As most of you know by now, we have moved our project specific coverage over to the Postgreen Homes Blog, but since change is a difficult thing, I will occasionally post some small updates with similar info here. Hopefully, everyone will soon subscribe to the PGH Blog for this kind of news, but until then I’ll continue to lightly burden those of you already reading both. Sorry, but it seems necessary.

We have been working hard at finalizing our Avant Garage plans over the past few weeks, and soon we will have some updated facade images and roof deck options. We are also trying to finalize our plans for the garage space and should have more details soon. Today, we posted a couple of new interior renderings including this one:

We are very happy with the quality of the renderings and think that they give a great sense of the space we are planning to create. ISA has done a fantastic job tackling the interesting challenges we have posed for them with this project. I particularly like the stair between the kitchen and living area. It’s mix of functional stairs, storage and seating is an excellent approach to the open two-level plan.

Will we continue to revise these homes for the next few days as we prepare for construction. Of course, throughout that time we encourage comments on all the details we bring up. We love to hear feedback from all of our readers. If we didn’t, we would probably keep most of this to ourselves.

As always, the four homes in the Avant Garage project are available for customization and purchase. Come on over and check it out. Window shoppers are always welcome and we would love to hear your feedback.

As always, feel free to use the comments to let us know what you think, but we would like it even better if you went over to the PGH Blog and joined the conversation there.

It has a kind of cheesy name, but that doesn’t make the concept any less cool. Postgreen Home’s has introduced a new model built around an existing zoning plan that called for garages. Working with ISA, we came up with some concepts for a model that incorporates the garage and creates an exciting split level effect through the home itself. There is also a roof deck proposed, and we think that this will be a pretty exciting design when it is completely fleshed out. Of course, now is the time for your comments.

Head on over to the Avant Garage post on the Postgreen Homes Blog and tell us what you think of our conceptual floor plans. There are even a few little renderings for you visual folk.

If you aren’t already over there checking it out, here is a teaser image you just can’t resist . . .

Remember, don’t waste your feedback here. Join the conversation over at the PGH Blog.

We are about to release our newest Postgreen Homes model and felt that we should throw it up here for some discussion first. Up until now we have limited ourselves to two story buildings. We have hung well below the height limits set by zoning and tried to perfect that old school Philly staple of two beds and one bath. We are ready to try something different.

No, we won’t be going three story like everyone else. We won’t exactly be building the “money floor” as some builders like to call it. Instead we will be building half a third story or a “point five” addition to our original two. The new model will feature a third floor master bedroom/artist studio/office that opens up onto a roof deck. The second floor will technically be two or three bedrooms though we imagine the front bedroom will likely be more of an office/flex space as you will have to walk through it to get to the top floor. The first floor will remain that same beautiful plan we have grown so fond of through our first seven homes.

But enough words. Take a look at the plans and tell us what you think.

So, tell us what you think of the floor plans and the second floor options. Also let us know whether we should call it The 2.5, The Two Point Five or The 2 Point 5. You can do all that and more in the comments.

We have taken a look at the potential floor plans for the proposed Triplex, and I have told you about the zoning meeting going on tonight. Now it’s time to share a snapshot of what this thing might look like should we build it.

Some explanation:

1. The siding will be fiber cement cut into two foot strips and hung horizontally.
2. The colors will definitely be different then those pictured as we want to set this building apart from the 100k project which can be seen in the left side of this image. We just don’t know exactly what those colors will be so . . .
3. The tall window in the middle follows the shared stair tower up through all three floors. We have some interesting air sealing and insulation ideas regarding that tower.
4. The roof will be devoted to solar and other mechanicals. This means no roof access, but we make up for that by including the utilities in the rent.
5. The entrance (and this may be obvious) is below the tall vertical window on a small street directly behind the 100k project.
6. At the far end of the block you can just make out the train line that we think more than justifies the increased density of this project.
7. I kind of hope to live here.

Questions, concerns and compliments can be shared in the comments.

I had the pleasure of seeing Mr. Takaharu Tezuka of Tezuka Architects give a lecture at UPenn recently. Tezuka is one of my favorite Japanese firms that has been producing amazing homes for about two decades and is getting into some interesting larger commercial commissions as they have grown in the past 5-10 years. If you’ve been around this blog for a while, you probably have seen some of their work in our inspirational posts. Tezuka’s lighting designs gave us confidence that the bare CFL’s in our homes would not only work, but look better than most traditional recessed lighting layouts.

You’ll notice in the picture of the Tezuka’s above that they are wearing blue and red. One of the interesting and quirky things about them is they always wear the same thing. Mr. Tezuka said he has about 100 of the same blue shirt that also comes in long sleeve versions. He wears blue every day, while his wife wears red, his daughter wears yellow and his son has claimed the color green. They are making me revisit my desire to simplify my life by going out and buying 20 of the same grey t-shirt.

On to the architecture. Below I wanted to quickly highlight the three projects that Tezuka spoke about in his lecture.

