michelle kaufmann designs

Please join us at our new site: www.michellekaufmann.com

A few months back I spent some time with writer Bridget Bradley talking about green design. I was thrilled to open the mail today and open up the book that includes some of our conversation: The Green Home: a Sunset Design Guide. In typical Sunset magazine fashion, this book is a lovely mixture of helpful tips along with beautiful compositions of an indoor/outdoor casual lifestyle that collaborates with the environment. There are sections on greywater, healthy environments, ecomaterials, efficient designs, cost of green building, green roofs, and more. All with a natural style. I highly recommend this book not only for helpful green home information, but also wonderful eye candy.

The book is available at many stores, and here at AMAZON.

For all you Kindle users, our Prefab Green book is now available for the Kindle (as well as the hard cover physical versions too!)

www.amazon.com

I recently received this book as a gift from my friend Lloyd Alter, fabulous writer at Treehugger, and fellow architect/prefab pioneer enthusiast . I have been reading it and absolutely love the description of the journey of this author.
Vanessa Farquharson, a reporter at Canada’s National Post made one green change in her life every day. She blogged on this process at Green as a Thistle and it became the content of the book. As Venessa describes:

“In short, this blog began somewhere between guilt and earnestness, between dissing Stéphane Dion’s dog (named Kyoto) and finding myself amongst a group of eco-hipsters drinking hemp beer at an anti-styrofoam party. I decided to take on a bit of a challenge: Spend each day, for an entire calendar year, doing one thing that betters the environment. The idea was that everything I did, I kept doing (so if I switched brands, it was a permanent switch; if I turned down my thermostat, I kept it down), so that by day 365, I’d be living as green a lifestyle as it gets. It was a gruelling year, but in the end, it proved that being an environmentalist doesn’t necessarily mean being a smug hippie, nor does it have to mean compromising aesthetic values or good wine.”

There are many small lessons and one big lesson in this book for all of us. Through a series of small smart choices, we can find ourselves living with less energy, water and more health and joy. Sign me up.

Sleeping Naked is Green

I have been enjoying reading Nathaniel Corum’s book Building a Straw Bale House: The Red Feather Construction Handbook and have been amazed at how easy it looks like it can be to build. Nathaniel goes the benefits of Straw Bale construction including the ease of construction, DIY capabilities, low cost, ease of community involvement (especially with good friends and good beer), organic materials that are non-offgassing, good insulation for less energy requirements, thermal mass efficiencies, and minimized waste.

The book is a very helpful guide for walking one through all the steps for the actual construction.  Add a great design, good friends, and a bunch of straw bales, and you can make yourself a lovely cottage, studio or home.

Reading this book got me more interested in the possibilities of straw bale. They don’t have to look a particular way. In fact, I love this straw bale house (below)- Felix Jerusalem’s Stoh Haus in Switzerland. It is made from compressed straw bales with a translucent siding in front of that. The look is clean, unique, and the construction is smart and efficient.

Last night I went to a friend’s house for an intimate gathering of fabulous people to celebrate William Kamkwamba and his book “The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind: Creating Currents of Electricity and Hope” (with co-writer Bryan Mealer). I had first heard of William and his incredible story a few years ago when he was a TED fellow. So much has happened since then with his book being on the current New York Times best seller list, and him making his rounds for his book tour, including a very lovely bit with Jon Stewart on the Daily Show. You can watch the video HERE (it is very funny).

I am reading William’s book now along with, as recommended by friends, a box of Kleenex. Good suggestion. William’s inspiring tale of he and his family in Africa, struggling with poverty and hunger, and his subsequent dream and invention leaves one filled with hope and feeling empowered.  Amidst crippling adversity and a culture where magic rules and science is feared, young William had a genius knack for the inner workings of electricity, had one book on windmills, and set on a path to make a windmill. Without money William made this windmill out of trash and old components from the dump. He used scrap metal, tractor parts, bicycle halves, homemade switches using old shoe soles, and circuit breakers using nails and wire from old ball-point pens. His machine then created electricity and running water. A second machine turned a water pump that can help William’s family and their community from drought and famine.

William’s work and story are a part of an exhibit at the Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago called “Fast Forward: Inventing the Future”. The exhibit highlights some of the innovative technology and ideas that share our world for a better future, and it includes William’s original circuit breaker and light switch. There was a party for William at the Museum a few weeks ago held in the home that I designed, The Smart Home: Green + Wired. William and I spoke about each of our dreams that came out of problems, and not giving up to find solutions (the Smart Home an example of mine).

Now, still only at age 22, even with all the TV and TED talks and booksignings and lectures, William hasn’t changed from the boy in the story. He is smart, genuine, and incredibly inspiring. He shows us what is possible when your dreams are powered by your heart.

His book ends with William questioning what his next steps are (that currently include finishing high school),  “Whatever I do, I will apply this one lesson I learned: If you want to make it, all you have to do is try.”
A good lesson for all of us to remember each day.

