After World War II, the Federal Interstate Highway System allowed easy access for millions of families to populate subdivided farmland out every significant city in the United States. Flat, dry land with good soils for structural support and for receiving the new homes’ septic flow were gobbled up by suburban sprawl for a production.
However, for the last 30 years, available homesites within commutable distances from workplaces have often been embarrassing leftovers. Their property lines have trended away from simple rectangles to some fairly crazy shapes. Steep slopes are often part or most new house building websites. Wetlands are often present. Septic areas are often found by the subsoils rather than reacting to adapt the ideal house location.
Average house plans we frequently find — ranch, bungalow, cape and centre hall — were conceived for easier sites. Now homeowners seeking to build should use designers to reconceive stock house plans or come up with custom designs to deal with the irregularities of available lots. It’s the exact same for people who want to enlarge an present home onto websites whose shapes, wetlands or soil conditions make easy expansion either hopeless or overpriced.
Here are three approaches to giving homeowners the dwelling area they hope for on today’s harder building lots.
Studio Kiss – ASAP House
Compact footprints. Stock plans and modular manufacturing housing have reacted to increasing regulations that may reduce the size and form of area on which you are able to construct. 1 solution for smaller websites will be a compact and regular footprint, allowing prospective buyers to construct a new house on a tight site at a sensible cost.
With a footprint that’s 40 feet wide and 47 feet deep, this modular house is excellent for bigger lots. Nevertheless it comprises on the first floor a large living, diningroom, cooking and great area; a study and guest area; plus a powder room; and four bedrooms with two bathrooms on the second floor. With a total area of 2,500 square feet, the house is excellent for a growing family.
Knight Associates
Renovating an present structure. Another choice is working with existing houses which are “grandfathered” in places where an unbuilt site would prove far more restrictive. An present house often predates its present lot restrictions, allowing the homeowner to either renovate or replace the existing structure in a minimum.
This brand new house replaced an earlier structure which was really close to the water and enabled yearlong usage. Regulations limited growth to no longer than 30 percent over the present footprint, although without an present house, a new home wouldn’t be allowed to be constructed in such close proximity to the water.
Custom layout. Ultimately, creative architects who understand the local building and zoning codes could control the form and planning of new designs to max out useable space, views and curb appeal. This house, by Wayne L. Good, is sited on a compact, 60- by 116-foot south-facing lot with sweeping panoramic views of a bay. Total lot coverage was strictly limited by Chesapeake Bay Critical Area regulations, which resulted in a streamlined three-story plan with a garage tucked under the house.
The projects illustrated here show ways that increasingly restrictive regulations have restricted the size and shape of new homes — but not the creativity of their designers.
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