Drawing from Disney

Walt Disney was fascinated with the shaping of space both visually and physically, from the way he transformed the animated film to his invention of the modern theme park. I think architecture was always an important theme for him, like the shiny-bright suburb in the Goofy cartoon Motor Mania of 1950 or the suave contemporary ranch house in the original Parent Trap of 1961. I vividly remember touring Monsanto’s  House of the Future at Disneyland

(image fromYesterland.com) with its curvilinear white plastic pods

cantilevered over a central support and utility podium (Yesterland.com). Though designed not by Disney but by two MIT professors — who must have been channeling Buckminster Fuller

and his similarly central-masted Minimum Dymaxion house of 1929 — Walt had the sense to give the plastic Monsanto house a ten-year lease in Tomorrowland. The swoopy modern  furniture from fifty years ago

still looks contemporary today (Yesterland.com photo)

I was reminded of these images and Disney’s huge influence on design and our appreciation of it when I toured the superb new Walt Disney Family Museum in San Francisco’s Presidio, which opened last week. Two hours flew by. I felt I had stumbled into an animated autobiography, or rather, a compelling four-dimensional biopic.

San Francisco’s Page & Turnbull Architects have deftly inserted the state-of-the-art museum

into an historic 19th century brick row (photo by Cesar Rubio) along the Presidio’s parade ground — which is itself like a distant extension of Disneyland’s own Main Street. From the front there’s no hint of the wonderland within. And at the rear only an elegant glass skin

drawn across an addition (photo by Bruce Damonte) suggests a house of marvels. You experience the museum as a journey through Walt’s life with text blocks, still images, film clips, memorabilia, and narrations by Walt and others every few feet along a carefully choreographed and roughly chronological path. It’s a soft cacophony of sounds and images,  a “dark ride” that you walk, and even then it’s impossible to absorb everything.

Highlights for me are the multi-story “multiplane camera” that allowed Disney  filmmakers to create a realistic sense of depth within animations, the clever elevator that’s designed as a train car (the vertical naturally becomes the horizontal in this Looking Glass world), and the sleek modern terrazzo-and-glass mini-Guggenheim ramp

(image courtesy Walt Disney Family Museum) spiraling around a huge and meticulously detailed scale model of Disneyland.

In one sense it’s all a bit deifying, as if Walt were a latter day King Tut, but — as they say in Egypt — what a cool tomb! And here the hieroglyphics even dance to Silly Symphonies.

Beyond the Casino

I was also in Las Vegas last week, for a talk about Cliff May’s ranch houses at the World Market Center, which is another sort of  “ride.”

Well off the Strip on the north end of town across from City Hall (you can see the Stratosphere Casino tower in the background), this enormous furnishings marketplace is a contemporary landmark in its own right. The complex consists of a series of interpenetrating cubes and polygons that wrap around a 15 story tall central court that’s open to the sky,

like a box canyon from Red Rocks Park  reassembled as a building. It feels like the entrance to Oz. One of the great things about this design center is that it’s open to the general public, not just to professional designers. The Center’s Design Salon

offers consumers the ability to purchase designer furnishings previously offered only to the trade. Complimentary one-hour consultations with interior designers accredited by the American Society of Interior Designers are also offered. It’s a good place to get ideas for shaping or reshaping your home.

A short ride away is the new 180 acre Springs Preserve, Las Vegas’ answer to Tucson’s Living Desert Museum, and built on the site of the original springs for which the city is named (vega means spring in Spanish).

Here’s one of  the rotundas, recalling a sculptural sundial or open cistern. Part of the vast indoor-outdoor complex comprises a  sustainability hall where one gallery has  been turned into a model home — which puts a novel recycling spin on that overworked trademark phrase “what’s done in Vegas stays in Vegas.” One of the most effective exhibits here

simply shows how much water is used in a typical five-minute shower with and without a low flow showerhead. (Nothing about sand baths, however…) Elsewhere in the museum you can experience a simulated desert flash flood (perhaps the other side of sustainability?) which in this case is fun: inside one of the buildings you stand on a metal bridge across a boulder-strewn arroyo and suddenly the water surges around and under you.

So what does it signify, when Disney comes to San Francisco and resource conservation arrives in Las Vegas? That may sound like the resolution of some distant prophecy but I think it means that things are looking up.

