Design of the Times

Two for One

Single people looking to live in the suburbs often find that their only option is more house than they can afford. Small rental cottages tucked in between larger homes might be one answer to that dilemma. The problem is that local zoning ordinances often make such structures illegal. So, when architect Rick Mohler wanted to add a rental unit to his 60-foot-by-100-foot corner lot in Seattle, he had to work the system. At the time, local zoning prohibited secondary detached buildings on residential lots. It did allow, however, accessory units that were attached. Mohler’s clever plan design introduces two separate “flip-flopped” dwellings (measuring 1,950 square feet and 1,000 square feet, respectively) that are connected by a 24-inch (per code) party wall. The homes have separate entrances, gardens, parking spaces, and corner windows but, from the outside, the structure looks like one house.

“I was interested in the idea of how to increase density in a single-family zone but still maintain the quality and character of single-family living,” explains Mohler, a partner in Adams Mohler Ghillino Architects and assistant professor of architecture at University of Washington. “In Seattle, 62 percent of the land area is zoned single-family, plus there are urban growth boundaries, so there is very little opportunity for multifamily in the suburbs.”

Mohler is now using the rental income from his tenant (a single woman) to offset his mortgage, but he also has the satisfaction of knowing his initial idea is gaining traction. After the Flip-Flop house was built, the city passed a “backyard cottage” ordinance allowing detached accessory units on residential lots—an alternative housing model that is now proliferating.

Affordability aside, this grassroots approach to infill could have other cumulative benefits in the ’burbs, he says. “If you can accommodate increases in density while maintaining the lifestyle people are used to, it opens up other possibilities. If you can increase your density by 50 percent to 70 percent, you are within shooting range of having the support you need for public transit.”

 

 

Kit House 2.0

With cash harder to come bythese days, many working Americans are finding themselves in a quandary—too rich to qualify for subsidized housing, but too poor to qualify for a mortgage. If entrepreneur Charlie Kamps and architect Tom Barton see their vision realized, there will be no forgotten middle class in the world of homeownership. Their joint venture, the American Sustainability Initiative (AmeriSus), specializes in energy-efficient, systems-built housing, with material costs averaging around $45 per square foot.

Inspired by the Sears kit houses of the 1930s, AmeriSus catalog homes are designed with SIPs to fit into virtually any environment, including small or narrow city lots, suburban master plans, or rural fields. The panelized parts can be assembled as townhomes, duplexes, or single-family detached structures, and can be clad in a variety of elevation styles, including traditional, modern, and contemporary façades.

But unlike the kit houses of yesteryear, the components for these homes aren’t delivered to the jobsite all at once. Instead, AmeriSus is using a synchronized delivery approach (made possible through a distribution partnership with FedEx) that ensures that all products are delivered “just in time” for installation. This pacing ensures that materials aren’t sitting around, damage-prone, before they are needed.

Although the majority of installation is still performed on site by subcontractors, all products are volume-purchased by AmeriSus so there are no third-party cost mark-ups. And the panelized components can be scaled to meet the technical needs of builders of all sizes.

“For the small-volume builder who doesn’t want to invest in heavy fork lifts or cranes, each home can be delivered in smaller components that can be handled by four people without a lot of heavy equipment,” Barton explains. “This is beneficial for the small rural builder or a Habitat for Humanity house … whereas for a large merchant builder, we can deliver an entire wall of a house in one component.” Each home can be built in about eight weeks, he says.

AmeriSus officially opened for business on Earth Day 2010 and is on track to sell 4,000 homes over the next 12 months. “Our six priorities in this effort are affordability, home efficiency, simplicity, marketability, sustainability, and jobs,” says Kamps, who worked as a corporate manufacturing troubleshooter and brownfield redevelopment consultant before launching AmeriSus.

“Our calculations indicate that every house we build will, in effect, keep 25 people employed, either on the jobsite, or in the manufacturing of the products that will go into these homes,” he says.

Positioning itself as a partner to builders, AmeriSus is selling only to the trade and not direct-to-consumer. “We are competing with conventional wood-frame tract homes with an alternative that is more energy-efficient, land-efficient, and amenitized to the marketplace,” Barton says. “This could change the paradigm of how homes are built, and I hope it works.”

Growth Model

Is greenfield development dead?Developer Quint Redmond doesn’t think so. But he does believe that master planned communities would do well to trade in golf courses and pocket parks for a different kind of amenity.

Redmond is among a handful of planners and developers advocating “agricultural urbanism,” a development model that clusters housing and commercial buildings into tight-knit villages, thereby preserving larger chunks of land for green space. Except in this case, manicured lawns are traded for working farms as a mixed-use and shared community feature.

A farmer himself and founder of the land planning firm The TSR Group, Redmond has more than 3,000 acres under development as early experiments in what he calls “agriburbia.” One such venture, The Farmstead at Granite Quarry, will blend 275 housing units and commercial space with fields of vegetables on 126 acres in North Carolina. The team has already hired a farmer to tend a 40-acre professional agricultural operation, as well as “steward farms” that homeowners will have the option of hosting in their own backyards. (Twelve lots have already presold over the Internet.) Upon completion, the town center will include a farmer’s market, an education center offering cooking and gardening classes, and leasable sales space for local growers.

The model has financial benefits too, Redmond says. Funds that would normally pay for landscaping are parlayed into food production, which yields a return on investment. And farms aren’t an extra infrastructure line item since they use the same roads, water, and sewer as the adjacent housing.

But the biggest boon may be the role farming can play in phased development. Empty parcels that will eventually support homes or retail can be cultivated to grow salable produce in the interim.

“We can do feasibility studies with local restaurants and schools and grow enough to meet that demand five or 10 acres at a time,” Redmond explains. “Everything is staged, with agricultural production beginning first, so you can pay your way through each phase. That way you don’t end up with a half-built PVC forest that you can’t sell. Even if there are only five to 10 houses built, it will feel like a community if there is farm production. It won’t feel abandoned.”