Modular Retreat
Architect Jim Garrison of Brooklyn-based Garrison Architects was asked to design a lakeside retreat for visiting families at a boarding school for troubled teens, Star Commonwealth, in Albion, Michigan. To drastically reduce academic interruption and cut site noise, Garrison decided early on to create an 1,100-square-foot modular building dubbed Koby, with two bedrooms on opposite sides of the structure and a common dining area in the middle “as a therapeutic space for families to gather and eat together.” The retreat, which was manufactured by Kullman Buildings (founded in 1927 for the purpose of building prefab steel-and-glass diners), takes on an X formation, with one end of the X equipped with floor-to-ceiling glass windows overlooking the water. “It’s quite a bucolic site,” says Garrison. “We related the building to both the lake and the gentle slope of the land, and created an opening in the center of the X that makes the building seem larger and allows reflective light in."
Manufactured entirely offsite at Kullman’s 180,000-square-foot factory in New Jersey, the building was placed on its concrete foundation in one day.
With the students’ well-being in mind, Garrison employed healthy, high-quality FSC-certified maple for the floor, ceiling and walls, cedar for the exterior, recycled porcelain floor tile, an EcoSmart alcohol-burning fireplace, high-recycled tubular steel framing and low-E coating glass. “We define health as the obvious physical qualities of good air and cleanliness, but health is also a matter of attitude, sunlight, cognition and sensory release all working together,” says Garrison. “A California utility company did a study in which they measured cognition in different classroom settings, and found that cognition increased 7 percent with natural light, and 15 percent with natural light with a view. We think of health as a baseline issue, but it has great deal to do with the quality of our environment.”
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Totally awesome... The zen design simplicity, the symetry, the balance and the stunning lakeside setting orientaion with the use of 'picture window glass creating a 'vista' vs. the utility need for walls and storage... Great kitchen... I want it!
I LOVE this little house. Would love one for myself to live in, and a second unit for a studio. Gives me hope that those of us in northern climates (I'm a Michigander too) could actually have that much glass.
Delightful! Is it hurricane or earthquake resistant? I want to build one in Jamaica!
Very cool looking house (cliche box cantilever) ...but cool. Great use of windows and the floor plan looks pretty good...got a LOT of wasted space and redundant hallways...and that built in sofa is dumb.
from brasil very beautiful work, it is as well done inside and outside every detail - from the floorplan to the furniture would like to see more bio
nice post. keep post like this....
I can smell the Cedar from here. I worked in the timber industry, i used to machine Maple and Cedar, marvelous timber to work with and perfect for this type of project. Cedar especially is perfect for this enviroment. I wonder if these two cabins are conected in any way?
Amazing place, nice post as always. thx
What did it cost to build this home, including foundations, delivery, utility connections, everything?
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