“All architecture is a search for paradise on earth,” said Finnish designer Alvar Aalto. Architects Scott Muellner and Connie Lindor do just this at PlansMatter, their Minnesota, USA, based vacation rental service — where they curate abodes that ‘have architectural intention and a story to tell’. Currently listing around 37 sites, and targeted at other architects and guests who value “exceptional design”, the husband-wife team has found homes by master architects Frank Lloyd Wright (Palmer House, Michigan - $350 a night), Rudolph M Schindler (Mackey Penthouse, LA - $220 per night) and Christian Müller (Villa Vals, Switzerland - €950 for two nights).
Making the cut
Muellner and Lindor met in architecture school. Travel is a shared passion. Lindor, 53, who grew up in a small town in Minnesota, joined the Peace Corps and lived in London and Fiji for a while. While Muellner, 48, recalls an adventurous upbringing, moving with his parents and brother across Minnesota, Wisconsin and Michigan to New Mexico. “Growing up, my family were like hippies! We lived in a Volkswagen bus, a 1975 milk delivery truck and in a commune for a while,” he says, observing that this impermanent lifestyle inclined him towards architecture as a stable profession.
A trip to Europe, visiting the Parthenon and the Colosseum, triggered the idea for something that tapped into the ‘powerful experiences of places’. The duo — who also ran the design shop, Redlurered, in Minneapolis — felt a yen to aggregate architecturally-significant stays and make such rentals simple and convenient. This finally took form in 2013, when they launched PlansMatter, with architect Julie Snow on board as advisor.
While vacation rentals are quite common today, many home owners prefer to list more selectively than what’s available on Airbnb. Crystal Noonan, the initiative’s Marketing and Operations Director, notes, “As compared to rental sites such as Airbnb and VRBO, PlansMatter focusses solely on hotel and vacation rentals designed by world-class architects. Each listing is selected by Muellner and Lindor based on architectural merit, and their mission includes promoting the value of design and preserving significant architecture.”
Curated blueprint
Connoisseurs of architecture will go to extraordinary lengths to experience a unique place. “Someone drove all the way from California to stay in the Wright-designed Kinney home in Wisconsin,” reveals Muellner. Incidentally, the Wright house is also an example of the commitment to stick with an idea — owner Jane Kinney’s father, wanting to stay true to the original design, had made a deal with a quarry owner and laboured to extract the limestone himself, completing a rare ‘owner-built’ home in 1953.
Muellner, who studied Swiss minimalist architect Peter Zumthor, remembers being fascinated by his work while in university. Twenty year later, last December, he and Lindor checked into one of the homes designed by the architect in Leis, a tiny hamlet in Switzerland. “The longer you have waited, the more you are rewarded,” he says. Tucked away in the hills, Unterhus and Türmlihus are two vacation homes built of wood. “Zumthor essentially began as a municipal architect who surveyed and documented historical structures. He built these homes, which are a modern version on a different scale, as a footprint of what was there earlier,” he explains. The two homes are currently listed on their website, with information about construction and suggestions on what to do while there — like a visit to Zumthor’s studio and a little restaurant called Ganni, where you’ll be welcomed, just as they were, with sausages, bread and wine.
Refined aesthetic
Every architectural retreat has its own story and challenges. Initially, the duo called architects who had cabins or beach houses, but found that opening up a home to strangers posed its own set of problems. They then focussed on properties that are already available. Customers directly reach out to property owners or managers in the current model. Till they scale up with properties and generate enough user interest to bring in revenue, they intend to run it without a margin for themselves. So the two still keep their day jobs — Muellner works for an architectural and design products company and Lindor for a startup software firm. “We just want to make it useful in as many ways as possible and think about the money later. Otherwise, it’s like swimming holding your breath while figuring out which way you want to swim!” Muellner says.
They also travel in search of well-designed spaces that provide an elevated experience beyond mere comfort and convenience. While the duo, with help from board advisor Snow’s extensive network of peers, curates each property solely on architectural design, intent and story of place, award-winning properties are a distinguishing factor of their listings.
Recently, Muellner and Lindor’s focus has been on properties in Europe, Australia and South America; they are currently travelling to explore Costa Rica. Next year, the two hope to check out what India has to offer, by when PlansMatter aims to list an additional 75 properties.
From $100 to over $1,000 per night, on plansmatter.com.
