Michelle Kaufmann Launches New Zero Series Prefab Homes

Architect Michelle Kaufmann is launching a new series of prefabricated homes. The Zero series homes include the Ridge0™, the Vista0™ and the Contours0™. These new homes are designed to be net zero energy (where they produce as much energy as the need), healthy, comfortable, and smart. The spaces are designed to blur the boundary between the interior and exterior, “borrowing” space from the outdoors, and using the strategy of designing big rather than building big. Getting more out of less.

The Contours0™ and the Vista0™ homes have outdoor rooms as much as indoor rooms and utilize strategically placed windows, glass doors and skylights to maximize natural ventilation and sculpt in natural light.  The Ridge0™ is designed using Passivhaus principles of good insulation, southern orientation with shading, efficient windows and frames, air-tight building envelope, energy star appliances and lighting, and passive preheating of fresh air, all resulting in a low demand for space heating and cooling. In addition, the homes are designed to also incorporate alternative energy systems such as PV solar as well as water conserving systems such as rain catchment and gray water systems.

International Issue - July/August 2010 - Sample

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40th Annual Los Angeles Architectural Awards Announced

*Click on project links to see image galleries.

Grand Prize sponsored by MACERICH
LAPD Police Administration Building
Architect: AECOM in a joint venture with Roth Sheppard Associates
Contractor: Tutor-Saliba Corporation
Building Owner/Developer: City of Los Angeles, Department of Public Works, Bureau of Engineering

Civic Awards sponsored by DIFFENBAUGH
Civic - #1
California Science Center - Phase II - Ecosystems
Architect: EHDD/ZGF A Joint Venture
Contractor: Morley Builders
Building Owner/Developer: California Science Center Education Award sponsored by AECOM

Civic - #2
The Annenberg Community Beach House at Santa Monica State Beach
Architect: Frederick Fisher and Partners Architects
Contractor: Charles Pankow Builders, Ltd.
Building Owner/Developer: City of Santa Monica, Community & Cultural Services

Education Awards sponsored by AECOM
Education - Public
South Campus Project, Los Angeles Trade Technical College
Architect: MDA Johnson Favaro / Gruen Associates
Contractor: Taisei Corporation
Building Owner/Developer: Los Angeles Community College District

Education - Private
Cahill Center for Astronomy and Astrophysics at Caltech
Architect: Morphosis Architects
Contractor: Hathaway Dinwiddie Construction Company
Building Owner/Developer: California Institute of Technology

Green Building - Awarded to City of LA Police Stations - sponsored by Sheppard Mullin Richter & Hampton LLP
Hollenbeck Area Community Police Station
Architect: AC Martin Partners
Contractor: FTR International
Building Owner/Developer: City of Los Angeles

L.A.P.D. Harbor Replacement Station and Jail
Architect: Perkins + Will
Contractor: Pinner Construction Co., Inc.
Building Owner/Developer: City of Los Angeles, Bureau of Engineering Prop Q Program

Click to read more ...

deLaB's City Listening II: Stories About LA - Saturday Night FORM Discount

Stories about LA read by your favorite design writers. FORM is a sponsor.

FORM audience 20% DISCOUNT regular tickets and de LaB Groupie tickets with the code: form

http://event.designeastoflabrea.org/

Join us for an evening of free expression and generous libation in celebration of LA's design culture at large.

Balcony Press is donating the newest releases Paris: Women & Bicycles and Kitchen Centric for prizes!

Featuring stories about LA read by the city's leading writers on design and urbanism:

• KCRW's Frances Anderton on Living with Gehry
• A live "Ask Chris" session with Chris Nichols from Los Angeles Magazine
• John Chase laments the lack of fun-size Twix bars
• LA Creek Freak Joe Linton on the bridges we cross
• Ken Bernstein on hidden gems uncovered by Survey LA
• A parade of disturbing interiors from Marissa Gluck
• Architectural short fiction by Tom Marble
• Tibby Rothman's Untitled Art World Story
• Poetic stylings of gelato urbanist Alissa Walker
• Nick Adams, author of Making Friends with Black People
• Brooke Hodge from The New York Times' The Moment
• Los Angeles Times architecture critic Christopher Hawthorne
• Sam Lubell, California editor of The Architect's Newspaper
• Rico Gagliano and Brendan Newnam of The Dinner Party Download
•  Editor-in-chief of GOOD Zach Frechette
• and letters to LA written by students from 826LA
• Hosted by de LaB's Haily Zaki, Alissa Walker and Marissa Gluck

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UNPLANNED: Research and Experiments at the Urban Scale

John Briscella, “UGNB (Urban Gridded Notebook)” (detail), 2009SUPERFRONT LA is proud to present UNPLANNED: Research and Experiments at the Urban Scale, the second SUPERFRONT LA exhibit of 2010. Just as the discipline of architecture faces a re-imagination of itself in this era of slow-motion global capitalism, the human population finds itself crossing the threshold to a predominantly urban existence.  Many of the basic tenets underpinning urban planning – Cartesian geometry, programmatic taxonomy, contextualism – have been subject to skeptical investigation and rebellion in architecture throughout the past decade. Yet conventional urban planning continues, the discipline of urban planning operating much as it has since the 1960s (if not the 1860s).  Leveraging an interdisciplinary focus, UNPLANNED: RESEARCH AND EXPERIMENTS AT THE URBAN SCALE boldly presents a collection of radical methods for envisioning and producing space at the urban scale.

A group exhibit with more than twenty participants, UNPLANNED spans architecture, urban design, industrial design, conceptual art, and cartography to present an array of experimental work at the urban scale. UNPLANNED opens March 25th with reception 5pm – 8pm.  On view through July 2nd, 2010 at Pacific Design Center (PDC) Suite B208, West Hollywood, CA 90069.