If It's Hip, It's Here (Archives)

Small, modular, enclosed, insulated, wired, outfitted pods or sheds offer a great alternative to leasing or building office space and are becoming more and more popular these days. Usually more energy efficient and often made from eco-friendly materials, there are several design firms and manufacturers offering various sized pre-fabricated self contained buildings to lease or own.

The UK alone has several, and today I'm sharing three of those with you; OfficePOD, Garden Lodges and The Roosts. For those in the US, there's the kitHaus as well as several other pre-fab and modular sheds, homes and office spaces about which I've blogged before.

First up is a recent addition. A small but mod space to call your own- at least in the UK and Europe.

1. The Office Pod

The OfficePOD measures 2.1m x 2.1m (that's 6 feet 9 inches square) and does not require planning consent in the greater majority of cases. It's modular design enables speedy construction even in gardens with the most difficult access. The POD has been designed to provide appropriate security when empty or occupied.

The OfficePOD provides the user with an efficient use of space with innovative storage and desktop solutions.

High quality materials were carefully chosen for their combination of visual, physical and environmental characteristics. Power is provided via a discrete and protected connection to the house or garage; IT and phone connectivity is generally wireless but can be similarly cabled. The POD is provided with a secure locking system of the highest quality.

The preview of the Office POD at Grand Designs Live, a consumer show for design and innovation had people buzzing about the POD. One interesting outcome from their consumer market testing at the show is that they are now selling PODs to small home-based businesses and individuals. This is in addition to their core offering of the flexible leasing and service agreement model preferred by larger organizations.

Not available in North America. At least not yet.
all images courtesy of OfficePOD
Learn more here.

2. Garden Lodges
Need a little bigger space? Garden Lodges® of the UK makes garden offices and studios available for lease that are also fully insulated and complete with integral electrics for power and lighting and can be used as work studios, gyms, gameing rooms or music studios.

Learn about the available sizes as well as other models here.
all images and info courtesy of Garden Lodges

3, 4, and 5. TheRoosts

Roost is another UK company that makes three different modules, the R1 Oval, The R2 Aluminium, and the R3 Stealth. They also offer a bespoke service that is all about working with you and adapting their designs to suit your needs.

Below are their three 'off the rack' models.

R1 - Oval:

Clad in red western cedar with a fully low-e glazed frontage and sedum roof this striking oval roost is our signature piece, and it’s not difficult to see why. Unlike anything else on the market, it can be fitted out with a sofa, ottoman (which pushed together becomes a double bed) and desk to form an unbelievably versatile space. Simply the coolest garden studio around.

R2 - Aluminium:

For the ultimate in micro-living, this fully insulated, aluminium clad roost cleverly includes a micro-kitchen, shower, loo and living area with more than enough space to fit a sofa-bed. Perfect for an office or guest accommodation this multi-functional space measures in at a neat 2.8 x 4.5m. Cedar cladding also available.

R3- Stealth:

"The brief for the Stealth was pretty simple...To create a space within the parameters of a small garden that would exploit the northern light. The slightly unusual shape of the garden leant itself to something angular and immediately conjured up images of ‘stealth’ technology, whereby the multi-angled surfaces on airplanes, boats and other vehicles make them virtually invisible to enemy radar. With those initial ideas in mind, I took the two-dimensional plan of the garden and expanded it in to three dimensions. The result was a studio with a series of angular sides, all of which are mirrored on the inside by the sloping panelled walls." --Roost designer, Ben Huggins on the Stealth pod

all images and info courtesy of Roost.

6. kitHAUS

For those of us in the US, there's a wonderful selection from kitHAUS. Their modern modules by designers and co-founders Tom Sandanato and Martin Wehamm are available in various sizes, with aluminum construction impervious to rust (can also be clad in IPE wood) and are pre-constructed and drilled at the factory for easy installation.

kitHauses 1 and 2 can be combined and configured in many various ways, below is an example of K1B +K2L + K2B which equals 768 square feet:

K1 (289 square feet):

K2 (289 square feet):

Models K3 and K4 are available exclusively at Design Within Reach

K3 (117 square feet):

K4 (187 square feet)

To inquire about KitHAUS 1 and 2, please contact them directly here. The smaller Kithaus K3 ranges in price from $32,450 to $49,390, while the larger K4 model starts at $32,450 and can be outfitted with a full kitchen and/or bath. Kithaus is available exclusively through Design Within Reach. For more information or to place an order, please contact Dow O’Neal, Contract Sales Manager, at 415.676.6648 or kithaus@dwr.com.

In the past, I've blogged about other great examples, be sure to see the posts below!

7. The Orb

8. Neoshed

9. weeHouses

10. Pinc House Scandanavian prefabs

One of my personal favorite writers and film directors, Wes Anderson, who directed Rushmore and Bottle Rocket and wrote The Royal Tenenbaums, has reinterpreted the Roald Dahl classic (along with Noah Baumbach), the Fantastic Mr. Fox, into a stop motion animated movie set to be released in the US on November 13th, 2009. There is to be a premiere in London in October.

Here's the first released trailer from the 20th Century Fox movie which has just been completed And later in this post are over 30 amazing stills from the movie.

The voice cast includes Willem Dafoe, Meryl Streep, George Clooney, Anjelica Huston, Brian Cox, Owen Wilson, Jason Schwartzman, Adrien Brody, and Bill Murray, who is perfect as a lovable badger in a suit. Even Chef Mario Batali voices the Rabbit.

A synopsis of the film from IMDB:
"Boggis and Bunce and Bean, One short, one fat, one lean. These horrible crooks, so different in looks, were nonetheless equally mean."

Mr. Fox, Mrs. Fox, and all their fox babies live under a hill under a tree, along with Badger, Rabbit, Weasel, and all of their families. To make ends meet, every night, Mr. Fox steals a meal from one of the three crooked farmers--Boggis, a chicken farmer, Bunce, who has a little bit of everything but only eats duck liver, and Bean, who farms turkeys and apples and subsists solely on apple cider. With his keen sense of smell, and the farmers' distinctive diets, Mr. Fox has no problem evading them.

After so much treatment, the greedy farmers band together to end Mr. Fox. They ambush him at the base of his hole in the hill, and while Mr. Fox survives, his tail does not. Thus begins an obsession on the part of the farmers. They first try to dig the foxes out, but they are outdug by eight sets of paws. Then, they move to starving them out. This is unfortunate, as no other creatures living under the hill (though now more of a valley; a bulldozer was involved at one point) can get out, either. Mr. Fox is not a very popular figure until he chances across the idea of digging under the farmhouses...

I've got a bunch a wonderful brand spankin new stills for you:

All images are © 2009 20th Century Fox and courtesy of The Rushmore Academy

The official site has a great gallery that includes a lot of behind the scene images like these:

so, be sure to check that out here.

A foxtail necktie handed out at Comic-Con 2009 to promote The Fantastic Mr. Fox.:

For those of you with children, a new version of the classic book has been released with images from the movie. You can pre-order it now.

Or, if you prefer, you can choose from classic editions of Fantastic Mr. Fox books and audio tapes here.