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The Lower-Cost, Low-Tech Modern Home
See how to trim building costs and still get a home design rich in modern spaces and style
Houzz Contributor. I am an architect and writer living in New York City. I have Bachelor of Architecture and Master in Urban Planning degrees, and over ten years experience in architectural practice, split between Chicago and NYC. Currently I'm focused on writing and online pursuits. My daily blog can be found at http://archidose.blogspot.com
Houzz Contributor. I am an architect and writer living in New York City.... More »
While modern design can be seen as cost prohibitive to many, its basic characteristics — open planning, simple surfaces and details, and generous glazing — can nevertheless be accomplished with lower budgets. Trimming costs may come with the choice of materials used, the types of details executed, and the size and scale of a house. The following examples incorporate one or more of these techniques to exhibit lower-cost and low-tech solutions that are still otherwise modern in terms of space and style.
More: Regional Modern Home Design
More: Regional Modern Home Design
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| This house in Texas by architect Nick Deaver is wrapped in corrugated metal, a relatively cheap material that is also fairly low-maintenance. At the main entrance, stone is used to clad a small volume next to a steel-framed canopy over the patio. |
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| The canopy shades not only the patio but also the large glass walls next to it. The primarily solid wrapper of corrugated metal gives way to a glazed expanse that is quite modern. Beyond the open living/dining/kitchen area is visible, as you'll see next. |
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| The interior is treated with a simple palette — wood floors, drywall walls and ceilings — that fits with the open plan. A small detail that is worth noting is the base at the bottom of the wall. In many modern houses, this base is eliminated, necessitating a highly crafted joint that easily adds cost to a project. Painting the base to match the wall is an effective way of extending the simplicity of the space while saving money. |
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| A low-maintenance landscape surrounds the house, lending it the understandable moniker, "Walkabout." |
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| Elsewhere in Texas is Lake | Flato's Porch House, a sustainable house made from a modular kit of parts. The example here illustrates a couple dogtrot houses, which feature breezeways between enclosed ends. |
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| This breezeway gives us a view of the horizontal wood boards that wrap the walls and the roof's corrugated metal, which is also offered as cladding for the walls, per the architect's page for the Porch House. |
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| Another view of the breezeway shows how it can be closed off with sliding doors to cut down on breezes and increase privacy. |
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| It's clear inside the Porch House how small the footprint is, but it's nevertheless efficient, and the cross-ventilation is an advantage of a linear house plan. |
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| It looks like Texas is onto something in terms of low-cost modernism (with a clear vernacular twist), as this is yet another house in that state. Designed by Stuart Sampley Architect, the Moontower Residence — named for a nearby Austin landmark — is shaped by existing trees on the site; porches and glass walls take advantage of these natural features. |
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| As documented in a previous Moontower Houzz tour, the exterior materials are corrugated Galvalume (roof), fiber-cement siding (walls), and locally harvested cypress (porches and soffits). |
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| Added to this minimal palette are some nice touches in metal: a sliding door by artist Susan Wallace in particular, and steps made from grating. |
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| One last glimpse of outside before we head inside shows us the fence of corrugated metal, an inexpensive construction that has a rustic appearance that melds with the house. |
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| Like the first example in this story, the interior is light and open, treated with wood and white drywall surfaces and fairly standard details (base, window frames, etc.). Sliding glass doors tie the interior to the exterior and place the focus on the large tree. |
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For the last project in this ideabook, we head west to San Francisco and a vertical addition by jones | haydu. Clad in ribbed metal with wood accents and frames, the addition opens itself on the top floor to bay views.
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Inside the addition is a mix of low and high spaces, white surfaces, untreated wood framing, and steel grating.
by jones | haydu
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The low-cost, low-tech nature of the project is evident in the exposed wood framing between the old a new, perpendicular to an exposed expanse of the old house. Fitted into the wood studs are custom shelves, an interesting touch.
More: The L-Shaped House Plan
Living La Vida Local
Regional Modern Home Design
More: The L-Shaped House Plan
Living La Vida Local
Regional Modern Home Design
Ideabook updated on Dec. 18, 2011.
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love it love it.
I hardly think it necessary to deem them "... the ugliest things I've ever seen an architect design".
Not everyone has the same aesthetic or taste. I personally do not care for heavily ornate McMansions, but I'd stop short of calling them ugly.
I'd simply not comment, but if I felt I simply had to, I certainly wouldn't refer to them as "overdone, ostentatious, generic, personality-less bile".
Just sayin'.