Museum taps Q-C native for ‘Smart Home’ exhibit
Twenty-five years ago, Michelle Kaufmann boarded a bus along with the rest of her Davenport junior high school classmates for a trip to Chicago’s Museum of Science and Industry, a trip she remembers as life-changing.
It was the first time she had been in a building of that size and scale, and it fueled a curiosity about how such places are designed and built.
That curiosity helped propel her on to a career in architecture that blazed through Iowa State and Princeton universities, landed her a job with the internationally known Frank O. Gehry in Los Angeles and now finds her as chairman of her own firm in Oakland, Calif., building a national reputation in prefab/modular and green home construction.
Later this week, Kaufmann will return to the Museum of Science and Industry, this time as a guest of honor, to help open an exhibit called “Smart Home: Green+Wired” that she was asked to design.
Also making the trip for the Thursday opening will be her parents, Jon and Mary Kaufmann; her grandparents, Wayne and Judy Eckstein; and her brother Christopher, all of the Quad-Cities.
The exhibit is a three-story, modular house built on the museum’s east lawn that showcases the ways people can make eco-friendly living a part of their lives and attempts to spark thought and discussion about lifestyle changes to mitigate global warming.
Admission to the house is $10, an extra fee for an exhibit celebrating the museum’s 75th anniversary and the 1933-34 “Century of Progress” Chicago World’s Fair.
The idea for the exhibit came about during a brainstorming session as museum staff members considered an attraction from 75 years ago called “Homes of Tomorrow.”
“We thought how amazing would it be to build a fully functioning home on the museum property that honors the past but is forward-looking with green and smart technologies,” said Anne Rashford, director of temporary exhibits.
Once the idea was set, it didn’t take long to find Kaufmann, 39.
Rashford knew of her work from a “green house” exhibit during 2006 at the National Building Museum in Washington, D.C., and considers her “the leader in the industry in green and modular housing.”
“She knows all the trends and what’s coming out,” Rashford said. “It was a perfect fit.”
Smart Home will remain open through Jan. 4, and it is expected to attract 150,000 to 200,000 people, she said. The run might be extended if there is interest, she added.
The architect
Kaufmann’s life has long been on the fast track, but it’s sped up even more recently as attention focuses on the urgency of climate change and the opportunities green building provides.
When asked, for example, what she and her husband, Kevin Cullen, do for fun, she replied — honestly — that “this is the tough thing in my life right now.
“Our mission is to develop thoughtful, sustainable design that is accessible,” she said. “I believe in it. I love the work. But, yes, it takes all our time. I don’t know how sustainable that is. Free time is so not happening.
“We feel this is an important chapter and feel if we don’t devote time to it, it will pass by.”
Kaufmann’s mother recognizes that. Architecture school was busy for her daughter, too, but there was always the hope that “once this semester is over or once this project is over, it’ll get easier,” Mary Kaufmann said. “But it doesn’t.”
Kaufmann’s Bettendorf basement is still stashed full of Michelle’s projects, including a proposed renovation of a war-torn block in Sarajevo, a project she did in graduate school.
“She’s always been driven,” Mary Kaufmann said. “She’s got more of the ‘disease’ than most. Most of the time, she’s on mental work mode. But as a parent, when your kids are doing something they love, how can you ask for anything more?”
Karen Bermann, an associate professor at Iowa State, lauds Kaufmann as a “fantastically kind, generous, modest, open, affectionate, loyal person” and said these qualities transfer to her work.
And she’s just getting started, added Calvin Lewis, chairman of the Iowa State architecture department.
“This is early in her career, and her potential to continue on this path and to have a profound national impact is certainly there. We look forward to that occurring,” Lewis said.
Prefab, sustainable niche
Kaufmann’s start in the prefab world began several years ago when she and Cullen, a building contractor, realized they could not afford to buy a house in the San Francisco Bay area that was also green.
Kaufmann decided to design her own, a contemporary-style space with clean lines, incorporating walls of glass to bring the outside in and making it Earth-friendly with an extensive solar power system.
As construction progressed on their lot, friends and colleagues thought the 1,566-square-foot home was really nice and wondered whether they could have one, too. Kaufmann saw an opportunity and seized it.
With their own home still unfinished, she partnered with a modular design-build company in Washington to construct the house — named the Glidehouse — as a modular home in its British Columbia factory. The components could then be shipped anywhere in the country and assembled, an economical alternative to site-built homes.
“She was breaking ground doing these (environmentally sensitive) things when it was not a national issue,” Iowa State’s Lewis said.
Almost immediately, Kaufmann began capturing national attention.
In 2004, her work was featured in The New York Times, USA Today, Money Inc., Time, Newsweek and Sunset, the magazine published by the same company that creates the how-to books found at the checkout lanes of home improvement centers.
