michelle kaufmann designs

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The Smart Home: Green + Wired reopens today at the Museum of Science + Industry in Chicago. With the help of Midwest Living, the tech geniuses at WIRED magazine, and the amazing MSI team, the home is filled with all new sustainable products, materials and smart systems in this spectacular home that we designed.

The earthy palette of colors uses zero-VOC paint and the furniture is made from recycled steel, FSC certified or reclaimed woods and soy-based and recycled fiber cushions. Every square inch of the home and garden is tricked out with beautiful ideas, from home automation, energy and water monitors, rain catchment, gray water systems, green roofs,wind power, solar film,LED lighting, and edible earthboxes, off-site construction, and a whole lot more. For example, this dining room table is a luscious favorite that uses a mixture of reclaimed wood (from a tree that fell on the grounds of the museum) and concrete by Barefoot Design (www.barefootdesign.com).

To visit the house, check out the Musuem’s website
Modular construction of the Smart Home
Setting of the Smart Home
And even more

photos by JB Spector / Museum of Science + Industry

The Smart Home: Green + Wired reopens today at the Museum of Science + Industry in Chicago. With the help of Midwest Living, the tech geniuses at WIRED magazine, and the amazing MSI team, the home is filled with all new sustainable products, materials and smart systems in this spectacular home that we designed.

The earthy palette of colors uses zero-VOC paint and the furniture is made from recycled steel, FSC certified or reclaimed woods and soy-based and recycled fiber cushions. Every square inch of the home and garden is tricked out with beautiful ideas, from home automation, energy and water monitors, rain catchment, gray water systems, green roofs,wind power, solar film,LED lighting, and edible earthboxes, off-site construction, and a whole lot more. For example, this dining room table is a luscious favorite that uses a mixture of reclaimed wood (from a tree that fell on the grounds of the museum) and concrete by Barefoot Design (www.barefootdesign.com).

To visit the house, check out the Musuem’s website
Modular construction of the Smart Home
Setting of the Smart Home
And even more

One of the eco-principles we use when designing homes is using eco-materials – materials that are renewable or recyclable. A good example of this is to use glass tiles made of recycled glass. One of my favorite examples of beautiful recycled tile is Maienza-Wilson’s gorgeous house in Montecito (image above and below by Jim Bartsch, courtesy Maienza Wilson). They used tiles from Oceanside that were at least 50% content of recycled or post industrial glass tiles, used in different sizes, finishes, and colors. The result is modern eco-elegance in every bathroom.

For their wine room, they used copper and wine colored glass mosaic tiles on the softly arched ceiling giving the room a liquid feel, but with warmth, similar to a wonderful glass of red wine.

For the Smart Home: Green + Wired exhibit at the Museum of Science and Industry (the mkSolaire that I designed), we used glass tiles from Bedrock Industries that are made from chardonnay bottles. I love the poetry and history of using glass in new, modern ways that have a story behind them. The variations in the color and texture have me wondering where the various bottles came from, and a bit of connection to the past (like an old weathered wood floor).

There are many options with varying colors, finishes, sizes, so there is a ton of design flexibility. However, currently, the recycled glass tiles do typically cost more than non-recycled glass tiles. However, the costs seem to be lowering, and hopefully will be similar to the path of organic foods with lowering costs with increased supply and demand, and will soon the cost increase will be negligible.

So next time you are looking for tiles for your kitchen or bathroom, consider using recycled glass tiles for eco-luxury and beauty.

For more information, here are some links:
www.globallygorgeous.com
http://www.maienzawilson.com/
www.glasstile.com
MSI Smart Home 
www.bedrockindustries.com 

I just saw this photo taken by AriaDenver Project Manager Kate Hilberg of the first phase of homes (Casa Chiara) recently in the snow. This almost makes me miss the winter snow.

more on this project
www.ariadenver.com

Last Thursday we had a fabulous Re:Vision Salon on “Urban Agriculture” with Josiah Raisin Cain (Chief Design Officer with Design Ecology) and Urban Re:Vision. Urban Agriculture has become one of the hottest movements in the  sustainable design world. And rightly so. As Josiah described, the ideas with Urban Agriculture “are close to exploding” given recent media, products, planning and design focus. Josiah spoke about some unsettling (and for me, unknown) facts such as the average miles travelled for the average meal in the US (including miles for processing food) is 3000 miles. That is completely absurd as well as unsustainable. Another crazy fact he shared is that it takes the amount of water equivalent to one person’s showers for a year to produce one pound of beef.

Urban Edible Gardens solve many problems simultaneously. It helps reduce gas, cost, water (depending on system used), while increasing social justice and community connection. Challenges typically include space and scale. However, there are alternative ways of imagining our cities. Josiah showed projects with successful green roofs with edible gardens like this one at Trent University.

The green roofs reduce storm water runoff, act as increased insulation, increase oxygen, reduce cooling loads, and provide local food. They can be on the top roof of the building, or be on intermediate roof gardens, like this project by Daniel Libeskind.

And of course, you could do on your decks and walls of decks as well.

There are alternatives to the deep soil-based gardens that make sense when we plant them in the ground. There are Hydroponic systems and Aquaponic systems that use much less water by providing their own nutrients. Companies like InkaWall (Paul Giacomantonio from Inkawall was at the Salon) offer systems like this “BioCloth” that is 1” thick and can be hung outside or inside and produces food that hangs off of the cloth, using much less water than would be required if they were planted in the ground using traditional methods.  With proper lighting and ventilation, these can even be planted inside of a building as well. You could grow your own food in your downtown loft.

