Challenge #1
A considered approach to house design and fulfillment.
A house’s influence goes well beyond its fundamental role as shelter, but that influence is being overlooked and underestimated.
In the past 50 years we have learned a great deal about the impact of our surroundings on our daily life, but residential design hasn’t kept up. The world gets more chaotic every day. Humanity is craving peace through mental health, physical health and connection. The design of a house has a significant influence on each of these things, but it’s not being leveraged.
Challenge #2
A house is one of the biggest financial investments in life. The cost of a house is increasing significantly, but the product isn’t improving.
Needless design complexity, which is typically cosmetic and has no impact on the function of the house, significantly increases labor costs. These costs “walk away” when the house is finished and add no longterm value to the investment. Furthermore, selling costs are increasing with house prices and can be enormous, limiting the budget that could be used to add objective value and efficient performance. The result is that we’re paying more and getting less.
Our approach tackles both challenges head on: we are a design-first developer obsessed with maximizing a house’s influence on peace and well-being while also increasing its objective value.
Through research, study, interviews and experience we have developed five design principles that create places of peace where human beings can thrive. And by simplifying the form of the house and handling the sales process ourselves, we are able to re-allocate costs and increase the investment in materials and systems by about 10%. These investments include a metal roof, more and better windows and highly efficient heating and cooling systems. Not only do these things increase the value of the home, they significantly reduce monthly operating costs.