(Via Troy Angrignon) - From The Fab New World of Prefab Houses / SF architect brings eco-friendly, modernist design to the average home buyer:
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But for this native Iowan with an amazon's stature and a schoolgirl's expressivity, the solution was neither to resign herself to becoming a lifetime member of the Tenants Union or pack off for more affordable pastures. Instead, Kauffman and Cullen surveyed the ruinous real estate landscape and decided to build.
They found a half-acre lot in Novato and began designing a home for it, something ultra simple, modern, green. Something affordable. She called it the Glidehouse.
The house that emerged was a long, low-slung, understated dwelling -- a marriage of Californian warmth and Japanese precision -- with a slanted roof and a long wall with a series of 8-foot-wide sliding-glass doors that can open onto a view or close off the interior from the elements. Louvered panels slide into place over the glass to create protection from the sun while still letting the breeze in. With only 1,344 square feet, the home includes a long great room that includes a kitchen, an eating area and a living room, as well as two bedrooms and two baths -- one with his-and-her stainless steel basins and a giant slate shower.
In both its design and its use of materials, Kaufmann incorporated the latest ideas about energy efficiency. She used not only standard green products such as bamboo flooring but also more unusual ones like blown insulation and concrete countertops mixed with recycled paper and fly ash, a coal-waste product. Rows of clerestory windows (those set in the upper portion of a wall to maximize natural light) reduce the need for daytime electricity and function as a natural system for ventilation and temperature control. The metal roof, made of Galvalume, a sheet metal with a zinc-and aluminum alloy coating, is designed to easily accommodate solar panels.
The pièce de résistance was the exterior -- a shell of organically mottled, rusted Corten steel resembling the curving sculptures of Richard Serra.
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You can have a Glidehouse designed specifically for your family in Vancouver. Every Glidehouse owner works with Michelle Kaufmann to architect their home for their particular situation.
Marshall