Hometta: Affordable Modern Home Plans
Mark Johnson started daydreaming last year about how residential architecture in his native Houston would be improved if developers had a pool of pre-existing plans for small and attractive modern homes they could draw from.
Johnson is a real estate developer and builder, and he was dispirited by his research into the stock plan industry, which sells housing plans at a fraction of the price it would cost to commission an original design. It’s a good idea that’s often poorly executed, offering unoriginal plans for oversized houses.
So Johnson partnered with Houston architect Andrew McFarland to found Hometta, a company that would commission and sell plans for compact, sustainable homes designed by leading modern architects. He spoke to me from Houston as he gears up for Hometta’s launch next month with an initial stable of 20 to 25 designs available for purchase on its website.
“The big challenge has been creating a company with a vision and business model that works well with what professional architects and designers are already doing, without cannibalizing their business model,” Johnson said.
Draft House by Houminn
Hometta recruited a small team of “core architects” that have been recognized for their innovative modern design. The architects—James M. Evans, Dawn Finley (who was featured in Dwell's October 2007 issue), Brett Zamore and Blair Satterfield—are minority owners in the company and have sole control over which other studios will be invited to contribute plans.Other participating studios include Garofalo Architects, MANIFOLD.ArchitectureStudio, Zoka Zola, and Min|Day (whose Wide Open House is pictured below).
Wide Open House. Photo courtesy of Min | Day.
The plans will cost between $1,195 and $3,195, and Hometta will pay the original architect a royalty for each plan sold. That’s a significant savings for the consumer, who would typically have to pay 10 to 15 percent of the construction cost for a high-caliber original architectural design.
Consumers can customize the plans by working with their builder or a local architect, or by hiring the original architect to make custom adjustments, which Johnson encourages. Home sizes are capped at 2,500 square feet, and the plans encourage the use of sustainable materials and energy systems. Johnson says he hopes affordable home designs will lead to more good architecture being built.
Binary House. Photo courtesy of Collaborative Designworks.
Hometta will be at Dwell on Design 09 in Los Angeles, June 26-28. You can read about Hometta on their blog until the full site launches next month.
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I can't wait to see these plans. I honestly can't see why modern housing and furniture has to be so expensive. Lets hope "affordable" dosen't mean $250-$350+ a square foot.
What a great idea -- let's hope they have a lot of designs in the 1200-1800 sq ft range too. Seems like an antidote to the McMansion syndrome plaguing the burbs, though.
Great post. We obviously agree that modern house plans should be available for an affordable price. We offer our own selection at http://www.dialectdesign.com ! We take great pride in each of our home designs. And we are happy to see more options out there. A modern and also more sustainable style of living should be available for more people. That should mean that our services are affordable and also the construction expenses for our designs.
Cool plans. But... please, the flat rooves just don't work in Canada... make us some snow-friendly roof designs!! :)
I also agree on the need for a peaked roof. I live in MN and don't want to get up on my roof in the cold and wind to push snow off.
Not as "refined" but for someone looking for small and affordable here's how we did ours: www.lilhouseguru.com
Looks promising, but how have you not written about FreeGreen? FreeGreen.com They are up and running, offering FREE modern house plans!
Regarding flat roofs, there is no reason a flat roof will not work in snow country - it just requires that the roof be structured to support the necessary snow loads. A "flat" roof is in fact a "low slope roof" in order that it drains properly. Vegetated green roofs are also a possibility, for example, Chicago offers incentives to encourage green roofs in the city.
Again some square-toed designer hipster in black with the requisite soul patch designs "modern"...they all look the same with Ikea loveseats clustered in the center of the stark room...lnot unlike a waiting room in a psychiatric ward or Soviet era government office...probably orange in color or that puke green that is so popular with the style groove-niks....BALONEY!! these designs SUCK and are impossible to build on the cheap...also try to get financing HAHAHAHA!!!! but most of you "designers" have no real world experience in financing, hammering, getting approval from the design conscious city people, who by the way also wear black and sport face hair...this would be a great movie subject on why houses cost so much.....style kills!!!!!!
Please send me an email because I want to be one of the first to get a house plan. I'm hoping there will be some plans around the 800-1100 square feet range for the professional empty nesters that do not believe in the waste of mega-mansions. Can't wait to see them, I am going to build it myself.
Ben, I'm sure depending on the local market and finishes chosen these homes could end up costing $350/sqft. But I can tell you that the 48' House (1st one pictured in this article) by Dawn Finley and Interloop Architecture was constructed in it's original form for about $140/sq ft with great finishes in a nice neighborhood in Houston. So, I'm thinking most of the Hometta homes could shoot to stay under $200/sq ft.
Margaret, plans around the 800-1100 sq ft range include KRDB's Dogtrot Casita (620), Brett Zamore's Shot-trot House (1200) and Kiel Moe's Stacked House (1210). See them at hometta.com/design/houses.
Hey Margaret: Thats exactly what Im looking for too! Nice, modern, compact, single storey that I can build myself. Im not sure why architects continue to pump out 4000 sq ft houses-like the market isnt saturated with foreclosures that size! Cheers
I personally think that this is a fantastic idea and will be making contact. What amazes me is that people continue to be "hooked" by 4500 sp ft homes without any thoughts of the implications of power usage, upkeep and other costs involved with size. In addition, I find nothing more mind numbing than the feeling that one can be dropped in virtually ANY Houston neighborhood and you would not be able to tell where you were given the 6 styles offered by most developers. Houston is far more cosmopolitan than many other US cities and foreigners, like myself, cannot understand that Houstonians do not demand more from the most expensive capital purchase that they will likely ever make. Standing our from the crowd is an absolute obsession in the US it seems .... but that, it seems, does not extend to homes in TX.
Margaret and Gene, take a look at a few of our modern house plans on http://www.coolmodernhouseplans.com . Our smallest house is only 567 sq.ft. and still feels spacious. Our modern houses are designed to be easy to build with coventional building methods and materials. We are also builders for modenr homes in our local market and inform our very modern designs with a practical sense. Take a look.
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