When we collaborate with different designers, one of the things that I always look for is to
be challenged, to work with people who have a lot of experience and could challenge us
and that's where we learn new things and that's where we get better at our skill and our craft.
I'm Greg Buchbinder, I'm the owner of Emeco and this project is Emeco House.
We're in Venice Beach, we have a lot of other creatives around us, photographers,
filmmakers, artists, designers, it's a very fun area to be in.
So Emeco began in 1944, they made chairs for Navy ships and submarines, they made aluminum
chairs and aluminum chairs were perfect for the application, they were weatherproof,
they were fireproof, they were lightweight for the ships, today we make furniture that
is made from waste material and and our goal is to do things that will have a long life.
The Emeco Factory is in Hanover Pennsylvania, which is quite a long way away from where I live,
I grew up in California and I spend most of my time out here.
This location was unique and special because it allows us to have a place, we can have a studio,
we could work, we could do things and also a place that you can live so it's a live/work location.
It was built in 1941, the front area was actually used for a sewing shop and there's
two entrances one from the back one from the front that serviced at the time two individual
apartments, David actually combined it so there's two separate living areas and one
common area that is a shared area which is the kitchen, the living room and and the balcony.
All of the ceilings when we first found this location had really
ugly insulated panels and we took out all of that and exposed the beams, they're absolutely
beautiful, it's beautiful wood then we added a few skylights, the main purpose for that is to
let hot air evacuate and then we thought well with a skylight we can grow a plant up through
the building, and it gives us something to share with the people that are in the house, if you're
in the bathroom you'll be able to look out and see this giant cactus growing up through the centre of
the building. We wanted the plants to surround us as much as possible, there's something about
live plants that make you feel healthy, make you feel like things are good and it's all organic.
So the palette of materials was quite simple, fewer better things, no toxins,
the lime plaster for the walls is just an amazing material, the way the light kind of soaks up into
this and it's a material that actually sequesters carbon, but behind that material is plywood, we use
the ash for the floors because we know it's going to be here for ever, it works well it's strong
it's solid, downstairs floors we just grinded the concrete down and that's our floor surface and the
timber we use for the balcony was Douglas Fir, that was part of the motivation is again, select
materials that are going to have the longest life possible. We chose David Saik as the architect
because his attention to detail is amazing, so you know the handles on the windows David designed,
the toilet paper roll David designed, David in the architecture wanted some of the furniture
to be part of the architecture, the bench up in the front window again, that same idea of having
something that's permanent, it will stay, it's nice to have things that stay the same. It took
us five years to complete this project from start to finish, to me I'm most proud of the discipline
and the process and and the ability to really stay focused, stay on task and then I guess what makes
my heart swell is the mailbox, that's our signage, it's very small, very simple but if you look at
it it's just beautiful craftsmanship. You know the notion of legacy for me is is an important
one and I know this architecture, this building, this structure, there'll be stories as we as we
do things and we as we live here and those stories will stay with this building long after I'm gone.