Adam Kalkin's Quik Build Kit House

[varp]

Good article pbreit, thanks.

Smiled at this bit - "It's so simple and resourceful....you just add friends and you have an instant utopia"

Wonder if his book 'Architecture and Hygiene' is any good. He seems to inspire the droll....which is good I think......anyone familiar with it?

[modernlover]

[bjorn]

Good answer-- a thoughtful rebuttal.

If I'd known this was a mutual admiration club, I wouldn't have bothered.

So... good luck and thanks for the hospitality.
B

PS Sure, I've read Wes Jones' sales pitch and looked at his sexy renderings, but still I find myself thinking, ok, what's the punch line? And then I found it. Look under the "Future" tab on his flash page--and get a load of the collage of "proprietary" (subzero, etc) containers. I laughed out loud! It really is just a big joke! (Or a sad fetish?)

Also, FYI, I skimmed through every thread in the ContainerBay forum. I didn't manage to find a single conversation about the capital "P" Premise. Mostly the discusion seems to be about how to overcome the seemingly endless list of challenges of actually making it work. What's the Big Idea? Why start with a container if to make it liveable you must essentially obliterate it? Perhaps one of you could summarize why it's such a great idea, without referring me to PROCon.

[lavardera]

Well bjorn, I think that this is what we are trying to work through. I think most people here are keeping an open mind, more so than a mutual admiration society. The topic has been busier, frankly, and it has wound down as the obstacles seemed too difficult. The draw is an abundance of raw material in the form of the surplus containers, and the desire to leverage that into affordable, yet cool modern housing. If you don't see it, well fine, nobody is going to twist your arm, but we have been enjoying chewing over the problems.

As far as Jone's imagery, I would say that is more about posing it as a widespread commodity. I don't think it has any bearing on the feasibility of the proposal. You can see a similar branded future vision in the interloop Kliphouse proposal http://www.interloopdesign.com/klip.htm I'm pretty indifferent to that - its a graphic decision. Jones can't know how such a product would commercialize any more than we do. People accept, seek out, and even flaunt such branding on products all the time. To say to ourselves now that people would not accept such branding on their home is shortsighted - we might as well not be open to the possibility of a modern home then.
_________________
Gregory La Vardera
architect www.lamidesign.com
modern stock plans www.lamidesign.com/plans
modern workplace www.workalicious.org

[bjorn]

Good answer-- a thoughtful rebuttal.

I've always been a big fan of Wes Jones. I was particularly seduced 10-12 years ago by his metabolist, machine-inspired proposals for a suburban tract house that he did with Peter Pfau. And by the way, they were ALOT cooler looking than these container numbers. But I think the thing that the earnest folks around here may be missing is that Wes Jones is laughing up his sleeve all the way to the bank. I don't think he buys his own hype any more than I do. I think of him as the quintessential "paper" architect-- a merry prankster having a ball churning out ironic and rhetorical drawings. And the more he gets in the glossy mags the better for his traditional (if hip) architectural practice which specializes in designing funky houses, offices and cultural instutions for the hyper wealthy hollywood set.

It's frustrating to see talented "emerging" architects (the ranks of which Jones long ago graduated from) going hook, line and sinker for this boor.

[bjorn]

Here're some tidbits off Jones' firm's website (presumably written by him)which I find illuminating about his firm and container housing in general:

"Even the pneu has to be presented as if it intends to be realized (in order for its currency to be felt), but it has to be careful not to stray too far into the built reality that will condemn it to perpetual nooooo!ness...

If the real currency today is currency, then architecture has no choice but to engage fashion and newness if it wants to remain a player...

In today's culture it is difficult to avoid the seduction of the new and remain noteworthy....

Trying to stay hip enough to be given the opportunity to do something good or even excellent is a difficult task, since the time-scales for hipness and excellence are so out of synch..."

Talk about self-indictment!

