Diary / Justbobbi / Sep 26, 2022
Design Matters for Your Next Vacation
Written by: Christina Valhouli
Photography by: PlansMatter
As much as we love home rental sites, it can be exhausting trawling through hundreds of ho hum listings to find a well-designed gem. The new Minnesota-based rental site PlansMatter solves that problem. Launched by Connie Lindor and Scott Mueller, a couple who met in architecture school, PlansMatter only lists modern houses designed by respected architects. Think of it as Airbnb for a design lover. The properties are located around the globe, and include the US, Japan, Australia and Sri Lanka.
The homes are searchable by architect or by location. While all the homes are visually stunning, a few of the stand-outs include a Rudolph M. Schindler early California modern apartment complex in the heart of Los Angeles, as well as the award winning MacKay-Lyons Sweetapple-designed “Sliding House” on the shores of Nova Scotia. The linear residence was built into a sloping hillside and is clad in industrial corrugated metal, while the interiors feature plenty of wood. The architecture firm has said that “the quiet restraint of this minimal aesthetic allows the power of the landscape to dominate.”
Another standout is the Frank Lloyd Wright designed Kinney House in Lancaster, Wisconsin. The three bedroom property was designed in 1951 for the Kinney family, and the heart of the home was designed as double hexagonal central core housing the living room, dining room, kitchen, master bedroom, and a bathroom. It is a rare example of Wright’s Usonian (or small, single-story) homes.
PlansMatter also features properties in locations not always associated with modern design, such as Cape Cod, a tree-house inspired gem in Heber Springs, Arkansas, or the light-filled Gunflint Lake Cabin in Marais, Minnesota.