Modern living

Yesterday Paul and I went up to the Vietri warehouse in Hillsborough to catch a shuttle bus out Route 70 to the east to see the Dwell Model Home. This beautiful house is prefabricated, which has many advantages, although cost is not one. It's about $250/sq. ft., and we think it's around 4,000 sq. ft. (You can do the math.) The architect claims many environmental advantages--natural light, shading, etc. Earth-conscious products are used, including bamboo flooring and "plyboo."

Rather apologetically, the architect points out that they were "required by the local covenants to build a rather large house," going on to say that they "decided to build the smallest home permissible on the site and to keep a very open floor plan to have the house feel very spacious."

Our goal is to show that a home doesn’t always have to conform to the status quo – even though it may be legally required to be a certain size or height - rules which we find to be contrary to sound design principle and any kind of environmentally-conscious thinking.

Which leaves me to wonder why they chose this subdivision to build this house in in the first place. It is beautiful, the siting is beautiful, the possibilities go on and on. But Paul and I figured we could do with about a third of it--say the main level alone, give or take.

A video tour (scroll down) from the Dwell folks.