Museum of Robots

For those of us out there who can officially be called robot-geeks, this site is pretty darn cool... the rest of you may or may not get it (too bad for you...). Besides having a bunch of fun & kitschy houseware products revolving around the sci-fi/robot theme, there's also a link to an online museum that can be experienced from within the virtual world of Second Life. The exhibits and art in this virtual museum are dedicated to robots not just from popular toys, TV, and the movies but also from science, literature, arts, technology, and the media.

Not your typical online shopping venue to say the least, Museum of Robots needs to be experienced first-hand and has received accolades from Dwell Magazine, Apartment Therapy, and Business Week among others.

Check out the houseware products here and the virtual museum in Second Life...

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