Paul Stankey and Sarah Nordby are both architects. Paul is a founding member and partner of hiveMODULAR, a Minneapolis-based building and design firm which specializes in the modern prefabricated home. This structure serves as the model for the B-Line Series, while also being home to Paul and Sarah. It is always an honor to work with people whose appreciation for design is large and open, and thus, it's not that surprising that with Paul and Sarah's inspiration, we achieved some design firsts.
Like most urban projects, Paul and Sarah's small lot size was a major issue. Because the plan needed to include a driveway large enough to house two parked cars, we developed a concept that allows the space to function as both a patio and a place to park vehicles. We poured a grid of four-foot by four-foot squares of high volume fly ash concrete across the area, placing four-inch strips of grass between the squares to soften hard edges and help blur the lines between driveway and patio. We utilized a fence as an opportunity to rise to the high bar set by hiveModular's architecture, designing what we believe to be the first Gabion fence. Steel baskets filled with field stone, Gabions are typically used along river banks to help control erosion. We saw the organic shape of the stones, resting behind the perfect grid of steel mesh, as the ultimate expression of man's imprint on nature - an intersection that we explore daily.
The industrial tone of the house, its proximity to the formerly industrial span of the Mississippi River, and the industrial tone of the landscape all work together to create what we consider one of our favorite projects to date. We've had the honor of working on more hiveMODULAR homes since, and look forward to doing more work with the firm in the future!
After completeing our work, we made a short documentary video that we used as an invitation to an open house we had a couple years ago. We enjoyed making it and got some attention in the Blogosphere from marketing guru Seth Godin, amongst others, for our unique use of Youtube. Check it out!
