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Our blog is for tracking the development of new Modern House designs which are available at our catalog house plan site lamidesign.com/plans. We also cover the prefab house products we work on such as EcoContempo, EcoSteel, custom modular, and IBU container based housing. You will have a chance to see images and read about design considerations going into our designs before they are officially released at our site. We also comment on the renewed modern housing movement that we are experiencing and all things modern.
- Link to Current LamiDesign Blog by Gregory La Vardera — posted on 04-07-2008 13:03 — 1 comment(s) —
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Due to the outstanding coverage on LiveModern of Blogs dedicated to Modern Houses including my own I've decided to halt posting into the blog forms here and concentrate on the blog hosted at my own site, lamidesign.com
The LiveModern site does such a good job of collecting and mirroring the posts from various blogs all focused on modern houses that it seems my effort could be better spent on new content rather than repeating the identical post here. The formatting is slightly different and its become the same as formatting two posts instead of an easy cut and paste.
So without further delay I'll encourage you to simply click through to our own blog and encourage you to bookmark it for future reference. I'll leave this message here for now until there is cause to pick this up again.
http://blog.lamidesign.com/
- 0751 Suburban House - project background by Gregory La Vardera — posted on 03-20-2008 11:39 — 0 comment(s) —
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In a departure from the usual blog topics here I'm going to be starting a series of posts about local project, a custom home, that I've designed for a client here in the Delaware Valley region. While this is not a stock plan or a prefab several of the design schemes that we ultimately abandoned during the design process may ultimately find second life as a house design in our stock plan catalog. So, while we will eventually arrive at what was the final design, its going to be more about the journey and looking at the sketches of the house designs we left behind, and seeing if any of them generate some enthusiasm and longing! Lets being with some background on the project so you can understand some of the influences, pressures, and limitations imposed on the design.
The site is a parcel of 3 acres in a low density suburban zone outside of a small college town. The proportion of the property is a narrow rectangle with the rear closing to a point. A good deal of the front end of the site is consumed by wetlands, and its wetland transition zone, which can not be disturbed. This moves the home site towards the center of the lot, a good distance from the road making for a fairly private setting. This influences issues about how the house presents itself upon approach. Does it want to have a prominent "front" door when it really does not have a street life, or should it focus on the inevitable vehicle arrival?
Another strong site influence oddly enough is the septic system. The septic design called for it to be located on the highest spot on the site, gaining the most distance from the relatively high water table. That meant that the home site was actually pushed down slope from the septic site, but if to remain on gravity feed to the septic then the house had to be at higher elevation. This put the first floor level of the house a good distance above the natural grade. So where the natural inclination would be to meet the landscape casually we were at a heigh above it, as you might be in an urban townhouse, except it was not driven by a need for privacy, but rather from the technical demands of the site. We were facing a contradiction that we would have to attempt to resolve.
The house program consists of 3 bedrooms, 2.5 baths, in about 2400 sqft plus a home office/studio space and a two car garage. Ample area for what is a very common program of space. Tempering it was a desire for an open plan living, dining, kitchen and "gathering" of the two secondary bedrooms around the living space - encouraging their casual use for other functions for exercise and home office and the occasional guest. An interesting condition, yet it could not undermine the use of the rooms in a more conventional mode by a family with children.
We explored several different alternatives which I will briefly introduce here. In entries to follow we will look at each design more closely. Some of these were developed only very roughly, and some not even worth showing here won't make an appearance.
;Gathering the rooms around a high ceilinged living space.
Creating an entry forecourt between the garage and house.
Living spaces on top of the remainder as plinth.
A mulit-level interior space within a simple geometric volume.
An inhabited wall defines the living space.
- Virgina Plat House - windows in by Gregory La Vardera — posted on 03-08-2008 13:36 — 0 comment(s) —
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The windows have been delvered and installed at the Virginia Plat House. Closed in, if not completely weather tight, they are in the clear to begin HVAC, plumbing, and electrical work inside.
You might notice that the windows are green (as in color, not sustainability). Nothing remarkable, but these are Andersen 400 series windows. Since like the beginning of time these windows were available in only 3 colors - white, tan, dark brown. Bleah! Nothing wrong with those colors, but Andersen offered no options for using the windows to introduce some color into your house. Meanwhile other manufacturers have been expanding their color offerings. I don't know if Andersen is experiencing competitive pressure because of this, but they have started offering a dark green now as one of their standards. Its a great thing, especially if you want to use a different color for the operable windows as the house designs show in our illustrations.
There are three more photos of the house with the windows installed posted at the flickr set for this project. Also remember to look at the LamiDesign Flickr photo pool to see all the photos from customers documenting the house designs under construction.
- Letters from Sweden - a window's tale by Gregory La Vardera — posted on 02-23-2008 23:37 — 0 comment(s) —
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In our last installment of the Letters from Sweden we looked at the panelization technique used by the Swedes and some of the administrative barriers to its adoption here. Today we'll pick up where we left off and consider some of the products that go into the Swedish panels and how they support the panel building technique. We'll look at windows, how Swedish window units are different than US window units, and how this plays out in the construction.
In Sweden the windows are installed into the wall panels on the flat (inside up) after they are framed. The windows are designed to fit flush with the panel's outside so when they go in the window face is flat on the table flush with the framing. They install the window units with adjustable fasteners which allow the windows to be squared after the panel is installed and is stable. Think of the adjustable european hinges in your kitchen cabinets. If you've built something bought at Ikea you've handled these. You know how they allow you to adjust the door panel to sit square with the cabinet frame. The Swedish windows are mounted with hardware that allows the same adjustability to the window unit. Lifting the panels into place is likely to cause some sort of movement in the panel, and this adjustment allows them to be made square after installation. When the wall panels are flipped over to install the siding the windows are trimmed and a metal sill extension added.