Today, her Michelle Kaufmann Designs firm employs 54 people, including 20 architects, and operates its own factory outside Seattle. Between that factory and two other partners, her firm will build about 50 homes this year and about 100 next year, she said.
Distribution in the Midwest is expected to begin this summer, she added.
And her reach doesn’t stop with building.
Her Web site reflects a veritable Michelle Kaufmann industry, with lecture availability, a line of do-it-yourself projects (including directions for a gingerbread rendering of one of her homes) and products such as a T-shirt, a tote bag and a kitchen island.
Midwest roots
Kaufmann is particularly happy to bring her designs to the Midwest and be involved in the Chicago project because, as she explains, green design isn’t just for “crazy people in California.”
And her roots are here. The Midwest is where she got the grounding that serves her today.
Her grandparents, John and “Lindy” Kaufmann, lived on a small acreage in Pleasant Valley with outbuildings, trees and some animals. Kaufmann spent time there, enjoying the beauty and functionality of the buildings and developing an appreciation for the “balance between the land, how we live on the land, and the climate,” she said.
She also adopted what she calls the Quad-City area’s can-do spirit.
“There is more of this mentality (in the Midwest) that you just do it,” she said. “I think of my grandparents. If something needed to be done, they just did it.”
Alma Gaul can be contacted at (563) 383-2324 or agaul@qctimes.com.
IF YOU GO
The Smart Home requires an additional timed-entry ticket, which is $10 for adults and senior citizens and $5 for children 3 to 11 years old. Go to msichicago.org.
An accompanying 36-page exhibit guide describes all of the products used in the home and why they were chosen. There is also a glossary of green terms and information about the landscaping.
For more information, go to the Web site or call (800) 468-6674.
FOR MORE INFORMATION
michellekaufmann.com on the Web.
Natural light, solar panels help conserve energy use
The contemporary-style green house rising from Beaver Park at the Chicago Museum of Science and Industry is a variation of an existing prefabricated design by Michelle Kaufmann called the mkSolaire.
It is three stories tall with two bedrooms and two bathrooms spread over 2,500 square feet of space. Its seven modules — five for the house and two for the garage — were built in about three weeks by All American Homes, a Coachmen Industries factory, in Decatur, Ind., and put in place during March.
Landscaping under the direction of the University of Illinois Extension began on Earth Day, and final interior work is going on now in preparation for the Thurday opening. Kaufmann has been to the site several times, with day-to-day work supervised by an on-site project manager.
One of her favorite features is the amount of light that flows into the house; she likes to say the design “sculpts” light into the center. Not only is natural light pleasing to occupants, but it also means that artificial lights are not needed during the day.
“Even if the house was on a really tight lot, with neighbors directly next door so there were no windows on the sides of the house, there (would) still (be) plenty of light coming from the loft/mezzanine and high windows and skylights to achieve the goal of not having to use artificial lights during the day,” she said.
Another favorite aspect is the monitoring system that gives instant feedback on energy use, thereby encouraging the occupants to save. That can have a big impact, Kaufmann said, likening it to the dashboard of her Toyota Prius that shows what happens to her gasoline mileage when she brakes, coasts or drives at a certain speed. Knowing the mileage encourages her to back off and save fuel.
“Most of the time, we just don’t know how our actions translate,” she said.
Other features of the house include:
** Solar panels that supply
2.2 kilowatts of solar power, more than enough to cover all the home’s electrical needs.
** Dual-flush toilets that save water.
** A plumbing system that redirects filtered sink water into the toilets, also saving water.
** LED (light-emitting diode) lights that are 90 percent more efficient than incandescent bulbs, even more efficient than compact fluorescent.
** Exterior siding made of a quick-growing wood and integral color cement board, a product with recycled content that has color all the way through, meaning it won’t need to be repainted.
** Radiant heat throughout the home, coming from hot water flowing through pipes in the floors. There also is a high-velocity mini duct system in which heat comes through two-inch diameter ductwork distributed throughout the rooms for even heating. “You’re not constantly fiddling with the dial,” Kaufmann said. Both systems are powered by the boiler which runs on natural gas.
** An on-demand water heater.
Duplicating the house would cost $500,000, not counting the land, she said. That is expensive, but one has to consider the home’s true, long-term cost, she added.
“Once we start evaluating … the lower energy and water bills on a monthly basis, this home will actually cost less than the equivalent non-green home.”
It is also easier on the environment. According to a report by the federal Energy Information Administration, residential homes generate about 17 percent of total greenhouse gases in the United States, mostly from natural gas and electricity consumption.
Kaufmann said she hopes the exhibit will allow people “to feel inspired and empowered and hopefully find ideas that they can implement into their own homes now.”
She wants people to impact the future, not simply imagine it.
And she hopes the house inspires children.
“It is this generation of children — along with the support of their parents — that will save us,” she said.
Alma Gaul can be contacted at (563) 383-2324 or agaul@qctimes.com.