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Founding Editor in Chief of Dwell magazine and architecture critic Karrie Jacobs goes on a road trip to find The Perfect $100,000 House. Can a well-built, intelligently designed, decent-size house with curb appeal be built for $100,000? Jacobs travels from coast to coast interviewing architects and builders “who are revolutionizing the way Americans think about homes, about construction techniques, and about community” to find the answer. This isn’t a picture book, it’s more of a memoire that documents her journey, her quest to find the answer. “From a Teletubbiesesque subdivision outside Taos, New Mexico, to nuevo-retro shotgun houses in Houston, the options available to prospective home buyers are as diverse as the terrain along Jacobs’s fourteen-thousand-mile trek.”. Hardcover, 304 pages, illustrated by Gary Panter, $16.35 at Amazon. Via Inhabitat.
+ The Perfect $100,000 House at Amazon
Actually, IMHO, the miniHome (sustain.ca), comes pretty close to perfect in that budget range, albeit much smaller that what Jacobs is searching for. BTW, I'm not shilling for a MoCo Loco advertiser, not that they don't deserve it, see for yourself, leave a comment.
miniHome is cool enough but that is not really what the book is about. It is a pretty interesting and alternative look at the culture of Architecture, the ridiculous prices for real estate in major population centers, and both a welcome and critical look at the state of prefab.
It is definitely worth reading for anyone who has hopes of building, or living in something affordable that is different (read: contemporary) from what the big development companies are building.