in honor of in the kitchen with fridays, i wanted to post this beautiful minimalist tray and bowl ($118-$132) from desu design. i love the way that they’re sculptural and beautifully made, but really let the food (or whatever they’re holding) shine. click here for more info and to shop.

ps: stay tuned for a special friday sneak peek at 12…

Sara and David's big goal for this house was to bring it in for $100 a square foot, no small task in the expensive Los Angeles county construction market. But they had a plan, to do copious research on their own, to get the most value out of every consultant they used, and every vendor and contractor they engaged, they resolved to build the house modular, to source their modules from a market with much lower labor cost in Utah, and to complete a good deal of the work themselves as sweat equity. It was their dream to have a modern house and I must say they succeeded on every count. From finding the best materials and vendors, to researching planting material and submitting their own landscape plan for permitting, Sara and David did it all and tracked it in detail in their blog on LiveModern.com. It was a tremendous inspiration and people cheered for them every step of the way. Its hard to know how many other people they inspired to dig their heels in and pursue their own dream of a modern house.



When the work was done, well, almost done, and the smoke had cleared I believe Sara calculated that their cost worked out to about 114$/sqft. This was pretty remarkable at a time when there were literally dozens of prefab house start-ups trying to get traction. The lament was how everything was costing much more than expected, and much more than hoped. In that milieu of dashed hopes Sara and David fought and struggled to make their house happen at a cost that was a pipe dream for the rest of the market.



The house is a reasonable 1400 sqft, 3 bedrooms, with an open kitchen, living/dining, family room space, it really is a wonderful plan that lives much larger than it appears on paper. The modular units in different colors tell the prefab story. You should be able to orient yourself to the photos using the plan. The house site is unusual in that the back yard of the house is really at the side, so the front porch wraps around to the side, and that is the main back yard like space. The rear and other side have proximity to neighbors, more like a house typically has at the sides.
My favorite thing about the design is the three spaces you see in the photos - the kitchen, living/dining, and family room are each small square rooms that overlap at their corners, each space well defined, and very open to one another. It really walks the tightrope between open plan and discrete rooms. David and Sara brought a rough version of this floor plan to the table when they hired me, so they deserve the credit for its design, my role being more to refine, and adapt it to division into modules, and to resolve the plan into the 3d massing and window placement. It was truly a collaboration of the best kind. More photos in the browser below.

Technorati Tags: modern design, modern house, modular house, prefab house

Barack Obama’s election to the presidency wasn’t the only sustainable choice on the ballot last Tuesday. Californians voted in favor of an 800 mile high speed train system that will stop in every major city from Sacramento to San Diego. According to the High Speed Rail Authority, California is the 12th largest source of greenhouse gas emission on earth, 41% of which come from transportation. Traveling at 220 miles per hour, the trains will reduce greenhouse gases by up to 12.7 billion pounds annually, the equivalent of removing 1 million cars from the road each year. Set to begin construction as early as 2011, California’s high speed rail will create 450,000 new jobs and reduce dependence on foreign oil by 12 million barrels a year.

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Talk about bending over backwards to please someone! This hybrid flexible kitchen faucet from Paini is all about pleasing you with its futuristic design, ergonomic shape and utility that makes it simply delightful. This irresistible kitchen faucet is flexible enough to make all your tasks easy and simple and ensuring that you can reach wherever you want with it. The design is elegant, modern and perfect for that “space-age kitchen”. Adding to the whole coolness, it sports LED indicators that illuminate to signify water temperature. The faucet is available in black, white and gray. - via HomeDosh

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Futuristic hybrid Faucet from Paini: Bendy and Trendy!

"The Evolution of Home

The WHP is a multi-year, collaborative initiative led by the Institute without Boundaries (IwB) that will explore the evolution of shelter and plan for the next generation of holistic housing design. The project will build on the research concepts of IwB’s inaugural project, Massive Change, using the same method of interdisciplinary design innovation.

