Marmol Radziner Prefab

(photo from Leo Marmol’s talk at DWR in Pasadena last fall)

Design Within Reach in Philadelphia

“Prefab myths and facts”
Thursday, April 3
6:00pm drinks, 6:30pm presentation

Please join us for a comprehensive visual presentation of the work of Marmol Radziner Prefab, hosted by Design Within Reach in Philadelphia. Principal Leo Marmol, FAIA, will discuss the process of designing and prefabricating green, modern homes. Is prefab an affordable option for modern living? Or is prefab a cultural phenomenon, popularized by the media? Marmol will explain the different types of prefab homes and the benefits of prefabrication. The talk will give homeowners valuable insight into modern, sustainable prefab homes and the future. Refreshments will be served.

RSVP to philadelphia@dwr.com

An architect in our team is a bit of an amateur camera collector, and he waxes poetic about the virtues of the Rollei 35. One of the smallest 35mm cameras ever made, the Rollei 35 is an almost solid mass of perfectly operating mechanics, with a unique perspective on almost every component. From the “pull out” lens barrel to the way the film compartment opens, the camera’s construction is unique from top to bottom to enable it’s small size. For a bit of MacGyver splash, the light meter has no “on” switch; to turn it off you put it in a dark case or your pocket, and the lack of light turns it off.

Our architect says it’s easily the most satisfyingly solid piece of machinery he’s ever used. His camera is over 40 years old and has never had any mechanical troubles at all. He swears the awesome Zeiss lenses and precise shutter also provide incredible image quality for a device so small. Below are a few pics he has taken with his Rollei over the years. He says the camera creates images that are sort of “East German” in style–perfectly crisp across the entire image, zero distortion, slightly banal.

The Palms House is located in a neighborhood with many clapboard cottages, so we wanted to use wood siding in our modern interpretation of an infill house. The tongue and groove wood pieces are primed on all four sides for water protection and then installed onto the modules at our factory. For the Palms House, we’ll soon put on a finish to give an aged, patina look.

As the Metro debates expansion, the City Council questions one way streets, and the rest of us sit in traffic, some savvy entrepreneurs are creating business to make personal transportation a bit greener. Hear from some of these folks at the panel “Getting In, Out, and Around Los Angeles,” sponsored by the Los Angeles Times and the Sustainable Business Council.

Thursday, March 27, 7-10pm
Livingreen
10000 Culver Blvd in Culver City
$20; RSVP required

(Photos by Tom Store)

We regularly look to Heath Ceramics to remind us of the best ideals of Modernism–rigorous, simple designs with constant attention to detail and craft.

Heath’s new Tapestry tile collection creates patterns from the colors and shapes of their traditional tile sizes. In designing the new collection, they chose glazes with “high variation and contrasting finishes to create geometric patterns visible in large scale.” The three patterns (Flemish Bond, Argyle, and Stitch) hearken back to brick-laying, woven fabrics, and needle-pointing patterns. For easy installation, Heath delivers the tiles in 12×12 face-mounted squares.

Like us, Heath operates its own factory that integrates design and production under one roof. Their designers, mold makers, jiggermen and glazers blend a mechanized process with hand craftsmanship to create tiles, tableware, and homewares.

We’ve partnered with Heath to offer an upgrade package for our prefab homes, so you can choose from our pre-selected tile color palate of 50/50 Fog, Azie Green, Antique White, Frost, Gunmetal, and Bay Blue (all shown below left to right).

Field Notes by the Coudal Partners.

As one of our architects said, “I love love love these graph paper sketchbooks.” They’re nice and small, so you can use one for each project and then file it away. No self-important, leather-cover pretentiousness. The graphic design on the front is subtle, powerful, and maybe a little goofy. Oh, and they’re cheap.

As an added plus, Coudal is one of the most innovative advertising/graphics/community art quasi-companies around.

Yesterday the Santa Cruz Sentinel pointed to technology and sustainability as what attracted our client for California House 8 to prefab. Check out the article about the early adopters and the installation of California House 8 here: “S.C. technology guru pushing prefab as next big thing.”

Archinect posted a call to arms for help saving Richard Neutra’s VDL Research house in Silverlake, CA. The house is an inspirational example of beautiful design and an experimental spirit, but now the structure rapidly deteriorating, ranging from water damage to uneven foundation settling. See the tarps in the pic below and visit Archinect post for more images of the damage. Cal Poly Pomona now owns the house and is in an “immediate crisis” for urgent maintenance and repairs. Sounds like the best way to help is to visit the house on their Saturday tours and make a donation to the efforts.

Despite the demand for precision on a tight site, all sixteen modules of California House 8 were installed in less than a day and half in California’s Central Coast. We started at 9 am on Tuesday, and Mod 16 was in place by 11 am on Wednesday.

Check out the view as this outdoor living module is set into place.

Here you can see two bottom level modules come together on the steel foundation. If you peek in the room on the left, you can see the pre-installed custom casework. You can also see all that denim insulation keeping things nice and toasty!

We’ll be posting more pics from the installation over the next week or two as we explain various parts of the prefab process.

Think of it as Craigslist for sustainable materials… on steroids. The new Planet Reuse (launching March 17) aims to connect buyers and sellers of reused and reclaimed construction materials while automatically providing the documentation for LEED points. Sellers can create a listing describing the product, and buyers search for materials by a host of different categories. And apparently, if you think really really hard like the guy in the logo, you can come up with some cool ideas for reusing reclaimed materials.