Here you see the Swedish window after the panel is flipped, before siding is installed, the metal sill in place. In the second image the siding and trim has been installed lapping over the window unit.
In contrast our windows in the US don't included adjustability like this. In the field our windows are fastened into the rough window openings from the outside using something known in the industry as a "nail-flange". The windows project from the wall surface and are self trimming providing a standing edge fore siding or trim to terminate against. The siding and exterior trim are installed over this flange locking the window into the construction. If the house ever settles or moves the wall will take the widow with it racking the frame, likely making the window stick or jamb. Not as likely to happen with on site construction, but a distinct possibility with handling large wall sections.
Here you can see a typical US style window, Andersen. The nail fin clearly seen at the edge of the frame, fits against the sheathing. The rest of the frame extends out creating an edge for the siding to terminate into.
Here a typical US style window installation, Eagle. You can see the siding material is butted directly against the side of the frame.
So can we build using the Swedish panel technique with our US style windows? That is a good question. Perhaps. It would require a change in sequence. Our windows would have to go in as the first step on the outside work on the panel. But the more the panel is handled the more likely the window is to be out of adjustment when the panel is finally installed. If the window was damaged in handling it would require a good deal of the panel to be disassembled in order to replace a window unit because of the siding attached over the nail flange. The Swedish windows could be swapped from the inside leaving the siding and trim in place. So yes, it can be done, but the US windows obviously have a lower tolerance for error so to speak. The Swedish windows anticipate these issues and accommodate them.
Thanks to Scott Hedges for the Swedish factory photos. Next we will look at wiring.
Previously:
Letters from Sweden - panel building in Sweden vs the USA
Letters from Sweden - Europe is different, Sweden is not, sort of..
Letters from Sweden - land of modern, land of prefab
Letters from Sweden - conversations with an expatriate builder
- Virgina Plat House - wrapping up by Gregory La Vardera — posted on 02-23-2008 00:04 — 0 comment(s) —
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A quick update of the Virginia Plat House . Since the last entry the wall and roof sheathing has been installed and the house wrap is on. The owner reports that windows are on the way.
There are a few more photos of this stage of the work also posted at the flickr set for this project. Drop in on the LamiDesign Flickr photo pool to see all the photos that we and others have posted of our house designs under construction.
- Letters from Sweden - panel building in Sweden vs the USA by Gregory La Vardera — posted on 02-07-2008 18:06 — 0 comment(s) —
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Ok, we've been beating around the bush, setting the stage, trying to understand the context in which this Swedish building method exists. If you've been following the series you get it, its dark, its cold, there is no building system for the better part of the year. They need a factory based system to have an industry there, and so they do. Lets look at it.
You've picked up by now that the Swedes are panelizing their houses. The walls are being assembled to the greatest extent possible in the factory. Windows and doors are installed, exterior siding, interior drywall. This means everything else within the wall is in there too - insulation, wiring, and plumbing where it exists. The studs are precut to the common height, and walls are laid out on great tables with the carpenters working at convenient work height. Sheathing, air barrier, and siding is applied and the panels flipped to gain access to the work that proceeds from the inside. Wiring conduit, plumbing, insulation and vapor barrier are all installed before wall board is applied. Some of the drywall is left off in strategic places to facilitate the installation of the panels on site, and this must be installed in the field. There is not genius in this, but never the less its near impossible in the US. Lets look at why.
First off we have issues with construction inspection conventions in the US. Construction must be inspected before it is insulated, closed in, and the underlying work is obscured. Framing, plumbing, and electrical work are all inspected at this point. The modular industry has established a practice of third party certification to work around this, but this method would require a different routine as the proportion of site and factory work is not the same. Modular is more or less done with the set of the modules. Panelization requires the field inspector to pickup more of the inspection work again in the field, and I predict the blurring of lines of responsibility to elicit resistance. This is essentially an administrative obstacle, but real enough. This obstacle does not exist in Sweden.
Second are issues of products and standard construction practices. In Sweden products are designed to facilitate this panelization. In the US they are designed to be installed in the field. This purposeful design of construction products allows the Swedes to optimize their process. They are not fighting with the construction to break it into panels, like we would here. Next we'll look at some of these products in more detail.
Previously:
Letters from Sweden - Europe is different, Sweden is not, sort of..
Letters from Sweden - land of modern, land of prefab
Letters from Sweden - conversations with an expatriate builder
- Austin Porch House - Plat House comes into its own by Gregory La Vardera — posted on 02-03-2008 02:30 — 0 comment(s) —
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Siding panels are going up on the Austin Porch House project and the big news is the progress of the Plat House. Last we saw a bunch of sticks going up - in the new set of photos from the owner it is now most certainly a house.
Across their courtyard you can see the Plat House facing the Porch House. This has been one of the most innovative uses of our house plans to date. With the usual household program spread between the two structures the owners have created their own "village". The variety of spaces they will have available for family life will be very rich indeed. More photos after the jump link below.
Here you can see the interesting pattern of siding they have chosen. It appears to be a smooth faced cement board siding panel, but laid up in varying exposures. This is a treatment you might often see on a traditional cedar shingle siding and its really great to see this reinterpreted in a contemporary material like cement siding and used here.
