The Home House Project at SECCA

[intcvlcphlga]

I'm not sure if there was ever a discussion of this, but I thought with the discussions about sprawl, "New Urbanist" residential developments, the energy crisis, income disparity, the "American Dream," etc. it would be interesting to interject the innovative housing competition that SECCA (the Southeastern Center for Contemporary Art in Winston-Salem - an amazing institution and cultural asset of the community) launched into the fray. It focusses on challenging the current paradigm of traditional residential and suburban development in America by not reducing the house to a superficial discussion of style but rather examining the potential of the architectural, environmental (both natural and socio-economic), urbanistic, the experiential, etc. in the notion of the house both at the scale of the "home" and the neighborhood. Take a look at the link below and let me know your thoughts.

http://www.secca.org/homehouse/

[intcvlcphlga]

Just to make this a potentially more relevant topic, the plan is to build a few of the proposed schemes from SECCA in the Holly Avenue neighborhood in downtown Winston-Salem. Holly Avenue is a collection of Victorians, Queen Annes, turn of the century row houses and a few crack houses. That said, it is an up and coming area that is seeing a lot of investment from Christopher's New Global Cuisine, to bed and breakfast inns, to residential renovations, to the Brookstown Mill area developments, so it would be an interesting neighborhood to serve as a laboratory to experiment with a few of the SECCA proposals.

[twincity]

i love this project, just beacause is completely different from anything else in the other NC downtowns. I think SECCA only finalized plans for one home so far, but still plan on completing all seven. These homes should really stand out next to those row houses and victorian homes.

[twincity]

another infill project in the Holly Ave. district. vacant land will make way for 5 designs from SECCA's HOME/house project. Entries had to focus on ecologically sound and sustainable materials, technologies and methods. these regulations produced some very creative and whimsical designs. should be interesting to follow.

article

link to website

[ncbrian]

I saw these homes when I was walking through that area last week and wondered how they got to be there.

[intcvlcphlga]

another infill project in the Holly Ave. district. vacant land will make way for 5 designs from SECCA's HOME/house project. Entries had to focus on ecologically sound and sustainable materials, technologies and methods. these regulations produced some very creative and whimsical designs. should be interesting to follow.

article

link to website

I posted something about the HOME House Project a while ago - I think it got about 1 hit (so, from now on I will include a reference to Wal-Mart in all of my postings). That said, I'm glad there is movement on this initiative. It's a tribute to the excellent and visionary leadership at SECCA that so many innovative ideas came out of the competition and, I'm glad the Holly Avenue neighborhood is going to be the beneficiary. Do you know if they have decided which house schemes will be the first to be built?

[TheDash]

These houses are modern green house in downtown Winston-Salem (Cost $300K)

[twincity]

^welcome to the forum!

there are renderings and info on this project here. these homes are such a departure from the historic Queen Annes and Victorian homes in the Holly Ave area. I love this idea! to SECCA!

[intcvlcphlga]

Have they started construction and are they really going to be $300k? I thought they were supposed to be more affordable. They will, however, be a great addition to that neighborhood and I applaud SECCA and the architect's efforts in rethinking the single-family home.

[twincity]

i thought so too. i guess they decided to go for market rate?

[JerseyBoy]

Construction starts early next year on two SECCA houses, which already have buyers. The architect group, Metropolis Architecture, wants Silver LEED certification. Good news!