Click Your Way to Greg Lavardera's Modern Stock Plans
by Lloyd Alter, Toronto on 07.18.07
One of the attractions of modern prefab has always been that one gets the design talent of a good architect without having to go through the time and expense of actually working with one; many people also are afraid of architects, fearing that they will get what the architect is selling rather than what they want to buy.
This is particularly an issue with modern design, where people are much more likely to be comfortable if they can see plans and pictures of a house that has already been resolved. It is the reason for the success of Michelle Kaufmann's modern prefabs; once the first is built the others are much easier.
For quite a few years now Greg Lavardera has been selling modern home plans, and now quite a few of them are getting built. Shown above is Greg's Plat House built for Don DeFeo, who confirms the point: According to the New York Times, the fact that the Plat House had been built before only helped to convince him. “There was one already completed in Arkansas,” said Mr. DeFeo, “and they had great pictures of the house online.”
Even Greg will admit that "The design is based on a guest house I worked on in 1995 and which has been updated, completely redesigned actually, to offer as a stock plan. Complete drawings were never done the first time around so it is being recreated from the ground up to make it part of the plan collection."- it takes time to gain traction.
It is a simple, efficient 1420 square foot house and Greg presented it well, but the pictures tell the story better:
Stock plans are a great way to promote modern, efficient and well-resolved designs and to save a bit of money and time for the client. More importantly it is great way to reduce risk as you know what you are getting. Another important point is that many architects cannot make money doing one-offs of very small houses, whereas by selling plans all of that work can be amortized over a number of units. That creates a greater opportunity for smaller, better, greener houses without architectural bloat.
Greg also notes that "We have always favored modern/contemporary design for residential architecture, but the day to day life of a small architectural practice on the east coast does not encounter many clients interested in this kind of design."- by selling plans, he is able to reach a larger market for modern than he could providing full architectural services, and certainly farther than architects doing modular designs, who are limited to the range that their factories can deliver and install to, a factor slowing the spread of modern modular design.
Congratulations to Greg Lavardera for breaking through the barrier of banality in the stock plan biz and offering a catalogue of smart modern houses and persevering long enough to get a few built. ::Lamidesign Read also ::New York Times on new and different stock plans.
i applaud mr. Lavardera's persistence to the masses, but as a designer i have to question the consumer. i will never understand why you would want to use the biggest investment of you life to buy something that looks exactly like 72 other houses. these plans might have some flexibility though, and it seems like they might use different materials which is nice.
Why the high axis, 1950's style horizontal, narrow window that you can't see out of from the inside?
I grew up with a bedroom with one of those and absolutely HATED not being able to look outdoors. I learned later that those hihg, small, h orizontal axis windows came into being right after WWII because there were still glass shortages and all windows were very expensive compared to lumber and wall board.
Why is that thought of as green?
Read the article, Yanni.
yanni-
I imagine the appeal would be toward reducing the cost of the biggest investment of their life. A custom designed home is a luxury, and unfortunately, good design usually is as well. It's nice to see that I might be able to afford a little bit of one, even if I can't afford them both. And given the the trend of mass development as of late, I think just having a home that isn't identical to 72 others in the neighborhood alone is a strong step forward.
Yanni:
If your neighbour drives the same car as you, you don't complain that it looks the same, you say "hey, he has good taste!"
wow, thanks for all of the responses.
lloyd:
with a car you dont have a choice to go to the creator (ie: architect) and tell them that you alone wants something that looks different. kieran timberlake, an architectural firm, has built a house that uses the production method of car and aircraft production, trying to cut down on some of the costs associated with a "designed" home.
Yanni, I think you can get custom cars made. And like designing a custom house it will cost an order of magnitude more than buying one off the lot. A decent Honda, maybe 20-25k. A very nice BMW, maybe twice that. A custom built car, try 250k, maybe a million. What will you pay for a custom house design? 60k, 40k? Maybe a hungry young architect for 15k?
This does not diminish or replace custom design. People who have the interest and means to hire an architect for a singular commission are not considering stock plans. But this makes design available to people who otherwise would have to pass.
Stock catalog house plans are nothing new. The American consumer is already accustomed to buying a set of plans, building it on their lot, and having no house the same within the reach of their daily lives. That does not make it customized to their life, but its a clear difference from a sub-division of alike homes.
All that said the first two Plat Houses that were built are a few hundred feet apart!
I really like this Plat house design. I wish I had the high horizontal windows that yanni doesn't like - my wife is always closing the blinds for more privacy and I'd love the extra light from the high windows PLUS folks not being able to see in.
My big complaint is that these don't seem to mention how energy efficient they are (or are not). I know the architech was careful with the window overhangs and they look correctly sized for the northeast but for a stock plan effort it seems like an energy analysis would be cost effective. Cool house YES - hope it's energy efficient - and green too.
Beautiful.