Design A Virtual House
House buildings with design concepts that adapt to the recessionary times were presented at the 2010 International Builders Show in Las Vegas.
Most of the home designs and home building materials displayed at the show were crafted to help builders and homeowners adopt to the downsized economy. Common concepts were smaller homes, flexible designs, low-cost-maintenance features, right-sized ventilation and heating systems.
Even the show itself used lower cost strategies to display designs and market their properties. Homes were shown to attendees as a virtual experience. Model home tours became virtual, eliminating the construction of expensive model homes. These virtual systems of showing homes in residential developments were also marketed.
One of the most popular designs in the show was the two-story concept called Home for the New Economy, which was designed by Alaska-based Marianne Cusato. The sustainable home, measuring only 1,771 square feet, can fit any existing neighborhood in any place in the U.S.
The home has a large porch across the front and a second porch at the back. A detached garage also sits on the back of the lot. It has four bedrooms, with the master bedroom on the second level and a first-floor room that can function as a bedroom, home office or a rental unit.
The best part of the design is its price – only around $170,000, in addition to the cost of the land. The price is much lower than the average cost of house buildings in Ottawa, which reached $410,000 last year, based on a report from the Greater Ottawa Home Builders Association.
Among the energy-efficiency features of the home are nine-foot ceilings that make the interior space look bigger, high performance windows, low-maintenance fiber cement siding and a tankless water heating system.
At the show, Connecticut builder Jim Pepitone also shared his sustainable building practices, including sealing interior spaces, implementing good insulation designs, and creating multi-purpose rooms.
Manufacturers also showed a large number of green building products. San Marcos-based Eldorado Stone showed outdoor stone veneer fireplaces, barbecues and fire pits. It also featured Gemstone Emberwall, which can be used to give a natural stone appearance to interior fireplaces.
Carlsbad-based LifeTime Lumber displayed its fire-resistant wood-alternative decking. It is made of fly ash and an inert material and does not contain wood, PVC or plastic. Soil Retention featured its paving system that can prevent storm-water runoff.
All in all, the designs and products shown at the Las Vegas event indicated efforts by builders and manufacturers to come up with green products and house buildings that require low maintenance costs.
