Unhappy Hipsters

If it isn't obvious by some of my posts here, I'm a huge fan of modern residential architecture and design. Must be my 4 years of architecture and environmental design from high school that I did nothing with...

Anyway, ever since I bought my little, old, drafty, creaky, 1940's era fixer-upper I've been obsessed with one day re-modeling it into an awesome, sleek, modern haven like the "architecture porn" featured on the pages of Dwell magazine. Then last year reality finally, and rather abruptly, slammed me upside the head. I cancelled my Dwell subscription and pretty much shoved my dream aside. Oh well, pipe dreams come and pipe dreams go right?

Today I discovered a blog called Unhappy Hipsters that helps me to put it all in perspective. As far as I can tell it is produced anonymously and features little hilarious deadpan captions underneath photos from Dwell & other publications that show couples living not-so-happily-ever-after in their sleek, modern homes. In a typical scenario a woman sits on a beautiful modern sofa while a man stands off to the side gazing out a window, quietly reflecting on his depressing life while plotting his escape.

There are many fun little dramas being played out in these ironic photo/caption combos and they help me to realize that, as with all dreams, you need to be careful what you wish for. Check it out for yourself and enjoy...

Modern Birdhouses

This is probably as close to a cool mid-century modern house with a butterfly roof as I'll ever get! Pretty sweet... lucky-ass birds!

From the website:

RICHARD (top) was inspired by the Case Study Houses designed by Richard Neutra, and recalls the floating, sloped roofs of three of his unbuilt homes.

J.R. (middle) was inspired by Case Study House #1, designed by J. R. Davidson and built in 1946. The elemental simplicity of the flat roof recalls the minimal nature of Davidson's design.

RALPH (bottom) was inspired by Ralph Rapson's iconic Greenbelt House design (Case Study House #4), which features an enclosed garden and angled rooflines.

Modern Birdhouses' Case Study Masters Series honors the architectural pioneers who participated in the Case Study Houses Program. The Case Study Houses Program was established in 1945 by John Entenza, the progressive editor and publisher of Arts and Architecture magazine. Entenza commissioned architects to design simple and innovative modern homes for a growing post-war housing market. The resulting homes took full advantage of industrialized building processes and continue to broadly influence modern architecture. Participants included such icons as Charles Eames and Eero Saarinen.

Check 'em out here...

Simpatico Homes Prefab

Being a former architecture student, most of my friends know that I'm a big fan of some of the modern prefab home designs that have come about in the last few years or so. In fact, most of those same friends are probably sick of hearing me drone on and on about these architectural fantasies. The cool, slick modern design features such as eco-friendly bamboo flooring, recycled concrete/glass/paper countertops, gigantic view windows, ethanol burning fireplaces, modular vs SIPs construction blah, blah, blah... I could go on and on, trust me.

Well, even though the dream of Prefab becoming widespread and available to everyone has taken a big hit because of the sorry state of the world economy and the closing down of one of the industry's major players (Michelle Kaufmann Designs), I'm still keeping the faith.

Now, I've had many a favorite prefab design over the years, starting with some of Kaufmann's work, and I'll probably have many more in the years to come. My latest crush though, has to be an entry by S.F. Bay area firm Simpatico Homes that features many of the things mentioned above as well as a green roof, a floorplan the perfect size and layout for my lot, an awesome roof deck area to take advantage of my north/northeast mountain views, and just a great overall design and green/sustainable philosophy.

Now if only that elusive Lotto win would just come my way I'd be all set and could actually afford one of these prefabs. Ah well... one can still dream right? You can check out the latest object of my affection at the simpaticohomes website