Check out the Flickr set for this house where you can see all of the photos to date. And these photos are also part of theLamiDesign House Plan photo pool.
- Austin Porch House - roof's on, Plat House framing up by Gregory La Vardera — posted on 01-21-2008 22:08 — 0 comment(s) —
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A big update from our customer in Austin. The Porch House is moving right along and is all sheathed in and under roof. The adjacent Plat House which they are also building - yes its a Camp House compound - is well under way with the framing going vertical. The Owner has over a dozen new photos for us which you can see in a photo browser after the jump.
Some of the adaptations the Owner is making are obvious in these photos. You'll see an additional wall of windows on the side of the living room which greatly expands their view. And the roof slope which they have added to simplify collecting their rainwater is also easy to spot as well. You'll also see that the Owner has been welding up his own framing connectors for the Porch level posts and beams. This is an awesome hands on effort by the owner.
Check out the Flickr set for this house where you can see all of the photos to date. And the photos are also part of theLamiDesign House Plan photo pool.
- Virginia Plat House - shell framing complete by Gregory La Vardera — posted on 01-21-2008 09:18 — 0 comment(s) —
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A few new photos from the owner of the Virginia Plat House show the wall and roof sheathing beginning to go up. He reports that it is all up at the time he forwarded these new photos.
A few more photos of this stage of the work were included and can be seen at the flickr set for this project. Drop in on the LamiDesign Flickr photo pool to see all the photos that we and others have posted of our house designs under construction.
- Nova Scotia Plat House mod by Gregory La Vardera — posted on 01-19-2008 23:26 — 0 comment(s) —
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This is the start of another great Plat House project by Canadian architect Ross Macintosh. Ross provided the design services for the modification of the Plat House design on Prince Edward Island. This project will be located on Ballantynes Cove, Nova Scotia on a fantastic site overlooking the ocean. Ross has done a great job again expanding on the design themes in the Plat House design and adapting it to the local climate.
The site slopes quickly away from the level where you arrive and they have taken advantage of that to expand the area of the house with a daylight basement on the down-slope side. The second bedroom has been enlarged to make both bedrooms similar in size, gaining space from the utility room moved to the basement level. The stair down is located in an extension of the floor plan on the entry side of the house. This mod is similar to the PEI version where this added space allowed them to gain a third bedroom.
I like the way the porch roof has shifted to one side in order to connect to the small out structure (sauna?). They have just begun the construction drawings so we won't see construction start for a little while, but stay tuned. Its going to be a great project.
- Virginia Plat House - roof framed by Gregory La Vardera — posted on 01-12-2008 16:08 — 2 comment(s) —
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New photos from the owner of the Virginia Plat House today. The framing of the roof is almost complete - the overhang at one side still needs to go in. These photos are from December, before xmas, so its likely that the roof is complete and the house sheathed by now.
A few more photos are posted after the jump below, and of course all of the photos we have received can be seen at the flickr set for this project.
- Letters from Sweden - Europe is different, Sweden is not, sort of.. by Gregory La Vardera — posted on 01-06-2008 12:00 — 0 comment(s) —
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Sorry for the delay in this series. I've been trying to figure out the best way to present these observations. Its time to look at the process in detail, but too much to cover in one entry, so how to break it up. I've decided that first we'll look at what goes on in the factory, and then on the site, and contrast both to prefab and site building practices in the US. But before we look at the studs and nail guns we have to consider their business model, and how it is different.
My correspondent from Sweden, Scott Hedges explained to me early on that there was more similar about the USA and Sweden than there was different. Sweden is bias towards suburban development, much as we do in the US. This is in contrast to other parts of Europe which tend towards more urban and village density for new development. Sweden like the US has the open space needed to develop housing in a suburban pattern, and like the US there is a relatively abundant timber resource for building houses of wood. So Sweden is like the US - they build suburban houses, in suburban neighborhoods. Yet the way they build the houses, the design of the houses they build are so different.
The first and most primary difference about the way these houses are built is that in Sweden, for the most part, these factories that prefabricate the houses own the whole process. They own the site, do the site work, market and sell the houses, fabricate, transport, install, button up, and hand the keys to the owner. Not so different than here. The biggest home sellers in the US, names like Toll, Pulte, Ryland, Beazer, they also own the whole process, but they largely use site built construction for their homes. Prefabricators here in the US do not. If we look at modular, the most popular prefab technique, they primarily serve small builders and developers, handing off the modules at the site, they walk away with their check before the boxes are set.
In our correspondence we tossed about why this might be. In the end there is no clear answer why the large builders in the US have not taken steps to streamline their construction process - make it more profitable. Isn't this "job one" with big corporations? I believe the reason why our modular factories have not extended to own the entire process is more obvious. Modular grew out of the mobile home/park trailer industry. What they built was not real estate - they were sold by a dealer network much like cars. When shoddiness became a problem the Fed stepped in and created a nationwide code for these trailer homes - the HUD code. Now the industry split. Some factories continued to build trailers under the HUD code. Others jumped to building modular homes under the local building codes. But the business model did not change. They still sold the homes to a third party, who installed them and sold them. The factory delivered and walked away. This is because once the house is on the foundation it becomes real estate, and if for some reason they were not paid the effort to get their money or repossess becomes much more complicated at that point. So the modular industry is not about the most efficient way to build a house - its about putting the most value into the box before its on site. The more complete the box, the more profitable the box, so even if the entire process would be better with some of the work done in the field, say boxes knocked down, it does not happen that way because the factory's incentive is to have that work be their own.
