New Mexico EcoSteel House - more photos

Another round of photos from the New Mexico EcoSteel House. An interesting point of view, most of these were shot from a lift that was on site for the interior work. Most of the exterior photos are from this elevated point of view.



As before more shots in a photo browser below the click through:

Technorati Tags: 6030 House, 6040 House, ecosteel, modern design, modern house

Common Pond Plat House - new photos

We received some new photos from the owner of the Common Pond Plat House today. They are just about ready to move in and the house appears finished.



More photos after the link.

Technorati Tags: house plans, modern design, modern house, Plat House

Letters from Sweden - deliver and set

Its time to wrap up our series on pref-fab house building in Sweden. In previous entries we've looked at how the houses are put together, and the products and technology that have enabled the technique. Today we are going to look at the last part of the process: delivery and installation at the site.



As we've hinted at before the panelized method used by the Swedes requires less shipping than a modular technique. Where modular requires a separate truck/trailer for each module box with panelized a few trucks can usually deliver all the parts. All the wall and floor panels can be loaded on one truck, roof trusses and roofing materials on another. Its a denser method of transport compared to the hollow box of modular construction. Remember, Ikea ships their goods flat-packed because it avoids shipping air!



The parts arrive at the site and are craned into place, carpenter fastening the wall panels as they are off-loaded. This is important! They are not stacking them on site to be handled again when they are installed. The come off the truck and into their final resting place in one step. When the ground floor walls are up, then the drywall for the ceilings and wall patches is placed on the floor before the second floor framing goes on. The drywall is delivered with the rest of the panels from the factory, so there is no separate order of materials, and no unloading and carrying of drywall into the house. They leverage the crane for this. Here is a time lapse installation video made by Scott. As you will see the entire house goes up in one day.



Another common technique is the crane enabled delivery truck. This is a flat bed deliver truck which includes a relatively small crane for unloading the panels. We've seen similar equipment in the US. Often lumber yards will have a small lift arm on a flat bed truck for lifting drywall or lumber to a convenient spot on a construction site. Scale that up and you have the Swedish house delivery truck. Often the controls are wireless allowing the operator to get a better view of the load and place it with more ease. These trucks are commonly owned by the factory, which if you remember from earlier posts owns the entire process at the site. So unlike a lumber delivery truck in the US, the truck is not running to the next delivery. It can remain on site and assist with the remaining lifting work - this may mean spending a day at the site, vs unloading in an hour or two and disappearing. This can mean a lot to the speed of construction overall, and it is certainly convenient for delivery and assembly to be unified. Otherwise the builder must have his own equipment on site to handle the panels after delivery. That all adds extra steps which erodes the efficiency of the process.





While the house walls are going in on another part of the site the roof will be assembled. The trusses come off the truck and are placed onto a steel jig which has been previously set up to match the top plates of the walls. Roof sheathing goes on, pre-sided end panels go on, and the roof is shingled. This all happens just a few feet above the ground instead of an entire story up. This makes it easier for the workers to get on and off the roof, and carrying materials up is also much easier. From here the roof assembly is craned to the flat bed, carried over to the house, and craned in place.



It all happens very quickly, and everything that has gone before was designed to make this field install as fast and as systematic as possible. Remember this is not a curiosity there. This method has completely replaced the site based construction we do here in the US. This is the way the commercial house builders work in Sweden.



Now that the house is together what is left to do? The joints between panels must be finished and sealed on the outside, and drywalled on the inside. Ceiling drywall must be installed, and wires pulled through the conduits. Connections must be made for plumbing and electrical services, and the HVAC system connections as well. Windows and hardware must be adjusted, and the house made clean for the buyer. Buyers often add sweat equity to finish houses. Painting is common. Floor finishes sometimes as well. Plumbing fixtures as explained before are often installed like appliances after the fact.

One more entry to wrap up the series - we'll look at a range of Swedish house vendors.

Thanks to Scott for photos and video.
Previously:
Letters from Sweden - plumbing the prefab
Letters from Sweden - wiring zen
Letters from Sweden - a windows tale
Letters from Sweden - panel building in Sweden vs the USA
Letters from Sweden - Europe is different, Sweden is not, sort of..
Letters from Sweden - land of modern, land of prefab
Letters from Sweden - conversations with an expatriate builder

Technorati Tags: modern design, modern house, prefab house

Revolver

For those of you who are either not worried about vertigo or who are looking for a place to film a scene for a James Bond movie, this 3000-aquare-foot revolving house, at 122 Olmstead Hill Road, Wilton, Connecticut, might be ideal.

