Custom Modular Home – home as theatre
I recently had dinner with my friends Jodi and Ben in their absolutely stunning home. I designed their home with them and MKD and it was completed in the past year. While most of it was built in a factory as 5 modules plus 2 roof modules, it was custom designed specifically to their site, [...]
Custom Prefab – Santa Barbara
Ellen Rockne, an accomplished singer and artist, and Brian Andreas, a talented writer and artist, owned a lush garden lot in a beautiful neighborhood near downtown Santa Barbara. Co-founders of an imaginative performance and storytelling company called Storypeople, the couple approached Kaufmann with a commitment to creating a cutting-edge, “fully green” home. Ellen and Brian [...]
(new) Smart Home opens
I am so excited that we get to be a part of the “Smart Home: Green and Wired” exhibit at the Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago. The exhibit is a fully functioning three story home (that we designed a few years ago) and showcases the best in sustainable living solutions. Here you can [...]
Custom Modular Home – award winning green landscape
Last month one of our favorite landscape designers, Margie Grace of Grace Design Associates, was honored with two prestigious awards from the Association of Professional Landscape Designers for her work on a custom home we designed in Santa Barbara. In addition to winning the Association’s Gold Award for Residential Design, Margie was also named APLD’s [...]
Custom home in snow country
Scott Landry recently went on a site visit to a newly completed custom home in California snow country (built with modular technology). While there, he shot these terrific candid photos of the house showing the stunning mixture of the Cor-ten weathering steel (love the low maintenance factor of Cor-ten, and how it quietly nestles into [...]
Custom Home in Northern California
I just received this photos of a recent custom modular home in Northern California (designed while I was with Michelle Kaufmann Designs). It is getting ready for landscaping now. (landscape design by Nick Thayer) Such a beautiful site and house. Absolutely lovely. photo by Landscape Designer Nick Thayer with Late Afternoon Design www.lateafternoon.com
Custom Modular – Aspen House
While working for Frank Gehry, I would hear him say that his best projects were the ones with the most constraints. While it seems a bit counter-intuitive, it can be true that constraints can actually help sculpt good design. Now don’t get me wrong. I am not going to complain about a project with no [...]
CUSTOM HOME – spending Christmas with clients who have become like family
My family lives in Iowa and Kevin’s lives in Florida and Canada, so it is impossible for us to get together with our whole family for the holidays, so we choose instead to get together with our families at other times of the year, and spend the holidays with chosen friends as family who are [...]
Courtyard Home
Designing this courtyard home in Northern California was an absolute joy, because it was designed in collaboration with the homeowners, Glen and Wing. They not only have impeccable taste, a stunning site, a deep appreciation for the landscape and environment, but they are also some of my favorite people in the world. The home design [...]
the first home
Light, simplicity, and sustainability – these are the inspiration for our home design. In 2002, when my husband, Kevin Cullen, and I were looking for an affordable home to buy in the San Francisco Bay region, we were frustrated by the lack of options. From this challenge, however, came Kaufmann’s determination to create an alternative, [...]
WCG Home
Efficient. Beautiful. Sustainable. The WCG home embodies the best that green architecture has to offer. Built for West Coast Green, a 2007 green conference in San Francisco, this 725-square foot residence is a unique haven whose sustainable elements—green roofing system, water catchment system, and recycled building materials—result in a zero energy bill. The warm, thoughtful, [...]
Modern Farmhouse
The Modern Farmhouse was designed by Kaufmann as a sustainable, modular approach inspired by the natural beauty found in rural structures across the American landscape. The simple but graceful design pays homage to our land’s heritage as well as the vital importance of living in harmony with our environment. With flowing spaces that organically open [...]
The Loft
The Loft was designed as a healthy housing solution for either a small builder and want to do 2 homes in an urban infill lot, or for the developer wanting to do 50-units. This 2-bedroom + loft home is filled with light and openness. The double-height space in the living room increases the sense of [...]
Northern California setting
Last week was the setting of a home designed by Michelle Kaufmann on an absolutely gorgeous sight in the middle of Northern California wine country. What began as an overcast morning quickly turned into a beautiful day, over the course of which the house went up without a hitch. The main home is made up [...]
