Michelle Kaufmann featured in Sierra Magazine
MICHELLE KAUFMANN BELIEVES THAT buying an environmentally friendly home should be as simple as ordering a pair of sneakers. Sitting at her laptop in her Oakland, California, office, the architect goes to the Nike Web site, chooses a shoe, and clicks a few buttons. Moments later her customized sneakers are ready for review: white with orange laces and an orange swoosh, the initials “MK” stitched on the tongue.
The process for ordering one of Kaufmann’s solar-ready, sustainably built, water- and energy-efficient modular homes isn’t that different. She offers three basic designs, each of which uses ecofriendly materials like bamboo flooring, recycled-glass tiles, and efficient dual-flush toilets. Clients choose a model, then Kaufmann meets with them to figure out the details and price. They can customize finishes, select the number of bedrooms and bathrooms, and decide whether to have the house fitted with solar panels. A few months after final permits have been granted, trucks roll up to the client’s building site and deliver the house in sections. It takes only a couple of hours to position the modules, and another four to six weeks to complete the finish work. The prefab model costs 20 percent less than an identical site-built house and takes a third less time to construct. All this is key to Kaufmann’s mission: making green architecture accessible to everyone. “People want to do the right thing,” she says, “but it has to be affordable.”
