The Offset House - Is This the Suburban House 2.0?

[M II A II R II K]

Is This the Suburban House 2.0?


January 19th, 2016

By ZACH MORTICE

Read More: http://www.citylab.com/design/2016/0...use-20/424473/

.....

It’s called the Offset House, and it’s by the Sydney-based studio otherothers. It started with Australia’s bizarre status as one of the most urbanized nations on Earth that is nevertheless still one of the least dense. Between those two poles, suburbia is the rule and reality.

- Take a puffy, Neo-Whatever McMansion, and strip away its thin veneer of brick and pattern-book pediment. Leave the wooden stick framing intact. Now you’ve got a veranda shorn of historical design tropes in favor of structural expression, authentic materials, and pleasing rhythms of post and beam. --- The proposal flouts consumerist tendencies with a quick, focused act of self-abnegation, great for hammocks, barbecues, parties, and other ways to enjoy Sydney’s (or Florida’s) climate.

- There are aesthetic and cultural reasons to pull back the borders of hokey cornices and columns and create semi-public space in landscapes that are often punishingly privatized. But the Offset House also rests on an economic supposition about what people want from their houses. --- At a time when Australian banks are refusing to lend for greenfield developments, bloated houses are declining in price, and urban apartments and utility costs are skyrocketing, the Offset House can offer suburbanites trapped in massive energy hogs a financial escape hatch.

- By making a section of their home an outdoor veranda, and shrinking the climate-controlled footprint of it, they would downsize the Australian (or American) Dream—but also their utility payments. Uniting suburban populism with design-nerd aspirations, the Offset House identifies why there’s so much confusion and mistrust between designers and the suburban communities they mostly don’t work for.

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[KEVINphx]

wtf - no

[brickell]

- Take a puffy, Neo-Whatever McMansion, and strip away its thin veneer of brick and pattern-book pediment. Leave the wooden stick framing intact. Now you’ve got a veranda shorn of historical design tropes in favor of structural expression, authentic materials, and pleasing rhythms of post and beam. --- The proposal flouts consumerist tendencies with a quick, focused act of self-abnegation, great for hammocks, barbecues, parties, and other ways to enjoy Sydney’s (or Florida’s) climate.

I'm not sure the writer has actually been to Florida...

[Steely Dan]

Originally Posted by M II A II R II K

Is This the Suburban House 2.0?

not in chicagoland, that's for sure.

[jfk2396]

Hmmmm #Skeptical

[drumz0rz]

So basically take a normal house but attach acrylic sheets to the outside instead of insulation, plywood and weatherproof siding?

Hmm, I think I'm firmly in the 'no' column on this one...

[SLO]

This looks like a bad Arch 101 community college project.

[King Kill 'em]

If they want to market to people who want suburban homes but make them more dense and urban they should do small lot subdivisions like they're doing in LA. Here's a company that has down a few.
http://www.modative.com/small-lot-subdivision-projects

[LSyd]

i went house hunting with my wife a few weeks ago, including suburban neighborhoods, and found one that was pleasantly surprising thanks to the small lots which still managed to have big back yards for kids and dogs.

"why do you think it's so cheap for these houses?" she said
"because the lots are small and you're next to your neighbors' backyards on 3 sides instead of hiding in the woods," i said.

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