Stack Townhomes - live model

Continue reading "Stack Townhomes - live model"

Stacked Townhomes - The Site Plan

The Site Plan is the biggest problem with a typical rear garage stacked townhome.

Last time we looked in some detail at the typical configuration of a Stacked Townhome with rear access garages. I promised that next we would look at the site planning implications of this kind of living space arrangement, and that’s what we are going to do today.

Continue reading "Stacked Townhomes - The Site Plan"

0971 Plat House 3 modification in the works

We are in the midst of a plan modification for a Plat House 3 bedroom with a garage attached, and a unique metal + stone cladding scheme.



This includes a mudroom and utility space between the garage and laundry room of the standard plan. The garage is an oft requested expansion to the Plat House. Continue reading "0971 Plat House 3 modification in the works"

Stacked Townhomes - typical configuration with rear garages

The precedent we are going to look at now is one of the most common configurations for Stacked Townhomes today. This is a three story two dwelling unit townhome configured with a 3 bedroom unit stacked over a 2 bedroom unit, with rear facing attached garages built into the volume of the house. Internally the units are in the typical stacked configuration with each unit consisting of 1 story + 1/2 floor.



I resist calling this the most “popular” configuration because I am not convinced that popularity among developers equals popularity among home buyers. Buyers are traditionally stuck with what is offered, and in this case the popularity among developers is more the result of unit yield per acre than a preference for the configuration of dwelling units.
Continue reading "Stacked Townhomes - typical configuration with rear garages"

Stacked Townhomes - a second Philadelphia precedent

To follow up on the last Stacked Townhome precedent study today we look at another infill project in the same neighborhood of Philadelphia - Hawthorne. This example is a more representative example of a stacked townhouse because unlike the first one which was a flat under a two story unit, this example consists of two units that are 1 story + 1/2 floor. This configuration is more consistent with the contemporary model of Stacked Townhomes.

If you go back to my first post on this design study you can see a sketch of this configuration. There is typically a ground floor entry, one door for each unit, with one unit on the ground floor and half the second floor; and the second unit on half the second floor and the entire third floor. In this case the setting is urban, and the ground floor unit has a small rear yard, and the upper unit only a small balcony. On this site the rest of the lot depth back to the alleyway is dedicated to a shared parking lot.

Continue reading "Stacked Townhomes - a second Philadelphia precedent"

Stacked Townhomes - Philadelphia, a resource for everything row house

Those who followed my Row House design study know that I relied on the rich stock of row house housing prototypes in nearby Philadelphia. The city contains a broad range of row house precedents from colonial times to the present. Almost every variation in row houses is represented in the city, so it should come as no surprise that there are examples of Stacked Townhomes in recent history.



When I was a young architect that landed in Philadelphia I immediately became aware of this scattered site infill project which consisted of a mix of two story townhouses, and a curious precursor to the stacked townhouse. This was a three story row house configured as a two story unit above a one story flat. These were built on some grant program that made the houses more affordable to low income home buyers, and at the time they were built the neighborhood was just beginning a transition through redevelopment.
Continue reading "Stacked Townhomes - Philadelphia, a resource for everything row house"

Stacked Townhomes - a Russian precedent

Thanks go out to reader Tony Denzer for his observation and recall. Tony pointed out this Russian precedent of an apartment building that follows the pattern of stacked townhouse.



This interesting example was published in the well known book Modern Architecture: A Critical History by Kenneth Frampton. Here this design by Ivanov and Lavinsky is described as a precursor to Le Corbusier's Unite stacked apartments. The Russian pair prepared this design for an international housing competition in 1927 and it is believed that this design is something that Corbu would have been well aware of by the time he designed his own apartment units.

Although the 1 & 1/2 floor configuration of the apartment units are the same as Corbu's Unite, the apartment buildings themselves are very different. The Russian apartment building is not a tall multi-story block, but rather just a 3 story building containing only the two stacked units, however they are oriented off a central hallway suggesting a long horizontal apartment block.

Also of interest in this scheme is the outdoor space for each unit, in both cases off the shared bedroom. Since access to the units appears to be from the common hallway, this means the ground floor bedroom can have an outdoor space that is not an entry porch. Continue reading "Stacked Townhomes - a Russian precedent"

Stacked Townhomes - looking for historic precedent

I’ve not been able to shed any light on to the emergence of this housing form. Web searches yield little as even the terminology seems loose. The term "Stacked Townhomes" is not reliably used to describe the form. 



