Homes For Humanity – Four Fundamentals For An Everyday Modernism
Habitat For Humanity, Greater San Francisco
Flexibility
A variety of separate spaces provides residents privacy while supporting their varying activities, but the key to this home is the separate lower floor “flex” bedroom with direct exterior access and adjacent bath that accommodates a variety of family needs – a third child’s bedroom, home office, family room, adult child’s apartment, guest room, accessible suite for an elderly parent or a roommate rental to provide added income.
Affordability
A compact, simple and efficient (< 1,000 sq. ft.), form makes this home affordable by design via the minimal use of land and resources. Modest, yet durable and sustainable materials, detailed in a straightforward manner, make for cost effective construction. Coupled with energy and water efficiencies these reduce long term operating expenses. Renting the extra “flex” space helps pay carrying costs while providing yet another affordable housing choice to the community.
Constructability
Conventional, forgiving, stacked wood frame and slab on grade construction – short, simple spans, manageable lumber sizes, standard plate and header heights, basic shear walls – makes construction suitable for inexperienced, volunteer labor. Humble materials and details - fiber cement siding and trim, vinyl sash, self-adhering roll roofing and linoleum flooring – allow for less than precise execution. Off the shelf Energy Star components and equipment contributes to energy conservation.
Sensibility
The compact homes lend themselves to numerous urban infill strategies and sites, forming a hierarchy of open spaces from public to private. Homes address the street with dooryards, ample windows and entry porches that define territory and provide security through observation, strengthening our public realm. In the Bay Region domestic spirit of Wurster, Eshrick or Eichler they derive their aesthetic not from nostalgia, but from the realities of contemporary life and means of construction —
“An Everyday Modernism”
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