Free Green Turns House Design Business On Its Head
by Lloyd Alter, Toronto on 05. 2.08
There is an entire industry of stock plan books and plan sites. Some are created by architects and designers with talent; others are full of the usual faux manors. Very few are modern designs and fewer still are what one might call green. All of them are ripped off constantly by every builder and client who isn't willing to hire an architect and isn't even willing to pay a couple of hundred bucks for a set of plans.
David Wax and his team at Free Green turn the home design business model on its head. They are charging exactly what most people are willing to pay for design: Nothing.
And they are not bad plans at all; they say “Good home design comes from a collaborative effort in which aesthetics, performance, and value are constantly discussed, debated, and maximized” and it shows. They offer a fairly traditional three-bedroom 2-1/2 bath plan that would not offend anyone (having every standard feature that almost every house in North America has) and an interesting smaller "suburban loft" model, with the promise of many more to come- architects and designers are invited to submit plans for the catalog.
The business model: "we offer free, downloadable, buildable energy efficient and healthy home plans to everyone. Our revenue comes from the green product vendors that we specify into the plans (via an advertising and lead generation model)."
Architects can't make money doing one-off houses and most people aren't willing to pay for it, or don't even value it. The traditional model is broken, so why not market architecture like software or blogs and give it away, making money from the ads? Finally there is a model where somebody "looks forward to helping you [architects and designers] get the exposure and revenue you deserve."
Their construction documents are thorough, complete with "a Location Specific Energy Performance Report for over 200 cities across the United States, and Full Construction Document sets in 24 by 36 format (including all the details, and a LEED-H checklist for use on the job site)."
I downloaded the document package and as an architect who has done my share of them, I was pretty impressed. Getting work of this quality and thoroughness done for a one-off house would cost many thousands of dollars. Just the LEED analysis would cost thousands.
I so want this to work; it is a brilliant idea that could succeed where modern prefab failed, by making good green design accessible and affordable right across the country. Their timing is awful, smack in the middle of a real estate meltdown, and there is no guarantee that the person downloading the plans is going to implement any of the green ideas or use any of the products specified. Intellectual property has little value in the housebuilding game, so who knows what will actually get built. It is also almost completely a suburban and exurban business, which will be seriously affected by the price of oil.
However if it works, it could be game-changing. ::Free Green via ::Inhabitat
Remind us again when they get some more plans. Hopefully they will add more soon.
So how do they deal with states that require a professionals stamp?
I wonder if the lovely Affordable Passive Solar Homes Planbook has ever been mentioned here before? Freely downloadable. Lots of good tips on passive solar design too!
Two plans? It's nice that the plans are free and all, but maybe they should have waited until they had a few more to launch.
so far, all they have is 4 designs, and the smallest is a 2 bed/2 bath 2000 sq ft home. How is that responsible? I was raised in a 4 bedroom 1600 sq. ft house, with 2 siblings, and I thought that was huge. Hopefully someone will provide something for those of us with smaller (or no) families that don't look like another McMansion.
@dredg: While they may not yet have a model to suit your personal needs, it's certainly a step in the right direction. A family of similar size to yours could probably adjust these plans to their own needs (i.e. converting some of that extra space to bedrooms), and if green house plans are available, people may be able to spend the money they saved on plans on greener building practices. In any case, 2,000 square feet is smaller than the 2004 American average of 2,330 square feet (in all houses, green and not), and every little bit helps.
Jackie Oneil of Schwenksville has a one bedroom LEED platinum certified home, and she gives away the floor plans to anyone who wants them.
I think this is more about individuals sharing with one another than companies handing them out.
