Coolest Houses Ever!
LiveModern – Welcome to LiveModern!
I really love modern architecture–and I’m enthusiastic about the idea of living in a smaller, green-designed kind of place. This website has some wonderful examples, including the “Glidehouse” shown in this photo. It’s a modular design that’s reasonably priced and very cool. (There are pictures! You must visit the site if only for those!)
The site is nicely designed with blogs, chats, forums, links to modern design websites, and so on. I plan to join (it’s free) and maybe I’ll see you there, eh?
One of the neatest modern designs I’ve ever seen is something I saw on…some television show…and the house was designed by…some guy in Japan. Yeah, I know. Really helpful. I wish I remembered the name of the architect because I really really liked his design.
The exterior shell of the house was built sort of like a greenhouse only with an opaque material instead of transparent glass in the walls. I think the opaque stuff may have been some kind of fiberglass. So, there’s a big open space inside with no walls (except for a couple to enclose bathrooms) and lots of light and air. The floors were a nice tinted concrete and there was a big door (like a barn door) on one end of the shell with a patio on the outside so the house could be completely opened up to the outdoors during nice weather. Inside the house the common areas were all located within the large open space. There was a big wood table that could be used for dining, studying, craft projects, whatever. The kitchen was an open design. There were some comfortable chairs clustered in an area where an entertainment center might be. The absolutely coolest part of the house was how the ‘bedrooms” were done. The bedrooms were 10x10x10 foot cubes on wheels. Each individual living in the house could decorate the interior of their cube any way they wanted. The architect had his elderly mother living with him and she had her cube decorated very sparsely with tatami mats on the floor and a futon for sleeping. Because the cubes have wheels, an individual could move his room to any part of the house he wanted at any time. He could even move his cube outside to the patio on nice nights. A person could cut a couple windows into his cube if he wanted…put in a sliding shoji screen for the door….whatever you’d want. The possibilities are endless. Isn’t that just the best idea? I really like it. One of the best parts about it is that it really could be built very inexpensively. You’d need professional help for the shell and the plumbing and wiring, of course, but the cubes could be easily built by anyone who’s reasonably handy with a hammer and saw.
If anyone out there knows who this architect is, I’d appreciate being told. I’d really like to give him credit here for his amazing design.
Posted by RebeccaHartong on August 29, 2004 under Uncategorized
[...] I’ve written before about the very cool house in Japan I saw once on some television show. I couldn’t remember who the architect was — but now, by lucky chance, I have discovered their web site! It’s Shigeru Ban Architects and the house I liked so well is called their Naked House. Check it out. They’ve got a couple pictures, too. The house consists of one unique large space of two-story high in which four personal rooms on casters can be moved freely. To reduce weight and optimize mobility, these rooms are not very large and hold a minimum of belongings and fittings. They can be moved accordingly to the needs of their use. Placed against the walls of the house, in front of the heating or air-conditioning units, warm air or a cooling breeze can flow into it. They can also be put side by side and create a larger room, when their sliding doors are removed. They can be taken outside, on the terrace, for the full use of the space inside. They can also work as a supplementary floor for the children to play on top. [...]
The design of these homes is similar to those built for Eichler Homes by modernist architects in the mid-50′s and the late 60′s.
If you aren’t familiar with this style of home, you can check them out here: http://www.eichlerforsale.com