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Download Your Next House For Free

David Sokol — 2010-02-16T11:04:00 00:00

Filed under: Design

Stock house plans are as American as apple pie. Andrew Jackson Downing and Alexander Jackson Davis's publication of the pattern book "Cottage Residences" in the mid-19th century, for example, fueled the first nationwide romance for suburban living. And now, approximately 30 percent of all American homes are built from stock plans, says Free Green co-founder Ben Uyeda, "but most of the plans out there are very dated. So we try to sell things around contemporary themes."

Since Free Green launched in April 2008, customers have downloaded more than 47,000 house plans from the website. As a result, the Boston-based company calls itself "the world's largest provider of home design."

Uyeda says he and his team add approximately one new plan per week and the designs are based on housing and trend data. Styles range from Cape Cod cottages to Mediterranean-style mini villas (the website tell users which region is best for a particular house), with some jaunty modernist boxes mixed in.

The contemporary theme they all have in common is energy efficiency. When constructed correctly, Free Green homes beat energy codes by 30 to 50 percent.
"We can simulate energy performance very accurately and efficiently," Uyeda says, clarifying that "We're not maximizing efficiency, but finding a cost-optimal point for efficiency." The plans are designed according to passive solar-design principles, and include instructions to builders concerning passive techniques like proper insulation and sizing overhangs for one's region. "The prospective homeowner can log on and get detailed energy modeling data for their zip code." Active sustainable technologies, like photovoltaic arrays, may be added but are not figured into energy savings.

So, are these green homes really free, too?

Sort of, explains fellow Free Green co-founder David Wax. Free Green does offer free house plans-which are sponsored by vendors. These manufacturers and other clients are charged a fee per download, in a business model that evokes Google's click-throughs.

And, reminiscent of iTunes, Free Green charges customers who want access to all of its house plans. For $9.95 per month, shoppers can download plans as PDFs; CAD- and Revit-format plans cost an extra $10. The company also offers a $159 annual membership in which more than 500 users are enrolled, as well as a custom design service whose higher prices, Wax says, are competitive with traditional stock providers.

Uyeda observes that, according to downloading data, he's noticing a trend toward smaller homes. Wax adds that many of those potential homeowners are empty nesters and "people who thought they were going to build a bigger home before the market crashed."

Another trend: A considerable majority of people who log on to Free Green stick to the free plans. That doesn't mean a homeowner is completely off the hook, expense-wise. Besides paying for construction, Uyeda advises consumers to hire a local architect to adapt a stock plan to a specific landscape and infrastructure, and to oversee contractor work. "Some architects think we're taking jobs away from them, but architects never designed a majority of homes in America," Uyeda says, remarking on the historical ubiquity of stock plans and mass-produced housing. "We created Free Green to funnel some of that work to them."

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Battling Back, Home Builders Cut Options

David Sokol — 2010-02-08T14:02:00 00:00

Filed under: Design,News

Since almost the day they were born, suburbs have been criticized for their plain vanilla sameness. Is the downturn causing the landscape to become even more look-alike?

Faced with declining demand for new homes and a glut of inventory, home builders are cutting house plans from their portfolios and standardizing on design in an effort to save costs and better compete with bargain-priced foreclosures and pre-existing homes.

Miami-based Lennar Corporation is streamlining the number of models it offers for new homes. And Los Angeles-based builder KB Home "is cutting costs partly by standardizing window sizes and floor plans rather than allowing endless local variations," The Wall Street Journal recently reported.

Is what's good for builders good for the suburbs?The big home builders have a long history of "value engineering" -- finding ways to squeeze costs and time out of the home-building process, whether by cutting back on expensive materials or spacing studs farther apart. During the boom, it allowed them to put more homes up faster and rake in profits. Now, it's a more a matter of survival.

Steve Ruffner, president of KB Home's southern California division, tells us that the Wall Street Journal is referring to the company's "Open Series." This year-old house collection is, indeed, offered nationwide. And these homes do feature standardized windows and flooring. KB also contracted with KitchenAid, Maytag, and Delta for appliances and furnishings. "It gets much better deals for customers," Ruffner says, adding that the series targets homeowners who earn the median income in their respective markets.

KB Home Chief Executive Jeffrey Mezger told analysts last year that the new designs cut construction costs by $80,000 and allowed it to cut home prices by $60,000 on a typical home, according to Business Week.

If The Open Series sounds like historic Levittown developments writ very, very large, you wouldn't be completely off the mark. In their respective heydays, both targeted first-time buyers, and both achieved affordability through economies of scale. KB as well as Levitt and Sons, the now-bankrupt developer of Levittown, have allowed for customization, although naturally there are many more options nowadays than the gray-flannel-suit era offered.

In that sense, KB is fighting against the homogeneity of postwar housing. The company, along with other home builders, is also trying to right the wrongs of suburbs past: Open Series homes are built to Energy Star specifications, and they're 45 percent more energy-efficient than homes constructed in the 1990s.

And both KB and Lennar get credit for thinking smaller. In keeping with a trend toward smaller homes, Lennar has been nixing the super-sized plans from its portfolio. Ruffner won't specify the average size of Open Series interiors, but says that customers can elect to expand the square footage of the base models.

Levittown and its ilk encouraged Americans to settle in gas- and land-guzzling hinterlands, ushering in the age of strip malls and cookie cutter developments. At least Mother Nature can thank the recession for making future suburbs a little more eco-friendly.

Now, if only Toyota could get those Prius brakes to work.

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The Fabulously Updated Prefab Home

David Sokol — 2010-02-05T16:15:00 00:00

Filed under: Design

The movement dedicated to prefabricated contemporary houses didn't have a banner year in 2009, what with the May closure of mini-industry leader Michelle Kaufmann Designs. But the setbacks haven't kept architects from fantasizing about new solutions for prefab, and the remaining adventurous manufacturers from turning those dreams into reality.

At least since the 1920s, when Buckminster Fuller developed his first Dymaxion House, designers have tried applying factory power to home building. And, in recent years, potential homeowners have taken a shine to the work of Kaufmann and colleagues like Rocio Romero, who promised innovative homes that required less time, money, and carbon emissions than bespoke architecture.

Last month the Seattle-based company Method Homes launched Homb, designed by Skylab Architecture of Portland.Whereas Method's earlier series - not to mention prefab modernism in general - are boxy creations, Homb is made of triangular modules. "The triangle form is the strongest, structurally, of all geometric forms," says architect Jeff Kovel, who founded Skylab in 1999.

Each 100-square-foot wedge also transforms from a "shippable module into a three-dimensional truss, like a space frame." And with hoisting points integrated with the structure, Method can complete interior finishes in its factory to lessen on-site construction.

This approach should spell lower prices. Many architects point to $160 as the magic per-square-foot price for affordable modern prefab. Hombs range from $160 to $350 per square according to customer preferences (not including excavation, foundation work, and utility hookups).

Kovel, who says that Hombs may have residential or commercial uses, also notes that plumbing-free outbuildings could be realized for less. "The goal for Homb is to make custom modern architecture available to a broader audience."

Some of those customizable options include three colors of cedar exterior cladding to choose from and endless layouts, plus sustainability options that are all the rage, such as green roofing, extra insulation, and power production that can get a Homb off the grid. Thanks to its construction method, the design is flexible, and homeowners may choose to add or take away triangular modules over time.

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