The home is the intersection between the individual and society. On one end of the spectrum, urban sprawl and monster houses consume huge amounts of energy and pollute the atmosphere. On the other, over a billion people live in urban slums or in the streets without shelter.

The ambition of the World House Project (WHP) is to generate a system that achieves a balance between these extremes, and operates on the principles of sustainability, universality, technological responsiveness and balance, so that we may create dwellings that promote the long-term health of nature and human cultures."

Consumer packaged goods makers enhance product designs with practical twists.

Always on the lookout for new ways to interest customers, packaging designers have found ways to enhance the pack’s contents, by using it to chill or make its contents more flavorful. No longer competing on aesthetics along, the new designs give customers a practical reason to opt for the packaging.

Cases

Fruit Stickles

Trying to help customers find new ways of getting their five a day in a less monotonous way, Fruit Stickles are skewers infused with a cinnamon or tropical flavor. The company has refrained from adding sugar to its recipe to attract a health-conscious customer base.

Robero Cavalli for Coca Cola Light

Enhancing its contents in a fashion sense rather than a functional one, these limited edition Roberto Cavalli designs have been commissioned by Coca Cola Light (Diet Coke). 100,000 bottles of each animal print will be released, bringing a sense of exclusivity, fashion and collectability to a readily available commodity.

Burn Energy Drink

Coke’s Burn Energy Drink, currently available in Europe, offers a can with a unique re-sealable top. A plastic cover can be twisted into place, with a design that is based upon the packaging of salt and other spices. With new energy drinks being constantly introduced, Coca Cola is adding special packing features to separate themselves from competitors.

Kyo No Matcha
With “fresh” and “local” being key words for food products these days, manufacturers of pre-packaged items are seeking ways to change the image of their traditionally less than healthy goods. While bottled green tea might be one of the already acceptable convenience store products, CIC Co. goes the extra mile with its Kyo no Matcha. With a twist of the air-tight cap, 1.4 grams of traditional Kyoto matcha (high-grade green tea) is released into the mineral water below, creating a serving of fresh (yet instant) tea with no added chemicals or preservatives. At ¥5,280 ($52) for a case of 24, Kyo no Matcha is nearly twice the price of regular bottled teas, but certainly within the acceptable range for products billed as healthy and natural.

Trend Impact
These products may not revolutionize the food industry, but they could inspire new approaches to packaging, putting the customer in control of the final stage of preparation before the product is consumed. It’s also possible this trend could inspire food wraps infused with certain flavors or cling film that absorbs certain unpleasant odors or bacteria.

Matthias Demacker of demackerdesign sent us some pictures of his newest projects; takeOff.series (above) is a seating collection for Ferlea featuring a geometrically shaped compact seat, lounge chair and sofa. "The frontal cuts give the seats a light, dynamic look and offer place for your feet while swiveling in the seat.". The extensible curvex.table after the jump is for Italy's Varaschin.

+ demacker-design.de

If you’ve ever wondered what it means to work at the intersection of Managers and Designers than you should watch this great video clip! … after all I was wondering the other day which Muppet character would best characterise a Design Manager!? Any ideas?

One of 13 entries to date... write wry & win a Ballistic Rose for your permanent collection here.

We often see new home designs at Inhabitat that incorporate advanced technologies, reduce energy use and provide a healthy and safe living environment, but we really enjoy seeing home designs that have been vetted in competitions such as the Lifecycle Building Challenge. This annual competition, in its 2nd year and sponsored by well-known organizations such as the EPA, AIA, Building Reuse Association, Southface, and West Coast Green, is a challenge to design buildings with several points in mind: incorporate local building materials, consider the whole lifecycle of building materials, reduce the overall embodied energy and greenhouse gas emissions from materials, use innovative and creative strategies, and reduce environmental and economic costs. The 2008 winner of this contest for Best Residential Design was the Spoorhouse, by Benno van Noort of Van Noort Designs, LLC.

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