On a nearly five-acre parcel near Carmel, California, architect Gabriele Mary Ann Schicketanz used modular units from Method Homes to create a custom residential property for herself and her son’s family.
Candour is a prefab building system and a tool to customize building components within that system—including walls, floors, facades, and roofs—with a proprietary CAD plug-in. Users of the software can draft a design, determine if it’s feasible, and price it all in one day. Designs are built at Candour’s manufacturing facility in Sunshine, Melbourne.
Yanki and Yael (pictured), both from Israel, have lived in idyllic locales before—notably a home in Usonia, the forested community planned by Frank Lloyd Wright and his followers—but none, in their estimation, compares to this one. In the kitchen, a Wall Lamp by Workstead hangs above the Terrazzo countertops by Kaza.
In Kansas City, Missouri, a family sought to construct a new home using prefabricated structural insulated panels (SIPS) instead of traditional frame construction. The entire kit house is composed of 4' x 8' sections, and the shell was constructed in about a week. The project’s relatively low cost, quick build time, and highly insulated envelope were positives, but the panels also have their limitations. “Most SIP projects look pretty stupid,” Jamie says. “They haven’t been manipulated by someone who’s thinking creatively.” In this case, Jamie augmented the simple panel system with a dynamic cantilever.
A rear view of the garage and the deck off the master bedroom.
In the main living space, stairs lead to the basement. The white-framed chairs and couch were built by Jamie; the cabinets were designed by Jamie and built by a local cabinetmaker. Brazilian cherry floors run throughout the main house. The clerestory windows allow light in without sacrificing privacy.
An opening off the children’s bedroom (top right) brings in light and functions like a window looking over a courtyard, allowing the family to communicate easily from different levels.
The house was designed to minimally interfere with the hilltop vegetation, which is what attracted the family to the site.
The Nauvo is capable of containing a full kitchen, with room for a pantry. Construction typically takes about a year or less to complete.
The clients—a family of five with three children in college—wanted to create an “urban cabin” that embraces the tranquil forested site on the shores of Lake Minnetonka. The solution was to use vast expanses of glass to dissolve the boundaries between inside and out.
Bjarke Ingels and his firm BIG have designed 2- and 3-bedroom home concepts in tandem with the the new El Cosmico hotel. The designs range from 1,200 to 2,200 square feet.
This thatch-roofed brick cottage in Nieby, Germany, was originally built by tenant farmers or crofters from a nearby estate in the late 1800s. It stands on a small triangular plot of land surrounded by barley fields and faces toward the Geltinger Birk nature reserve. The home’s street-facing facade was preserved and restored with only a minimal, black-steel dormer window belying the more substantial alterations which open onto the private rear yard. A subtle black-framed addition containing an oak-lined living space is tucked under the thatched roof and opens onto a sunken timber terrace while large picture windows are cut into the historic brick volume in areas which had been damaged from the previous additions.
Braithwaite's custom L-Shaped sofa features pull out storage underneath.
Inspired by the Ice Age rock formations found throughout the region, the Meteorite, so named for obvious reasons, is a faceted dwelling designed by Kivi and Tuuli Sotamaa, the brother-and-sister team behind Ateljé Sotamaa.
The house retained its same basic form in front, part of a lush West Seattle neighborhood.
The annex "lanai" opens up to the deck for indoor/outdoor living.
A view of the ipe-and-steel bridge from the main house to the annex.
Casa del Tec features a cylindrical three-level plan. The ground floor is wrapped in glass and spills out onto a backyard with a lawn and pool.
A detached garage and guesthouse/studio creates a buffer between a busy street and the rest of the property, which includes the main house as well as a pool, sauna, and pond, so that life in the residence can feel more private and secluded.
The dining room features double height ceilings and accompanying double height floor-to-ceiling window.
The garden-level living area of the ADU faces perpendicular to the existing house, offering a measure of privacy to the detached building.
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