In other news, check out Writer Tracey Taylor’s  fine article about about us and affordable home design in the Financial Times! Her website tktaylor.com includes a wide range of stories about design and is a must read.

House Plans from Italy and India

Our window on the modern home is widening: we’ve recently added some exciting (and exclusive to us) contemporary plans from abroad. Plan 473-1 by architect Lorenzo Spano of Terni, Italy, takes  an artful and sleek approach to indoor-outdoor living, from the cylindrical chimney floating over a circular hearth

that draws your gaze into the landscape (in a retro wave at mid-century modernity), to the dramatic concrete cantilever

that shades one side of the house,

to the seamless connection to a pool terrace on the other side. A roof deck also overlooks the water.

Plan 467-2, by Mumbai architect Rinka D’Monte opens up a simple box with walls of glass.

The floor plan takes the form of two rectangular volumes that appear to slide past

each other, which allows room for private decks at front and rear.  It’s a new twist on the row house idea. We’ll be adding more international plans shortly.

Dutch Design and Other Inspirations in New York

I just returned from New York City, where I visited Governor’s Island off the tip of Lower Manhattan.

It’s a remarkable enclave of early 19th and 20th century Army and Coast Guard houses, barracks, forts, and other structures now being preserved by the Governor’s Island Preservation and Education Committee  (GIPEC), a New York State agency. One model for them might be the public-private joint venture at San Francisco’s Presidio, which was reinvented as a national park.

When I toured the Island the historic officer’s houses (at lower right in photo above) were being used for art installations celebrating the 400th anniversary of the Dutch arrival in New Amsterdam (New York). Droog, the innovative Dutch industrial design and branding firm was one of the participants and worked with artist Marije Vogelzang (she is known as an “eating-designer”) to convert one house into a “Go Slow Cafe” that I found very appealing. I entered an all-white room and was asked to take off my shoes — the first gesture toward slowing down –  and then sat at a white table. Lunch arrived on a simple board, like this:

with circles around each item noting the distance it had traveled. The wood and the food comprised the only color in the space. The point: to slow down, focus on the meal,  and think about the energy used to bring us sustenance. The generous sampling of lettuce and cheese came from less than 100 miles away while the small portion of Chinese lychees (the white fruit at right) came many thousands of miles. For a while I was alone at the table as other visitors ambled past. I felt like part of the installation, which I guess I was. Of course another way to “slow down” like this is simply to have a real conversation with your family over the dinner table!

Droog is a fascinating global firm and reminds me of Marcel Duchamp in the way they transform an everyday object into something unusual, like a clothes hanger into a lamp, shown below:

(This image is from 2modern.com.) The word droog, in Dutch, means “dry” or “wry.” One of Droog’s more provocative products is the “Do hit Chair”:

a metal box that comes with a sledgehammer allowing you to bang it

(and your frustrations, presumably) into shape.

At the Island, Droog took a somewhat calmer, “Do Hit the Cool-It Button” approach (as we have seen) and also supplied products for an intriguing temporary design  store designed by Marcel Schmalgemeijer. He stacked chairs to create shelving and display units like this:

It makes you reconsider the typical rented party chair  — maybe a way to use that leftover furniture in your basement…

Finally, I just had to visit one of the greatest American Beaux Arts monuments: the monumental New York Public Library of 1911, by Carerre & Hastings. Now this is a room for reading!

In the age of Kindles and I-phones, it still has the power to awe and made me appreciate anew the grandeur and majesty that can arise from the intersection of knowledge and imagination. And outside, the famous lions

are still guarding the majestic Fifth Avenue entrance. Read about them and New York’s many other landmarks in the just published Public Art New York by architect Jean Parker Phifer (W. W. Norton 2009).

Deftly written, it’s an indispensable guidebook to every monument worth seeing in Metropolis. From the book I learned that the lions, sculpted by Edward Clark Potter in 1911, are named “Patience” and “Fortitude.” I think they’re good to have around in a time of economic uncertainty. Don’t leave home without them.

Kitchen Table or Kitchen Island?