The Swedish factory on the other hand has incentive to adopt what ever process stands to make them more efficient and increase their profit. Why not the big builders in the US though? Its a long term outlook. It takes investment in infrastructure and the risk of trying new techniques. But in the long term you find better methods and profit from them. Are the US home builders more focused on short term profit (duh!). Is this a difference between corporate priorities and privately held companies?
Maybe Scott will give us some links to the Swedish equivalents of the largest US builders? - Building the Modern House - an owners tale by Dan Akst by Gregory La Vardera — posted on 12-28-2007 20:00 — 0 comment(s) —
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Daniel Akst is an author and journalist who has written several articles covering the recent prefab and Re-Modern movement. His articles have appeared in the Wall Street Journal, New York Times and he's even written about modern homes for This Old House. Most significantly he has built his own modern house and written extensively about it. These are a worthwhile read for anybody building their own modern home.
Dan first offered up his story in a three part article that appeared in Money Magazine. You can read the text of these articles on his own web site here:
He also wrote a shorter account with more of a design emphasis for Metropolis Magazine that you can read at the on their web site: link. Its interesting that at the end of this article Dan calls for the production of decent house plans for modern homes:
...If they did, they might want to use a stock plan; but here is another reason why more interesting houses don't get built, even by individuals who care about good design. Most of the house plans sold through books and on the Internet are awful; a few decent ones are available (including some in the Life magazine's "Dream House" series) but virtually none are Modern, unless what you really want is a chunky-looking "contemporary" with diagonal wood siding. The absence of good Modern stock plans means that people who want this kind of house have to hire an architect, at fees ranging from a few thousand dollars to perhaps 15 percent of the construction cost.
Although Modern architecture remains suffused with the rhetoric of idealism, even relatively prosperous families who are thinking of sponsoring it will beg off unless the entire clanking apparatus of home-ownership--all of it geared to the lowest common denominator of design--can be brought around to accommodate something more interesting. Modular housing might be one answer. Another would be the publication of some first-class stock plans that specify standard materials to achieve quietly fabulous results.
Incredibly this is just what we have set out to do, and our customers have in fact done. Dan's article was in the November 2002 issue of Metropolis. Our plan site went live on November 4th, 2002.
He's also a good novelist - I've read a couple of his books and enjoyed them. More info about the rest of his work on his web site Akst.com.
- Project Outrage by Gregory La Vardera — posted on 12-16-2007 11:40 — 0 comment(s) —
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Project Outrage is an effort of The Slow Home site to gather the collective voices that are dissatisfied with the status quo in housing. Collecting testimonials of the experience of individuals in the form of a blog Project Outrage creates a record of evidence which is usually lacking when it comes time to demonstrate to developers and other key housing players that there is a market for other solutions.
Please check out Project Outrage at their site and tell your story. Sign their Declaration:
We demand an end to poor construction, bad design, misleading marketing and environmental neglect in the housing industry. Neighborhoods and homes should be built for people not excessive profits. They should be healthy, vibrant, and not require long commutes. They should uplift the spirit and gracefully fit our needs. We believe that everyone has an obligation to create thoughtful, responsible, and sustainable places to live that leave a positive legacy for future generations.
If writing is not your thing and you have a photo of a development or mcmansion that you hate, then post it to their Flickr Group.
If you are a facebook user Project Outrage has a presence on Facebook as well.
Previously on LamiDesign blog: The Slow Home Project
- Letters from Sweden - land of modern, land of prefab by Gregory La Vardera — posted on 12-12-2007 20:47 — 0 comment(s) —
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In my previous entry I introduced Scott, my correspondent from Sweden. An American builder relocated to a suburb of Stockholm, he landed in an alternate reality where modern housing was everywhere, commonplace, even dare I say unremarkable. None of the stigmas or resistance we have come to associate with building a modern house were present. Every builder offered solid modern design in the range of homes they sold, and were more than happy to sell you one. On top of this prefabrication techniques were the norm. Sizable portions of the houses Scott saw being built were put together in the factory, and the standards for wiring and plumbing seemed to be designed to make this easier, not more difficult as it is here in the US. Scott made it his personal mission to learn more about how they were building houses with the hope he could distill what it was in Sweden that enabled this and was apparently missing stateside.
Scott began by telling me about the typical process by which houses in Sweden are built:
"...the majority of new construction is built like this. I would call the house panelized - but it is "way way panelized" and is a total package. The houses come on trucks from rural places in Sweden. The windows are in, the insulation, wiring, wallboard where possible - every thing - the pipes, the wiring systems, the doors, stairs ... everything has been engineered and rationalized to reduce labor, find energy and material economy and work with the method of construction where stuff is pre-assembled as much as possible inside a building and then "erected" or installed on the site under very compressed schedules. These houses go from slab to dry in and locked inside of a week - the fit out and installation of everything else is really much like what I've seen in the USA - you just can't squeeze that much more out of what happens on a building site ... other than make it a total package and schedule the deliveries in the most rational way. For instance you have to install the interior ceilings after the house is up - however you can load the sheetrock in the room as the sub floors go down (and they do) which cuts down own lugging stuff around."
Lets contrast this with the US. There are some companies doing panelization, but typically it is only carried as far as the rough framing. Wall panels come to the site with studs framed and sheathing on. Its a short cut on rough framing, but the siding, insulation, utilities, and interior finishes still need to be added. The LV House is a good example of this. More recently the prototype Loblolly House has won awards for its integration of building systems into the panelization. But lo and behold - this is standard practice in Sweden. Wall panels come to the site with siding on the outside, wall board on the inside, and wiring and plumbing in place within the walls. Why can't we do that? One of the issues are our standard practices for electrical and plumbing work. They do not lend themselves to these field connections between adjacent panels, where as the Swedish standards are designed to ease these very conditions.