We have incorporated green roofs and used hydroponics boxes for planting food at the Smart Home exhibit (the mkSolaire) in Chicago.

Josiah spoke about how “slick” our current city buildings are. Water slides right off of them, creating many expensive problems for the city with storm water run-off. By integrating green walls and green roofs, it has the added benefit of making the buildings more “sticky”, and reducing storm-water run-off issues for cities, and reducing the costs required to sove those problems.

It all is so delicious visually, socially and physically. It also seems accessible and feasible. Hearing Josiah, Paul and others in the group speak about their project’s successes with green walls, roofs, and integrated urban gardening systems, I am excited and can’t wait to be incorporating some of these technologies into communities I am working on.  As Paul noted, “Urban Gardens can create prosperity where there is currently zero.”

For more info:
Urban Gardens at the Smart Home in Chicago
Trent University Green Roof

Fytowall
Inka Wall
The ABLE project
Elliot Coleman
Sky Vegetables

Photos by the very talented Paige Green. www.paigegreenphotography.com

One of my favorite part of the work I do is the relationships with clients. Kevin and I recently visited with a fabulous couple that started as clients, but have become dear friends.  As we spend time in their spectacular Glidehouse, and look at all the moments in the home that our similar to our own Glidehouse, as well as elements that they have added that make their house unique and special, I feel such a strong bond not only to the house itself, but also to our friends.  I imagine it is something like the bond people feel when they are in fraternities/sororities together, or have been in the same troup, or have shared in a significant life experience together. I cherish these bonds, and am now started to see how much this influences the work and my inspiration to do it.

This particular Glidehouse and site has lovely moves with the landscaping, the garage/carport, and the furnishings. All of which make this home completely unique to this client and this site. In this photo below, you can see the Glidehouse on the hilltop. Absolutely stunning.

Along the drive to the house, I love this “peekaboo” moment as the home greets the visitors by emerging from the grasses.

The furniture chosen for this house is perfect. Each piece has a story. Most of it came from local artisans, and many pieces made from recycled materials. One of the wonderful things about smaller homes is that you have to choose each piece that goes into them very carefully. This typically results in cherished pieces, each with meaning.

Now that Phase 1 of the ariaDenver project (the sisters housing) is almost complete and the sisters have moved in, the Co-housing portion of the project is starting. Tomorrow there will be a presentation by Jim Leach on the benefits of co-housing and a description of living in a community with a vision of a healthier, more secure nad fulfilling lifestyle. Jim is a resident of one of his co-housing projects Silver Sage Village and is president of Wonderland Hill Devleopement (a company specializing in the development of co-housing projects).

In the ariaDenver project there will be two portions of co-housing. One will be reusing the existing convent building (which has great bones) for senior co-housing. There is also a portion of the overall project that will be new construction for an intergenerational co-housing project.

The co-housing project offers both privacy as well as communal spaces. There will be individual homes for families, but in addition, shared spaces as well - shared kitchens for “communal dinners” once a week, shared gardens for on-site food production, shared spaces for childcare, hanging out, inspiring a supportive network and encouraging a “lifetime learning environment”.

While co-Housing has been around for a while, it has recently become more popular. As Jim told me, “Cohousing is definitely picking up steam with a lot of both future residents as well as builders and developers. I think it is because people are rethinking their values both in response to the economy and to environmental concerns. I think people are primarily looking for community and a way to live more sustainably.”

Jim describes the approach to the ariaDenver project, “We will utilize the original convent building  for a senioir community of 20 to 30 living units and then develop an intergenerational community out of the newer east wing of the convent by adding to it and creating a pedestrian court between it and some new row homes for families. The architecture coudl be a really interesting interplay of the historic feel of the convent with a contemporary new element, much like some of the attractive European developments around historic buildings.”

Jim also talked about what got him interested in co-housing: “I was always interested in trying to see how far we could push solar, energy efficiency and green building in merchant built housing. Co-housing brought proactive buyers who wanted to live more sustainably. By getting together in a community, they were able to find the courage and commitment to do so. Our motto is Community is the secret ingredient in sustainability.”

I am a huge fan of co-housing and Jim Leach and am really looking forward to working with him. Kevin and I have been talking about the type of place we might want to live in the future, and Jim has described it perfectly.

To attend the event tomorrow at 6:30pm , or the ariaDenver co-housing kick-off workshop on November 21st, rsvp with georgette@whdc.com or call Georgette Vigil at 303-449-3232.

For more information on the co-housing project, see Jim Leach’s Wonderland Hill Development’s website: www.whdc.com and www.ariadenver.com and AriaDenver blog

The Casa Chiara project is being finalized, and the Sisters are moving in. Moving day in the current Denver snow has turned out to be quite an adventure. However, these are very strong women, and piles of snow are not going to stop them from moving into their homes.

This photo below was taken just a few days ago, as landscaping was being planted.  Amazing how quickly the weather can change, and also how quickly the buildings and the landscape transform appearance. I (and I would imagine the Sisters as well) look forward to the weather changing again, and seeing how the 8 homes look with Denver’s crisp blue skies and the plantings taking off.

Thank you, Kate Hilberg, for sending the photos.
For more info on this prefab multifamily project, see Aria Denver Project on this blog, or www.ariadenver.com.