Before the kitchen island, geologically speaking, came the kitchen table. It’s still a viable option for many homes and is often part of a “country kitchen.”  As we saw in a previous post, Julia Child’s 14- by 20-foot kitchen was organized around one that doubled as a work surface. Table choices are many, from an Aaltoesque contemporary birch veneer table

like the Vika Grevska/Vika Oleby by IKEA, to a stainless steel restaurant work table

from Worktable World, to an art and science classroom table

with adjustable legs (to vary the height as needed) from CSN Supply.com, to a wheeled stainless steel example

from Design Within Reach, to a small chopping block

table like the Cherry Cucina Laforza (party of one!) from John Boos & Co. Circular tables tend to require a little more room. You can also create your own table from prefabricated legs and tops available from companies like Tablelegs.com and IKEA.

Island Time

What if you prefer island living? That is, a table that’s built-in. The classic layout of Plan 23-587,

uses the island for food preparation, informal eating,

and storage — with room for cookbooks. (Note that the orientation of the island has been changed in the built example.) In Plan431-1 (below)

architect Greg La Vardera uses a smaller food prep island and a round table.

In both cases the island separates the work area from the more formal dining space; guests or family members can sit at the table or the far side of the island and chat with the cook without getting in the way. In Plan 469-1, the island is two-tiered

to make the separation between work and sitting area more emphatic; the shaded L-shaped tier, which is raised several inches above the work surface, functions as the breakfast bar and hides kitchen clutter from the more formal dining area.

But really, the design possibilities are endless,

as this collage from Trendir shows. So, what island is calling you?

Customize Your Plan With Contemporary Cabinetry

Now that we’re able to offer copies of rare mid-century modern Eichler plans, it’s important to think about how you can update and customize them — or indeed any plan — for today.  For example, adding storage space can be an important consideration. Cabinetry is one way to go:  Seattle’s Kerf Design — an especially inventive cabinetmaker specializing in sleek, vividly hued eco-friendly units — shows how, with everything from

entire walls of different sized open-and-closed compartments, to

sideboards for storage and display in the dining room or hall to

elegant and efficient vanities to

character-building kitchen cabinets, cubbies, and drawers. I like their three-pronged philosophy: honesty of material, which means revealing the beauty of the plywood edge; honesty of construction: keeping things simple with exposed   joinery, asymmetrical arrangements, inset doors and drawers, and notched hand holes; and honesty of function:  making sure there is a reason for every detail. I also love their color palette

as in this thin console, which to my eye is irresistible. And Kerf’s work is all green, using only FSC-certified plywood made with formaldehyde-free glue and finished using a process that eliminates all volatile organic compounds (VOCs). They also have a lower cost do-it-yourself product line that is shipped flat for you to assemble.

Kerf’s work is especially appropriate for modern houses because it embodies similar architectural values –  but it can invigorate almost any interior. Interestingly, Kerf’s founder, Nathan Hartman, just told me that his cabinets are being installed in a remodeled Eichler right now.

Build Your Own Updated Eichler

Thinking beyond storage solutions, here are some other suggestions to get you pondering how to make an Eichler layout — or any house plan for that matter — your own unique design. Take a look at Gregory La Vardera’s  Spirit of Palo Alto,  Plan 431-11, shown below,

in a view of the rear elevation. The layout

is itself an update of  a classic Eichler atrium plan.  In fact it’s very close to our Eichler Plan 470-4, shown below:

Now, see how Greg tweaked the original plan for today. He took the washer and dryer out of the garage and gave them their own laundry room set between garage and kitchen; part of the laundry functions as a mudroom or family entry. And he opened up part of the kitchen to the living room by replacing a  wall and a door with a peninsula/buffet bar, as shown in this interior view:

The idea, according to Greg was to create a balance where “the kitchen is still a discrete room even though it may be open to the living space.” He also added a kitchen island to expand the counter space.

Another major change is in the master suite. Today most people want a feeling of spaciousness in the master bathroom, along with bigger closets. As this cropped view of Greg’s plan shows,

he reconfigured the bathroom to accommodate twin vanities, which give a more luxurious feel without adding a lot of space — in his view “bigger bathrooms = more bathroom cleaning. Yech.”  Similarly he installed closets along the bedroom’s two interior walls instead of using a walk-in closet, which he considers a space hog.

Or consider architect Robert Nebolon’s Palomino Plan 438-1, which is an adaptation of an existing Eichler: his own house. The following view is from the backyard and shows how the family room opens to the rear patio.