The Roof House

The first project is one of their most famous works titled “The Roof House.” The most interesting thing about this house was the overall approach to the design. The Tezuka’s visited the family’s current house when they were hired to design them a new home. The first thing the family showed them was a very small and quite steep tiled roof section that they could access through a small window. The entire family, including the small children would climb out on this roof almost daily to spend time together eating meals or just chatting.

This visit inspired the Tezuka’s to build a very modest house that was all about the roof. You can see below that the living quarters are very small and minimalist which is fairly standard in Japanese architecture. The big difference is the enormous roof that includes a mini kitchen, a fireplace and even a shower. The family can access the roof through a series of small ladders and skylights, mimicking the method of entry to their old roof through a small window.

This house reminded me a bit of how many of us live in tight quarters in Philly and other dense cities in the US. We often have a very modest flat or rowhome with a tiny outdoor yard, balcony or roof deck that can capture the majority of our free time when the weather’s nice. It’s interesting to see this concept taken to the extreme in The Roof House.

Fuji Kindergarten

I think this Fuji Kindergarten was my favorite of the three works Tezuka presented and one I had not seen before. There were a hodgepodge of buildings on this site that made up a kindergarten with a somewhat secluded and gloomy playground area. With Tezuka’s new design everything about the site and those that interacted with it transformed. The way the children learned and played was transformed and vastly improved. The public is also attracted and invited onto the round deck on a daily basis to enjoy a site that they would’ve probably passed by without noticing in the past. To me, this building project represents a lot of the reasons we got into development. We don’t just want to develop buildings that look cool and lower utility bills. We want to transform the way people live, work and socialize. We’re working on the first of those three now and hope to get to the others sooner than later.

This building is basically a giant doughnut. What’s unique about the interior space is that there are no dividing walls whatsoever between the classes. There is movable furniture and organizers that can be re-arranged to alter the classrooms as needed. The children are not distracted by what’s going on in the center of the building or the noise from there fellow classmates in the next section over. They learn to work in a typical environment at a young age. Another positive impact that the new building has had on the way the children learn is the flexibility of the classes. If a child is getting bored, behind or ahead in one class, they are free to move on to another class in the building. This keeps things interesting for the children, keeps them learning and ensures nobody is falling into a rut in their learning and social development.

Woods of Net

The Woods of Net pavilion replaced an old pavilion that held this unique piece of artwork. Daily attendance rose from 20 people per day to over 4,000. ‘Nuff said.

Tezuka has many other projects listed on their site. It’s very much worth a couple of minutes searching through for inspiration. Let us know your thoughts in the comments.

Our current line of houses covers a significant portion of those looking for a new urban house, but we have gotten a little bit of a hard time from those who have a couple of kids and still want one of our homes. This has been particularly the case for those who have a girl and a boy (we are firm believers in bunk beds for same-sex child situations). In response to this small, but insistent minority, we have put together a little concept.

This idea doesn’t have a name yet but you can certainly hit the comments with suggestions. We have basically put a master suite and two small “children’s rooms” on the second floor while maintaining the wide open floor plan downstairs that we think works so well for families. Check it out . . .

You will note that the master bedroom has a nice big closet and there is another closet in the hallway. The “kids” rooms are definitely on the small side, but so are kids, and if you had doubts about the size issue, you can always go back and read my thoughts on the issue. We think that a loft bed situation would make great sense for older kids. This would give them a cool place to sleep and still leave most of their room open.

This is still a very preliminary idea, and we would love to get your feedback on it. Take a look at the drawing and tell us what you think in the comments.

This one is for all of you out there who want the joy of living in a Postgreen Home without the responsibilities of home ownership. We are officially considering our first step into the rental world with a possible multi-family building right behind our 100k Project. It will be all the green, modern goodness you’ve come to expect without the “all-grown-up-and-settled-down” feel of a mortgage. So, get ready to call the movers and flaunt your carefree lifestyle in style.

Our current idea for the building will consist of three single story flats and a shared basement with dedicated storage spaces. There will also be a shared back yard in which we may provide a variety of amenities (grill? warshers set? herb garden?). We are looking at the possibility of including all the utilities as well which should simplify the monthly budgeting considerably.

We are still in the early design phases at the moment and all could change depending on the response of the neighborhood, but I thought I would share a few of the floor plan iterations we have been working on with the brilliant minds over at ISA. I won’t taint your response by telling you which one is my favorite until I hear from you in the comments.

One thing I particularly like about these plans is the idea of moving the sinks outside the shower/toilet area. We did this in an effort to make these flats more attractive to those in a roommate situation. Though I think even those who are living with other family members will enjoy the setup for overlapping morning routines.

I also want to point out the effort to make use of the corridors which are normally left as dead space. In each floor plan concept you can see a desk area has been drawn in the hallway between the living space and the bedrooms. We think it is a great use of otherwise wasted space.

Please remember that this is just a concept at this point. We are submitting for zoning and will be having discussions with the community and the planning folks to make sure this is the right use of this piece of land. We currently really like the idea as it encourages density right near public transit, but we are always open to the opinions of others (like yourselves for instance).

That’s all we have so far on this project, but you can bet you will be seeing more as we move forward. For now . . . Which floor plan do you like best? Is there anything missing from these apartments? Who wants one?