[lavardera]

You know I could really care less about his modus - if remaining hip and edgy spins his wheels, or keeps his business going - great for him. I don't think anybody here is putting him on a pedestal, hook, line, or otherwise. There are lessons to be learned from what is proposed, and this discussion has been about applying it. You seem more Jones obsessed than anybody else.
_________________
Gregory La Vardera
architect www.lamidesign.com
modern stock plans www.lamidesign.com/plans
modern workplace www.workalicious.org

[bjorn]

I'd call this pedestalizing:

[lavardera]

Well, I hardly call that pedestalizing if that is even a word! Although you seem to find him a guru? I think you are exaggerating his status among the participants here. Look, I always point people towards JPA when it appears they don't know about it. I'd like to see some houses built and see proof of their concept (or dis-proof of their concept). I'll learn from it either way. If it falls down flat, then we know the idea is a paper tiger. Seems nobody would be more anxious for that then you.

How about sharing some of your prefab MArch thesis with us bjorn. It should be relevant to whats being discussed in these forums.
_________________
Gregory La Vardera
architect www.lamidesign.com
modern stock plans www.lamidesign.com/plans
modern workplace www.workalicious.org

[bjorn]

I would if I could, but NONE of it is digital and it's over 150 pages. I started with a general critique/history/analysis of American suburb design from the Puritan village to Levittown with stops along the way including factory towns, the Jeffersonian land-subdivision system, Stein & Wrights New Towns, Usonia, New Urbanism. Then I looked at the history of the factory-built house movement from Corbu & Gropius through the Entenza case study house program and yes, Wes Jones. Finally I made a design proposal for the redevelopment of a block and a half of Levittown, using a system of paired houses built of modular and panelized construction (modular providing a compact, 2-1/2 story "cabin" to house privacies and utilities on a continuous CMU basement; panelized provided a large unprogrammed 1-story "loft" space on point foundations). But then I spent a bunch of time arranging those pairs of houses in a neighborrhood pattern with the idea of generating as much shared open space as possible at the 2-4 house scale given the preexisting land subdivision system. Yada Yada. It probably goes without saying that now I do fairly contextual additions on single family homes in Westchester Co, NY. ("But, honey, you said I could have 2 sub zeros!")

[bjorn]

I knew I'd seen some more Jones pedastalizing:

[quote=joe]http://www.jonespartners.com/procon.html
Jones specializes in containers. His entry was tops for container design that I have seen.[/quote]

I mean let's face it, his container designs are the best, hands down.
BUT, AGAIN...SO WHAT??? Let the US military keep their "cost-effective" inhumane design ideas to themselves!

Hey there's idea- I'll bet you could get DOD to sponsor a model home! It'd be like a GI Bill for the enlightened George W. era!

[bjorn]

And a little something from the Dwell board vis-a-vis Jones pedestalization:

"I still like Wes Jones approach" - lavardera

"Has Wes Jones done any more designs for others or are you guys getting first bite?...I'm a big fan of his work and think he has done more for busting this container thing open than anyone else. Don't know if I can wait too long" - cercis

"I think this scheme is one of the first besides maybe Wes Jonse' schemes that utilizes all of the assets of the containers" - eamesdaedelus

And would those assets include:

"dark windowless boxes" - fabadmin

This is the biggest scam to hit architecture since Bucky Fuller!

[bjorn]

And a little something from the Dwell board vis-a-vis Jones pedestalization:

"I still like Wes Jones approach" - lavardera

"Has Wes Jones done any more designs for others or are you guys getting first bite?...I'm a big fan of his work and think he has done more for busting this container thing open than anyone else. Don't know if I can wait too long" - cercis

"I think this scheme is one of the first besides maybe Wes Jonse' schemes that utilizes all of the assets of the containers" - eamesdaedelus

And would those assets include:

"dark windowless boxes" - fabadmin

This is the biggest scam to hit architecture since Bucky Fuller!

[lavardera]

hoooboy - bjorn, is this some kind of expose? All these quotes are consistent with my comments above. You're tilting at windmills. Nobody has raised Jones as a god here - hang it up already.

As far as your thesis - you don't have to scan 150 pages, but lets see some images, some thing that reveals your thoughts about it. And it should probably go in a new thread, not here.
_________________
Gregory La Vardera
architect www.lamidesign.com
modern stock plans www.lamidesign.com/plans
modern workplace www.workalicious.org

[fabadmin]

EDIT

I split the thread here because Lucius' post was a whole new ball game.
One of Bjorn's Container-Therapy posts got taken along for the ride to the new thread (sorry but I can't migrate individual posts with the admin tools).

fabadmin

EDIT