circle Pots filled with succulents from pottedstore.com . (The trees were shipped in from Santa Rosa for the event and have already laid down roots in Laguna Beach.)
I also flipped for Plain Air’s throwback line of outdoor furniture {which reminded me of my beloved, now-defunct, vintage 1960′s rattan set which my dogs literally ate, a fate unlikely to befall Plain Air’s vinyl-corded update on the mid-century classic.}
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Aug
04
Once upon a time, before there was a baby on the way…before the economy took a nose dive…Scott and I had decided that our first home would be one of these beautiful pre-fab creations known as a FlatPak House. We made our preliminary plans (ours was to be notably smaller than those pictured in this gallery) we got our quote, we started looking at land for sale, we drove up to Sausalito to check out a work-in-progress, and we were in love. We still are, but you gotta roll with the punches in this life, right? All things considered, (and damn it…things just kept popping up to consider) we couldn’t in good faith move forward with the plans for our dream house in such uncertain times. But the dream is alive. Every so often, I find myself wandering over to Charlie Lazor’s website and clicking through, dreaming of the days when we figured we could just shack up in Mom and Dad’s garage while our little slice of heaven was constructed in it’s Wisconsin factory, trucked out to California, and put together by a crew of Minnesotans in matching uniforms on the perfect site for our perfect home. And I look forward to a time when maybe, just maybe our dreams can become reality once again. Lazor Office has a couple of new homes added to their flickr stream, and looking at some of those beauties reminded me why we fell in love with this particular brand of prefabulousness in the first place. Enjoy.
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Apr
26
Emma sent this house to me a few weeks ago, and it may be one of my favorite prefab creations yet. I’d actually seen the original rotating house on HGTV, but had somehow missed the fact that Solaleya has made this incredible concept available in a PreFab. These unique homes are very reasonably priced (for home builds only) but lord knows what the foundation for one of these bad-boys would require, which, in my limited experience with LA lots, is often the most terrifying price point of the PreFab home (or really, any new construction for that matter.) Anyway, the house rotates to make the most of natural light, allowing for what seems like unprecendented effectiveness of passive heating and cooling. Pretty cool, if you ask me…(weird, for sure, but maybe not any weirder than the boxy FlatPak house, or the all-glass IT house, two of my long time favorites.)
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Mar
15
Isn’t it incredible that one of the most famous (and coolest) houses in LA, The Stahl House (aka Case Study 22), was commissioned and built for only about eleven thousand bucks? Of course that was back in 1960, when you could get an architect like Pierre Koenig to build you a glass house on a slab of rock that would have otherwise been labeled as “unbuildable.” Above are two of Julius Shulman’s iconic photographs of the house upon completion, and below is a picture of the house today, still owned and occupied by the Stahl family.
If you’ve always wanted a glass house of your very own – check out the IT House, a not-too-unreasonably-priced glass and vinyl prefab from Taalman Koch that is pretty darn snazzy.
If you want to learn more about this stunning house, you can join their facebook group, or sign up for a tour at http://www.stahlhouse.com.
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Sep
04
The UK’s YOUMEHESHE 7.83 Hz house is one of the coolest pieces of pre-fab architecture I’ve ever seen, and at 170k (sans land,) it’s certainly something to fantasize about.
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