LivingHomes is a small California company that beat everyone to the punch when their Ray Kappe designed LivingHome became the first Platinum level LEED house in 2007. That’s something a lot of seasoned builders wish they could claim, and for LivingHomes it was a little like hitting a grand slam your very first time up to bat.

The awarded house was actually a case study for technology entrepreneur Steve Glenn who founded LivingHomes in 2006. Glenn who is a self-described “Architect Wannabe” and Lego building blocks enthusiast as a child, saw an opportunity to “make great design, functionality, and sustainable design practical and affordable,” while targeting California’s “Cultural Creatives.”

What Glenn didn’t know before that first house was completed is if you could combine a design from the legendary architect together with modern sustainable systems and new prefabrication methods. When the house which was assembled on-site in just one day turned out to be the first LEED house of its kind, Shiron Bell, Marketing Director of LivingHomes, says it became “the basis for LivingHomes.”

Today, both Ray Kappe and the LEED green building standard continue to be a big part of the company. Ray Kappe has designed a complete line of houses called Ray Kappe LivingHomes, and all houses built by LivingHomes meet strict Silver LEED building standards (see our story The LEED House to learn more about LEED).

Ray Kappe LivingHomes
The Ray Kappe houses offered by LivingHomes target the middle and high-end market with houses starting in the 500’s and tipping out at over 1 million. Unlike many new modern house designs that may cut corners to keep costs low, the Ray Kappe houses are full-on modern luxurious designs aimed at a market somewhat overlooked in the modular house industry.

What’s different though about Ray Kappe designs is he doesn’t sacrifice green credentials on the way to building larger more luxurious modern houses. Surprisingly, the same designs are also viable plans for urban in-fill land.

For example, the RK4.1 model is 3 bedrooms and 2.5 baths, but its footprint is just 24 feet wide. Perhaps even more impressive is the RK2 model which is a 4 bedroom, 3 bath design, and still only 31 feet wide. Among other things, these designs prove you can build modern luxurious houses in small urban spaces.

KieranTimberlake LivingHomes
If your budget is more constrained or happen to think that a million dollars is just too much to spend on a house in such economic uncertain times, LivingHomes also offers a line of houses designed by KieranTimberlake. (You may have seen the work of KieranTimberlake in previous Modern House Magazine Featured Slide Shows or in our story about their award winning design in Loblolly).

Starting at just over $200,000, the KT1.1 can fluctuate anywhere from one to four bedrooms, growing as your family grows. Imagine the possible implications of a house design where instead of a young family moving to a new larger house, a larger house in essence moves to them. Later, as the family gets smaller again, the house can return to its original downsized state, completing the family cycle.

In all there are four house designs offered by LivingHomes for each of the two featured architects. There are variations and permutations on those same plans which affect the end price and account for a nice selection of houses available to a very diverse population.

Quality Is Job One
While some larger modular house builders own their own factory, LivingHomes (smartly) decided early on that since most factories have to depend on third-party business to stay afloat, especially during
hard economic times, they would be better served just choosing the suppliers who could meet their needs.

So far that has worked well, but as Bell says, “we had to be very careful about the partners we picked,” especially since LivingHomes uses steel frames in their houses, and as Bell explains, “for the most part steel-frame construction is for commercial building.”

Selecting the right fabricator was also important because when working with steel-frame houses there is an extra dimension of refinement that must be present for the eventual house owner. And even though their chosen factory already had a resume of quality commercial work, it was important in the beginning to communicate so that as Bell says, “they understood what we were doing.”

Trust In LEED
The importance of choosing the right building partners for LivingHomes is essential to their commitment to building LEED Silver houses. Back in 2006 when Steve Glenn started the company he knew there would be more companies seeking to make sustainable claims. That meant LivingHomes would need a way as Bell says, “to verify it was core to what we do, and that we met higher standards.”

Building a LEED house is so important to LivingHomes that they even show you a breakdown of LEED points awarded for each house design. The USGBC’s rating system is essentially a menu of sustainable building practices covering eight major categories. Builders follow some or all of the LEED proposed practices, each of which have been assigned points based on values arrived at by the USGBC.

Following LEED, which is currently the most influential green building standard in the US is not only integral to LivingHomes’ mission, it’s also a way that potential house buyers can know what they are
getting, or as Bell says, “it’s important our buyer have a marketable certification that shows the house is truly sustainable.” Bell also says that as new green certification programs enter the market they
may add those to their sustainable house credentials.

Death Of The McMansion
So far LivingHomes has limited their market exposure to a core market in California, but Bell says they are looking forward to doing some projects in other places, and it’s also possible we’ll see a new
affordable modular design by Ray Kappe in 2009, or yet a third architect taken on as a new partner.

And while both Ray Kappe and KieranTimberlake are widely known on their own as established and often awarded architects, their partnership with LivingHomes to market sustainable house designs may be just the beginning of a whole slew of developers tapping into the best young architects on the way to delivering modern affordable houses to the masses.

In fact, as an increasing number of architects jump on-board to build modern sustainable houses, and more house buyers end their love affair with “McMansions” that gained popularity in the days of easy credit, companies like LivingHomes and Modern Modular (learn more here) are helping to challenge the belief of what a house should be, and over time may even change the perception of the conventional modern house.

View the complete featured LivingHomes slide show here.

Media: LivingHomes