THE PATENT!
The Snug
snəɡ: comfortable and well protected from the weather; close-fitting; providing a position of contentment.
In 2021 I applied for a patent for the Poche framing system. Four years later, much to my surprise, the patent was granted. It was intended for small houses. But something happened between February 2021 and February 2025. Tragedies. My son died. Then my husband and mate of 45 years died. For anyone who has experienced this sort of personal loss, you know that it ungrounds you in unimaginable ways. This happened to the Poche framing system. It became detached from the house and floated in a creative ether where the following conversation materialized:
ml: I keep thinking about a Snug.
You: What’s that?
ml: A super small place. You will not easily fit furniture into the Snug.
You: What do we use it for?
ml: You will BE in the Snug.
You: What?
ml: Doing nothing.
You: Why?
ml: Because you can.
You: hmmm, What a waste.
ml: Maybe. But here is the thing: When you do nothing in a space that is made for doing nothing, something happens. Time slows. And you begin to notice everything that goes on in nothing.
You: So what?
ml: You feel different, serene. For no reason at all.
You: Huh?
ml: You go into the Snug once.
You: And?
ml: Nothing, but you decide to give it a second chance. And you notice maybe, just maybe you do feel different. So you try it again.
TIMELINE
February 18, 2025: USPTO patent #12227946 Issued to Inventor ml Robles
2025:
- Q1: Design Development
-snug materials
-snug context: land
+build up twig structures
+garden/tree possibilities
- Q1&2: Build a Snug and Document the process
-get investor and build on ml’s land
-accept a client and build on their land
- Q3&4: Market the Snug
-to resorts, getaways etc. as guest amenity
-to private clients
-to exclusive developments as unique amenity for their residents
-to public urban context (library, convention center, any public area with a secured outdoor space).
- Q3&4: Build Snugs
-document the stories of doing nothing
-document the stories of serene
The dialogue continues..
You: what’s your competition and how does Snug stack up against it….Sauna? Unused bedroom? Lounge chair in living room, on beach, etc.?
ml: Beautiful understanding of what the Snug is. Yes, all the aforementioned qualify as Snug moments. One vital part of the Snug is that it will be set in nature, however that needs to be established given the setting (backyard versus public park versus retreat setting)
You: the obvious elephant in the room is creating the demand for it – that doing nothing/sereness is something we want, AND getting/doing that in a dedicated space is the best/only(?) way to get it.
ml: most excellent point. which is why the previous short narrative does not make any assertions. there is insurmountable evidence from health and wellbeing to performance and evolution; using science and philosophy and spirituality to assert the value of being at peace. It is one of those: will know it when I see it moments. I came to know it through architecture, i think you experienced it at the EOM projects we visited in Culver City. Slow architecture. The Snug is inserting itself into that context as a threshold. a slice of space modulating inside and outside by provoking the experience of nothing.
ml: the most curious part of this Snug proposal is that those who are ready for it will show up, everything else is irrelevant. what a wild business approach!!
You: …. = “build it & they will come!”
Kit of Place: coming soon!
The Poche_Truss’s patent is soon to be certified! This means that… finally, the Poche_Truss framing system can be available to the public. Currently you can only use the Poche_Truss through Studio Points, Soon, you will be able to purchase one of the Kit of Place plans and get access to the Poche_Truss framing system for that build. Yes, the old Sears house plans-for-sale repurposed to bring you 21st century living. So what is Kit of Place versus the Sears House Kits that were sold last century?
For one flat fee, the Kit of Place makes it easy to get an extraordinary small place by providing you options for bespoke design of light filled high performing spaces that aim for joy. The mass market options are neither bespoke nor high performing. Aren’t we tired of being stressed and beholden to our stuff and to environmental shifts that threaten our comfort? We are offering small houses and spaces so that you can finally exhale and enjoy life. With Accessory Dwellings becoming more common (these are small houses in backyards of existing houses) and many folks retreating to nature and rural areas, building a high performing small house or getaway is the perfect way to find your joy.
Sign up for this newsletter to follow the process as we set up shop for the Kit of Place to begin its offerings. If you want your high performing small house or getaway now, you are welcome to contact Studio Points for more information.
Outside the Studio: what about affordability?
