If this year`s New American Home is any indication, a significant segment of home building in the 1990s will be keyed to a simpler, downscaled, energy- conscious lifestyle.
The three-bedroom, 2 1/2-bath home, presented at the recently concluded annual convention of the National Association of Home Builders in Atlanta as the epitome of what`s new in building, is smaller, less elaborate and more urban than any of its recent predecessors.
Sponsored by Home and Builder magazines and the National Council of the Housing Industry, a consortium of building product manufacturers, the home exemplifies a number of emerging trends:
– Downsizing. At 2,200 square feet on a 5,000-square-foot lot, the home is more modestly scaled than was typical for the seven previous New American Homes shown at the convention.
– Lack of ostentation. In contrast to much building of the 1980s, the home is notable for a look in its traditional facade that the architects describe as ”austere.”
– Urbanization. Whereas the previous two homes in the three years the convention has been held in Atlanta have been built in relatively distant suburbs, the 1991 model is in the first circle of suburbs, only six miles from downtown Atlanta.
Less than a mile from two different public transit stations, the home`s location exemplifies a response to energy consciousness, according to Deborah Berke of New York`s Berke & McWhorter Architects, the home`s designers.
– The continuing rise of the master-planned, mixed-use project. The home is one of an intended 61 single-family houses on a 12.7-acre subdivision of Lenox Park, a 160-acre mixed-use development planned to comprise a million square feet of office space, 400,000 square feet of retail space, a 350-unit apartment project, an 80-unit midrise building for seniors and a legitimate theater. A park, lakes and another single-family development are also included in the plan.
– The importance of community. With its close-together homes, its consistent Colonial Williamsburg style and its proximity to services, the subidivision ”functions as a neighborhood,” said Berke. That neighborly feel is accentuated in the house because the garage is detached and placed at the rear, making the home`s front face look people-oriented rather than car-oriented.
The project is adjacent to Atlanta`s prestigious Buckhead area and attempts to benefit from the swanky aura, according to a market researcher associated with the project.
Of course, the home – and the lifestyle that goes with it – is not for everybody and was in fact created with a special market in mind.
”It`s a family house in a family community, but for a sophisticated buyer who`s willing to pay premium for a close-in” home with a lot of amenities, said Mitchell Rouda, editor of Builder magazine. ”It reflects the Baby Boom values of close-in living with high style on a modest scale.”
The $299,000 price of the home is in fact $100,000 higher than last year`s somewhat larger home, which was in an area farther from downtown where the land – 20 to 25 percent of the price – was cheaper.
Richard Plummer, the Atlanta builder who constructed this year`s home and will sell it, said he saw the buyers as ”a professional couple with sophisticated taste who have traveled enough to see the European or New York influence in building.”
Various features of the home reflect other trends evident in home building for the last several years. Chief among them is the zoning of the home into a formal area in front and a casual area in back.
This differentiation, Rouda said, responds to ”the schizophrenic personality of Boomers. They want to show that they`re successful and have dinner parties, and for that you need an old-time house. But actually they like rock music and a casual manner of living. That personality split has a direct architectural impact.”
The home`s dark red brick facade is plain, almost quaint, and a quiet foyer with a raised ceiling leads to a parlor on one side and a dining room on the other in traditional fashion.
In the rear zone, however, the house opens up to a family room subtly divided into two segments, a sun room, a kitchen and an eating area, all flowing into each other.
The sun room and the elliptical eating bay break through the square of the house in back, and the rear is faced not in brick but in clapboard, accentuating the front/rear distinction. Windows, which are small, simple and well separated in front, are larger and grouped together in back to let in more light.
Some other prominent trends exemplified inside the house:
– The return of the parlor. A 12-by-13-foot sitting room, with high windows and a fireplace flanked by bookshelves, has a ”talking feel,” said builder Plummer. With no place for a television, it is safe from the tube`s
”encompassing blue light,” added Berke.
The reappearance of the parlor in contemporary housing design is due to the importance of the family room. That room`s increased size has resulted in the shrinkage of the formal living room to parlor dimensions.
– The growing master suite. The suite, with its ample whirlpool and shower in the bathroom, takes up 60 percent of the home`s second floor. That space is amplified by the addition of a balcony with a spiral staircase that leads down to a patio and garden.
– The bonus space. Above the detached garage is a 300-square-foot room with full bath that could be used as an office, a suite for a grandparent or returning adult child or a rental unit.
Many visiting builders ranked the bonus space as their first or second favorite part of the home, said Plummer.
Perhaps the top eye-catcher of the home, according to the builder, is a row of built-in, floor-to-ceiling, glass-windowed storage cabinets that extends for an entire wall in the bedroom.
Considering the home`s size, the master suite has a surprising amount of storage space. Such space is almost always high on the list of what buyers want.
What distinguishes the home from many contemporary dwellings is the rigorously understated detailing – what the architects call ”stripped-down” tradition.
Instead of shutters ubiquitous in the Colonial style, front and side windows are framed in patterned brick. The front entry has no embellished entablature but a simple, unadorned overhang.
Inside, the moldings are plain, almost stark. ”This requires better craftsmanship, because there are no geegaws to hide mistakes,” said Berke.
”Builders` wives came in and said it reminded them of farmhouses their grandmothers lived in, and that was just what we wanted to hear.”
Simplicity is a cause with Berke, who said the Shaker style was one of her main influences. ”Our style is austere,” she said, rejecting ”ersatz” elements such as screw-on shutters or coach lights. ”We peeled all that away to get at the truth, the integrity of the materials.”
One of her pet peeves is the distortion of a traditional facade by putting in too many windows. In some recently built American communities, ”it looks like somebody loaded up a howitzer with windows and sprayed them against the side of the buildings,” she said. ”I don`t think traditional styles can sustain so many windows.”
Another of the truths Berke tried to establish was in the bathroom, where she said she wanted to create a perceivable space, a room that is intelligible as a room, rather than simply a ”plumbing extravaganza.” The space, square with a bay for the whirlpool and shower, is indeed quieter and more comfortble than many lavish bathrooms, without lacking the sumptuous waterworks.
There and elsewhere, the architects` Shaker simplicity doesn`t exclude self-indulgence. To solve the problem of having two conflicting centers of interest in the family room, the television was built into the wall next to the fireplace.
”With the fireplace and TV on one wall you can have all the stimulus overload you can bear,” said Berke`s partner, Carey McWhorter.
