Herman Miller visits our office
One of the first glimpses of our office is from Herman Miller. (love them) Here is their blogpost about it. So fun.
Solar Decathlon Europe
Looking for some awesomeness? Checking out this year’s Solar Decathlon Europe entries provide hours of eco-drooling. The exhibit in Madrid includes such beautiful homes, innovative ideas and impressive execution. Each year gets better and better. http://www.sdeurope.org/ Solar Decathlon 2011 Houses
pop-up park
Love this pop-up park created by friends at Passarelle. Would love to see this happen more often and stay up. A great solution for under-utilized urban spaces.
White House talk on the Future of Architects
So this was crazy fun. I gave a talk on what we can learn from the Eames as we re-imagine the future of architects at the White House. There was a special film screening and panel discussion of the NEH-funded documentary Charles & Ray Eames: The Architect and the Painter at the White House, hosted [...]
ground breaking in Denver
Finally, the day has come. The next phase of the Aria Denver project is beginning construction with the ground breaking ceremony happening Wednesday morning. The design of these homes is about cultivated life: community, simplified living, reduced carbon footprint, lifetime learning, inter-generational, reflective and focused on urban agriculture. We are super excited. If you are [...]
opera house as theatre
Projection on architecture makes for spectacular urban theatre. The end of this video is especially transforming.
the story of the smart home
Michelle Kaufmann from After Black Hammer on Vimeo. My talented and dear friend Garret Curtis made this beautiful video of the story behind the Smart Home in Chicago. I love his eye and gift for story telling. Lord knows I am no easy subject to deal with. More of Garret’s work is at After Black [...]
the best with the most for the least
Any time you feel the need for some inspiration, this is one of the best films for offering a recharge. Charles and Ray Eames: The Architect and the Painter is a part of PBS’s American Masters series and has become the definitive documentary on this amazing couple and their team and body of work. I [...]
Extreme Architecture
Get your spacesuit on. Architecture for Humanity (along with NASA, X-Prize founder, Google and the Mars Society are working on an amazing project. Location: Mars. They will be sending architects to space to design habitation on this alluring planet. Hopefully learning from how to build in this extreme environment will help prepare us for ideas [...]
designing for better
Sometimes you get lucky and work with people who are not only spectacular, but are also a great balance. I feel super fortunate to have been working with Scott Landry for over 7 years. He has been in charge of most of the projects that I have designed at both MKD and Michelle Kaufmann Studio. [...]
builder’s tips for green
While the home we designed in the east bay (which is due to be the first LEED platinum home in Piedmont) is under construction, it is great to check in with people on the team to learn from their experiences. Today we check in with Alex Hodgkinson of McCuthcheon Construction, the builder of the project. [...]
Equinox 2012 party
One of our favorite organizations, Vote Solar, is having their tenth annual Equinox party on April 17, 2012. If it was anything like last years party, it is sure to be a blast. And a great cause – the work of Vote Solar is super important and benefits all of us. votesolar.org more info / [...]
TED Wish: City 2.0
Each year at the TED conference in Long Beach, there is a prize given for a wish. Something that will profoundly make the world better. Back in XXX our dear friend and inspiration Cameron Sinclair won the TED prize for his wish for the Open Architecture Network. This year, the powerful TED wish asks us [...]
here comes the sun
It is so exciting to have windows and skylights installed. The construction instantly transforms into space with the natural light sculpting the surfaces. These recent construction photos of the Piedmont Residence capture that moment. The design of the windows and skylights is critical to this remodel project. With so many large trees around the home, [...]
*new* Sunset Garden Book
For many of us the Sunset Western Garden Book (which has been around for 80 years) is our landscape bible. It has become the essential guide to the region’s ornamental and edible gardens. And now in its just released ninth edition, The NEW Sunset Western Garden Book has awesome new features and more than 1000 [...]
office art
Reading today’s Apartment Therapy post on artwork for the office, I couldn’t help but look up to appreciate the piece on my office wall. It is by one of my very favorite artists, Miya Ando. She makes magic with her steel and aluminum canvases. She “paints” through the use of heat, patinas and burnishing. The [...]
drawing with shadows
Enjoying a sunny afternoon appreciating the shadows in our house. We experience the designs created by the absence of light as much as the forms that generate the shadows. As architects, when we design with shadows in mind, the structures themselves become the painters, the living artist with a constantly evolving canvas throughout the day [...]
ariaDenver
Super excited that the next phase of the ariaDenver project is (finally) happening! This includes 13 town homes along 52nd Avenue (that we designed and shown here) as well as two co-housing communities. On February 21st at 6:30pm you are invited to be part of the first session to explore the Living Options at Aria. [...]
SF Green Film Festival
Join us Monday, March 5 for a screening of Urbanized and OUR FUTURE IN URBAN SUSTAINABILITY panel. Urbanized is the third part of Gary Hustwit’s design film trilogy, joining Helvetica (2007) and Objectified (2009), and frames a global discussion on the future of cities. More than half the world’s population now lives in cities and [...]
furry models
It used to be that architectural photographs were famous for having strategically placed colorful fruit amidst a minimal geometric palette. Then Dwell magazine’s Fruit Bowl Manifesto changed all of that and transformed architectural photography to be more tactile and accessible by including people, and especially cute kids. However, when judging 800 entries for Residential Architect [...]
architectural landscape
Big Sur is a magical place. The mixture of epic landscape and architectural land forms not only expose the delicate balance of multiple types of life, but simultaneously create a sense of peace. It is impossible to spend time in this place without feeling invigorated with inspiration. We spent the holiday weekend there hiking and [...]
killer color
As we approach Blue Monday (which many say is statistically the most depressing day of the year based on a formula including dreary weather, lack of sun, post-holiday depression and debt), consider adding a bit of new color into your life. Kevin and I were definitely feeling low so we deciding to do a bit [...]
hammer-made music
One of the greatest symphonies to an architect is the one played at a busy construction site. The buzzing of people, strategies, materials and tools is an intense dance. Such was my day today visiting our remodel project in Piedmont. We met with the contractors, McCutcheon Construction, to review the status of the project – [...]
fluid spaces
I am happy to share these photos of a recent project we designed in northern California. I designed the home with Studio 101 Designs and it was built using modular construction by Blazer Industries. The home was set during a 2-day period from 2 modules and then finished (or “buttoned up”) after that. This is [...]
