My Thoughts on Greg La Vardera's "Our Re-Modern Movement - The Tipping Point?"

I got really fired up this morning after I read a great post in architect Greg La Vardera's blog. In "Our Remodern Movement - the tipping point?" Greg suggests that now might finally be the time for modernist homes to find a place in the mainstream. I really hope so. I see the momentum. And I believe in "tipping points." I know exactly what the tipping point was for me personally, the one thing that got me really excited about modern homes. I picked up a copy of Dwell at the newsstand for the first time, the April/May 2005 issue with Charlie Lazor's Flatpak house on the cover.

I had always been interested in homes. I always dreamed of something better and more exciting than the standard fare of suburban cul-de-sacs, though I wasn't totally hooked on modern yet. But when I saw this cover, with a real family in a cool-ass house, it was like a lightning bolt. I can't tell you how badly I'd like to live in a Flatpak. It's one of the top three contenders for me. It just fits me and my family so perfectly. When the time finally comes to really build a new home I will be giving them a call to talk.

It's funny though, how "weird" most people think modernist homes are. My mother said "you want to live in a white box?" with a look on her face that was pure disbelief. Talking houses with some neighbors I could detect their nervous smiles when I mentioned concrete and steel, as in "uh, okay, sure, as long as it's not next door to my house." And look at the real estate markets. That's all you need to know. You don't see a lot of developers building modernist spec homes. Just pick up a real estate magazine and thumb through it for a minute. How many cool modernist homes will you find in the listings. Maybe one or two in a hundred page book. And they're mostly really big, expensive houses, probably built in the eighties after watching too many episodes of Miami Vice. Good, simple, modern homes for real families are hard to come by. Your best bet is a fifties ranch. Even those are a minority in the market compared to the grand total of everything else.

But I think Greg is right. This is the right time. Dwell has been so successful that some other similar publications have started to appear. Blogs like mine are popping up like daisies. Sarah Susanka's "Not So Big House" movement has a lot of followers (because it makes a lot of sense). Or consider John Brown's Slow Home Movement. And green is suddenly king. People finally realize that their choices have a real impact. Now is definitely the time of Less is More, and modernism fits that bill perfectly.

Probably the biggest helper in all of this, in my opinion, is going to be the bursting of the real estate bubble. I say that for one simple reason: it will make people change their view as to what their home really is - a home to live in and not an investment to make a fortune off of. I really believe that people won't/can't build what they really want because they are too hung up on resale value and growing massive equity. I don't know if this attitude caused the housing bubble or vice versa, but either way they combine to create an effect where the resultant high cost of housing distorts our views, closes our minds to new ideas, prices lots of people out of the market for a good home, and places too much power in the hands of developers, not in the hands of consumers where it should be. And so, here we are. With the bubble busting and home prices correcting I think we may also see home buyers making very different decisions about what they want to live in. I know this is the case for my wife and I, and I hope, at least, that this is the case for others.

It's definitely time for America to focus its attention on things like better homes, greener communities, reliable energy, even better communications technology, education and health care. These are the things that make up the infrastructure of this country. We won't have to worry about foreign threats for long if we allow ourselves to fall apart from the inside.

This whole country is at a tipping point, or near one. Modern homes are just a tiny, tiny part of that. We can choose a better way to live without giving up all the really great things we already enjoy.

Better living through design. Work smarter, not harder. Find the holistic solutions.

We can do it.

Interesting Cost Detail at A Prefab Project Blog

In an earlier post I pointed out the great blog, A Prefab Project, where you can follow the progress of a Res4 home being built in West Virginia. It's a great site that really gives you a feel for what it's like to undertake a project like that.

One thing I like most about the site is a dedicated budget page that keeps a running tab on costs. It's been recently updated, and gives a lot of detail, the kind of detail you don't get from glossy magazine articles. The site is tracking estimated versus actual costs, and gives great commentary on individual line items. So far only one item - the house kit itself - has an actual cost pinned against the estimate. They're a little over at the moment. It'll be interesting to see how things go as construction progresses.

If you're considering building a home of your own, prefab or not, you won't want to miss this site. It's a great chance to learn from the real life experiences of others, and hopefully that can help make your own project go that much more smoothly.

Image credit - A Prefab Project site

CNNMoney.com - Is 'Going Green' Worth the Cost?

Here's an interesting article on CNNMoney.com about building a green home: Your Home: Is 'Going Green' Worth The Cost?

It's a nice overview of why regular people all over the U.S. are starting to choose more environmentally friendly and energy efficient construction techniques for their homes. It also talks about what it costs to do so, and what the payback is. Nothing earth-shattering here, just a good piece on how and why green building practices are starting to hit the mainstream.

There's also a section profiling four families that have gone green with their homes, all for different reasons. What's nice to see is that these are just regular families on regular budgets. They've done it (to one degree or another), and so can any of us.

Find Out What It's Really Like to Build One at A PreFab Project Blog

Want to know what it's like to take on a prefab home project? Look no further than this great blog: A Prefab Project chronicles construction of a modern prefab home in West Virginia. The project is a nice looking design from Resolution: 4 Architecture that's being built as a vacation home and rental property. The blog is the owner's very personal telling of the story of the house, from conception, to buying land and preparing the site, to working with Res 4 and seeing the house being built in their factory. It's schedule to be complete in August, and it will be neat to see the finished product.




There are a ton of useful bits of experience passed on by the blog's author that can help you get prepared for your own project. In particular, I like the page dedicated to cost tracking. I'm very curious to see more cost info as the project proceeds. It's great to daydream about beautiful kitchens and floor to ceiling windows, but money is where the rubber meets the road. We all know how tight budgets can be, and how quickly costs get out of hand. Understanding the true costs of a project like this before you start could very well make the difference between finding your dream home and just plain being disappointed. I really appreciate that this information is being shared with the rest of us to learn from.

Cool blog. I wish them the best of luck with their project. Looks great so far!!!

Via DO Research

Image credit - A PreFab Project site

MSNBC Article on Green Housing Standards and Costs

I saw this great article on MSNBC today titled "Want a Green House? Prepare to be Confused." It talks about the various competing standards under development to define what makes a house "green," as well as the costs and benefits of building more efficient homes. It's a good snapshot of how the housing market is starting to transition.

Here's a couple of excerpts:

"But how do you tell if a “green” home is truly green? It depends on whom you ask. There are some 80 different local and state green building organizations and at least two different national groups promoting their own rules on what constitutes a green home. The result: a contentious war over whose rules become the national standard for making a house sustainable. It also means more confusion for homebuyers."

"Homebuyers typically pay 3 to 5 percent more for a “green” home, or about $10,000 extra on $300,000 home. But advocates say the extra costs quickly pay for themselves in savings on water and power."

"It can be hard to show consumers those kinds of benefits in advance, said John Keith, president of Harvard Communities, which is building 40 green homes this year, most of them on the site of Denver’s former Stapleton Airport.

Much of what makes Harvard Communities' homes green is decidedly unsexy, Keith said, because most of the features are not visible to consumers. Buyers want to talk about granite countertops, not how Harvard uses less wood in framing for better insulation or how contractors are coached on how to better seal windows so air doesn’t escape the house. To pique buyers’ interest, Harvard started including a 2.8-kilowatt rooftop solar system as a standard feature on the homes. “It’s hard to get people excited,” Keith said."

There's a page that summarizes the major competing green standards from the U.S. Green Building Council and the National Association of Home Builders. Another link goes to an article that shares traditional but very effective design strategies for reducing a homes energy consumption and impact on the earth.

I think the active debate, and the serious attention from builders, is a good sign that green has finally really come to housing. Good article, so take a look.