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

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!