Houston, TX (PRWEB) May 5, 2009
This summer, modern homebuyers will gain unprecedented access to design quality with the debut of Hometta (www.hometta.com)], a modern home plan company offering modest, sustainable home designs from internationally recognized architecture studios. Entirely Web-based, Hometta is on a mission to make great design accessible and affordable to a large cross-section of prospective homeowners. Along with home plans, Hometta will offer a complete array of educational resources to empower subscribers throughout the home-building process. Images of homes to be available through Hometta can be viewed at http://blog.hometta.com/image-gallery/.
Hometta is an international collective of designers, architects, builders, writers and editors who have banded together to improve the way residential architecture is designed and delivered today. The company was founded by Mark Johnson, a Houston-based green home builder, and his frequent collaborator Andrew McFarland, a Houston modern architect.
“We think it’s a tragedy that 98 percent of American homebuyers cannot afford the services of an architect,” says Johnson. “Our singular purpose is to improve the design quality of single family houses being built today.”
Johnson and McFarland enlisted four “core” architects, all known for highly innovative work, to establish the vision for Hometta’s development. The core architects–James Evans, Dawn Finley, Brett Zamore and Blair Satterfield–in turn recruited the more than 20 modern architecture studios who will contribute designs at Hometta’s launch.
“As someone who believes that architecture’s responsibility to society begins with the dwelling, I am very happy to be associated with Hometta,” says Wes Jones, principal of Los Angeles-based Jones, Partners: Architects. “Hometta takes the mystery out of building a new home. By combining a transparent process with access to a large pool of talented architects, Hometta makes good modern home design available, without risk or complication, to folks who might never have considered real architecture to be an option.”
An Uncompromising Vision
Hometta’s plans adhere to a prescribed set of criteria, uniquely interpreted by each studio:
Modern: All the homes are exquisitely modern, offering the design, livability and ingenuity of a custom home.
Small: Capped at 2,500 square feet, the homes are smaller than the national average. Their size makes them more affordable and efficient, creating a new market between large, custom houses and mass-produced tract homes. Smaller homes also supplement and support, rather than compete with, the architects’ core businesses.
Sustainable: By virtue of their smaller size, the homes will use less energy and produce less waste. They will employ sustainable design methods and materials, including hydronic heating and cooling, passive ventilation, and planted or solar-paneled “sides,” that boost efficiency and energy performance without adding excessive cost.
Web-based Tools
Hometta’s Web-based tools will be accessible by subscription. With the Design Subscription (.95 per year), users will gain access to all home plan design renderings as well as the interactive, professionally edited Construction Guide, with its detailed advice on the entire home-building process. The Build Subscription (.95/year or 19.95/month) allows users to review all the builder plan sets and receive guest logins for their selected builder(s). The actual plans range in cost from 95 for a studio-sized house to 95 for a three-bedroom. All visitors to Hometta.com will have access to original editorial content, including professionally produced audio slideshow and video podcasts, as well as educational articles and a blog with exclusive content from Hometta contributing architects.
Architects Contributing Plans
The following firms are partner studios that will contribute home plans for Hometta’s launch:
Barry Price Architecture Woodstock, NY
Borden Partnership Los Angeles
Brett Zamore Design Houston
Collaborative Designworks Houston
davidclovers Hong Kong
Dufner Heighes New York, NY
FAR frohn&rojas Los Angeles / Cologne, Germany / Santiago, Chile
Garofalo Architects Chicago
Guthrie+Buresh Architects Ann Arbor, MI
HouMinn Practice Houston, TX / Minneapolis, MN
Interloop-Architecture Houston, TX
Jones, Partners: Architecture Los Angeles, CA
Karl Wallick Cincinnati, OH
Keith Krumwiede New York / Los Angeles
Kiel Moe Boston
KRDB Austin, TX
MANIFOLD.ArchitectureStudio Brooklyn, NY / Mainze, Germany
Mike Jacobs Architecture Brooklyn, NY / Los Angeles
Min | Day San Francisco / Omaha, NE
over,under inc. Boston
Project_ Brooklyn, NY
Roger Sherman Architecture Santa Monica, CA
Studio Terpeluk San Francisco
WEATHERS Chicago
Zoka Zola Chicago
About Hometta
Hometta is an innovative, Web-based, home design delivery company, due to launch in June 2009. Hometta allows prospective homeowners to engage architecture as a product while improving the design quality of single-family houses built today. Unlike the traditional stock plans industry, Hometta plans are designed by talented, progressive architects with an emphasis on affordability, sustainability and style. For more information visit www.hometta.com. Follow Hometta on Twitter @Hometta.
About Hometta’s Founders
Mark Johnson, Hometta’s founder and publisher, owns a Houston real estate and construction company called Area 16, which specializes in small, green, single-family homes.
Founder Andrew McFarland received a B.A. from Columbia University and a Master of Architecture from the University of Texas, Austin. He and his wife, Gretchen, have a small, Houston design firm: d>mcf.
About Hometta’s Core Architects
James M. Evans, AIA, is the founder and principal architect of Collaborative Designworks in Houston, Texas. The firm, established in 2004, has earned numerous regional and national design awards for its distinctive modern houses. Jim received his professional degree from Rice University and worked at the Renzo Piano Building Workshop in Paris, France.
Dawn Finley is an assistant professor at Rice School of Architecture and a cofounder and principal of Interloop–Architecture. Interloop served as Associate Architects for the Nasher Sculpture Center in Dallas. Dawn’s writings and design work have been published in The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, ID Magazine, Architectural Record and Architect.
Brett Zamore received national attention for his Master’s thesis on the renovation of a 1920’s Houston house, House 00. After seven years with the renowned architectural designer Carlos Jimenez in Houston, Texas, Brett established Brett Zamore Design LLC and Zamore Homes, a company that supplies and builds ready-to-assemble kit homes with off-the-shelf components.
Blair Satterfield is a principal at Houston- and Minneapolis-based HouMinn Practice, which won a 2007 ID Award and the 2008 Architect magazine R & D Award for its design work. Satterfield is a visiting critic at Rice University and a research assistant professor at the University of Houston.
Read Hometta’s blog at http://blog.hometta.com/ to learn more about the company, meet its architects and founders, and stay up-to-date on the products, trends and knowledge one needs to build a modern home.
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