The Perfect $100,000 House

Today I attended a lecture by Karrie Jacobs about her new book The Perfect $100,000 House. Jacobs is a contributor to Metropolis magazine, The New York Times and most notably the founding editor of Dwell magazine. Although she abruptly left Dwell a short year after its conception it has grown rapidly since and I find it to be a great resource for prefab and modern architecture.

Her concept for the book is summed up pretty well in its title but here's a brief run down. She set out on a cross country road trip in 2003 talking to architects and contractors with interests in affordable housing to locate both realized and conceptual projects that cater to the economic needs of the everyday, middle-class American. In order to find the most efficient and affordable designs she pressed these builders to construct a house under the $100,000 cap and inquired about a houses true necessities. Often 10, 20 or even $30K could be subtracted from a houses overall cost without betraying its character and the architects style.

Jacobs visited with numerous architects and had time to mention only a few of which these stood out to me: Dan Rockhill/Studio 804 (whom I've already touted), Rocio Romero (whose LV homes I've been planning a post for), KRDB, Anderson Anderson, William Massie, Rural Studio and Brett Zamore. I've yet to thouroughly explore the websites of all these architects but I would suggest checking them out from the one or two projects I've seen from each.