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Steve Jobs to Build 'The iPhone of Houses'

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Apr 12, 2001
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Gizmodo reports on the plans for Apple CEO Steve Jobs' new house in Woodside, California, to be built on the site of a mansion Jobs purchased back in 1984. That mansion, which had been built in the 1920s by copper magnate Daniel Jackling, had been the subject of a contentious dispute between Jobs and preservationists, with Jobs ultimately winning the right to tear down the residence and build his new home.

Jobs' new house is surprisingly modest in size and sparsely designed for someone of his wealth, measuring in at under 5,000 square feet with a detached three-car garage.
Efficient with economical with space? An unflinching devotion to practicality? The distinct lack of garish bells and whistles? Sound familiar? In an age where architect and design firms are just starting to apply to Apple's design principles to the building of homes, Steve Jobs has gone and designed the iPhone of houses.
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The house design is a product of architecture firm Bohlin Cywinski Jackson, the same group that has been behind most of Apple's key retail stores, and the restrained result of their work suggests that Jobs offered a firm directive about his vision for the house.
If anything, the conceptual plans submitted to the Woodside Town Council depict more of a small, private retreat than any towering glass-and-steel tech chapel or totem of wealth. According to these initial designs, Jobs intends to populate the 6 acres with an assortment of indigenous flora; a simple three-car garage; a modest 5 bedroom home with plenty of windows and decks; a network of lighted stone walkways; and even a private vegetable garden. Everything is neat, tight, pragmatic, and in its place.
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The design is reportedly not final, as the published version was submitted to town officials early on as part of a legal agreement to justify the tearing down of the existing residence, and Jobs is expected to file a completed set of drawings for approval prior to construction, a process that is estimated to take 22 months including the razing of the existing structure.


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Article Link: Steve Jobs to Build 'The iPhone of Houses'
 
Article Link
https://www.macrumors.com/2010/09/28/steve-jobs-to-build-the-iphone-of-houses/
Oh i'm sure there will be LOTS of technology in the house.

I bet he'll be able to control everything via an app on his iPhone.

The house itself doesn't need to be HUGE. He can still apply a lot of technology into the house making it worth millions!
 
Is this the iHouse prototype? :p

I personally like it. It is simple, and I'll admit, I thought Steve would go lavish. I love the touch with the veggie garden. Tomatoes and spices galore, I say. It sounds like he's going to retire there, and that he's really going for the "retreat" feel.

Applause, even if it means taking down a 1920's mansion. Not everything can be saved forever. It'll exist in memory. What's the point of saving old buildings that won't be used? So they can be cleaned and saved for no one? For people to look at once and leave? Better use of the land. It had its time, and now it's passed.

Make way for Jobso.
 
TheNewDude said:
Oh i'm sure there will be LOTS of technology in the house.

I bet he'll be able to control everything via an app on his iPhone.

The house itself doesn't need to be HUGE. He can still apply a lot of technology into the house making it worth millions!
Click to expand...

I don't think so -- yes it will have updated technologies, probably for energy efficiency. Jobs is not Bill Gates. He went for simple and clean and sometimes technology can muddle that goal.
 
Maybe when his house is all put together, he'll realize that the next AppleTV should be more like Windows Media Center, with dual ATSC tuners, DVR capability, and expandable storage space. That's the only thing tainting my beautiful almost-all-Apple home network.
 
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I love it. This is similar to the house I'd build if I had his money. I don't get the appeal of a 40 room palace. If I wouldn't use it, I don't want it. This is simple, elegant, and spacious enough for ample comfort.

Now hopefully these pretty town bureaucrats approve this in short order and then get back to their usual important functions, like telling people what colors they can paint their mailboxes.
 
The house is a little bigger than those drawings depict, as there are stairs leading to a downstairs that is not shown. Probably to the 5th bedroom that is mentioned, likely a downstairs guest room of sorts or something.

Agree with everyone else though. Simple, not over the top. I like.
 
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OllyW said:
QCassidy352 said:
Now hopefully these pretty town bureaucrats approve this in short order and then get back to their usual important functions, like telling people what colors they can paint their mailboxes.
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It that an iPhone autospell or are they really good looking. :D
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The former :eek:
 
QCassidy352 said:
In an age where architect and design firms are just starting to apply to Apple's design principles to the building of homes, Steve Jobs has gone and designed the iPhone of houses.
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WTH? Whoever wrote this clearly doesn't have any idea about what has been going on in architecture in, oh, the past 150 years. I met Peter Bohlin last year and we got to talking about his design strategies. He's been doing similar work throughout his career, even before BCJ (then Bohlin Powell) was founded in 1965. Check out Japanese architecture from the past 1,500 years.

As an architecture major and architectural history minor I find this comment to be Jobs-worship. Thinking that nobody else could come up with the concept of a simple and sophisticated design is just asinine.

My rant aside, I love the floor plan and can't wait to see some elevations/perspectives. Go BCJ!

Also, on a side note, BCJ is the firm that designed Bill Gates' house...
 
tayloner182 said:
The house is a little bigger than those drawings depict, as there are stairs leading to a downstairs that is not shown. Probably to the 5th bedroom that is mentioned, likely a downstairs guest room of sorts or something.

Agree with everyone else though. Simple, not over the top. I like.
Click to expand...

I like, too. I noticed the stairway leading downward as well. Could be a guest room or workout/fitness room.

In addition, I would wager that there will be a small server room/alcove down there: a Mac mini or Mac Pro server (mini is more likely), with a couple of external hard drives (Drobo, perhaps?), wired to the latest AEBS and positioned directly underneath the living room. This would allow running Ethernet up to the living room TV, equipped of course with the new :apple:tv. That provides a solid Gigabit connection for streaming movies, and plenty of WiFi bandwidth for the master suite. An AirPort Express, set to Bridge mode, will likely be placed near the three smaller bedrooms for better Wi-Fi coverage at that end of the house.
 
Having been into Jobs NYC apartment before it got sold to Bono, this is about the type of design I would expect. Clean, efficient, stark. Wonder if it will have black granite floors throughout, like his NYC abode did, with every outdoor surface being heated.
 
this is one of the worst titles for a story I have read. It also sounds like whoever wrote the story has no knowledge of anything that's been happening in architecture for about a century.

Clean, modern design? Must be influenced by the iPhone! :rolleyes:
 
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