It was designed by Richard Foster, who collaborated with Philip Johnson on other projects and who, in fact, built it for himself in 1967 and lived there until his death, in 2002.

I don't think there's a rush to put in a bid though. It sold in 2004 for $1,550,000 after being listed for about a million dollars more. In 2005 the current owner listed it at $2,295,000 and withdrew it in December of 2006, after it failed to sell. Then it was put on the market again in January of 2007, for the same price.

I first heard of it in December of '07 and now brokers are pushing it again. But the price hasn't gone down: it's still listed at $2,295,000. The property taxes are $17,000.

Here's the broker's hyperbolic description:

This truly one-of-a-kind marriage of art, architecture, and technology by Richard T. Foster, renowned architect and collaborator of Philip Johnson, is a masterpiece that captures the wonder of landscape from all angles. Totally renovated in 2005, "The Round

House" is walled in glass and floats 12 ft. off the ground rotating 360 degrees. It incorporates custom ash cabinetry, state-of-the-art Zenon interior lighting, luxurious marble & limestone baths, "Smart House" technology in the main house & studio, and a new gunite lap pool by Wagner that overlooks the surrounding landscape. A setting for both casual & formal entertaining, visitors are fascinated by this rare concept of living. -- ta

Paul Rudolph's Buildings Seem to be a Favorite for Demolition

In the dubious competition to see which modern architect's buildings get torn down, Paul Rudolph seems to be leading. A couple of years ago his Micheels House, in Westport, Connecticut, fell after an excruciating couple of weeks during which the new owner did the best he could to give himself a bad name. Then a year ago, a beach house he designed in Rhode Island went down too (everything I wrote about Rudolph on my other blog is here, if you want the unpleasant details).

And now the Times is reporting that a school he designed in Sarasota, Florida, is probably going to be razed as well. Here's how the story starts:

Of the many Modernist buildings Paul Rudolph designed in Sarasota, Fla., his stomping ground in the 1940s and ’50s, Riverview High School is among the most influential.

Not only is it a classic example of his early Sarasota style, with clean, horizontal planes; natural lighting; and inventive sunshades to cool the interiors, but it has also housed tens of thousands of students who have been schooled there in the last half-century.

This week the Sarasota County School Board cleared the way for the demolition of the building at the end of the 2008-9 school year. The board voted 3 to 2 not to proceed with a restoration proposed by preservationists that would turn the school, built in 1958, into a music conservatory.

There's a lot of back and forth in the story between proponents and opponents of demolition, and a lot of rationalization by the proponents, but to me it seems as if they made up their minds to get rid of the school some time ago and they don't want to be bothered considering other arguments or alternatives. (Coincidentally, the school our daughter goes to was designed by the architects who designed our house; the school was recently renovated extensively and any traces of the original Moore & Hutchins design was obliterated, which raised nobody's ire around here, if anyone even knew: the original school had served its usefulness and it was time for a new one.)

As the first sentence of the Times story says, Rudolph worked a lot in Sarasota and the town's architectural style became known as the Sarasota School (not to be confused with the Sarasota school that's going to be torn down). A few years ago Fred Bernstein wrote a good feature in the Times about Sarasota's moderns; you can read it here. -- ta

0857 L House - Design Prints Available

Yes indeed, the Design Prints are done, and available from the new catalog page right now. So go, dig in, look at the plans, look at the drawings of the outside, look at the drawings of the inside, imagine your life in this house..

Technorati Tags: house plans, L House, modern design, modern house

New Canaan and Cristina Ross Reach an Agreement to Protect Philip Johnson's Alice Ball House

The Town of New Canaan has approved a plan by the owner of the Alice Ball House, designed by Philip Johnson, to build a new house behind it with the condition that the owner sign an preservation easement guaranteeing that the Alice Ball House not be altered.

What this means is that unless the litigious neighbors prevail in court, the Alice Ball House will be protected and will not be razed, which the owner -- Cristina Ross -- had threatened to do. This is clearly a victory for both common sense and historic preservation. Here's what the New Canaan News-Review just reported:

Cristina Ross, the owner, offered the preservation easement as part of her plan to construct a driveway over a portion of wetlands to access the 8,000-square-foot house she plans to build in the rear of the 2-acre lot. The easement will ensure the design of the Alice Ball house remains in the style of Philip Johnson, protecting the façade and the interior design as it relates to the architect's original work. ...

The development plan also calls for constructing of a pool and renovating the Alice Ball house into a pool house as well.

There's plenty of background in our previous posts, here, and on my other blog, here. -- ta