I don't deny that somewhere out there is the original Stacked Townhome building, the one that was actually the first time it was built. Or there may be a paper or scholarship on this, but it did not reveal itself obviously to me, so the origin and genesis of the idea will have to remain a mystery. Perhaps one of you readers will have examples that take us back closer to Stacked Townhouse Zero, and I welcome any insights or contributions that shed light on this. Till such a time we will just proceed to examine the resources that I know and that lend some insight. Let's begin.

Continue reading "Stacked Townhomes - looking for historic precedent"

Stacked Townhomes - a new prototype design study

Longtime readers of my blog will know I often take part in an open development process here, sharing the development of new designs as they happen via this blog. The last time I did this was the development of our 1204 RoHouse family of townhouse designs. Now I am looking for my developer / builder readers to give me feedback on the question of developing plan sets for Stacked Townhouses. 



For those not familiar with the term, stacked townhouses are a form of duplex dwellings where instead of being side by side like Twin Houses, or one above the other like Flats, stack townhouses fit two dwelling units into a single 3 story row house unit. Because each unit occupies a floor and a half, and often is made to have each unit connect to a ground level garage, the internal arrangements can be quite entangled and contorted. Here however is not where the problem lies. The problem with these units is they typically result in a poor urban plan with no private outdoor space and awkward entries.

Yet units in this configuration have become tremendously popular with mid and large size developers. Why, why would a home configuration that produces poor and awkward urban spaces be so popular? Yield. Two units combined into a single 3story building takes up less ground area than a pair of twins, or a pair of flats. The lack of yards also increases the yield and ambiguous pedestrian “streets” reduces road infrastructure - all increasing the profit potential of a development.

But why do home owners like them? Well, not everybody who aspires to be a home owner wishes to have a big yard to take care of,  walks to shovel in winter, leaves to rake in fall. Yet many do not want to live in a large apartment building, or a large and complex condominium. These stacked townhomes fill a small gap in the marketplace of housing and I see them in the mix of most large suburban townhouse developments.

But this popularity does not mean that the stack townhome designs on the market are ideal. In fact they are weak on many fronts. I believe I can satisfy the developers desire for yield, and improve the quality of life for occupants. I intend to conduct an open design study through our blog, and if I can come up with improved prototypes I will develop them into houseplans and offer them through our site.

So please stay tuned and follow the series. We are going to start with examining some existing precedents, and typical arrangements. This process will be similar to the townhouse study I published while developing the RoHouse family of townhouse designs. I need you my readers to contribute observations of existing prototypes so that we can gain as much insight as possible.

Are you ready for this? We are! Continue reading "Stacked Townhomes - a new prototype design study"

0862 XHouse1 a peak inside

With all the excitement about new designs around here lately we have not forgotten about the roll out of the 0862 XHouse1 Construction Prints. To celebrate we've prepped a little interior virtual reality view - 360degrees up down and all around!

Just click on the picture above to load the virtual reality view. This is based on the QuicktimeVR platform - which is an old school format for 360 images like this. If you don't have the Quicktime software installed you probably won't be able to see this."

As always the 0862 XHouse1 is available in our catalog.

Continue reading "0862 XHouse1 a peak inside"

1204 RoHouse rolled out in the catalog

The RoHouse family of compact houses for urban infill, twin homes, and suburban townhouses has been rolled out and is now in the catalog.

Design Prints of RoHouse are available now, and Construction Prints are available now on a Pre-Order basis.

Continue reading "1204 RoHouse rolled out in the catalog"

1204 RoHouse for urban infill sites

This is the second example we have prepared for applications of the RoHouse - Urban Infill in groups and on scattered sites.

Because of the variety of sizes that the RoHouse is available in, you can easily find one that fits well in a single or pair scattered site infill. And when doing big or bigger groups of new houses, the range of sizes allows the developer to offer houses to suit a variety of budgets, and give the streetscape that organic diversity that makes cities great.

Continue reading "1204 RoHouse for urban infill sites"

1204 RoHouse - diagrams of the range

Some simple schematic models of the RoHouse range, to give you an understanding of all the variations which will be available.

Transverse stair plan in 14ft, 16ft, 18ft, & 18ft expanded; 2 story, 2.5 story, & 3 story.

Longitudinal stair plan in 14ft, 16ft, 18ft, & 18ft expanded; 2 story, 2.5 story, & 3 story.

continues..

Continue reading "1204 RoHouse - diagrams of the range"

Row House Concept - twin house configuration

We are now working towards Design Prints, and a presence for the now dubbed RoHouse in the catalog's XHouse Collection.

The challenge remains to figure out how to concisely represent the diversity of plan offerings here.

Continue reading "Row House Concept - twin house configuration"

Row House Concept - moving from concept to execution

We've reached a milestone in the design of the Row-House plans. The schematic layout of this collection of house designs is done. We now have to choose how to present these designs in the catalog, and for the first time post a group of houses that we have no intention of completing in advance of demand.

There are three distinct situations that we've designed these Row-Houses for. Urban in-fill sites; new development at row-house densities, and twin-houses, or duplexes for a transitional density between freestanding houses and attached row-houses. As such these designs extend the range of our offerings down to the smallest lots, highest densities common for American houses.

Continue reading "Row House Concept - moving from concept to execution"

0862 XHouse1 - Construction Prints complete

We are thrilled to officially announce that the Construction Prints for the0862 XHouse1 are complete and now offered on the catalog page.

The XHouse1 came into our catalog in 2008. The housing market had already blown up, and nobody was building houses, let alone modern houses. The design was posted to the catalog, spurring a new Collection, and shortly thereafter somebody had ordered a set of the Design Prints. Then 5 years passed without the release of the Construction Prints.

Continue reading "0862 XHouse1 - Construction Prints complete"

0862 XHouse1 - solving a puzzle laid out years ago

Currently in production in the studio are the Construction Prints for the 0862 XHouse1. I see this house design as a puzzle I laid out 5 years ago, and now I am finally getting a chance to solve it.

The XHouse1 was the first design in what was a new Collection of designs - the XHouse Collection. This was the first move to expand our plan offerings into different collections, and this was the first house design to deviate widely from the design themes of the original collection of plans. So this is, and has been an important design for us, a turning point.

Continue reading "0862 XHouse1 - solving a puzzle laid out years ago"

Plat House influence in Arkansas - amazing!

The Arkansas contractor who built the second Plat House in Arkansas has built a spec house that is modern and clearly influenced by his work on the Plat House! It is currently for sale now.

Well, I have to hand it to him after all - if I did not know the influence, it would just seem a contemporary house. Look what has happened here: Its likely this house would have never been built in this style if he did not know of the first Arkansas Plat House and had built the second one. This is exactly the kind of influence we wanted to create with the house plans. This is how tastes are influenced. I take it as a victory!

Continue reading "Plat House influence in Arkansas - amazing!"

Row House Concept - the case for 2, 2.5, & 3 story

So far in our documentation of our Row House design process we've discussed the overriding organizing type that results from the transverse or longitudinal stair. At the same time we've been developing three different versions of each type - a 2 story house, a 2.5 story house, and a 3 story house.

These three house sizes allow a range of accommodations even as the footprint remains the same. The basic 2 story house yields a 2 bedroom house design with a low slope roof. The roof however slopes at greater rate in the front bedroom creating a higher ceiling and a loft like feel. But even this most compact version of the house can be had with the expanded floor plate, yielding a 3 bedroom plan with additional living space on the ground floor.

Continue reading "Row House Concept - the case for 2, 2.5, & 3 story"

Row-house concept - longitudinal stair plan

Although I've not been reporting on it here on the blog, followers on G+ and Facebook know I have been moving the Row House concept along at a steady pace. I thought it was time for an update. Last time I reported on this effort I showed the range of designs for the Transverse Stair paradigm. Today we'll look at the Longitudinal Stair paradigm.

The nature of the Transverse Stair is that it divides the floor plate into two halves. This works well on the bedroom floors, however on the living floor it dictates a division between the living program of the house. In the Transverse Stair version we exploited that by emphasizing the division with a change in level. We put the living space up front, and a multi-function kitchen and dining space in back.

The nature of a Longitudinal Stair is different. It lives along the side of the floor plate, and depending on if its in front or rear, it exerts a different influence. I've chosen to move to the rear, a more modern attitude I think. In my mind this embeds the stair deeper into the family life of the house. Instead of being greeted at the front door by the passage to the most private areas of the home, the stair instead comes down into the heart of the living areas. The stair located at the side of the floor plate allows a more open and fluid treatment of the living space. I've chosen to make a discreet kitchen workspace at the front of the house, to form a physical buffer from the street, and allowing for a larger open living and dining space at the rear. This is a deliberate contrast from the configuration of my Transverse Stair model.

Continue reading "Row-house concept - longitudinal stair plan"