Tuesday, May 15, 2012

Modern Home Architecture Blueprints

Los Angeles-based artist Mark Bennett is a seasoned television watcher who pays homage to the medium in his work. More than just amateur blueprints, these detailed drawings can be found in the collections of both the Los Angeles County Museum of Art and The Museum of Modern Art. He also has two books: How to Live a Sitcom Life and TV Sets: Fantasy Blueprints of Classic TV Homes. After the jump, peruse some of our favorite fictional floorplans — from Wayne Manor to Lucy and Ricky’s apartment — and let us know which TV home you’d like to see him tackle next.


 Personally, we’d like to see Bennett try his hand at Arrested Development‘s model home. Then we could finally figure out the logistics of Tobias’ infamous Mary Poppins entrance.


 Any modern-house-plan in the civilized world has to meet the requirements of local and national building codes. You will need thorough blueprints to get a building permit. The blueprints will need to consist of many of these measurements.


 Floor Plan -This is what most people are familiar with when they are designing a home. It is the layout of the exterior and interior walls. The modern-house-plan also needs to include the dimensions for walls, rooms, wall thickness, windows and doors, kitchen and bath layouts, electrical and plumbing layouts, stairs, ceilings, and flooring. 

Elevations- This part of the plans help the inspectors understand the height of the outside of the house. It also shows the shape and size of windows, doors, trim, roof material and slope, and anything else that can help describe the outside of the house.

Details -this is a plan for some of the smaller things that have special instructions to build. This is more for the carpenters so they can get a good idea of what the architect has designed, but inspectors also like to know what's going on.

Some of the details might include how a fireplace should look, stairs and handrails, molding and trim or just anything that is different from normal houses. The details sheet is part of the modern-house-plan and is as many pages as needed. 

Sections-This part of the modern-house-plan just shows how the parts of a building fit together. Most of it is common sense, but sometimes walls, stairs, and things like fireplaces need a little extra explaining to get the clear picture. Like detail plans, the sections plans are more for the builder than the inspector, but they like to be kept in the loop. House-blueprints need to fit together seamlessly.
Interior elevations-This is a plan of the important interior items that need special consideration. The usual items are kitchens, bathrooms and fireplaces. Most house-blueprints will include specialty interior items like these. 
Whew, that seems like a lot of stuff!Most of it is redundant, but it's always good to be over prepared. I hope this isn't too discouraging to first time home builders. I know it can be in the beginning. The best thing to do is go get some really big paper and get started. You'll find that it's the excitement of starting your plans that motivates you. So go ahead, get some paper, tape it down to the kitchen table and start to draw your plans with a yardstick. It will flow from there.

Inspirations Modern Home Architecture

Friday, May 11, 2012

“Ice House” by Matthew Radune & Gregory Holm

Having been ravaged by the economy, the Detroit area has seen its residential areas thrown into disrepair resulting in many abandoned homes. This notion inspired Matthew Radune and Gregory Holm to take a different outlook on the vacant spots by creating their “Ice House” installation at 3920 McClellanon, on the east side of Detroit. An architect and photographer respectively, Radune and Holm sought the opportunity to highlight optimism as well as the much-needed injection of support into the city’s infrastructure.

Gregory Holm, a photographer, and Matthew Radune, an architect, are collaborating on this winter of 2009-2010 architectural installation. The project, which involves working with several Detroit organizations, aims to uphold concepts of neighborhood integrity, material reuse, public art, social empowerment, and urban farming. 
With the current freeze in the housing market, Detroit is leading the nation in foreclosures.
Ice House Detroit references this contemporary urban condition, and involves the acquisition and recontextualization of one of the 80,000 abandoned houses in the city. 
The house will be sprayed with water in subzero temperatures, gradually building up layers of ice over the course of several days or weeks. Once it is frozen, the common architectural and urban references of the house will be temporarily obscured, providing a period of reflection.

Aside from the installation itself, we will be producing fine art prints, a limited edition art book, and a film which will document the transformation of the house and potentially the legal and bureaucratic maneuvers necessary to pull off such an endeavor.

After completion of this project, we will be working with groups who will deconstruct this house, recycling the wood, metals, glass, and the cement foundation; keeping these materials from entering our dumps. Once the house is demolished, It is our intention to donate the property to local urban farmers for the cultivation of neighborhood vegetables.

To follow the progress of this project please view: 
The IceHouseDetroit Blog
Ice House Detroit is the first is the first in a series of large scale artworks conceived and produced by Gregory Holm and Matthew Radune. These artworks will exist as time-based architectural installations exploring the nature of contemporary culture. The primary artworks will serve as starting points from which explorations can be done in several media including photography and film.