Lew Sichelman
Thousands of homebuilders from all over will flock to Las Vegas this week for their annual convention: the International Builders’ Show. At IBS, design and construction professionals will preview hundreds of sinks, toilets, cabinets and what-have-you, as well as entire demonstration houses featuring the latest design trends and the hottest new products.
One showplace that always draws a lot of interest is the much-heralded New American Home. But this year, two of the most interesting demo houses won’t be seen by convention attendees – at least not in person. One, the Virtual Concept Home from listing platform Livabl, only exists virtually, as the name implies. Another, called VISION House, was built in a Milwaukee suburb.
Livabl’s concept home actually debuted at the regional Pacific Coast Builders Conference last year. But IBS in Vegas is where it will receive the most play, albeit on computer screens. Whether builders will be impressed enough to adopt its ideas remains to be seen, but it’s being billed as “the home that grows with you.”
‘The Home That Grows With You’
The base design is roughly 2,300 square feet, but it can be built slightly smaller or larger. It can have three or four bedrooms, and three or four baths. The plan calls for a covered outdoor lounge and both public and private courtyards. With four flex spaces, the house can adapt to the needs of various life stages, including young families, empty nesters and multigenerational households.
“This isn’t a futuristic, over-the-top home; this is a home for today’s consumers, taking into consideration the changes of the past few years and how people live in and use their homes now,” said Jeff Meyers, CEO of Zonda, Livabl’s parent company.
Convention visitors can virtually “walk” through the place and toggle between layouts, materials, finishes and color schemes. You can experience it yourself at 2024concepthome.com.
“I call the house a chameleon because it truly can adapt itself based on the user’s needs at a snapshot in time,” said Dave Kosco of Bassenian Lagoni, the California architectural firm that led the house’s collaborative design team.
The space off the main living area, for example, can be used as an office, game room or bedroom. The backyard has three different outdoor-living options. Even at its smallest, the yard has room for outdoor dining, a spa with a pergola, sitting areas, and water and fire features.
While a two-car garage is almost a given these days, the Livabl design calls for a single-car enclosure plus an adjacent carport. As a parking space, the carport can be separated from the garage by a “phantom screen,” but it also can function as an extension of the private courtyard at the front of the house. An optional lift can be added in the garage to hold two cars, if necessary.
Entering the house from the parking area, there’s a space that can function as a mudroom or as an office with a built-in desk. Another flex room can be a nursery or a sitting room, or the space can hold a staircase to the optional second story.
Green Home Showcase
Meanwhile, with the VISION House in Sussex, Wisconsin, Green Builder Media and its partners aim to show how houses can be built to optimize performance, sustainability, resilience and health – all at attainable prices. This particular showplace was built by Tim O’Brien Homes, a company long committed to sustainable building.
When the house was open to the public last September, visitors were particularly excited about the solar panels and the batteries for power storage.
“They loved the idea of having their own mini utility company using the power they generate,” said O’Brien.
Save for the gas furnace, which only comes into play during severe weather, the house runs solely on electric power. The solar panels drive the system, but batteries and a power inverter provide backup electricity in case of outages. The system charges during off-peak hours and uses what’s stored in the batteries at peak times, thereby economizing on electricity rates.
The VISION House doesn’t have any special design features like Livabl’s house, except maybe its open floor plan with “‘de-stress’ zones” and “phone charging stations where they should be,” per a news release. But it has dozens of other futuristic features: sustainable polyester carpeting made from 100 percent plastic; PVC-free laminated wood veneer flooring; shower tiles made from 98 percent recycled material; touch-control kitchen faucets with three different settings – including Boost mode, which increases the flow rate by 30 percent.
The garage doors are made of 76 percent recycled steel. All walls, ceilings and trim are covered by low-volatile organic compound paint. Windows are high-performance Energy Star-rated units. And closet shelving can be adjusted at will, without any tools.
Other versions of the VISION House have been erected throughout the country to educate both builders and consumers on how to construct a more efficient home. See details at greenbuildermedia.com/about-vision-house.
Sure, these houses are aesthetically pleasing, but according to Green Builder co-founder and CEO Sara Gutterman, “unless we’re building next-generation homes that are net-zero, electrified, resilient, healthy, connected, solar powered, and, in some cases, prefab, then all we’re doing is erecting structures that someone down the line will need to fix, repair, upgrade or tear down.”
Lew Sichelman has been covering real estate for more than 50 years. He is a regular contributor to numerous shelter magazines and housing and housing-finance industry publications. Readers can contact him at lsichelman@aol.com.
