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PROJECT:
Casa Kit Designs - Ultra Green Smart and Small Home Designs
PROPOSED PROJECT:
This activity fund will be used to develop three home designs to build prototypes for a new company Casa Kit Homes. Casa Kit Homes will provide healthy green living solutions for people that want to simplify their life and live gently on the earth. The ultra green fashionable kit homes will maximize resource efficiency, be powered predominantly by renewable energy, include an edible landscape plan, an energy and water conservation plan, a transportation plan, and a furniture and household ware plan. The Casa Kit homeowner will not only live in a unique green house, but they will become members of a Casa Kit community of pioneers of green living, sharing information and resources amongst each other. To price the homes fairly and provide ultra green features, the Casa Kits will be designed within a footprint of 600 and 850 square feet (and a two unit 1200 hybrid house option). A holistic design process is necessary to design small and smart to afford the alternative green options such as paint with no volatile organic compounds and solar panels to power the stereo. The activity funds will be used to conduct a highly integrated design process with design professionals, conservation professionals, and potential customers (profiled as first time buyers and empty nesters). This team will create and revise concept design sketches and landscape plans that follow function and furniture needs first. The designs will incorporate building concepts and materials for the upper Midwest market, in the Zone 4 planting region. The activity fund project will deliver three designs and a written evaluation of the design process.
WHY THE PROJECT IS NEEDED:
The average home size in North America is increasing and households are consuming more resources to operate and maintain these homes. At the same time as energy prices are increasing, making home ownership more expensive and less attainable. Following are some compelling numbers to demonstrate why we need to develop Casa Kit Homes.
In 1950 the average size home in the United States was 983 square feet. (National Association of Home Builders, 2006)
In 2004 the average size grew to 2,349 square feet compared to 815 square feet in the United Kingdome and 1000 square feet in Japan. (2006 2nd Edition Demographia International Housing Affordability Survey)
In 2005 the average price of a home in the U.S. was $255,000 with a household size of 2.59. (National Association of Realtors, 2005)
The number of households in the U.S. is growing significantly and people living alone or together as an unmarried couple account for 1/3 of U.S. households. By 2010 69% of people living alone will be between 45 to 64 years old. (U.S. Dept. of Health and Human Services)
Buildings account for 48% of greenhouse gas emissions in the U.S. 21 % of buildings are residential. In other words 10% of greenhouse gas emissions are produced from the residential sector. (AIA Architects and Climate Change)
The average house releases 22,000 pounds of CO2 annually. (Alliance to Save Energy)
A typical U.S. household consumes about 11,000 kwh electrical power per year. (U.S. Department of Energy)
Europeans use on average 4,667 kwh of electricity per year. (Green Peace)
Super-efficient solar homes can reduce monthly energy bills 50-70 % compared to conventional homes. (Amanda Griscom Little, Super Solar Homes Everyone Can Afford, Mother Earth News, 2005)
The seed funding is needed because in order to convince investors to fund the building of the first homes, I need compelling designs to attract them to the idea. Images matter and it will be easier to demonstrate that people can live in a 600 or 850 square foot space with beautiful smart designs. Also the designs inform the budget process. The budget included with this proposal demonstrates my commitment to the research and development of Casa Kits, on behalf of Madison Environmental Group, my primary company.
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