Of all the places you inhabit on a daily basis, your home is one of the most important. It is the container of your feelings of safety, the bearer of your lifestyle, and the catalyst of many memories. The vision of your dream home is precious. As such, handing over the design of your future home to a professional that you hardly know is a daunting task. One of the ways that you can begin to evaluate some of the best residential architects that the Twin Cities has to offer is by visiting the architects along the Homes by Architects Tour.
To further prepare you for your tour experience, over the next few weeks these blog posts will discuss how the architects of the 16 homes on the tour practice with passion. Our first architect spotlight is for Home #4 on the Tour designed by Geoffrey Warner and Scott Ervin of Alchemy Architects.
So how does this passionate mission statement translate into their tangible design product? Believe it or not, 90 percent of this home’s design by Warner and Ervin was expertly crafted in an off-site modular housing factory. By utilizing nuanced methods of building technology, their clients received a home that was cost effective (less than $140 a square foot) and efficiently constructed in eight short weeks. Their innovative approach challenges the ‘bigger is better’ mentality and evolves the typical project approach by asking, “How can we celebrate the [modular] process in which [this home] was made?”
Since the components of the home were constructed into four separate boxes, their stacked and offset placement allowed for the additional design elements of exterior balconies and roof overhangs to provide interior shade. Other design considerations were given for the client’s eclectic art collection with attention directed toward interior spaces that are open, yet uniquely compact.
The AIA MN Homes by Architects Tour takes place September 22 & 23. Purchase your tickets today to see more of this home and speak with the architects responsible for its design.
Photos by Ron Crofoot
—Alicia Liebel, Associate AIA
AIA MN HBAT Marketing Committee Member
