Villa Vals, the house in the hillside

I wrote about this Swiss house-in-the-hillside months ago, but what I didn't know at the time is that it can be rented as a vacation property.

On the website and in the PDF brochure there there are more photos of the inside which I'd not seen previously.
– GF

XHouse3 Construction Prints officially in production

Contest fun is all over now, so its back to production work to get all the great designs we have in Design Prints available in Construction Prints.

Next up is the XHouse3 design. Three bedrooms, a home office, 1,986 sqft, MoTrad modern traditional fusion design. Order now, and we'll push it out the door for you faster than you can say anti-mcmansion 5 times. Above, house section sheet from the Construction Prints underway. Yes, thats right, if I'm up to the sections that means the plans and elevation sheets are already laid out waiting for notes. Its closer than you think.

Usonia House: A Few Photos

Stephie Podell,who grew up in the Usonia house, in Mount Pleasant, New York, that was destroyed in a fire a few weeks ago, was nice enough to share a few photos with us. Here they are.

A little break from Modern architecture . . .

Love Letter is a project by tag artist Stephen Powers with the City of Philadelphia Mural Arts Program. The messages – created as an homage to 'Cornbread' the Philadelphia graffiti artist whose messages to his girlfriend adorned many buildings in the late '60s – are in the West Philadelphia area, best seen from the Market-Frankford Elevated train line.

When completed, the project will encompass 50 painted walls between 63rd and 45th street on Market Street, a documentary film with scripted elements, a sign school and shop that will provide training for area youth and free signage for businesses on the market street corridor, and 2 books documenting the project. One of the books will be a small paperback that will be distributed to area businesses free of charge, for them to sell to visitors. The other book will be a larger hardcover book that will document not only the artwork, but the neighborhood and the inspirations of the Love Letter Project. –GF

The contest is over, the Lagom House is just beginning

Well we are sorry to report that the Lagom House did not make the cut for the 12 finalists in the design contest. However we are very happy to note that the Lagom House did finish in the top 30 and earned an Honorable Mention from the judges.

All in all we are thrilled with the results, and must confess we are glad we did not have to spend another two weeks begging for public votes! Another disappointment however was that none of the designs I highlighted during the voting made the final 12, and only one other made it into the top 30 with the Lagom House. That design would be the Simple House design by Bob Swinburne. Correction: the Transition House by Studio Interpretation Design also made it into the top 30, so including Lagom House 3 of my picks made honorable mentions.

I enjoyed preparing the Lagom House design for the contest, and reaching out to all of my followers and friends through many mediums was a great experience. If FreeGreen organizes another contest we will certainly participate again. However I don't think we will enter with quite the same determination to win as we did this time around. In my correspondence with other entrants and supporters watching from the side there was a palpable frustration with the voting. Designs that seemed contrary to the spirit of the brief collected many times more votes than better designed houses, and other designs that were extravagantly detailed or represented with what would be prohibitively expensive materials seduced a public that voted for what simply looked best. Yet sensible, well designed proposals languished at the bottom of the listing unseen by visitors that began at the top.

In the end the voting was like a microcosm of the real housing market! Popular choice driven by gratifying image is not a formula for discovering the best of design. Honestly I'm surprised the Lagom House with its stark facade placed as well as it did. To that I have to credit the faithful supporters of our house plans that turned out to vote and kept us near the top of the pile. The value of the contest and the reason we will participate again was in the exposition of so many ideas, and the exposure of our work to so many people.

We took a stand with the Lagom House - to design a house smaller than requested in the contest brief, and to adhere to a minimalist aesthetic that lent itself to affordable construction from common construction materials. It was a lesson in doing more with less, making a great floor plan that shaved hundreds of square feet from the program, and making a strong design statement that by that fact turned off some viewers. The Lagom House is a real solution, something that can be built tomorrow. Its proof that practical affordable houses can also be energy efficient as well as a strong and even polarizing piece of architecture. Its proof that housing could be so much better than it has been in the recent past. Its the way we should build moving forward. No, we did not win, but consider the high placing of the Lagom House a cannon shot across the bow of the status quo.

Usonia Fire: "This Was My House -- My Childhood Home"

Stephanie Podell, who grew up in the Usonia house that burned down a couple of weeks ago, wrote some heartfelt thoughts in the comments to one of our posts about the fire, here. She wrote:

This was my house - my childhood home - The Jerry and Charlotte Podell house built in 1959. The loss we feel is unimaginable. My father is no longer alive and obviously, though we miss him each and every day, we are thankful he is not alive to have witnessed this. We haven't told my mom as yet - not sure we will.

So sad.

She also points to the Greenhaus blog, from Modernism magazine, where Stuart Basseches writes about what it was like to grow up near there (and posts some terrific photos too).

Stephanie, we would love to put some of your photos on our blog, as a way to show people of what a beautiful house it must have been. -- ta

Andy Goldsworthy might feel right at home here

I've seen photos of this house before, and immediately each time, the work of environmental sculptor Andy Goldworthy springs to mind.

Designed by the Architectural office Zecc in Utrecht, the Netherlands, this house has an exterior I want to feel. And stand next to on an early Spring day when it radiates the sun's heat back out. And smell the mineraliness of when it just begins to dampen in the rain.

Zecc says its designs are Clear and Sparkling (with those capitals), and explaining the name of their business, they say "Zecc is not an abbreviation, but it is a name. Zecc is inspired by the French word Sec: pure, simple, clear. Sec as a strong foundation, touched up with an extra ‘c’ and a spark of sensuality as expressed by the Z. Zecc equals clear & sparkling . . . SENSE would be a synonym for Zecc. We create sensible architecture with a sensual quality." 

It's nice they've thought a lot about their philosophy (there's more explanation on their website about Grounded Architecture and other guiding principles), but I'm just interested it touching this house!

If you go to Zecc's website, check out the "Re-Use Cultural Heritage" tab under Projects. I always like to see how purpose built or industrial buildings are reborn as living spaces, and I love the hanging staircase in the Schoolloft renovation. – GF