Production Housing: The Ultimate Adrenalin Junkies Solution: Residential Architects

Truth is this conventional wisdom is a lot like common sense – Common sense is just not so common. It takes a specialized skill-set and years of honing them to tame the opposing forces involved in production housing.

Fact is, production housing is a beast, and taming that beast is challenging. So, how do you tame this beast?

Outside-in Design
First, start with outside-in design. Starting with the simplest of forms, the rectangle is an important element. Every exterior corner costs money in more ways than you’d imagine. From layout of the house, setting of the concrete forms, additional truss types for the roof, extra studs in the wall, corner bead for the stucco, waste and cuts with the sheetrock, hip and valley sets on the roof and not to mention all of the labor to complete the extra work involved.

This still understates all that’s involved. You also end up with extra exterior surface on the walls. The net result is increased amount of stucco and insulation.

Modular Layout
Second, work with modular design. Most all materials used in housing are modular. It’s important to know which modules are important and which are not. Modular layout and design will reduce labor and materials used in construction. High Performance Framing techniques fall into this category. It just doesn’t seem right that it’s possible to use less framing material and increase energy efficiency with a simple strategy. But, at Anderson Studio Architects, we do it time and again.

Next, relentless review and consideration of materials used. This concept includes, door and window counts as well as variation of sizes and counting lineal feet of cabinets and counter tops. Simple things like creating a split linen / coat closet will reduce one door. The door isn’t the only cost involved. You also have labor to hang it and hardware. Paint may be extra depending on how the painting contractor bids his work.

Fourth, layout of interior walls is important. Long linear walls (caution must be exercised here since its tough to keep waves out of long walls) make it easy for the framer, sheet rocker and flooring goods installer to complete their work.

Aesthetics are Essential
Up to now, we’ve only discussed costs. Now let’s interject the fun part of design. Houses must have enough interest to appeal to the public. Without out this appeal, you end up with a cost effective house without any buyers. There’s nothing worse than a cost effective house that doesn’t sell.

This leads us to; creating interior spaces that are dramatic and feel larger than they really are is necessary. With every square foot of space being important, it’s necessary to understand how to maximize space while including the benefits of outside-in design.

Over 20 thousand homes have been built in Arizona from plans designed by Anderson Studio Architects. Give Jon a call see how you can have marketable homes that are less expensive to build. In other words, top Residential Architects that design homes that are profitable even in today’s market.