But the majority of prefab in the USA is in the form of modular construction. Modular construction reduces the field connections to a a few major utility connections when the boxes are placed on the foundation, but otherwise are much more complete when they arrive at the site. Granted, this is not the reason why modular is more popular in the US. Modular housing here grew out of motor-home construction, which was a more permanent version of a trailer. When the flimsy construction of motor-homes became an obvious problem in the US it was put under a nation wide spec known as a HUD Code. At that point the industry split into factories that continued to build motor homes under the new rules, and factories that adapted to building to local site built construction codes which became the modular industry. That has dominated the US prefab business ever since. Its popularity here is due to administration - not because it makes construction sense. And how could it make construction sense? Shipping a house in big pieces is tantamount to shipping air. There is a reason why Ikea ships furniture in a flat-pack. The shipping is so much more efficient for flat goods, than big boxy hollow goods. The challenge becomes how to complete as much of the house as possible while still being able to ship it flat. Whole houses arrive on two trucks rather than 4 or 5.
Next we'll get into more detail about how these houses go together.
- Letters from Sweden - conversations with an expatriate builder by Gregory La Vardera — posted on 12-03-2007 20:25 — 0 comment(s) —
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A few months ago I got an email from a fellow by the name of Scott Hedges. He was a builder/carpenter/cabinetmaker as it turned out, and a fan of modern, a Dwell reader from nearly the start. He was from Michigan, but he was not in Michigan, at least not for the time being. A career move had taken his family to Sweden where he was being a keen observer of the building trades in the region around his home. He wrote me on this one day, towards the end of September because I imagine he could not contain it anymore - he had to tell someone, someone who would even care! I suppose he thought that guy, the one with the house plans, at least he would get it - and so I in turn have to share it with you, my readers, because like Scott I know that at least you would be somebody that would care, that would get it. What Scott found as he settled in to his new life in Sweden that the thing we modernists in the USA were struggling to find, swimming upstream, fighting to realize, a decent affordable well designed modern home, was flowing like milk and honey in Sweden. This opened up a correspondence between Scott, myself, and economist Jeffery Rous from University of North Texas and my design partner on the IBU competition entry. Over the course of the following weeks we poured over copious photos and web sites that Scott had accumulated and tried to come to terms with why what we struggle with so desperately here in the states comes with such ease and grace in Sweden. These are the Letters from Sweden and over the next few weeks I'm going to try to share with you the most significant parts of our correspondence as we all came away convinced that there was much to learn from the practices Scott observed.
images from the Gotenehus (Yeah-ten-eh-hoose) website
Here is what Scott said in his first introductory email to me:
The reason that I'm writing though is that my family and I've moved to Sweden and have been very impressed by the state of modern and the rather unremarkable way it lives here. What I've seen in Sweden about home building and home buying strikes me as very different than what I'm aware of in the USA... Simply put the market place here is full of modern homes, and every larger house company offers them ...
I guess part of my surprise stems from years reading in Dwell about "wow wouldn't it be nice if" ... and the stories of super talented creative people .. who are trying to put a product out there and risking your lives doing it ... and then I show up here and the locals want to know what is the big deal? ... "ho hum" which of these 100's of kinds of modern houses would you like delivered in a month, sign here".
What would we all give to have hundreds of models of modern prefab houses available from vendors today? Why there? Why not here?
Stay tuned! This series will continue.
- Virginia Plat House - framing up by Gregory La Vardera — posted on 12-03-2007 09:51 — 0 comment(s) —
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An update today from the owner of the Virginia Plat House. The wall framing is up, and it looks like just a little bit more work on the window side and they will be ready for the roof framing to start. The work looks very good which is always a pleasure to see.
What a beautiful scene! Look at that sky. There are a couple more high res shots from this day in the Flickr set for the VA Plat House so take a look.
- OK Tray House - framing done by Gregory La Vardera — posted on 11-30-2007 16:17 — 0 comment(s) —
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The framing is all done and the roofing work has actually begun now. I think we will see the builder moving to make the shell weather tight now that the framing up is all but done. Roofing will go on, house wrap, and windows installed in the lead up to the siding of the house.
Above we see the front of the house with just a little work to do on the last bay window, but the roofing felt is already down which means the roofer is on site now while the carpenters are finishing up.
Here is the corner of the house next to the carport. Yup, that's a Tray house if I ever saw one. The house is turning out very well and the owner is taking some great process shots.
A great fish-eye view of the overlook to the living spaces from the hallway above.
These photos and more are posted to their Flickr page, and we have begun mirroring them as well on our own Flickr set as well. You can also find all the photos in the LamiDesign House Plan photo pool. Here is a photo stream of all the new shots.
- Austin Porch House - framing going gang-busters by Gregory La Vardera — posted on 11-24-2007 13:51 — 0 comment(s) —
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When we last saw the Austin Porch House it was a formation of piers in a clearing. Today its framed up to the second floor walls and it already looks like a Porch House through and through. We have over a dozen photos from the owner of the work in progress, a few which we have posted below, and the rest on a slide show.
The owners have added some additional windows to take advantage of views on their site. A careful comparison with the design images will make these easier to see, or you can simply watch the results as the house comes together.
