I love the Lighthouse Office, by L.A.-based design and build studio Knowhow Shop. It’s a microbuilding that looks like it was plucked from a mine.
Everything was designed and handmade by Kagan Taylor and Justin Rice, who founded the studio back in 2010 because they loved traditional craft, architecture, and digital design. They tell me via email that they could have never given this project to a regular contractor, so they had to build it themselves.
Made with structural insulated panels (SIPs) and joined with hardware borrowed from the film industry, the Lighthouse Office feels more like a high-end sailboat than a building.
The Lighthouse Office was a case study of sorts. Now, Taylor and Rice can develop similar designs for others–especially since many cities have relaxed laws around building backyard cottages, called accessory dwelling units, to ease the housing crisis. “We absolutely intend to build more of these for clients,” they say. They won’t look exactly the same, but they’ll hew to the same design language: a faceted form with the barest elements of architecture–a door, a window, and a skylight–each occupying full facades. “Within that language, there is room for a lot of different permutations,” they say.
I only know that I want one for myself, to work and even to sleep, as a peaceful cabin within a house. If you want one too, you can find Taylor and Rice here.
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