DWELL ON DESIGN REPORT #2: GETTING CONNECTED WITH CONNECT:HOMES -- All we can say is that it was the biggest surprise we'd ever seen in 640 square feet! If fact, we wanted to move into the new Connect:2 prototype home from Connect:Homes immediately -- and so did a lot of other attendees at the Dwell on Design show (sponsored by Dwell magazine) at the Los Angeles Convention Center this past weekend where "green" was everywhere -- but no one made us feel more completely at home as the folks from Connect:Homes. There is so much to talk about with this prototype that made its debut at the Dwell show: first of all, it's one bedroom and one bath and it's ideal for a second home, a vacation cabin or as a backyard guesthouse or studio. Secondly, this new Connect:2 prototype has a base price of $105,000 -- and you can design both the exterior and interior main features yourself on the company's website. Thirdly, there are so many green features in these homes (see link below) that you'll ask yourself why someone hasn't offered all of these in the same manner that Connect:Homes' founders Jared Levy and Gordon Stott have. Fourthly (and we could go on and on) we love the style that this snug and savvy prototype offers: so clean, airy, light-filled and completely comfortable. One of the most interesting things that appealed to us at Studio of Style is that these modular homes are designed to fit within standard-sized shipping containers, which means that they can shipped anywhere in the world at a fraction of the cost of many other modular homes -- and the company does not use repurposed or retrofitted shipping containers because those already contain lots of toxic materials from their previous usages and aren't suitable for shipping green houses -- or green anything. Thus, Levy and Stott (both of whom are architects with many years of experience in designing and building modern prefab homes) have thought out the green aspects of constructing and shipping their homes from every angle -- and these homes are not a kit of parts or panels -- they're fully realized homes that are assembled by a local contractor of your choice and voila! you've got the green home of your dreams. So now all you need to do is pick your site (be it desert, seaside or countryside), then pick your home plan -- and lastly, pick out a good bottle of champagne to celebrate owning this very stylish home for a new, green millennium!
http://www.connect-homes.com/
green features: http://www.connect-homes.com/about/features
http://dod.dwell.com/
Images courtesy Connect:Homes
