Sunday, February 08, 2009

The 100K house – get small, get cheap, get green

Despite carrying the “preservationist” label (which seems to carry a load of negative stereotyped baggage along with it in these parts) I’m also a huge fan of modern architecture. New construction design that mimics or replicates an earlier architectural style looks fine if you are walking down Main Street at Disney, but looks absolutely ridiculous in the real world. Design has been a topic covered before on this blog. New Construction needs to look new.

Our focus in these parts should be our existing housing stock. Building reuse is an absolute no-brainer. It is not rational to destroy resources that can be adapted and reused. This is true for entire structures and the elements that make up the structures (yes, even windows which are filling up our landfills at an alarming rate).

There is, however, plenty of room in our center city neighborhoods for new construction. This project (The 100K House) caught my attention recently. The project leaders have a conviction that "green" and "affordable" can go hand-in-hand. They are actually building that conviction.


The design is modern. It’s green. It’s LEED Platinum certified. It’s affordable.

How about we do it here?

6 comments:

B.W. Smith said...

Very cool...except I'm not sure where I'd put the kids.

Ang and I are sold on the idea of buying a vacant lot in the city and building a modest-sized LEED certified home.

The New Albanian said...

I saw several examples of buildings very similar to this when in Netherlands last September. Are they doing it there, too?

TedF said...

Even though I work for Dutch company, I admit ignorance to housing policy over there. I do know affordable housing is heavily subsidized. Google “Borneo Sporenburg” to see an interesting water front project there.

Nic Darling said...

Thanks for mentioning our project. It is always good to see people in other cities gravitate toward the idea. I am particularly grateful for your views on modern architecture.

Keep an eye out for a couple new, more family friendly versions in the near future. We're still talking relatively small, urban in-fill homes, but with some distinct bedrooms and maybe another bathroom.

We aren't affiliated with anything going on in Europe. In fact, these are our first houses as Postgreen, but we are heavily influenced by our colleagues across the pond. They seem to have maintained a respect for modest sized living spaces that was lost here.

B.W. Smith said...

That's exciting news. I know who to call when I'm ready to build.

TedF said...

Nic - thanks much for posting here. The project is an inspiration. We'll check in regularly. Perhaps we can have you pay a visit to the Louisville/New Albany area and talk about the project sometime soon?