At the end of World War Two, the need to house the returning veterans and their families caused a flurry of activity among the design community. Spurred on by home journals and architecture magazines, architects and designers experimented with new materials, mass production, and even modular construction. The end of the war had placed new demands on the housing market for affordable houses that could be built quickly and maintained easily . Many magazines held special competitions and programs focusing on the need for modest housing. The results of these programs were some of the best houses ever designed. They were modest in size, and designed to be affordable to the average family at the time. In this article we'll explore some of the ideas that made those early houses so successful.
The best way to control the fixed costs of building a new home is by careful design and planning. Efficient use of space, and careful choice of materials will allow your house to increase in livability without becoming overly large. By focusing on the quality of the space over the quantity of square footage, and tailoring the house to your needs, you can build a better house that fits your life and your budget. If you were to hire an architect to design house today in any metropolitan area, you would pay about 10-15% of the estimated construction cost for design services. Add land costs, surveyors fees, contractor's profit and overhead, permit costs, utility hook-up and a healthy contingency for unforeseen conditions, and you will have spent a considerable amount before anyone swings a hammer. 30%, more or less, of your budget will not be available to spend on square footage. The French people have a saying; "Build as if to live forever, eat as if to die tommorow" While we can't give diet advice, I have to agree with their approach to architecture. Careful planning also means paying attention to the details of living. Christopher Alexander's book; "A Pattern Language" explains and outlines the important qualities of healthy and inspiring places. Be sure to really understand what makes a good environment whether it's a home office or an outdoor garden. This is something much more important than square footage.
We often hear people talking about how efficient a plan is because it doesn't contain "wasted space". We would add to that the thought that it isn't efficient if you didn't need it in the first place. Many of the houses designed in the early 1950's by Gordon Drake were planned to grow. The houses could be expanded with minimal impact to the existing structure. Planning for a future addition in the design of your house will save money up front since you're not buying as much material and labor, but it will also save money in the future when less effort is required to upgrade an exisitng house that was never intended to grow.Some other ideas are:
Concerns over vanishing energy resources have forced houses to become energy efficient, and stringent structural regulations in earthquake prone and high wind areas have added time and expense to the design and permitting process. Increased timber size to accommodate greater amounts of building insulation, double paned glass, and generally stiffer, tighter construction throughout has made the same house much more expensive to design and build today than it would have been even a decade or two earlier. While all these changes add up to a safe, energy efficient house, on average buying even a modest house requires two incomes in most places. Merchant builders have responded to increasing construction costs with acres of repetitive tract housing built assembly line fashion all over North America. In this article we have tried to explore some alternatives to the standard model for reducing costs. The Architects at SimpleHome are dedicated to bringing thoughtful design and careful planning back to the modest sized house. We hope you'll visit the Simplehome Plans page to see how we're doing it.