The Design House Stockholm party was one of the best attended, with the company's CEO, Anders Färdig, playing emcee. He has quite the booming voice, perfect for theatrics and only enhanced by his headset-microphone. He was speaking in Swedish, so the monolingual Americans could only guess what he was saying—but judging from the crowd's reaction, it was very rousing and funny.

Nodding to the bay windows so common in San Francisco, the AetherSF shop's second in the stack of three shipping containers cantilevers out over the entry not only to provide a bit of shelter from a rainy night, but also to permit an expansive view of the neighborhood from the second floor lounge.

Last night, January 23rd, Dwell and Aether Apparel teamed up for the Dwell Conversation Prefab's Progress. We were joined by a two architects, a metal fabricator, and a prefab entrepreneur to talk about how prefabricated architecture can solve the problems presented by difficult sites.

Douglas Burnham, principal of Envelope A+D, and designer of the AetherSF shop describes how the trio of shipping containers are connected by just four bolts, making them entirely mobile. Because the buildings at the Proxy are intended to be temporary—San Francisco has designated the lot for mixed-income housing when it has the capacity to build—Burnham and his colleagues faced a difficult site not in terms of topography, but in terms of time.

Seth Krubiner (plaid shirt) and Benjamin Parco (black blazer) describe how they used prefab tools to build a pair of Bay Area Houses. Krubiner is a founder of Simpatico Homes and lives in the firm's prototype house in Emeryville, California. A hybrid site-built and modular system, Simpatico Homes build as much as they can in the factory but as Krubiner argued, certain elements (like the garage) are better done on-site. Parco designed a panelized prefab system for a house high in the Berkeley Hills, too high for a big truck and a crane to move a modular solution to the site.

At just nine feet wide, AetherSF succeeds by being a vertical store. A customized dry-cleaner's conveyor belt hoists tons of jackets tens of feet into the sky, essentially suspending the shop's inventory.

Rather an informal talk, Deputy Editor Aaron Britt (in the tie) moderated a talk about prefab design with (from left) architect Benjamin Parco, Seth Krubiner of Simpatico Homes, architect Douglas Burnham, and metalworker Chris French. Here French describes how his long experience doing custom metalwork allowed him to avoid a trial-and-error approach to the Aether interior.

Anders Färdig founded Design House Stockholm in 1992.

Developer Chris Sally has been known to have conversations with passersby from his “cigar-smoking balcony.”

The wood inside was harvested from the local forest. Anders’s favorite spot in the home is the sofa situated under an almond tree in the greenhouse.

The curvy, off-white sofa, which forms a perfect conversation pit, was purchased on Ebay (and cost as much as it did to buy).

A closet is built into the bed frame in this London guesthouse. With hangers so close by, there's no excuse for not hanging up your clothes before bed. Photo by Ben Anders.

Conversation pit at the Miller House in Columbis, Indiana, a national historic landmark. Interior architectural design and curation by Alexander Girard in collaboration with Eero Saarinen and Dan Kiley.

#milanuncut features conversation around the actual amount designers are paid for their ideas.

Sunken Living Room with Conversation Pit

Photo by Anders Hviid

A waterfront conversation pit brings a touch of midcentury glamour to this modern oasis in Miami Beach.

A custom table designed by Staffan Holm, capable of seating 26, runs the length of Anders Bergström and Kristina Lagercrantz’s kitchen in Gothenburg. Unfold pendants by Form Us With Love for Muuto, Lilla Åland chairs by Carl Malmsten for Stolab, and a painting by Hampus Pettersson complete the space.

Josh Jessup (left), Louis the dog and Matt Moss, pictured in their rental home's "conversation pit."

This project sparks a conversation about the future of the relationship between urban development and the preservation of natural areas.

The 510 Cabin is one of Leggitt's designs, executed with the help of student apprentices.

A sunken conversation pit surrounding a fire pit sits adjacent to the pool in this semi-outdoor space at a home in Atlantic Beach, Florida.

Confessions (furniture for respite or conversation) by Arik Levy.

"Blue and white tones came up very often during our conversations, and the fact that the property was sitting right on the ocean made it feel like a good fit for their vision," adds Audrito.

Herrman, his wife, Cécile, and their young daughter, Rose, play on the Pont table by Ligne Roset . The Carmo sofa is by Anders Nørgaard for BoConcept.

The cover of Murakami Versailles.

The Miller House and Garden features a custom-made sofa in the open-plan living area designed by Saarinen with textiles by Girard. The home was widely published and is in part credited for the popularity of conversation pits in the 1950s and 1960s.

A waste-management plan has been developed to minimize, mitigate, and/or completely eliminate construction waste, while also properly disposing unused materials.

A look at the living areas with two smaller rooms crafted at one end of the pavilion volume—a ground-level kitchen and an upper-floor sitting room, which can be easily adapted as a bedroom and/or study.

Pendant by Matthew Fairbank Design.

Clock by Ding3000 for Discipline.

The structure of the coop was inspired by the new bus shelters and newsstands in New York City.

"The overall design is influenced by the use of traditional, locally available, and/or low-maintenance materials such as corrugated metal roofing, cement board lap-siding, heavy timber construction, and indigenous wood species," Brun says.

A gentle site crossfall offered an opportunity to experiment with internal level changes. “I just loved the idea of a conversation pit,” says architect Jeremy Bull. “It is a quirky oak and leather bench which gets used for most of our sitting, meals, board games, and spilling things.”

This Cupertino home features a conversation pit outfitted with a 250-square-foot configuration of Patricia Urquiola’s Tufty-Time sofa for B&B Italia. Overhead, flush-mounted LED strips demarcate the lounge area. - Cupertino, California Dwell Magazine : September / October 2017

Kitchen & Dining Room “This room really became the heart of the space,” Dawn Casale says. “If people are sitting at the dining table or in the living area, you’re able to have a really free-flowing conversation and there’s a nice dynamic happening on the entire floor.”