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| Tuesday, July 03, 2007 |
Green Builder: Michelle Kaufmann
From our July/August 2007 issue. This article is part of our larger package, the AJL Green List.
What Michelle Kaufmann is doing is so downright cool, so revolutionary, that we think everyone else should be watching, learning and emulating her out of the box building technique.
Kaufmann has taken the trend in mid-century design a leap further — by updating the prefab homes of the 1950s with modern, beautiful and earth-friendly features. The concept for mass producing her modular homes began when she and her husband constructed their own pre-fab home and found that it saved them serious time and money — some 20 percent in the cost of production, and it took only four months to build in the factory as opposed to the 14 months that building on location would have taken (not to mention the amount of waste saved by building to specification in a factory).
Kaufmann’s avant-garde innovations have earned her the attention of prestigious mass media outlets and architectural publications. But she says her product is meant for everybody. Because “green” pre-fab homes not only offer a sensible, energy-efficient value, but they contribute to the health of their residents — inside the house and on the planet they call home.
AJL: Where do you draw inspiration for your designs?
MK: I really design to collaborate with nature as much as possible ... designing not for how things look, but how they feel. A good friend of mine once said it is difficult to find a badly designed barn — and I think there is some truth to that. If we look to the essence and function and climate, and find a solution that works towards the ideal blending of these elements, then we end up with a beautiful design. My hope is not for someone to look at one of our homes and say “Wow, that looks so cool,” but rather, “Wow, this house feels so great.”
AJL: How do you see the “green building” crusade faring? Do you feel isolated, or do you feel that we’re on the brink of transforming housing on a massive scale?
MK: When we started this work five years ago, it seemed like we were on an isolated island with a few great thinkers and creators. Now, luckily, it feels like it truly has become a global concern, where almost everyone is aware and cares. We are hearing about the issues at hand (and it is good to have that information), but without hearing much on the solutions. My goal is to offer accessible sustainable solutions. People want to go green, they want healthy environments for their families, and they want lowered energy bills, but it is not always easy to find the accessible solutions. We are working hard to change that and educate to show solutions and paths for creating solutions.
AJL: What’s been your favorite project and why?
MK: While I have to say that I really love all of our work, I feel very strongly about the sustainable communities and multifamily projects. It is important that green building is an option for everyone, at all income levels. The communities are where we can really make the biggest impact for people right now.
AJL: What’s been the most challenging?
MK: It has all been pretty challenging, but as my husband says, I’m just naďve enough to not know that we shouldn’t be doing most of the things that we are doing. There is some real truth to that. To achieve our main goal of making thoughtful, sustainable design that is accessible to more people and hopefully soon, accessible to all, we are rethinking ourselves as architects (a big challenge), and reworking the way we build. We are constantly trying to achieve the goal of minimizing waste, minimizing energy usage, and maximizing efficiency in terms of how buildings are built and used over time. We find challenges at every step of the way, and just when we think we have a solution, a new challenge comes out of left field. Luckily, we have an amazing team of great thinkers who cover the field well.
AJL: How many clients have you worked with? Where is most of your business?
MK: We only have 18 homes completed to date. However, we will have 100 completed by the end of the year. And we expect to complete 200 green, beautiful homes next year in a few different communities. Most of our work to date has been in California and Washington, with a few projects in Hawaii, Colorado, and Oregon. By next year we plan to offer our homes on a national level.
This article is part of our larger package, the AJL Green List.
-- Text by Rachel Pomerance / Photo by Cutter Cutshaw Photography
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