By the way I seemed way more obsessed with the Camouflage House than anyone else which proves my point. Offbeat is subjective.

I’ve been considering this question because the first architects I wanted to use for the new weekly feature is SALA Architects. They aren’t completely wacky so I almost changed my mind. I didn’t however and here’s why. I think SALA is offbeat in a way that still appeals to a broad base. As in offbeat livable. Most of us like to see homes like the Toilet House but come on; is it livable? Would you build a house like it? Likely not.

This is where I’m coming from with SALA. This is a company that builds homes unlike what most of us see in our surrounding neighborhoods — thus offbeat and yet you could see yourself living there. That might be the best kind of offbeat home. Livable, doable, not so odd that three people in the universe might actually move in.

On to this week’s featured architect:

SALA Architects are based in Minnesota; in Minneapolis, Excelsior, and Stillwater. Stillwater, by the way, is a town you have to visit if you happen to be in Minnesota (it’s slick).

SALA builds some really amazing structures and they can work with a green slant if a home buyer wishes. The best thing about SALA is what I mentioned above; SALA architects, for the most part, do not build average homes as in you stop and take another look but their homes aren’t so unaverage that you’d shun them as unlivable. A nice mix.

The Freeman House in River Falls, Wisconsin by Wayne Branum is striking.

This is one of my favorite SALA homes. I love when simplicity can draw you in like this and the home doesn’t overpower the landscape. Also, this home was built on a restricted budget so see… anyone can build beautiful. It is in River Falls which is where my in-laws live so I could never live in this specific home but I’d live in it elsewhere.

Now you really need to go see the last picture of The Freeman House home at the SALA website. The floor in this home is beautiful. However, and here is my SALA complaint; they have one of those wonky architect sites where you can’t bookmark specific pages. That’s a bummer because it makes it hard for me to make it easy for you to visit.

Still, their website is worth visiting. If you like to see the plans for this home visit the SALA Architects website, click on designers, click on Wayne Branum, and it’s the 4th house on his list.

See, now I always wonder why so many amazing architects have poorly designed websites. If I wanted to bookmark home ideas as a buyer I couldn’t do it — it’s not user friendly. However, this isn’t a web design 101 blog so I’ll leave it at that. In spite of the website I really do adore SALA so we’ll take a look at a couple more homes from them this week.

Until then I’m wondering about my original question — what does Offbeat mean to you. Do you only think homes underwater deserve the title? Is an all lavender home with red polka dots offbeat of merely the result of too much beer? Is beauty offbeat? Is small beyond belief or ugly offbeat?

I’m curious what the readers of Offbeat Homes think so let me know. Consider it some market research — just a dabble.

Post from: Blisstree

Featured Architect of the Week: SALA Architects

I most absolutely do not walk around talking about poop. No matter the composting benefits; no matter the, “It’s just a part of life” deal. I don’t discuss it — too often. That’s likely why I don’t own a dog. Too much poop business. And before you go saying, “Oh, but you had a baby — they poop and you deal!” Guess what my little uses the toilet now where as a dog; not usually.

Speaking of the child; my son Cedar joyfully discusses poop every chance he gets so he might love this house idea. Myself; I don’t know whether to be appalled or blown away by the sheer eco-genius that is the poop house.

What do you think?

Here’s the actual house:

The wit behind this structure are the design talents at Andrew Maynard Architects; noted for being newer innovators in structure form. I really adore the various Andrew Maynard structures that I’ve seen up to this point – -they’re always sort of awe-inspiring and offbeat. I hadn’t checked the website in a good long while and look what they come up with — livable poop. That’ll learn me to keep up.

Their theory behind this structure; no building is honestly green. They aren’t wrong. I think you can come pretty close but you can’t avoid leaving a footprint and you can’t avoid using some sort of energy — that may be simply loads of man power but still; heck you could be out cleaning up the planet instead of building if you want to get technical. But I digress.

So, hence the Poop House. Let’s hear from the designer’s site because I’m not going to tackle explaining this one:

“We decided that a house should build itself through a lengthy period of assembling house hold waste… the Poop house is a water structure that, over time, takes all household bio-waste, including human excrement and food, and slowly constructs the walls and roof.”

What you see above is the basic gist of how this home is going to create it’s own hard-like frame; I guess you’d call it. More from the actual Poop House pdf:

“Solid waste is delivered directly to the outer layer where the water is filtered out of the solids. Here the solids form a dense structural layer over time. A closed system has been formed so that minimal water is lost during usage and the recycling process. No closed system is perfect though, therefore water is lost through evaporation, spillage, human activity etc. Hence over a long period of time (around 20 years) the majority of the water will be lost, however a thick thermally efficient structural wall will remain, constructed of solid household waste.”

Visit Andrew Maynard Architects to learn more about and see more photos of this strange piece of work.

Would you live in a poop house… tell the truth now.

Post from: Blisstree

The Poop House