The owner has explained some of the changes to me in their email. They have made the bathroom slightly larger with space taken from the master bedroom. This will even out the size of the two bedrooms which for them is fine as their masterbedroom will be in the adjacent Plat House. They are connecting both bedrooms to the hall as well so that there will no longer be access to the one bedroom at the kitchen.
You can also see at the top of the wall the sloping top plate which will allow them to gather all the rainwater at one side of the house. They say the work on the Plat House will also begin very soon, and I'll have to come up with a new title for this project!
We have a new Flickr set for this house which you can see here. And the photos are also part of the LamiDesign House Plan photo pool. Here is a photo viewer for the latest project photos:
- Neutra's iconic Kaufmann House for auction - what's it to you? by Gregory La Vardera — posted on 11-19-2007 09:38 — 0 comment(s) —
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A landmark historic modern home, meticulously restored, now to be sold by auction no less. It is said that pricing of the house will reflect its value as a design object in the context of its significant history and cultural value - meaning it won't be priced as real estate, calculated from its square footage and bathroom count, no more than you would price a famous painting on the quantity of canvas and gesso. "So What" you say? What's it to me, an average jane or joe who would just like an outside the average affordable modern house. I say it means a whole lot more than you think.
the Kaufmann House designed by Richard Neutra, 1946, photo by Tim Street-Porter for the New York Times
I'm not going to repeat the whole history of the house - its been told many times and way better than I can repeat. Start with the New York Times article on the sale, and the associated photo slide show. Its an awesome house, commissioned by Edward Kaufmann who was Frank Lloyd Wright's client for Falling Water, a fantastic award winning restoration by the current owners with architects Marmol Radziner which included the consolidation of surrounding parcels to protect the house from encroachment.
This house has everything going for it as a piece of real estate. It seems unthinkable that it could be the victim of a tear-down. Don't be surprised - it has happened to other fine examples of design more recently than I care to remember. But the marketplace is not looking upon this house as real estate - its looking upon it as an object of cultural value, which derives from its design. In short THE DESIGN HAS VALUE.
That is a head change for the market, and I know that this is at the elite strata of real estate, but the writing is on the wall. Design is destined to play a bigger part in the valuation of properties. The fall out from that is consumers becoming more savvy about design and demanding better product, just as we have seen in the majority of other consumer products. Less McMansions and poorly designed cookie cutter houses, and more quality designed homes which will include the world of modern homes that we are interested in here. It is inevitable that as more consumers learn about design many more will be drawn to modern design. I am not talking about the displacement of traditional houses. They may always be the main-stay of the market. But the crummy hokey poorly designed pseudo traditional crap that america has come to blindly accept as their image of home is going to increasingly come under pressure from better designed product. Savvy developers and builders will be ahead of the ball - start now during this opportunistic downturn.
- 0738 Palo Alto - construction print progress by Gregory La Vardera — posted on 11-18-2007 21:10 — 0 comment(s) —
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The construction prints for the 0738 Palo Alto house have been making slow but steady progress in the background while all our customers have been taking center stage with photos of their builds. But after all that is the way its supposed to be. No matter how many drawings we do, no matter how many renderings of a design we post, people always want to see a real house. For some seeing somebody else's house under construction is essential evidence of the viability of the plans, without which there is some undue risk that a house could not in fact spring from those paper sheets.
Of course that notion is preposterous. It is a great benefit to be able to see that somebody else has built a given house, and that there is a photo record of construction images that you can access with your builder. It can help remove any uncertainty they may feel if they are faced with building a house that they may consider unusual. But this is an anomaly in an architects practice, that a design would be built repeatedly. Any architect must be capable of designing and documenting a house or building that has never been built before, no second chances, it must come together from the plans on the first try. They have to do that every day, as assuredly as you get up every morning, if they hope to be in business the next day. The vast majority of architects I know are very good at that.
So begone any hesitancy to build a house until you see somebody else build it first. You are doing nothing but delaying your own bliss. The documentation of our house plans are very consistent and the construction of any of them should be sufficient validation that the design practices and content of any of the other designs is just as viable as the ones already built.
With that in mind I'd like to report that the Palo Alto construction prints are approximately halfway done. The drawing sheets have all been laid out, except for the wall detail sheet. They require notations and dimensions for completion. The holidays usually slow the pace of work which makes an opportunity to advance our work on house plans, so we hope that shortly after the new year the prints will be complete.
- An inspiring photo blog by Gregory La Vardera — posted on 11-15-2007 10:34 — 0 comment(s) —
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I got an email last week from a reader and LiveModern member who built his own house taking inspiration from the info he gathered online. I thought man - that's what its all about. A lot of effort no doubt, but he was inspired to build himself the kind of house that he envisioned his family living their life in.
Now not everybody is going to have the time, where-with-all, and nerve to build out the bulk of their house themselves, or even design it. Well, that's why there are house plans. There are people whose skills, time, budget only allow a certain amount of DIY, and that's fine. What we need are the tools, whether it be info online or affordable house designs, that allow people to successfully complete a project. And the more that is done, the more likely it is that builders and developers are going to sit up and notice that there is a burgeoning market right under their noses.
His note:
Hi Greg,
Actually we have never met and I've never emailed you before. Nonetheless I have been all through the lamidesign webpage and have read many of your posts on livemodern. The information I gathered was both very helpful and inspirational as I designed and helped build our small house in Logan, Utah.
Some shots of the house are at
http://picasaweb.google.com/mikew.usu/LoganHouse
Thanks for all you do out there!
Check out his link and see his great house! Post about it here - he will be reading!