Comment time!

Recently, we were approached by someone to design and build a small duplex on a tight infill house in Philadelphia. Without getting into too much detail, the lot is roughly 27′ wide by 20′ deep. Tight constraints to say the least. This footprint reminded us of one of our favorite Japanese small house designs – The 9 Tsubo House. Special thanks to our pals Justin and Greg from Materialicious for helping us dig up links to these homes.

image credit: designboom.com

Origins of the 9 Tsubo House

The 9 Tsubo House was originally designed and built by the late Japanese architect Masuzawa Makoto in 1952. The tsubo is a traditional Japanese unit of measure that equates to two tatami mats placed side by side. A tatami mat is roughly 3′ x 6′ so one tsubo would be 6′ x 6′ or 36 square feet. The 9 Tsubo house, therfore measured 18′ x 18′ for minimalist footprint of only 324 square feet. When a second floor loft is added the total square footage typically ranged from 500 – 540 square feet.

The reason for Makoto choosing these exact dimensions was based on a program offered by the houseing corporation of Japan after World War II. They would only provide loans to those people building a home of 50 square meters or less (~538 square feet). Anyone needing a larger house was assumed to be wealthy enough not to require a loan. Wouldn’t it be great if a US bank had a program like this incentivising people to build smaller homes?

Modern 9 Tsubo Houses by Boo-Hoo-Woo.com

In 2002 a company by the name of Boo-Hoo-Woo decided that this old 9 Tsubo House concept was pretty cool. They assembled 5 current Japanese designers to develop a line of homes all based on the original 9 Tsubo house by Mokoto a half century ago.

Currently there are 15 different models on the 9tubohouse.com site by 12 different designers (one is a husband & wife team). The site is in Japanese, but your Google toolbar will easily translate the majority into your language of choice. The company sells these homes online in Japan for between $120K – $200K. The craftmanship and attention to detail in every aspect of the homes is incredible. Below are some selected images from the site and sources used for this post. I highly recommend spending some time checking them out. Detailed floorplans and elevations are shown for most models.

SAH Type 1 Model

Kinoco Model

Basic Model

Kyuuheya Model

Tall Model

Tall NUDE Model

Source Links:

• 9tubohouse.com – Site of 15 modern versions of the 9 Tsubo House by various Japanese firms.
• Boo-Hoo-Woo.com – Company selling modern Tsubo Homes with fantastic name.
• Future House Now Post on 9 Tsubo Homes
• Space: Japanese Design Solutions for Compact Living – Great book featuring the 9 Tsubo House and other sweet Japanese designs.
• 9 Tsubo House with Kids from DaddyTypes.com
• Good article on origins of the 9 Tsubo House at Cup of Joe

(Editors Note: Brian Phillips is the principle at Interface Studio Architects (ISA), the designers of our Postgreen Homes line. We are occasionally able to guilt him into writing a post.)

A big part of the fun of working with Postgreen is finding design opportunities within the tight parameters of budget, constructability and time constraints.  Simplicity has been at the root of much of our design process.  A key example of this elemental approach was established with the original 100K House in the decision to limit the exterior cladding to a single material.

By using only two colors of fiber cement panels we created a vertically proportioned, pixellated, urban camouflaged facade (as seen above). The M&M House and Passive House use horizontal fiber cement planks of varied widths and a painting strategy of different colored stripes adds variety to the otherwise simple exterior. (pictured below)

Our latest variant on this approach has come to be known as the “Tattoo House”.  The combination of flat cladding and paint has inspired a full-blown graphic strategy which explores the application of images to individual 2’ x 8’ fiber cement panels as seen in this early rendering of the Skinny Project.

We’ve been working with local Philadelphia silkscreen artist Candy Depew to develop a method for the application of these unique architectural graphics.  Candy and her team will print on the panels using large format screens with up to 4 colors.  (Before installation the printed panels will be clear coated to ensure resilience through the remainder of the construction process and to prevent long-term color fading.)

Pixel Strategy

In studying how to develop these house “tattoos” we’ve created a standardized approach for translating graphics — potentially from a variety of artists and sources — into a straightforward format for the 2’x8’ panels.

Panel Strategy

Our graphic investigation focused on how to crop existing images and patterns, the size of the images in relationship to the size of the house, and how to use color in a particular way that compliments the pattern and range of scale.

Crop Strategy

Color Strategy

It seems plausible that in the future Postgreen customers might be able to upload raster images and have them appear on their homes.  More excitement to come!

Click on any of the images to see larger versions on our Flickr page and please let us know what you think in the comments.

For better or worse we are bringing back the video here at Postgreen. We have a new intro (designed by my brother Gabe Darling) and very, very, mildly improved lighting. This first effort in our return is a quick explanation of the options soon to be available in the SKINNY model floor plan. It isn’t the most entertaining of videos, but we think its a good start to our comeback.

If you really like any of the options in this video you are in luck. The SKINNY model is available right now in the aptly named Skinny Project, our three house project just down the street from the 100k. You can customize a home in the project now at the Postgreen Homes site.