As we struggle with affordability in housing construction, the Poche_Truss brings a modestly priced framing option to the table that significantly reduces material cost and installation time plus it sets up a super preforming building envelope. The challenge, however, to retain affordability throughout the entire construction, lands on minimizing complexity and, quite frankly, plucking housing out of the custom build business model that is emulating commercial GC construction instead of master builder construction. Master builder, that is how houses used to be built.
Here is how we are minimizing complexity: we are pulling the Poche_Truss projects increasingly into manufactured components (of which the Poche_Truss is one) and using flat-pack (such as IKEA kitchens) and off-the-shelf build out options (such as lumber yard interior panels). We are not, however, reducing complexity by creating generic boxes. That is the beauty of the Poche_Truss, we can custom shape space and form at no upcharge.
Plucking housing out of the current residential GC business model, turns out, comes right along with those same minimizing strategies, for you see, they all align with a more direct connection to the provider. Eliminating the middle man markup is like farm to table food. There are not many of us architects and industry professionals still practicing who worked in the master builder world. We want to align providers directly to the work.
As I have shared in previous posts, thinking beyond a GC model of building has been a learning curve. But not one I will leave as I find it. For you see, my work has always answered to the highest calling of my profession: create beauty. And beauty is inherently equalizing, because when you have the craft persons doing what they specialize in, everyone is a master. We are working hard to learn our lessons on this first build with the Poche_Truss framing system and to assemble our team of masters. With a goal of putting modest affordable houses smack into the crosshairs of a Heck Yea! project, we are preparing to help people find their joy.
Outside the Studio: top this
I stopped by the ADU jobsite and hung in delight. The folded roof was underway and it was… in fact, being folded! I must admit I was struggling with the small constructions world. Like the little engine that could, however, this project shot forth on the wings of the roof.
What’s not to love, right? It is elegant and efficient. And there is nothing as satisfying as watching craftsmen at work. This is just a small (684sf) house on a dead-end alley behind a main house, making its way to manifesting the possibility of Poche_Truss to create beauty.
Outside the Studio: the Poche_Truss in today’s building culture
My work has historically brought pleasure, whether it’s the joy of being seen in design, the excitement of building something new, or the awe at the realization of transformative simple moves. The joy during construction was, I thought, a natural extension of all this. But there is something going on outside the studio that is distracting the work. It has to do with the curious character of our current economy. It is so well camouflaged that is has taken me a handful of years to see it. COVID amped it up. Many of us see the ‘tip’ request when we are just fetching a loaf of bread at the counter; we also see obscure ‘fees’ added to our dinner bill. I was recently advised by my doctor’s office that in addition to the doctor visit, I would incur a ‘facility fee’ for use of the facility. What? As opposed to meeting my doctor in a park or at the coffee shop?! But here is where it came to me, clear as day, it was on social media:
Post: Recently moved to town ISO work. Don’t have much experience, any leads appreciated.
Reply: there are lots of opportunities on the Workforce site and people often post here for handymen and gardening. Also, most restaurants are looking for help.
Post: Not for me. I want to work remote and set my own hours and I am not sure those other jobs will pay enough.
Reply: sooo you do not really want to work but you want to be paid well?
There it was, in black and white, as clear as could be. The Poster unabashedly agreed with Reply. Hot dang! THIS is what I have been unable to see! I had suspected that this thinking was due to the COVID help that gave so many the opportunity to experience getting paid to do nothing (I now see that the tech saavy had figured this out long ago). I thought this would subside and we’d all get back to work. In my case…to the joy of work. But it’s not happening. I was slow on the uptake of the seismic shift! It makes sense that big money has piled into manufactured and 3-D printed houses. These are higher paying ‘tech’ jobs. And although plumbers and electricians still hold control over their realms, the framer and general builders are out of that pay track. Instead, I am finding that they restructured to extract as much money in as many ways possible (much like those ‘tips’ and ‘fees’ strategies), crushing the capacity for working people to build their small houses and ADUs.
