Why Built-Ins?

Over the last year, Albertsson Hansen has been working closely with Joanne Kellar Bouknight and Taunton Press to contribute to the newly-released All New Built-Ins Idea Book. We were excited to see it on shelves - it is available at local booksellers like Barnes & Noble and online at Amazon. Here is a small taste of what you can expect of this great idea book and guide to built-ins for every purpose.

You can’t overestimate the value that built-ins add to a house. Certainly a house will cost more to build when you add more elements to its bare bones. So why use built-ins at all? Todd Hansen and Christine Albertsson of Albertsson Hansen Architects in Minneapolis answer that question with this description of how built-ins simply make life easier.
“We like to add the word ‘well’ to 20^th-century architect Le Corbusier’s famous statement so that it reads, ‘A house is a machine for living well in.’ We think of rooms not merely as linked boxes with holes in them with furniture and casework lined up against the walls, but rather as spaces that are surrounded with the equipment for living well. When you reach out in a well-designed house, a cabinet or shelf is there to hold the materials for that life activity, be it a built-in buffet, a window seat, built-in bookshelves, or even an entire storage room hidden behind a cabinet door. The goal is to have the equipment and material support for living well readily at hand. With this approach, the cabinetry and other built-ins become an integral part of the architecture itself. Walls are thickened where needed to accommodate storage and display for the stuff of everyday life. A built-in banquette with lift-up seats becomes furniture as well as storage. The configuration and design of these elements becomes a significant part of the character and expression of the interior of a house, and when successful, contributes to the ability to live well in a home.”  -JKB

A handful of images of our past projects were also included in the book.



"This bright walk-in closet with smart and understated built-ins is part of an addition to an early 20th-century Tudor house." (photo by Adan Torres)

"Although these open shelves screen the view from a backyard entry porch, they also allow in plenty of daylight. The thick shelves are built of two layers of MDF with  a solid wood nosing and are supported by solid wood brackets." (photo by Adan Torres)

"In a renovated 19th-century home, space between kitchen and dinig was reclaimed to make roll-out pantry shelves for wine bottles and a variety of beverages." (photo by Dana Wheelock)

"A kitchen for a working farm was renovated to create more space, with a butcher-block island that doubles as space for five to eat of for two to prepare dinner. The hutch at left has a flip-down door that becomes a desk; the house phone is inside the niche. Cantilevered shelves on the back wall are supported on brackets." (photo by Susan Gilmore)



"A well-fit butler's pantry mixes traditional and modern details. Furniture-like cabinet feet, reclaimed Southern yellow pine flooring, oiled and waxed Southern yellow pine countertops, tongue-and-groove paneling, and a hefty apron sink convey the look of an early 20th-century country house. Ideal for reaching top shelves in this 9-ft. high space, the ladder can be rolled from the pantry into the kitchen." (photo by Dana Wheelock)