Design Leader: Michelle Kaufmann
Articles
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Michelle Kaufmann Book Reading
These days, it's a common saying that recessions breed creativity. To Michelle Kaufmann, this means creating solutions for affordable, green living. Kaufmann found her calling after she and her…
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The Latest from Michelle Kaufmann
Michelle Kaufmann's new mkHearth is a semi-prefab house that evokes old-timey barns and vacation-destination chalets. Like all of Kaufmann's celebrity-architect-branded housing products, the…
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Undivided Intentions
The late architect David Boone was always one to take his work home with him—he just kept it in the home’s office. The new residents of his 1972 house embrace a more fluid approach to…
Tips
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Think Smaller. Think Efficient.
Don’t target a prefab project and forget to adapt your wish list to fit the capabilities of the task at hand. A prefabricated house or commercial project has certain limitations, one of which…
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Prefab is Not Necessarily Less Expensive
It certainly can be, but as with any project it depends on the architect, the fabricator, and how everything is organized in anticipation of installation at your site. Your architect needs to be…
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The More Complete, the More Prefab
There are quite a few companies out there that are marketing “prefab” but not all of them are designing and producing entirely finished products. Many projects we have seen appear to be…
Product
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Animal Blueprints
As previously mentioned, I came across a couple of gift ideas for my gift guide that weren’t exactly gadgets, or gadget related. This is a company I discovered last year and one that I think…
Events
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Design USA: Contemporary Innovation
This exhibition features outstanding contemporary achievements in American architecture, landscape design, interior design, product design, communication design, corporate design, interaction…
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The Good Design Show
Founded in Chicago in 1950 by architects Eero Saarinen, Charles and Ray Eames, and Edgar Kaufmann, Jr., Good Design bestows international recognition upon the world's most prominent designers and…
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Prefab Education Workshop
Join Ryan E. Smith, professor of architectural technology and author of Prefab Architecture, in the Prefab Education workshop on January 13th, 2012. Learn about the history of industrialized…
Dwell Collections
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Design Leaders
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Mapping Prefab
In just under ten years, dozens of prefab projects from all over the world have graced the pages of Dwell. We sifted through our archives to find some of our best-loved pieces, revisiting stories…
Advertising
Related Products
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Animal Blueprints
As previously mentioned, I came across a…
Please lead me to Michelle Kaufmann's designs via website. AWESOME! Thank you, Dwell Magazine.
I rell don't knw how to began. Simplly want to say that I love your design and i'm cragy about all of your ideas and thought of mordern living. I born in Bagladesh but Ihav being lving America last fiftee yars. Im plannng to build a huous country side in Banglades and i want you to make me a design for two family morden house.
Here's her website. http://www.mkd-arc.com/
Just read this the other day on SFGate.com: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/blogs/ontheblock/detail?entry_id=40838 - challenging times are challenging even the most innovative thinkers. Sad to see Michelle Kaufman's shop shuttered.
I have been into her home at museum of science and industry in Chicago. Great job. ... Its a great effort. and this model and video is great... But I have the same reaction as I do to many Dwell articles. My Big Question. Why is noone talking price! I just rehabbed a home and working on a budget is very tuff. Let's start talking price per sf. Being up front that they kept construction under 110sf, or 70sf or less... the affordability is where everyone will get access to the ideas here. When will you start reporting on the life blood of what makes spreading this design possible--costs. When are we going to read Dwell, or see an interview like this and have the Price Mystery gone--this house was built for $520,000 and it is 2000sf. etc etc. or was it a "real" breakthrough achievement and it was built at 110 per sf!!! We need to have budget information to make real judgements about somene's success or failure. Design is linked to costs. please start attaching budget notes to all Dwell articles and elevate the conversation to reality and let us judge who is really designing well and frugally.
I am sick of seeing designs like this one. And the hype about being environmentally friendly is only greenwashing. Putting ANY house on the side of a hill, away from urban infrastructure is NOT green!What is green- density, smaller homes, building UP- not out, durable and proven materials and practices. Green roofs, esoteric building materials (COR 10), floor to ceiling windows are all cool and edgy but not smart building design.
I agree with the above comments: the house looks great and Michelle sells it. But what I need to see is realistic prices based on what people really earn and that are not set around bubble, inflated prices. Also, need to see real designs that fit in with the urban and semi-urban environments most people live in. And what about security? It is going to get hairy out there for the next ten years with this crazy economy. Houses need to be tight, efficient, secure, low profile, low energy. and modern (because I love modern design). Dwell needs to rustle up some slick, budget-wise modern designers. Leave the ego dudes doing art galleries and the homes of hedge fund managers.
I will start by agreeing with the negitive comments above. I am a design/tradesmen and I incounter the idea to cost factor for all projects regardless of the client. I believe the key to my long term success and that of DWELL is to incourage and inspire the modern world that under buget is a good thing. Great ideas come from unusual sources and can provide perfect canvases for the products that cost can not be compromised. Example hot water on damaned in theory is great, but if you have no control over your consumtion your use is infinite, how is this "green".
Like Phillip, I too saw the Michelle Kaufmann house at the Chicago museum of science and industry. A fantastic house. I loved it. It has everything I could ever want in a home. A beautiful design inside and out, easy on the environment, it even produces much of its own power requirements. Amazing stuff I was hooked! I asked specifically about the price of such a home and was sticker shocked. I like many out there I'm sure, fully support the idea of an environmentally green homes and the philosophy behind such buildings as those created by Mrs. Kaufmann. I also am personally willing to pay extra to support it. I realize some of the initial costs of putting in your own power and grey water systems are not free but will pay off in time and I am willing to pay that price. But when I hear words like "re-cycle" and "sustainable" then see the materials are often twice the price or more of comparable new products, I am a bit dismayed. If I am told that recycling the used materials used to make up many of these products saves a trip to the land fill that save fuel etc, how about the price in fuel and labour for me having to drive back and forth to work twice as many times to pay for it? I just don't see the environmental saving there? Don't get me wrong, I have a very decent above average paying job and like most people, I simply cannot afford these homes regardless of how many bottles of glass and bags of plastic that are saved and don't make it into the land fill because of such projects. I really wish I could but at this time, homes like those lovingly developed by very talented architects such as Mrs. Kaufmann are all to often out of reach to the masses like me. The very same masses without whose support the concept of a greener world will have a very difficult time succeeding in at this time or make any significant real environmental impact that I wish it could.
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