Introduction
Beginning in the early 20th century and the postwar period in particular, rising economic prosperity fueled demand for the detached single family house. Unchecked proliferation of the single family dwelling has reshaped US built environment from reasonably dense and walkable cities and streetcar suburbs to an automobile dependent pattern of suburban and exurban development.
For decades, house size in the United States has grown, from an average of 1,000 sq ft in 1950, to current average of 2,300 sq. ft. Concurrent with growth of square footage is the reduction in family size, new family configurations and diminishment of natural resources including fossil fuels and water.
A fundamental principal of sustainability is conservation of resources. And parallel to the notion of conservation is, or should be, stacking of functions i.e. making things that are capable of simultaneously performing multiple functions which meet our current and future needs. It follows that a key concept for designing a sustainable single family house is reshaping house form to incorporate greater flexibility of use and reduced size.
With these simple ideas in mind, Flex House is a house that:
Better fits our social patterns by changing configuration to accommodate the dynamic form of the contemporary family and living arrangements not common nor anticipated in the 1950's.
Is smaller yet maintains a feeling of spaciousness and connection to the exterior environment
Incorporates energy conserving design features and sustainable construction materials to reduce carbon footprint of the house throughout its life cycle.
Flex House may be configured as a single unit, a single unit with ancillary studio space, communal dwelling or duplex. This range of configurations is suitable for a family, a family with live-in childcare provider, elderly person(s) with live in health care provider, or 2 single bedroom apartments. Such flexibility opens the door to a variety of living arrangements including multi generational situations where varying degrees of separation between occupants may be desirable.
During the recent boom years between 1995 to 2007, the rate of increase in house prices significantly outpaced inflation and wage growth, making the cost of a new house less affordable for all home buyers and especially so for first time home-buyers with limited or overburdened incomes. The current economic climate has brought deflation in house prices however improvement in affordability is offset by concerns over job and wage security. In either set of market conditions, the smaller size of the house will reduce sales prices, resulting in lower down payments and monthly mortgage expenses. In situations where the owner is either single, a young couple without children or empty nesters, Flex House can bridge the affordability gap by providing a modest amount of rental income for the owner.
The compact footprint of the Flex House is enhanced by diagonal views through interior spaces to generously sized window openings, creating an expansive interior environment and visual movement toward exterior landscaped areas.
Flex House satisfies the triple bottom line criteria of sustainable design by providing benefit to the ecological, social and economic spheres:
Ecological sphere– reduced house size saves resources, energy and land; implementation of multiple “green” strategies to reduce carbon footprint and achieve Zero Net Energy.
Social sphere – potential to create new, symbiotic housing opportunities and new social relationships.
Economic sphere -smaller more flexible houses are less expensive and tap an underdeveloped market for smaller urban homes and alternative family and financing structures.
One can not design a sustainable house without consideration of the systems which enable it and in particular, transportation and energy network. Flex House is intended for transit oriented developments which will limit introduction of additional greenhouse gas emissions attributed to automobile use. Flex house is constructed using sustainable materials and equally important, is designed to achieve California's goal of Zero Net Energy buildings by 2020 - read about Zero Net here.
Current house sizes are surely a product of marketing but they also meet a perceived need for additional space including storage, media rooms etc. An honest accounting of individual needs and consumption rates is a key component to creating new housing typologies. Downsizing of our individual spatial budgets is a sustainable act. Imagine the resources saved when the size of a bedroom is reduced 36% ( 15’x15 reduced to 12’x12’) and the savings multiplied over hundreds of thousands of units.
And yes, in a drive to make all spaces as neutral and flexible as possible, Flex House omits the closet in favor of "bring your own". It is intended that owners/occupants will outfit their houses with their own storage units - either pre-manufactured furnishings or "kit of parts" storage systems designed to work with the house.
The house is a key element of the American Dream and is a cultural icon which functions as both symbol of success and sign of individual achievement and wealth. Yet the American Dream is not sustainable and house form must change. The Flex House presented on the following pages is one answer to the question of what and how to build; solving the questions of how much house we need, house as symbol and cultural acceptance of a new housing types are the next iterations in the design process.