Design Competition for a house costing under US$99000
The key strategy of this design, of delivering generous space and volume in a constrained budget is to exploit the garage/ porch/ lean-to space as an informal living annex. This space is contrasted with a tight, efficient main envelope of house.
Thus the main program of the house is delivered in a two level simple volume containing 1160 SF of floor and a footprint of 35 feet by 18 ½ feet. The compact footprint allows adaptation to smaller lots while maximizing the efficiency of the skin and the breadth of garden.

The house uses structural insulated panel (SIP) systems for walls floor and roof, further enhancing the efficiency of materials and construction time, and the thermal performance of the skin.
The plan is arranged very simply- two bedrooms upstairs sharing a second living space. Downstairs a third bedroom adjoins a bathroom with universal access. The aim is to accommodate the possibility of semi-independent households- from adult children, to invalid parents.

By contrast the lean-to is an unconditioned space and over-sized garage aimed at encouraging the informal inhabitation of semi-enclosed places. A polycarbonate skin on a light steel frame, the space is large open and light – a space that interacts with the garden, with the interior of the house, with the street. Rooms of the house look in to and vent into, the atrium like space, which can be constructed at a rate far less than the fully enclosed space.
For all this the house should fit seamlessly into the neighborhood.