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 Hammer and [...]
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 often [...]
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 [...]
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. [...]
Best Of Green 2012
So sweet. A beautiful house we designed has been nominated for Treehugger’s Best of Green 2012 for the Best Prefab category. Readers vote for the winner, so share your thoughts. Lots of great categories and projects.
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 / tickets
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, the [...]
*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 [...]
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 statistics [...]
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 Magazines [...]
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 visiting the [...]
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 [...]
gingertower challenge
A group of friends and I created our own holiday version of the Marshmallow Challenge (an interesting activity started by Autodesk fellow Tom Wujec). Two teams using traditional edible gingerbread ingredients and great wine (ok, we just drank the wine – it was not used in the actual structure) had 30 minutes to try to [...]
setting day
Here are photos from setting day of a project I designed with Studio 101 Designs in Northern California. I still get excited seeing how complete the modules are when they arrive. Wood flooring, tile walls, fsc-certified cabinets, and even towel bar holders. Big bravo to my partners, Blazer Industries and Studio 101 Designs.
photos of completed [...]
factory fabulous-ness
Visits to the factory are always interesting, especially when it is for a project we have designed being built my our favorite factory, Blazer Industries. Here are photos from a Blazer visit for one of my favorite recent homes we designed in northern California. Look for setting and finished photos coming up in a few [...]
water, water everywhere…
written by Shannon Bloemker (home owner, client, co-designer of reLEED house)
Living in California gives you a heightened appreciation for water resources. It only rains for about 4 months of the year, and some years it hardly rains at all. So when it came to planning for our remodel, I knew that water sources and uses [...]
DIY garden apartment
Below is a fantastic TED talk by Britta Riley about her quest for creating an edible garden in her small New York apartment. Her project turned into much more than that. It became an open-source movement of innovation and a framework for global collaboration and shared idea ownership. I love every single thing about this.
www.rndiy.org
www.ourwindowfarms.org