A key move was to divide the galley kitchen into two sections –

one for  cooking and eating, one for and storage and desk work — while connecting it to the family room and living area on either side. He also added such eco-friendly elements as low-e glass skylights, a roof that’s composed of 10.5 inch-thick Structural Insulated Panels (SIPs) and is designed to support photovoltaic panels, and a fireplace insert instead of a conventional wood-burning fireplace (such units do not require a chimney).

Consider these ideas when you use our Customizer Tool. Then work with our Design Department, run by Chief of Design Nicholas Lee. We’ll help you create your own unique living environment, whether it’s modern or traditional or something in between.

Summer Swizzle: Outdoor Seating That Stirs

Let’s toast the Fourth of July with something frosty. My summer refresher of choice is what my cousin, who’s from the East Coast, calls a “Southside.” It’s like a mojito, only frozen. I combine one part light rum to two parts freshly squeezed lime juice sweetened with sugar syrup, the leaves from two or three sprigs of garden mint, and at least two cups of ice cubes in a blender and whirl until smooth. You can sweeten to taste. Now — where to sit? Here’s a round-up of eye-catching patio furniture designs that should keep you sipping — I mean sitting — pretty for the fireworks and more.

Candy-Colored Conveyor Belt. The single bent sheet of clear acrylic draws the eye to the LCP chaise, below, short for Low Chair Plastic.

Designed by Maarten Van Severen in 1999 for Kartell, it’s available from Limn. I like the simple form — a vivid accent for a shady spot.

Napping At The Bauhaus. Or how about a classic from one of the great modern architects: the F41 “Lounge On Wheels” by Marcel Breuer, of 1928, available from Hivemodern.

The bicycle-like wheels and woven cane seat and back give it a vivid presence, seeming to animate the idea of relaxation. According to Aaron Able on Apartment Therapy, “The fifth wheel is connected to the others with a bicycle chain, allowing the relaxer to propel the lounge without moving to an upright position!” This  must be what’s known in physics as Conservation of Momentum…

Carpool Lane. Here’s a new lounge chair from Lolldesign –  “the 405 Chaise” — made of recycled plastic. It comes in eight colors from black to sky blue.

The name is clever: the 405 is LA’s busiest freeway so, if you live in Southern California: “you can skip work and tell everyone you were stuck on the 405 without lying,” according to the website.

Curves Ahead. The elegant simplicity of the lazy S-curve is hard to beat — it just seems to illustrate stretching out for a snooze.

This example is the “Zuo Modern — Sydney Outdoor Lounge Chair” in chocolate brown from Accent Furniture Direct. The surface is a synthetic weave over an aluminum frame.

Outdoor Relaxation Rooms

So, where to put the chairs? Here are two plans — from our only-at-Houseplans Exclusive Studio Collection — with especially good outdoor spaces, to get you thinking about how your new house plan might adapt to warm weather.

Ross Anderson’s “Boardwalk 1.0″ (Plan 433-1) includes a screened porch at one end.

It’s  a sheltered, insect-free, open-air nature-viewing platform.

Gregory La Vardera’s “Plat House” (Plan 431-2) is wrapped in a porch and and a sun deck.

I can imagine the aforementioned lounge chairs placed right there, at the corner, half in and half out of the sun, where sipping a frozen concoction as the sun goes down would be a great way to celebrate summer.

New Independence-Minded Designs for Katrina Survivors

Brad Pitt’s Make It Right Foundation is bringing new housing solutions to Katrina survivors in New Orleans. The program is all about celebrating independence and new beginnings and innovative residential architecture and seems a very fitting subject for Independence Day — and the Foundation just announced 14 new designs. To learn more about the program and see the range of duplex designs by an international roster of well known architects read the July 1, 2009 article by David Sokol in Architectural Record. For a preview see the examples below, courtesy of Make It Right and Architectural Record.

Design by Billes.

Design by William McDonough & Partners.

Design by Elemental.

Design by Atelier Hitoshi.

For the back story on last year’s unveiling of the first set of designs (single family) read Andrew Blum’s piece in Metropolis magazine; it’s called Saint Brad. Let’s toast independence, creativity, and the drive to rebuild. Cheers!