Prefab gem ‘Aluminaire House’ is finally moving to Palm Springs

Remember Aluminaire House, the granddaddy of modernist prefabs that was supposed to travel to Palm Springs, California after failing to find a permanent home in New York (where it was first assembled as an installation the 1930s)? Well, two years after the move was finalized, it’s now actually happening. Today, in fact. February 9. That is, unless it got stopped by the monster snowstorm hitting the Northeast.

Anyway, designed by architects Albert Frey and A. Lawrence Kocher, the roughly 1,200-square-foot cubic abode spread five rooms over three levels. Made of steel and aluminum, the spare structure embodies the modernist ethos of affordable materials and simple construction.

Jenosale/Flickr

When it (read: disassembled parts packed into a tractor-trailer) leaves storage and completes the some 2,700-mile trip to Palm Springs, the truck will be on show as part of Palm Springs Modernism Week, the SoCal desert paradise’s annual toast to modernist architecture. There, it will be right at home, with plenty of Albert Frey gems close by.

The plan is to assemble the Aluminaire House in a new park that should be completed within the next year or two and then open it up to the public. According to Dezeen, the Aluminaire House Foundation also trying to get the home on the National Register of Historic Places. In the meantime, you can add it to your list of Palm Springs must-sees.

Via: Dezeen