- OK Tray House - framing nearly complete by Gregory La Vardera — posted on 11-14-2007 21:46 — 0 comment(s) —
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While we've been snoozing here the Oklahoma Tray house has been just booking! Never fast enough for an enthusiastic owner though. The second floor is framed up, and the roof is on. The framing looks right on and they are certainly doing the design justice - exciting to see.
The owner is taking a series of fantastic panoramic photos which give you an expansive view of the framing - really the next best thing to being there. They are posted to their Flickr page, and we have begun mirroring them as well on our own Flickr set, and adding them to the LamiDesign House Plan photo pool.
A great view of the back of the house - it really looks like a Tray House now! I love this house and its great to see it being executed so well. Here is a photo stream of the latest batch.
- New Mexico EcoSteel House - steel stairs by Gregory La Vardera — posted on 11-12-2007 14:15 — 0 comment(s) —
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The stairs in New Mexico have been installed, and we have some pictures from the owner.
When we were designing the house one thing that was common to all the variations that were considered was that they all had a prominent stair at the entry of the house. It became apparent that this stair was going to need to be an object that made a statement as it was going to be exerting its presence right where you enter the house.
The stair consists of a single steel stringer with cantilevered treads and risers. Not a completely unusual configuration, but not as often configured in a U shaped stair. The undercarriage was all exposed and visible, so we did not want to see a post coming down to the floor under the landings. So our posts are actually hidden in the adjacent wall which you can still see here as the wall framing has not received drywall yet.
The floor to floor height is high, so the stair needed to be quite long. And we could not have the bottom of the stair crowding the front door. So it found itself pushed back and leading up to a cantilevered landing which hangs off the second floor bridge. The steel work for this landing, and the undercarriage of the stair is all hanging out for view and it has really become a microcosm for the construction of the house - a place where you can get right up to the connections and lay your hands on them compared to the roof and floor beams that are high above your head.
Included in the photos below are a couple of the alternating tread stair in the observatory manufactured by Lapeyre Stair. This allows for a steep approach to the dome space hatch while still providing a deep tread for solid footing.
Remember you can see photos of the entire build on the Flickr New Mexico EcoSteel House photo set, and all the EcoSteel projects in the EcoSteel photo pool.
For more information about how to build your own EcoSteel House see the following page right here at LiveModern:
- Re-Modern Movemenet - Dwell ascends? by Gregory La Vardera — posted on 11-07-2007 17:15 — 2 comment(s)
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I received an email today from Dwell's Publisher Michela O'Connor - oh, don't worry - I'm not a personal correspondent with her - it was a mass email. The gist is that Dwell was commenting on the passage of Conde Nast's long lived home magazine House & Garden.. That's right - after 106 years they are shuttering the magazine. It was announced yesterday completely unbeknownst to me as I'm slammed with deadlines this week, and I guess I was surprised that this was how I was finding out about it.
Did you get this email today? I'll post the text below if you did not. I'm not sure how to take it? Is it simply the desire to mark a milestone? Is it as significant as they would make it to be - is this a real shift in the zeitgeist? Or just savvy marketing to make an issue of it? And perhaps a drop of gloat in there too? House & Garden had long been the 800 pound gorilla in home magazines, except maybe for Architectural Digest who was more decorator extreme, not mainstream as H&G. Are they claiming Dwell is taking its place in popular culture? I'd be thrilled to think that modern had ascended, but I also don't want to kid myself - loose the "eye of the tiger", the "want" to win - being second and trying harder, et all...
What do you all think? Please, comment.
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106 years is a long time to maintain relevancy and few have done it.
As you already know, Conde Nast has announced that effective with the December issue, House & Garden will cease publication. Despite Conde’s very clear statement that it no longer made business sense for them to continue, much is being written in print and online about why this occurred.
I thought it important to write to you about this event because I believe it signals a change in the shelter category; not good or bad just a shift that has been brewing for a few years. And, I don’t think the housing market is the culprit. While a downturn in housing is nothing to brush aside, it is not as fundamental to the change in the shelter category as the changing mindset of the consumer.
Ten years ago, Dwell’s owner and founder, Lara Hedberg Deam, went through a very typical home renovation process. The only thing atypical was her desire to have her ideas expressed in a way that only modern design can. During this process she noted a lack of relevant information in existing magazines, which urged her to explore the concept of a magazine and media platform to fill the void. She felt that if modern design was to be covered in media it should have a certain rigor as well as an accessibility of thoughts and ideas. It was this experience that led to the founding of Dwell. Simply, she wanted to bring modern design to everyone and illustrate the design philosophy that she found so vital in her own endeavor. Seven years later we have successfully grown the Dwell brand on five platforms - Dwell Magazine, Dwell.com, Dwell on Design, Dwell Homes by Empyrean, Dwell TV- centered on our founding premise.
Design has become a household word thanks to a host of influences, all of which have spurred discussion about the influence of design in every industry. Because of this movement, design professionals and their modern savvy consumer counterparts are engaged in a quest for good design; looking for ideas, inspiration, and great companies to deliver both. Dwell champions their mission, chronicles their journey, and leads them to every corner of the globe where good design can be found.
Losing a worthy member of the home and design category should be a reminder that the meaning of house and home has changed in a demonstrable way. Being At Home in the Modern World is what it is all about.
Warm Regards,
Michela O’Connor Abrams
President & Publisher
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- Virginia Plat House - foundation complete by Gregory La Vardera — posted on 11-05-2007 01:00 — 0 comment(s) —
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The Plat House under construction in Virginia is ready to begin framing as the foundation work is done.
