KOBY COTTAGE

This guest house was created for families to use while visiting their children at Starr Commonwealth, a nonprofit organization in Michigan. The organization's services range from foster care to residential treatment and in-home counseling programs that help young adults learn to live independently.

The house plan is composed of two diagonal intersecting axes centered around the dining room table as a meeting place for the family. One axis includes the bedrooms of all family members. The other axis, which incorporates the public entry hall and living room, runs through the building in a diagonal pathway which culminates in the expanded volume of the living room and expansive views of the lake beyond.

The design, two volumes connected by a glass enclosure, employs tectonic expression of the modules. Yet the rectilinear module forms are opened up to the outdoors through variations in glass and wall surfaces. A light wood interior is housed within a cor-ten exterior that blends into the colors of the surrounding natural environment. The building is a device that creates new ways of viewing landscape as a vertical slice of nature brought deeply into the volume of the house. Use of glass corners throughout the building, especially in the dining room intersection, creates a blurring between the space inside the house and the space of nature in which it is suspended. An open rooftop deck creates a direct connection with the outdoors, establishing a sense of openness. The fact that the building is cantilevered off the hillside prevents outside viewers from seeing into the house from below, providing complete privacy for the residents.

This building was commissioned by Kullman Buildings Corp in collaboration with Starr Commonwealth as an opportunity for us to implement a new modular technology: a welded, factory-produced frame chassis akin to the trellis frame on a Formula One racing car or Ducati motorcycle. This new technology represents a revolution in modular construction.

More images at http://www.garrisonarchitects.com

MODULAR TOWNHOUSES

This high-efficiency product enhances the health of its occupants, reduces energy costs and CO2 emissions, and conserves resources throughout the construction process.

Complete Construction Costs start at $200/sq ft

Plans are fully developed and ready for building department submissions

Available individually or in multiple packages

Each unit includes owner's triplex plus rental income from ground floor duplex apartment

Built to desired specifications of client: width and depth can be adjusted to a variety of sites

Green features include:

Double Roof
Rainscreen Wall
Living Wall
Solar-Generated Ventilation
Energy Star Appliances
Compact Fluorescent Lighting
Recycled Materials
Low VOC Materials
Water Conservation
EcoSmart Fireplace
Condensing Boiler
High-Efficiency Air Conditioning
Enhanced Insulation
Comprehensive Energy Reduction Profile

more images at http://www.garrisonarchitects.com

THE TREAD LIGHTLY HOUSE

This modular house prototype lightly touches the earth, demonstrating new ways in which architecture can reduce our collective ecological footprint and help to minimize the impact of the built environment on nature. It was originally designed for a site where building footprint had to be small due to the presence of nearby wetlands.

This prototype utilizes an ecologically friendly modular design which is fast and easy to built. It saves energy, time, money, and natural resources through a process in which the prefabricated units are created in a factory rather than on-site, allowing site work and building production to then take place simultaneously.