You are right in that it would be better/have less environmental impact if everyone wanted to live in small houses. One thing I love about custom design work is that I can advise a client on ways to meet their goals AND make the home as ecologically benign as possible through energy and space efficiency, among other things. However, the big picture problem is that less than 5% of new homes are designed by architects working directly with clients and even fewer designed by green architects. This may be because Architects have either lost touch with what people want or because a majority of Americans do not feel that design is a service worth paying a premium for. FreeGreen is not trying to replace custom design nor is it trying to be avant garde with every design it produces. What we are doing is responding to trends in the housing market while making incremental progress in reducing the ecological footprint of a single family home. In doing so, we are creating a new "open source" platform for the distribution of design, one that allows any architect to submit a design. So if you want to see your ideal square footage in a design, we welcome you to submit a design.
P.S. we will be posting new designs every month
Ben Uyeda
Chief Architectural Officer
FreeGreen.com
Thanks for sharing this plan and the others to come! I really appreciate all of these efforts and i will tell others about them. It's a beautiful idea and i encourage others to do similar things.
I like those plans id love to have a house that looked exactly like it. Im quite intrigued by the modern style and GREEN too?! Amazing
While I like this idea, one flaw I want to point out is: orientation of the building. Positioning the building to utilize north and south windows and minimize the harder to control east and western sunlight is what can make or break the energy efficiency of a building.
I think these building templates can be a good start, but you still might need an architect or engineer to then modify those plans to fit the needs of a specific site.
Has anyone considered the cost of heating and
cooling that nice empty space of the little house
with the nice ceiling open up above the 2nd floor.
Get real, guys. This is 2008. Green means
using fuel to heat and cool wisely. Unless you
are heating the floor in that living room, it will be
pretty miserable sitting in the wintertime, I'd think.
love it.
I have someone in Puerto Rico that's interested. Will you have a model available for Puerto Rico???
I continue to be amazed at the inate negativity expressed in many of these comments. Only two designs, what on earth is wrong with putting a couple out there and seeing what the reaction is like, that's the beauty of the web, the ability to continually update. Read the article, that is what they are asking for, more submissions. Likewise the comment about the size of the building, a remarkably spacious looking 2000sf design could drag people back from building a 5000sf monster, would that not be a huge improvement? As to the comment about orientation, that is not a flaw in the design, it is a consideration based on location and lot. Likewise the heating, if you were to build this place from scratch in a cooler location, the logical thing to would be to have solar in floor heating from a company like Enerworks, in a hot location that space and a cool floor could be just what is required to avoid air conditioning use.
Instead of immediately pouncing on some aspect of the design that one doesn't like, surely we should encourage anyone who is willing to put out this kind of effort, with kudos for what we like and constructive suggestions for improvement.
I say, whether I like this design or not, a bloody good effort, keep up the good work.
When it comes to remodeling their homes, most families go for square footage and opulence. We call it "mansionization" in our area. There is no way they will go back to the 2 bedroom, 1bath 800 sq. ft. of yesterday. Even with the eco-friendly stamp of approval. There is a possibility the more modern thinking families will embrace these plans, and at least use some, if not all, that is offered. It is a start in making less of our "footprint" in this world. Remember, it took a long time to make to problem, it will take time to fix it.
I love the idea of this design. The loft looks remarkably spacious, and the open plan only adds in the appeal. I like the looks and the size a lot. We have a household of 2 and both work ( some would call us dinks.. ) and the last thing we want is to spend our weekends cleaning our way too large home. We have a home ( in holland ) of which we only use the first floor ( we don't even use floor 2 and 3 ), it's a huge waste of space really. I still have no clue on why we bought it back then ( probably speculation or 'mansionization' effect ) but the next house we buy will definately be a downsizer for us.
We're thinking 2 bedrooms and open plan living. A toilet downstairs is an abolute must, as well as a bathroom in the bedroom. And the loft looks to be exactly what we need.
Basically, for us dinks, the loft plan is really ideal. Keep the good work coming.
PS : Is there a way to get these plans in metric system ?
Hi Ben, Dave, Emile and Team:
Great idea this offering of plans for LEED homes design on line. It could work wonders in MD and other US/overseas markets where folks want to downsize to simpler and more affordable/energy effiicient homes.
The idea would be to kit the home with a modular builder and make it even simpler.
Keep up the great and visionary work.
Best regards,
Gabe