The site looks beautiful and we are really looking forward to seeing the house come together. Remember all the photos of this project will be posted at the Flickr set.
- New Mexico EcoSteel - the house review by Gregory La Vardera — posted on 10-27-2007 10:22 — 0 comment(s) —
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I wanted to post a review of the house build to date. I've gone back through all of the photo groups and pulled out shots that gave an overview of the house at different stages of assembly. The house has actually progressed further than the lead off photo below, but I don't have any more recent photos of the house alone. So here is our review:
and the latest from the site:
Remember you can see photos of the entire build on the Flickr New Mexico EcoSteel House photo set, and all the EcoSteel projects in the EcoSteel photo pool.
For more information about how to build your own EcoSteel House see the following page right here at LiveModern:
- Common Pond Plat House - first construction photos by Gregory La Vardera — posted on 10-25-2007 12:31 — 0 comment(s) —
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The Plat House being built at the environmentally sensitive development, Common Pond, in Georgia has been under construction for several weeks. We've got the first group of photos from the developer and the builder. The house design has been adapted for SIPs, the first Plat House we've seen to utilize this system.
The house site is fairly sloped, so the long rectangular shape of the Plat House lends itself to this site. The amount of cut and fill required to establish the building site is reduced because the house is fairly shallow - it hugs the slope as it is called.
The SIPs panels had to be transferred from the semi truck that delivered them to a smaller flat-bed in order to manage the drive up to the site. The smaller truck was the type with the lift boom built in which was convenient for loading and unloading. Once on the site SIPs panels go up rapidly.
There are several modifications that the owners and developer have worked out themselves and with the SIPs manufacturer. The house includes a garage which is on the bunk room end of the house as at this site you approach the house from that end. Other changes are to the windows, some out of the owners desires, and others apparently out of the use of SIPs. In order to "float" a window opening within a panel there needs to be some margin of panel all around the window. Many of the Plat House windows run right into the corners which may be very difficult to do with the SIPs panels. It is interesting in the photos to see how they are joining the post and beam framing of the window wall side into the SIPs panels.
We have also created a Flickr photo set for this project where you can see all the photos at full size if you wish. The pictures are also being placed in the LamiDesign House Plan photo pool at Flickr. Remember, visit these sites for more information:
- OK Tray House - second floor framing now by Gregory La Vardera — posted on 10-23-2007 12:25 — 0 comment(s) —
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More photos posted to Flickr by the Owner of the 0385 Tray House under construction in Oklahoma. The second floor is framed up now and the roof should be following shortly. The garage walls are done, and the roof of the garage will no doubt be done with the carport. So far so good - the house looks sweet.
The owner has been shooting a series of panoramic photos that he is stitching together from individual shots. Check them out in the slide show below - its worth clicking through to Flickr to look at them full size.
Here is a close up of the floor trusses that were used for the second floor. These are great because they make it so much easier to run pipes and ducts. Its not as necessary for the first floor if you are over a crawlspace, but if you want a finished basement they are also good for saving your headroom from duct soffits. And for the second floor they are ideal.
The owner's photos posted to the older entries are at this Flickr site. The new ones from this entry are at a different user name here.
Good Dog!
- New Mexico EcoSteel House: Observatory scope and dome installed by Gregory La Vardera — posted on 10-21-2007 10:42 — 0 comment(s) —
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This is an exciting installment of the New Mexico EcoSteel House story. This week the telescope arrived and was installed onto the instrument pier of the observatory. This was done before the dome was set to ease the installation. The telescope was already installed on its mount, and both were simply lifted into place by the crane. The dome followed the next day completing a big step for the observatory.
There is still not power at the site, so the scope is not up and running yet. I'm sure we will see some photos from it as soon as its powered up and calibrated to the control software and dome. In the Flickr photo stream below you can see photos of the scope arriving and being installed. The telescope is manufactured by RC Optical Systems who makes telescopes for astronomy as well as military use. The particular type of telescope is a ritchey-chretien design which is well regarded for its clear imaging and very low distortion. You will notice that it has an open truss-work rather then a cylindrical barrel. This helps discourage thermal convection within the body of the scope, which would cause distortion with the different density of air in the currents - think of a mirage over hot pavement in the summer. I know this seems like its over the top, but for comparison you should look at a big boy - the twin Keck observatories at Mauna Kea, Hawaii - click through to the interior photos to see the size of their trussed instrument. Our entire dome would fit inside! (these photos are from a visit to the facility by the owners of RC Optical).
There is is, looking much like our earlier drawings. And finally the Flickr photo stream.
Remember you can see photos of the entire build on the Flickr New Mexico EcoSteel House photo set, and all the EcoSteel projects in the EcoSteel photo pool.
For more information about how to build your own EcoSteel House see the following page right here at LiveModern:
- IBU Houses - Safe Green Blocks LLC, the wizard behind the curtain by Gregory La Vardera — posted on 10-21-2007 00:21 — 0 comment(s) —
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This post is for you if you are as big an IBU geek as me. I've been meaning for a while to write up some background on the people helping in my effort to develop IBU housing: Safe Green Blocks, or SG Blocks is a new venture formed by a group of people who have been behind several prominent efforts at preparing shipping containers for building.
Long time readers of the FabPreFab messageboards may recognize the name of David Cross. David has a background in the merchant marine and came to the realization long ago that shipping containers made a compelling basis for a construction system, long before it became a focus of attention as an interesting off-shoot of the recent prefab m
