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"Purpose: To develop a living unit that is flexible to serve changing needs in a family life cycle. The home serves the family instead of the family serving the home."

He has created a concept which allows someone the opportunity to stay within one structure that adapts to a changing life. He's also taken into consideration those unexpected turns that life can send you. Perhaps an adult child returns home to live with a parent to get back on their feet or maybe they become the parents' caretaker. This concept would give them an opportunity to share a structure yet have their own space. And after we retire, there's always a concern about income. His concept again allows for a retired couple to downsize within the same structure and receive an income from the portion they no longer live in.

If you're interested in learning more about his idea, you can contact him at rapel@directedlifestyle.com. The link to his patent information is here: http://www.freepatentsonline.com/7036276.html

2. Mark Larson and Jean Rehkamp Larson, Minneapolis based architecture team, want to help educate the general public about basic design. They would be interested in creating a magazine or perhaps an online blog or forum where 1-3 concepts could be explored at each publishing. Jean has said that it should be simple, perhaps a photograph with notes (maybe even hand written) pointing to the ideas within the photograph much like the way in which we redline a drawing. Although as architects we've studied design for years, the average homeowner hasn't and we have the unique ability to explain what makes two similar spaces feel and work completely different from each other. If you're interested in helping with the creation of this idea, you can contact them through their website at: http://rehkamplarson.com/

The best thing about these ideas was that Robert, Mark and Jean all wanted to share them with the design profession, not for selfish reasons but because they genuinely want to help our communities become stronger and believe that informed design solutions can help do that.

I hope that you'll consider contacting them directly, responding through the comment section of this blog or perhaps through the AIA forums or facebook pages.