Michelle Kaufmann’s latest eco-prefab house, the Breezehouse, was unveiled to the public this weekend. The newest “clean and green” prefabricated home is a collaboration between Sunset Magazine and the Bay Area architect who made headlines last year with her Glidehouse (also a collaboration with Sunset magazine). The Breezehouse was on display May 21 and 22, 2005, at Sunset headquarters in Menlo Park, California, as part of Sunset’s annual Celebration Weekend lifestyle-and-product festival. When Kaufmann’s Glidehouse debuted at last year’s event, it helped draw more than 24,000 visitors over two days.
The 1,750-square-foot home is a modular, environmentally sustainable two-bedroom, two-bath dwelling. The signature feature is the Breezeroom at the center of the house. This glass-enclosed space sits under a butterfly-shaped roof which allows air to pass and circulate through the entire house. There are also indoor gardens, and movable glass walls which open the Breezehouse for easy indoor-outdoor living.
I find it intriguing that Sunset Magazine, a fairly conservative suburban homemaker rag, is pushing “green” modernist prefab housing. What is the world coming to? (Mass suburban prefab? One can only hope…
Says Daniel Gregory, Sunset’s home editor:
Sunset, if it’s about anything, it’s about celebrating the climate and setting of the west. The breezehouse is not the answer, but it may be one answer for one segment of the population.
Maybe this is Sunset’s attempt to start appealing to the kids. Makes sense since so many in the next generation of home buyers won’t be able to afford anything other than prefab in desirable urban areas.
There is an excellent article about this in the San Francisco Chronicle >Sunset Magazine’s article > Michelle Kaufmann’s website >
