New small house plan available today!

You have got to check out this new home design by Jo Nagasaka and Schemata Architecture. The "PACO house" offers complete self contained living in a 3 square meter cube.

The Paco House is available in four basic plans. Plan A features the kitchen, shower, bathroom, epoxy painted floor and ceiling lighting at a total price of 6,300,000 yen. Plan B boasts a kitchen, epoxy painted floor and ceiling lighting at a price of 5,250,000 yen. Plan C features the epoxy painted floor and ceiling lighting for 4,725,000 yen. Plan D is the home’s basic shell, which you can customize to your needs and interests, selling for 4,200 yen.

Clearly much time and money have been spent developing the prototype. Indeed this is one very well thought out box. But I have one question. Who is actually going to buy this thing?

more information:

Simple,Unique, Small, Creative and Green House Plans

as

New Cottage House Plan

Ron Brenner Architects (Stillwater, MN) is creating a new Cottage House Plan design for Kyle Hunt & Partners. The design is characterized by a dramatic steep front gable roof line and will feature a modern open floor plan.

Kyle Hunt & Partners is a builder that specializes in crafting Architect designed homes. They have created strategic partnerships with several Architects including Ron Brenner Architects to provide services for their clients. This design will be featured at their Locust Hills neighborhood in Minnetonka, MN.

The two images below depict the design in two color studies.

Simple,Unique, Creative and Green House Plans

Architects love modern house plans

Dwell, the design magazine, has unveiled the newest project in its own line of prefab homes: The Skyline series (as seen below), designed by Marmol Radziner.

This is one more example of the direction the prefab industry seems to be taking - the trend towards Modenism. But the market has been reluctant to embrace the concept of modern prefab. So on one hand you have the "trailer trash" image of a cheaply constructed mobile home, and on the other hand you have this modernist expression. And as much as I love modern design, I don't think it necessarily belongs on every infill lot in America.

There seriously must be an alternative architecture that works for prefab. An architecture that embraces the modesty and the economy of materials that the prefab industry has been known for; but packaged in a high quality, functional and sustainable design that can be compatible within most existing neighborhoods. An architecture that the people can actually see themselves living in. Come on prefab industry, let's give the people what they want!

Simply Elegant Home Designs

It's Time to Build!

I attended an online seminar ("Stimulus and the Housing Market") yesterday put on by Professional Builder Publications. Here are a few interesting tidbits.

1. First time home buyers can still get an $8,000.00 tax credit if you purchase the home by December 1 of 2009. There is speculation that this credit may be extended or even expanded to non-first time buyers. Let's hope.
2. For those thinking of remodeling tax credits are available for window and door replacements and / or other energy improving strategies. You can get more information on this at www.energystar.gov/taxcredits
3. The Home Affordability Index is at a record high. This means that construction costs are low and financing is still relatively cheap. If you are in a position to build or buy, this is truly the time to do it.
4. Consumer confidence is just beginning to improve.
5. Single Family housing is expected to begin modest recovery soon. Multi-Family is expected to lag for a while.
6. Existing home inventory is still high, but it is going down. This is a good sign.
7. U.S. construction spending is expected to start increasing by end of 09' or early 10'.

So what is the point? Now is really a good time to buy, build or remodel. Low consumer confidence and low demand are keeping construction costs down while financing costs are still relatively low. This is a good combination if you are in a position to take action. Once recovery starts to happen you know where construction costs are going to go.

Bathroom Remodel by Larson Brenner Architects

Simple,Unique, Creative and Green House Plans

Small but Unique, Cheap but Nice House Plans

I was discussing home design trends with a builder friend of mine the other day. He said to me that "small is the new big". This is true because people are demanding much more value in their purchases now. But they also still want quality. So how can designers and builders deliver on this? Here are a few of my thoughts:

• Build it small - but liveable. A floor plan needs to be smart in order to be functional while remaining compact. Every space should be analyzed for efficiency. Better hire a pro.
• Keep it simple. Roof form and wall massing should be as simple as possible. This reduces labor costs and additional materials.
• Keep it square. A square plan has much less surface area than more complicated plan shapes. That means less roofing, wall and foundation materials.
• Keep it square 2. Square plans have less jogs. And jogs are transitions that cost money. Think about it. It is faster to build one long wall than 3 or 4 separate walls that total the same overall length.
• 1 for 2 special. One big window is less expensive than 2 small ones. Labor and materials included.
• Get rid of the ginger bread. A quality design does not need ornamentation but a bad design does. We call it "putting earrings on a pig".
• Eliminate redundancy. Most folks don't really need 3 places to eat (kitchen island, kitchen nook and formal dining room). Most folks don't use a formal living room if they have a main floor family room. It's not the 1950's anymore Beaver.
• Use the basement. You have to build that foundation anyway (up north anyway), so you might as well incorporate it into your plan.
• Use the garage. Many times we will use the space above the garage as a master suite or family room space.
• Question everything. Look at every building system and every component critically. Ask yourself if there is a better choice to be made. Make sure it's functional as well as beautiful and economical. If it's functional but ugly - I don't call that value.
• Plan ahead. Get your plan completely right before you build. Work with a pro. If you get the plan right then you can build without changes. Changes during construction always cost time and money.
• 
  Afton Cottage House Plan
  
  
  Ok, I'll stop. There are a million other great ideas. I'd like to hear some of yours. Please comment.

Simple,Unique, Creative and Green House Plans

SEHD and Southern Living House Plans

Simply Elegant Home Designs is announcing a new relationship with Southern Living House Plans. Southern Living will be marketing two plans as seen below.

The "Marine Farmhouse"

The "Stillwater Craftsman"

Ron Brenner, President of Simply Elegant Home Designs had this to say -

" We are so excited about the opportunity to work with Southern Living House Plans. What we are trying to do here at Simply Elegant is to make truly good home design more economically achievable for the general public, and we see this new relationship with Southern Living as a great way to do that. We think our designs are special, and we want to get them out there for as many people to see as possible. The additional exposure we receive through SL will be more valuable than many press releases."

The Marine Farmhouse is being featured this week (week of June 22nd) on the Southern Living Custom Builder program at http://www.southernlivingcustombuilder.com/

Paper Architecture

"Paper Architecture" is a term in our industry that has traditionally referred to buildings that we design that never get built. It seems in this current economic situation there is an awful lot of paper architecture going on.

Over the weekend I ran across this more literal example of "Paper Architecture" - that being the art of creating an object out of a single piece of paper. A single sheet of paper is cut and folded into an intricate miniature structure. Here are a couple of examples:

Before the final design is finished, something like 20 to 30 (sometimes even more) prototypes are made by Ingrid Siliakus. Drawing paper architecture designs to Ingrid is as building: first one layer, with a single shape, will be drawn and than layer after layer are added. Read More: