Method Lab
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The nonprefab place where architect Jennifer Siegel lays her head is a perpetual work in progress.Photo by: Dave Lauridsen -
Expansive steel-and-glass doors open from the trailer to Siegal's back yard.Photo by: Dave Lauridsen -
The first phase of rehabbing the backyard trailer was fabricating custom steel-and-glass doors.Photo by: Dave Lauridsen -
“A lot of the things in here are found objects,” Siegal says of her home’s contents. The vintage stove, with its funky yellow Bakelite knobs, was inherited from the previous owner.Photo by: Dave Lauridsen -
Siegal built bookshelves from scrap wood, bartered for her Danish modern furniture, and haggled for a living-room rug in Morocco.Photo by: Dave Lauridsen -
At the same time she annexed the trailer, Siegal opened up the master bedroom to include a new bath and laundry room. “The house hadn’t been touched since the 1920s—it had lots of tiny little rooms,” says Siegal of the home she bought in 2002. “But I loved that yard, and I thought, I could make this place really great.” Her latest addition is a two-story workspace where the garage once stood.Photo by: Dave Lauridsen -
The bathroom, which along with the laundry room is part of Siegel's renovated master bedroom.Photo by: Dave Lauridsen -
Most of the plants in the garden are grown from cuttings imported from Mexico. “I have a trailer down in Baja,” Siegal reports. “It’s a total ad-hoc situation: no electricity, an outdoor shower, an outhouse. It’s a level above camping.”Photo by: Dave Lauridsen -
Chunky steel bed frames in the bedrooms were Siegal’s first attempt at furnishings.Photo by: Dave Lauridsen -
Jennifer Siegal’s other house is the portable ShowHouse, a 720-square-foot example of her factory-built prefab housing, wedged in among the boutiques and coffee bars on trendy Abbott Kinney Boulevard in Venice. “I set it up so people would have a place to come and kick the tires,” Siegal jokes. “What does modern prefab feel like?”Photo by: Dave Lauridsen -
OMD continually updates the ShowHouse with the latest eco-friendly materials, including nontoxic birch veneer Koskipanels and Durapalm flooring, which is a secondary product of coconut palms.Photo by: Dave Lauridsen -
Bamboo flooring and Kirei board, which is made from the discarded stalks of sorghum plants, define the ShowHouse.Photo by: Dave Lauridsen -
The nonprefab place where architect Jennifer Siegal lays her head is a perpetual work in progress.Photo by: Dave Lauridsen -
Furnishings from Vitra, including Jean Prouvé and Verner Panton chairs and a Jasper Morrison side table help make the ShowHouse as stylish as it is sustainable.Photo by: Dave Lauridsen
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