For nearly eighty years, modernism has focused on refining the communal experience of family living. Improving the experience of cooking, dining, and relaxing. Great rooms have become larger and larger, consuming a progressively larger share of the modern American home.
Homes today are tasked with an increasing array of roles…trends in residential design are demonstrably shifting. Research reveals the quest to capture and transform an area into an oasis of calm, quiet, and relaxation, is a wish that has become increasingly difficult to fulfill as homes are pushed to fulfill multiple purposes throughout the day and evening. Regular interactions with the outdoors have proven to lower blood pressure, reduce stress, expedite healing and improve a person’s mood and focus., and provide such an oasis.
Architectural Record, April, 2023
How has homelife changed?
In the last 3 years we have experienced the most profound changes in our home lifestyles since modernism first came ashore in North America and which experts say to a significant extent are permanent:
Every family member needs private space that fully accommodates that person’s activity and is available when needed.
Connecting with the natural environment has grown to mean having family-scaled outdoor spaces that exhilarate and engage all the human senses and are protected from inclement weather.
Restoring the earth’s environment, green building with sustainable material and reducing the home’s carbon footprint is now recognized as a responsibility high in priority for the majority of consumers planning new homes.
Clients are the most reliable source of innovation
Our passion for introducing innovative design ideas most often originates with clients who describe in detail what is missing in their current homes, Changes in their lifestyles often suggest rethinking the familiar and creating new organizational concepts. The joys of a successful design process are the unexpected “aha” moments.
A review of recent Lindal designs created by Warmmodern Living and our clients shows that over 75% of our work includes features that accommodate the above needs. Most surprising: nearly 100% of Warmmodern Living clients in the last two years have included photovoltaic arrays with battery storage and/or geothermal heat pumps in their new Lindal homes, up from less than 30% in the prior two years.
Modernism Evolves
The three precepts of modernism have always been efficiency, flexibility and responsiveness to the environment. These changes in our lifestyles — the most significant in eighty years — can be accommodated and celebrated by applying the same principles. Unlike many architectural movements before it, modernism -of the times- has not been dealt a fatal blow; it simply has evolved.
Lindal EVOLVE
I was engaged by Lindal Cedar Homes to create a series of houses that illustrate this evolution of modernism, and I am proud to have designed these new houses with Trina Lindal and members of the Lindal design staff.
First, let me illustrate the principles around which the EVOLVE series is designed using simple diagrams.
1
The owners’ domain is the private quarters of the heads of household. The owners’ suite and great room are their private retreat. A quiet Sunday breakfast or a peaceful dinner for two require no excuses. Family and guests enjoy the sunny space with a view when invited. A large covered entry shelters guests awaiting entry.
2
A second building provides total privacy for home offices, guest quarters for visiting adult children and grandkids, or just a place to practice the drums. Total quiet, these spaces are out of sight and out of mind. Everyone needs and appreciates privacy at some time during the day or night.
3
The two private zones are nearly thirty feet apart. A great room sized covered breezeway connects the two, but also keeps them apart. The breezeway is open on two sides to provide sheltered outdoor space to spend the day enjoying the sights, sounds and fragrances of nature. The living breezeway can be enclosed with optional moveable glass walls during winter when indoor space is at a premium. No cabin fever here!
4
The living breezeway provides a unique opportunity to live in the view. An outdoor family dining room or a sheltered sleeping porch, there’s nothing like it. With the (optional) moveable glass walls in place, and the wood stove — or the radiant heat doing their job, you can be toasty warm and dry while surrounded by a raging blizzard.
Using these principles, we created five EVOLVE designs, ideally suited for different topographies and different family compositions that are available to personalize. A sixth design illustrates how easily the EVOLVE principles can be woven into existing Lindal designs, and a seventh is an example of a one-of-a-kind EVOLVE design.
The EVOLVE designs range in size from 1000 square feet to 2300 square feet. By reducing spaces dedicated only to circulation and by planning flexible use spaces we were able to accommodate a wide range of (changeable) functions in less area. The striking simple pitched roof design provides added volume and interest to every space with less reliance on two story volumes.
The living breezeway
Breezeways are an architectural contradiction. Traditionally a breezeway separates a house from a functionally different garage, while at the same time it connects those two distinctly different zones with a clear sheltered path. In the EVOLVE designs the living breezeway separates two distinctly different and private living zones, and a traditional circulation connector has been expanded into a full -scale full-function and full-time outdoor living space.
The Ultimate Commute
Along the way, I have asked dozens of clients and prospective clients, and the response has been resoundingly positive.
“What if you got up, showered and shaved; enjoyed breakfast with the family; put on your jacket; kissed the family goodbye; left the house and walked 30 feet in the fresh air to your sunny office where you can work in total privacy all day.”
Predictable Pricing
All seven EVOLVE designs have been pre-priced in two specifications. The base spec creates a strikingly modern home of Lindal’s most economical options. The Architect’s spec utilizes many premium Lindal options. Both are great starting points for your personalized Lindal EVOLVE home.
Click HERE to see the EVOLVE Designs, Explore the specs…
An Opportunity for You
I am eager to build our first EVOLVE houses in the Seattle area, on Long Island and in central New Jersey. Together Lindal and Warmmodern Living will provide a 15% discount on the Lindal materials for EVOLVE houses that are ordered by September 30, 2024 and are delivered by March 31, 2025 when you agree to allow us to show your EVOLVE home by appointment.
Get started by calling us or emailing us today.
1-844-WARMMOD