How did Michelle Kaufmann, AIA, LEED AP, go from designing titanium-clad museums to modular homes? The answer is more straightforward than many might think. “Most people would look at our work and say, This is nothing like Frank Gehry,” she says. “But I learned so much working there.”
Over her five years as an associate in Gehry’s office, she noticed that the most successful projects were the ones on which the contractors and the architects collaborated the most closely. “We worked together to figure out the best way of building,” she says. “So even though it’s not a design/build company per se, it gave me the experience of a similar process.”
Plus, she adds, many pieces of Gehry’s buildings are actually CNC-milled and prefabricated—the better to attain their curvy shapes. “A lot of times, ribs or entire curved panels were made off site,” she says. “Most of his buildings have a significant amount of prefab.”
Enough, it seems, to help a creative young architect start thinking about other ways prefab technology could be put to use.