William Kamkwamba

During this time of world challenges working collectively towards common goals is becoming increasingly important. This goes for our work as well.  So, I am enjoying reading through my friend Emily Pilloton’s fabulous book Design Revolution: 100 Products That Empower People.  The book highlights 100 projects and designers that are focused on making the world a better place with smart, good design. Emily, this book, and her work with Project H Design is helping to build a design community that can truly accomplish so much by working together.

Some of my favorites from the book include:

Eco-Machines by Todd Ecological (www.toddecological.com)
Eco-machines are miature ecosystems that use flora, fauna, and bacteria to naturally cleanse water, treat sewage and turn waste-water and material into fuel and food.

Sustainably Minded Interactive Techonology (SMIT) is a new approach to solar and wind power, a hybrid energy delivery device that resembles ivy growing on the side of the a building. Leaf-like solar panels harvest the sun’s rays while collecting their fluttering harnesses wind power using a series of piezoelectric generators on the underside of each leaf. www.s-m-i-t.com

Sink Positive saves water by reusing wasted water from the sink and uses it for water for the toilet (rather than wasting fresh drinkable water for the toilet). www.sinkpositive.com

for more information:
http://www.strandbooks.com

http://projecthdesign.org

On my trip this past weekend to Denver for the CNU (Congress for New Urbanism) conference, it seemed appropriate to be reading John Wasik’s new book, “The Cul-de-Sac Syndrome: Turning Around the Unsustinable American Dream” while I was on the plane.

Wasik is one of my favorite writers at Bloomberg and the Huffington Post.In the book, Wasik looks at many of the causes of our housing crisis as well as offers thought-provoking ideas on possible solutions through a series of interviews with thought leaders and the latest studies and statistics.

John Wasik and I have become friends and have met on a number of occasions during the past years. During some of our discussions when he was supposedly interviewing me for this book, he would ask questions and offer ideas, that in fact, I was the one who left our meetings feeling curious and inspired. In the chapter titled “Building Smarter”, Wasik focuses on the mkSolaire as the exhibit at the Museum of Science and Industry titled “The Smart Home: Green + Wired”. Wasik analyzes not only the sustainable materials, systems and process, but raises many good thoughts and questions about cost and how cost and financing is so integral to planning and the result of what and how homes are built.

While I was in the plane reading the book, and nearing descent, I gazed down at the landscape below, filled with various patterns of homes and communities. Instead of seeing the roofs as asphalt or shingles, I imagined green roofs, solar, and wind generation. Rather than the kidney shape pools, I imagined swimming ponds and rain catchment gardens. I imagined different patterns of density and mass transit.

It is all possible. And it is such an interesting time to work to make it happen.

www.culdesacsyndrome.com

Here are some things that others are saying about John’s book:

“John Wasik’s The Cul-de-Sac Syndrome offers enough to chew on for three sets of teeth, enough to digest for three stomachs, and the alerts the mind faster than an approaching siren.”
–Ralph Nader, Consumer advocate

“Get ready for a totally original look at the American dream. Wasik delivers the first truly multidisciplinary examination—using planning, law, architecture, and history to focus on working solutions that can keep the dream alive. This is a winner!”
— Paul B. Farrell, JD, PhD. Columnist, MarketWatch.com and author of The Millionaire Code

“This excellent book takes a ground-level look at the causes of our housing crisis and offers a myriad of ideas on reinventing the concepts of home and community.”
—Ilyce R. Glink, syndicated real estate columnist, author of 100 Questions Every First-Time Home Buyer Should Ask

“A genuine kick to the head, showing how our individual quests for the biggest house on the hill is destroying our environment, the economy, and our health. But The Cul-de-Sac Syndrome is no dead end. It offers a new, green, urbanized promised land with real community, more free time, and a higher living standard. It’s a masterful blueprint to unpave paradise and restore the world we cherish.”
— Laurence Kotlikoff, Co-author of Spend ‘Til the End: The Revolutionary Guide to Raising Your Living Standard—Today and When You Retire, and Professor of Economics at Boston University

As a huge believer in the importance of living in a toxin free environment, I was delighted to learn about the work of Healthy Child Healthy World, a non-profit organization that’s leading the movement to “expand awareness and understanding of environmental hazards to children’s health” and “to help the public learn about healthier practices, solutions, and products in the marketplace.” I began learning about HCHW’s work when my lovely and talented eco-fashionista friend Zem Joaquin (who sits on their Board of Directors) gave me the book, Healthy Child, Healthy World, written by the organization’s Executive Director/CEO, Christopher Gavigan, with a forward by Meryl Streep.

Read the rest of this entry »

Just a quick reminder that tonight is our very first book signing event for my new book, Prefab Green.  The signing begins at 7:30 when I’ll give a brief presentation about the book as well as MKD’s work and mission, after which I’ll be signing books for guests until 9 or so.  It’s all taking place at Builders Booksource in Berkeley (1817 Fourth Street - Near Hearst).  If you are planning to come join us (which I hope you are!) then I recommend arriving early to get a good seat or to grab dinner at one of the many fabulous restuarants in the neighborhood.  See you tonight!