Archinect - News

This company lets you build your dream A-frame for less than $2k

2019-06-10T13:52:00-04:00

All the blueprints and material specifications needed to put it together are included in a cardboard box. They come both on a flash drive in PDF format and printed on 36-by-24-inch sheets. The company says that the package also includes reading materials about the house, discount codes to build some of the stuff you need at providers all around the United States, as well as a door knob, a hammer, and a hat with the company logo.

A company that once sold designer trailer homes switched gears after a stalled venture to focus their attention on helping homeowners design their ideal A-frame cabin. For how much you ask? $1,950. As ideal as that sounds, one may be waiting for the catch. However, when Everywhere Inc.'s co-founder Brand Winnie left his tech job in Silicon Valley, he and his wife created Ayfraym. According to Winnie, the inspiration for creating Ayfraym came from his childhood upbringing.

Ayfraym. Image © Everywhere Inc.

"Growing up as a kid, I would always travel to our cabin that my grandpa Fred built in the ’70s,” Winnie says. “It’s up near the Tetons on the border of Idaho and Wyoming, and it’s one of my favorite places on Earth. The cabin my grandfather built was the base camp for all things adventure in the region, and it’s created some of my best memories."

If a family wanted to build a cabin similar to Ayfraym, they would have to spend tens of thousands of dollars to plan out the project in a...

Nonscandinavia: an open-source, image collection for the rest of the world

2015-10-27T19:22:00-04:00

We believe that renderings reflect our aspirations as architects, and that our decisions about representation matter. Renderings should reflect the people in and around the site, and should project a future that values diversity and acceptance of all people. The goal of NONSCANDINAVIA is to give young architects and students access to a database of free, high-res, PNG images that reflect diversity in all its forms.

The world of architectural renders is a strange place. Here, the air is hazy yet skies are blue. Trees grow translucent and lawns are always green. Buildings are illuminated by perhaps two or three suns. Little girls roam cultural centers alone, clutching red balloons.

And just about everyone is a young, white, hipster from Northern Europe.

Thankfully, life in most cities isn't like this. And, while there's much to be said about the problematic overuse of architectural renders in general, it seems like they're here to stay (at least for the time being). A render can help sell a project, conveying a space much more eloquently to a lay person than a plan or axo – if not more factually. But that doesn't mean that these imaginary worlds have to be so homogenous.

Nonscandinavia, a project from the student group A-Frame at Columbia University GSAPP, comprises a open-source collection of hi-res PNG images, "dedicated to increasing diversity in architectural representation." As the name sugges...