- Michelle Kaufmann
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Michelle Kaufmann presenting at Cusp Conference 2010, Chicago, IL
Michelle Kaufmann is a leading green architect and designer with Michelle Kaufmann Studio.
In 2002, Kaufmann founded Michelle Kaufmann Designs, a full service architecture firm specializing in sustainable design. The firm designed and built single-family and multi-family green homes using prefabricated modular technology. The firm was closed in May 2009 and Kaufmann started a new design firm, Michelle Kaufmann Studio. Her firm offers customers a variety of prefabricated homes as well as options for completely custom built homes as well.
Contents
Personal life
Kaufmann grew up in Iowa where she developed an understanding of the relationship between humankind and the environment. Kaufmann received her undergraduate degree from Iowa State University and her Masters from Princeton University. Prior to founding Michelle Kaufmann Designs, Kaufmann was an Associate with Frank O. Gehry and had worked with him in Santa Monica. She also worked with Michael Graves.
Kaufmann relocated to Northern California, where she founded Michelle Kaufmann Designs. She has been a lecturer and keynote speaker for numerous events, and has taught at Iowa State University and Woodbury University.
Kaufmann currently lives with her husband and their two dogs in their Glidehouse in Marin County, California.
Closure of Michelle Kaufmann Designs and opening of Michelle Kaufmann Studio
Kaufmann's eco-friendly architecture was well received by the public but her first architectural firm closed in 2009, after being open for five years.[1] The original firm "grew to include two dozen staffers, operated its own factory outside Seattle and completed more than 40 prefab houses, most of them on the West Coast".[1] A series of attempts were made to keep the studio going despite some financial setbacks; but soon it became clear that the turmoil from the late-2000s recession had hit Kaufmann's company hard. As Kaufmann put it in her blog: "Despite our best efforts, the financial meltdown and plunging home values have caught up with us. The recent closing of a factory partner, as well as the gridlocked lending faced by homeowners, has proved more than our small company can bear."[2] Kaufmann continued assisting her clients after her first company had shut down, to help put them "in a position to build with other firms, if they choose".[1]
In 2010, Kaufmann launched a new design firm, Michelle Kaufmann Studio.[3]
Several of the homes she designed are now marketed by mkDesigns, a subsidiary of Blu Homes. However, Michelle Kaufmann is not now affiliated with Blu Homes.
Projects
The first project, titled Glidehouse, was built for Kaufmann and her husband Kevin Cullen in 2004. A full-size replica of this home was built for the National Building Museum in Washington, DC from May 2006 through June 2007 as a part of the exhibit The Green House: New Directions in Sustainable Architecture and Design. The style is influenced by "Japanese homes, along with Eichler and Eames, as well as the rural farm buildings from my childhood in Iowa".[4][5]
The Sunset Breezehouse was built in collaboration with Sunset magazine in 2005.
The MKLotus design was built in front of San Francisco's city hall in 2007 as a part of West Coast Green conference on sustainable building. This design is among the smallest of the open-space homes offered by MK designs. It includes a "front wrap-around deck and enclosed meditation garden" and is "Intended as a vacation or small stand-alone home".[6] It uses the same sleek, geometric shapes as her other designs.
The MKSolaire (http://www.msichicago.org/whats-here/exhibits/smart-home/) was exhibited at the Museum of Science and Industry (Chicago) within a show titled "The Smart Home: Green and Wired" which was open from May 2008- January 2009. The Solaire has been "redesigned to reflect the lifestyle of a couple looking to minimize home maintenance, maximize efficiency and settle in to a space that not only is beautiful, but functional[7]".
Awards and honors
In 2007 Kaufmann was named the "Henry Ford of green homes" by Sierra magazine, published by the Sierra Club.[8] Kaufmann’s work is widely published and her homes have been showcased in a number of museums, including the National Building Museum, the Vancouver Art Center, MOCA in Los Angeles,[9] and most recently, in the “Smart Home: Green and Wired” exhibit at Museum of Science and Industry (Chicago).[10]
Top Firm Award 2008 from Residential Architect magazine.
Innovations Award 2008 from Social Venture Network.
Best Architecture Website from WebAwards 2008.
Kaufmann was named "Advocate of the Year 2009" by the National Association of Home Builders.
website www.michellekaufmann.com (http://www.michellekaufmann.com)
Written Works
Prefab Green, published by Gibbs Smith, release date January 2009 (http://www.amazon.com/PreFab-Green-Michelle-Kaufman/dp/1423604970/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1226594584&sr=8-1) written and designed by Cathy Remick
References
- ^ a b c "Green prefab firm Michelle Kaufmann Designs is closing". Los Angeles Times. May 26, 2009. http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/culturemonster/2009/05/green-prefab-firm-michelle-kaufmann-designs-is-closing.html. Retrieved November 27, 2010.
- ^ http://www.michellekaufmann.blog.com/
- ^ Meghan Drueding (April 20, 2010). "Update: Michelle Kaufmann Studio". EcoHome Magazine. http://www.ecohomemagazine.com/modular-building/michelle-kaufmann-update.aspx. Retrieved November 27, 2010.
- ^ Stephanie Kinnear (May 1, 2008). "Green Tour: Michelle Kaufmann's Very Own Glidehouse". Re-Nest. http://www.re-nest.com/re-nest/green-tours/green-tour-michelle-kaufmanns-very-own-glidehouse-049324. Retrieved November 27, 2010.
- ^ "Tour of the Glidehouse". National Building Museum. October 5, 2006. http://www.nbm.org/media/video/the-glidehouse.html. Retrieved November 27, 2010.
- ^ http://www.prefabs.com/PrefabHomes/MichelleKaufmannDesigns/mkLotus.htm
- ^ http://www.msichicago.org/whats-here/exhibits/smart-home/
- ^ Innovators: The Henry Ford of Green Homes - July/August 2007 - Sierra Magazine - Sierra Club
- ^ http://www.moca-la.org/museum/exhibitiondetail.php?&id=385
- ^ Museum of Science and Industry | What's Here | Exhibits | Smart Home: Green + Wired
External links
Categories:- American architects
- Living people
- Iowa State University alumni
- Princeton University alumni
- Iowa State University faculty
- Woodbury University faculty
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