Ray Kappe is one of Los Angeles' most renowned architects. For LivingHomes, he designed a prefab house, which allows luxury and the environment to live together in harmony. Presented by the Wired Magazine and LivingHomes, Kappe's prefab house will open its doors for public tours and a series of invite-only special events with ecoluminaries from October 25th - November 11th. Since Club of Pioneers is going to cover the opening-event, we would like to introduce the architect in a brief portrait.Although both are exploring new horizons, there’s a crucial difference between a modernist and a pioneer. Ray Kappe, architect, academic and founder of the Southern California Institute of Architecture (SCI-Arc) demonstrates this distinction perfectly. When he started experimenting with housing design in Los Angeles in the early 1950s, it was the zenith of mid-century Modernism. While some architects of the time zeroed in on a style and proceeded to hone their design skills, Kappe was continuing to experiment and was always driven by the pioneering spirit to create something totally new. Avoiding the label of Modernist, he designed for example largely in wood and has done a few pitched roofs, absolute no-no’s for modern purists. Thus, Kappe didn’t acquire the reputation as other architects have enjoyed - but he became renowned for an architecture which has been characterized as 'the apotheosis of the California House'.50 years later, Kappe is still designing houses in LA and continues to break new grounds that other architects wouldn’t consider: A short time ago, he designed a prefab house for LivingHomes, a new company building prefabricated homes with modern design and sustainability as a decisive goal. The first model home erected in Crestwood Hills in Santa Monica attracted much attention from various architectural and consumer magazines. "People are enthusiastic about the fact that the design of the first model does not look like a modular, prefabricated home", stated Kappe. "They view it as an upscale, spatially exciting and architecturally designed modern home".Though being recognized as a modern example of architecture, Kappe’s LivingHome is actually based on upon a modular prefab complex that he designed in 1964 for a student housing project at California State University, Sonoma. For 10 years he explored the potential of this prefab system in his custom-made homes. Even his own residence, built in 1968 in Rustic Canyon, Pacific Palisades in Los Angeles provides an example of this prefab system– a spectacular example, embedded perfectly in an uphill site with trees and underground springs. In the same year, Kappe started the architecture department at California Polytechnic State University at Pomona (Cal Poly). However, his urge to explore new challenges didn’t let him stay there for long: Just three years later, Kappe left with a group of faculty members and students, and his wife Shelly, an Architectural Historian, to found SCI-Arc. Up until today SCI-Arc is one of the most renowned architecture schools in the country, with 3 000 graduates teaching all over the world.Despite his restless search for new architectural approaches, Kappe stuck by certain principles. “One of my goals from the beginning was to develop repetitive modern housing for the ‘masses’”, he emphasizes. However, with his LivingHome, he supplies not only affordable, modern designed housing, but also has accomplished his aims for sustainability: Thanks to eco-friendly appliances and solutions like photovoltaic cells for the power supply, the utilization of “gray water” from sinks an showers to irrigate the patio and rooftop gardens and the usage of recycled materials including a countertop made form 100-percent postconsumer recycled paper, the model house received the first-ever LEED Platinum rating for residential design four months after construction.Time-lapse footage of the installation of the WIRED LivingHomeEven so, it would be unlikely that Ray Kappe would be satisfied with this success. Once responding to a question about the most important principles that helped make him a famed architect, Kappe stated this one: “Always be willing to explore, experiment and invent. Do not accept the status quo." Los Angeles can be curious about the next projects of one of its greatest pioneers. Video: Clifford Public Relations