News
12/1/2007 - Small on Size, Big on Green. Off-site manufacturing is integral part of architect's eco-friendly designs
By Michelle Kaufmann
Michelle Kaufmann, inventor of the glidehouseTM, breezehouseTM, and now mkLotusTM, is leading the green building industry with innovative designs. As an architect, she has brought a new line of affordable environmental modular buildings to the American public, making her mark on green building manufacturing. Ms. Kaufmann was a student of Michael Graves at Princeton and worked for Frank Gehry & Associates before founding Michelle Kaufmann Designs.
During the past 5 years, I have been amazed at the potential of modular construction; and yet, so much potential is still yet to be fully developed. The benefits that can be realized with modular off-site technology has such synergy with sustainable designs. As we started our practice with the goal of making thoughtful, sustainable design accessible to all, we found modular technology a perfect fit with our goals and work.
It has been a long 5 years to date. As we say in our office, they really have been like dog-years. We seem to be fitting so much into each day. We have been fortunate to be working with factory partners like Blazer Industries and Modtech who have been inspiring in their dedication and commitment. We also started our own factory one year ago. As my husband says, we are naive enough to not know that all the risks of what we have been doing. Thank goodness. It has been challenging, but so essential to achieving our goals.
We realized that we had to go into production to start having the appropriate balance between thinking like architects and thinking like manufacturers. It is surprising to me that it has taken so long for architects and designers to apply the same level of design and thought to modular technology as they do to site-built. We are doing everything we can to change that. We have been fortunate to be spending time with writers and television people to help educate the public about green and about modular. We have been doing sustainable homes as exhibits to demonstrate to people that green can be beautiful, and accessible, as well as to show people the benefits of modular construction.
Most recently, we designed a small, green home that was built as a part of West Coast Green's annual green conference. It was one module, designed to be built in the factory in a month, with minimal button-up work, so it can be completed on site in a week. Called the mkLotusTM, we designed the home as an oasis. It provides a sense of tranquility. It is about connection: connection to the natural, and to the landscape. It can be a perfect vacation home, or a home where you feel like you're on vacation.The home completely opens up to the outdoors, blurring the boundary between the exterior and interior. The home was only on display directly in front of San Francisco's City Hall for a few days, however, thousands of people toured the home in the short timeframe. Viewers of the home included attendees of the conference as well as the general public. Located in one of the most public places in San Francisco, it meant that the mkLotusTM offered exposure of green, modular building to people waiting at the nearby bustop, people going to city hall to get married, protesters of various issues with City Hall, transient neighbors, people heading to the Opera, farmers at the nearby farmers market, city officials, and people simply walking by. The comment, "oh, this is a green home? I could live there!" was commonly overheard.
Dan Gregory, senior editor of Sunset magazine, reflected on the mkLotusTM for West Coast Green in his blog on www.homebysunset.com, "...theres a whole lot of green going on. Like an architectural version of compressed files on a zip disk, mkLotusTM expands horizons the moment you enter. It remains in place (for a few days). And then, like San Francisco's famous fog, it moves on."
As we at Michelle Kaufmann Designs look to offer our thoughtful, sustainable homes nationally within the next year, we will be creating additional designs that are appropriate for other non-west coast climates; still modular, still big on green and still being built using off-site modular manufacturing.