New Orleans' Lower 9th Ward rebuilding effort, Make It Right, has a lot star power associated with it, including Brad Pitt and William McDonough. One recently completed home was designed by one of the biggest starchitects around, Frank Gehry. But you won't see any curvy titanium panels on this home — instead, it's adorned with pink and purple fiber cement siding.
The duplex is pink on one half, purple on the other. The pastel colored siding not only offers a cheerful facade, but it's functional, too. Cement fiberboard siding is fire, rot, insect and decay resistant, low maintaince, and made of recycled materials. In fact, according to the LA Times, the colors were chosen by the owners, not Gehry. Gehry did state, "I wanted to make a house that I would like to live in and one that responded to the history, vernacular and climate of New Orleans. I love the colors that the homeowner chose. I could not have done it better."
In addition to the siding, other eco-friendly elements incorporated into the Make It Right design include covered porches, cross-ventilation, photovoltaic solar panels, a metal roof, energy-efficient window units, no-VOC paints, and finishes with recycled content.
via Treehugger, DesignBoom
MORE MAKE IT RIGHT POSTS ON APARTMENT THERAPY:
• Brad Pitt says: Make it Right
• Make It Right with Brad Pitt
• Make It Right: First Brad Pitt Homes Completed in New Orleans
• Make It Right's Affordable LEED Platinum Tips
(Images: Chad Chenier Photography / Make It Right)
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One of my all time favorite architectural details is staircases on the outside of homes, so this gets a huge thumbs up from me.
Not Frank at his best.
Not a fan of the pastel colors but love the idea. I too like the outside staircase and the solar panels. Yup...thumbs up.
I'd be psyched to live here! well done!
my only complaint - no photos of the inside.
Yeah… okay I love this house!
LOVE!!!
Love this - it's clean and efficient, but it looks like it would fit right in in New Orleans.
The title of this should have been "Gehry designs a house for Barbie". :)
Although I really like the exterior of the house, the interior is very much "contractor-special".
I am not sure if Gehry had any say in it, but with the same budget someone could have done a much better job with the interior space. Such a disappointment.
Never liked pink, but in New Orleans at least it kind of belongs...
I'd like to see the inside, even if it's "contractor special". These eco-friendly low-cost houses are a marvelous thing, and I'm sure the functionality is there even if the high end finishes are not. I'm curious about the layout.
I like the house, except for the colours. I would have a hard time deciding which one is worse, the sugary pink or the overdone mauve?
Otherwise, thumbs up. I'd like to see the inside.
I saw this somewhere else and the general consensus was that those solar panels would go flying in a serious hurricane. But I've never seen any details on how they are connected and so forth.
I'm curious to see if anyone lives in those houses. We were in New Orleans last year and at that point, no one was buying the houses. We were told that they were just too expensive for anyone who had lived in the lower 9th and wanted to come back.
Susan, I don't know where you got your information, but I'm pretty sure it was wrong. I live in New Orleans and drive past the Make It Right houses every day on my way to and from work. They are definitely inhabited, and they were last year, too.
For the people complaining about color, bright house colors are quite common here. These colors are more muted than some of the hues in the Make It Right collection.
Those houses look awesome and the colors will fit right in with the rest of New Orleans, I'm sure. I love brightly colored homes. I'm from SF and we love our candy colored houses.
Charming. Would love to see interior photos, too.
The solar panels are magnificent.
I love the look of this house - modern, but still New Orleans appropriate. The siding is neat, too - so versatile! There are so many colors and finishes if candy pink and lilac aren't for you...
Why do you suppose they put up a solid wall of siding instead of rails around the porches? With the deep overhang, I would think it would make the interiors rather dark. They also look too tall to see over if you are seated so I would not be inclined to spend cooler evenings rocking on the porch if the only view is a blank wall.
Awesome!