Coolhaus Modern Ice Cream Architecture

The dessert-designing duo made a splash over the weekend at Coachella, the annual three-day music and arts festival held in the southern California desert town of Indio. It was something of a grand debut, though Natasha Case, one of the founders, told me they actually launched several months ago. Case used to work at Disney Imagineering, and while there, she had "imagineered" an idea for creative ice cream sandwiches. "I finally made them for an office party," she said, "and they were such a hit that we sort of just took off from there."

Now a self-characterized "imagineater," Case and co-founder Freya Estreller have an ice cream truck that travels around and alerts potential customers to its whereabouts via Twitter. They offer five prefab flavors: Frank Behry, Mintimalism, Mies Vanilla Rohe, Richard Meyer Lemon Ginger, and Oatmeal Cinnamoneo. Their website has the "plans" for each, so you can see what your cookie and filling will consist of.

As the temperature reaches the mid-80s this afternoon, the Dwell crew regrets that Coolhaus is 400 miles away, but we look forward to seeing them in late June as Dwell on Design 09 hits Los Angeles. Meanwhile we may try to make some homemade ice cream ourselves with the electric machines we tested out for the forthcoming Dwell Reports feature on ice cream makers. Look out for it in the July/August 2009 issue.

(Thanks for the tip, Evan Kleiman! [via Curbed LA])