During the years that the Poche_Truss swirled around in my mind, I very much considered the economy. The single family property owner and the framer and small builder were always in my sights. Low-tech was my solution to high-tech. I also considered the other multitudes of factors and details. NOTHING leaves my studio half baked. But, truth be told, nothing in my beautifully executed bespoke house career had prepared me for the character of our current construction industry. My long-time structural engineer was alarmingly direct in his observations. When I took my rocket engineer brother to a job site and he openly gasped at the work, my mind conceded: they also see it …
One of my former CU students (who is now a successful international developer) took a tour of one of my projects, he simply smiled at the learning curve I find myself in. He, more than most, knows what drives my work: Rigor, Attention, Beauty. I know that it all adds up because, regardless of the stage of the work, it takes rigorous attention to create beauty. Good design is like that. The Poche_Truss is an intelligent building system, fully capable of inspiring great work. But I do have to ask myself, what must be reconsidered in order to inspire beautiful execution in today’s building culture?
Photo credit: ALPINE MODERN Issue-06
Outside the Studio: the next intelligence
The building shedding water, without any fascia or soffits or added detail. Heck Yea!
On the one hand, one does not go into new building territory alone, it takes the entire construction village. On the other hand, however, the folks working from the outside didn’t have a dream that was burned into the back of their eyes for years. Then there is that surreal moment when that dream begins to take form. I scanned the surroundings in that moment and saw the village, hard at work doing their jobs. We hadn’t really invented anything, these are trusses after all, as old as 2X construction, and yet, the effect of the Poche_Truss system is beginning to trickle.
I met the fire suspension provider on site. And then I met the mechanical contractor. Both nodded thoughtfully as they saw that their job would be easy peezy without having to drill through walls to get their lines in. as everything is open and accessible in a truss. Like cogs catching each other as the wheels begin to turn, I can see the next intelligence of this system coming to bear. This is the part of my Poche_Truss dream that most relieved my impatience with stick framing. For you see, the mundane complex world of squishing and threading the mechanical and electrical systems through holes in the walls and ceilings had always found me biting my lips. It seemed so barbaric to massacre the lumber with holes holes holes to allow these utilities to serve. Even as I showed the Poche_Truss to a Passive Haus designer, he tried to talk me into an interior furred-out layer “to hold the utilities”. What is it about the familiar that makes it impossible to see it?
We might not have invented anything totally new, but we have vastly expanded the scope of a truss’s functionality. And although our Poche_Truss introduction video explains the conceptual intelligences; this build is revealing the experiential intelligences. The ones that those physically engaging the structure are finding joy in. I think that is intelligence worthy of not only a patent, but of our attention.
Outside the Studio: We have the proof of concept!!
It wasn’t that I was holding my breath as the first Poche_Truss was erected, after all there had been a line of folks giving it the thumbs up. It was more a suspension of breath. THIS is how we break through into new territory, we do it by not breaking at all but rather by walking through the familiar front door, but with new information.
Trusses were delivered Wednesday and installation took around 8-10 hours. We have the proof of concept build!
19’x36′ ADU in a backyard: 19 trusses, 8-10 hours to frame the whole house… truss cost (minus framed headers, trimmers, and end walls) $5,730.
The thinking was always that we slip into the existing truss process, familiar, easy, cost effective, except that now we were framing EVERYTHING. It wasn’t hard, there were small learning moments, and it was so poetic! Kudos to Josh Mitchell and his team, they were brilliant.
Outside the Studio
Sometime in 2018 I was sitting in the sunroom at Red Wing, sketchbook in hand as I rolled a recurring thought around and around in my mind. The first sketches came out and as I considered what I was thinking I kept applying more and more criteria to it.. could this shape itself to regional environments…could this deal with roof drainage in an elegant manner …could this form itself to superior interior spaces.?.?.?
I recently read this: if aeroplanes were put into production in the manner of buildings, they would not fly. In my mind’s eye, architecture can soar. My thoughts as I continue to develop the Poche_Truss with the Brooks ADU under construction, fresh off the factory floor..
Outside the Studio
As Architects we see those things that are not yet built or imagined. I have been seeing the Poche_Truss for over six years. First as potential: why can’t we build trusses that include the walls and the roof?? Think of all the time and material we could save! And we wouldn’t be restricted to boxes in a prefab world! And so it went, touching down with engineers, patent attorneys, mentors, fabricators… and the courageous and generous clients. The Brooks ADU has landed in the capable hands of Josh Mitchell, and in a small backyard off a dead-end alley in Boulder, the first Poche_Truss is under construction!