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Designer Notes: The Modern Ranch was designed with family and a neighborhood setting in mind. It has three large bedrooms, two baths and a large communal space which includes the kitchen, dining room and living room. The exterior maintains some classic features such as a single story, low pitched roof, long proportions and clap board siding but also includes some modern upgrades such as large sliding glass doors, sliding window shade screens and a sleek metal roof. The interior also embraces a clean modern look.

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Designer Notes: To respond to use request for home plans suitable for scenic rural lots, we have created The Modern Lake House. This house plans would work well as a getaway second home or a peaceful primary residence on any site that has a view to be captured. This plan is a great mix of flexibility, luxury, and efficiency. This home also incorporates many of the popular modern green features such as an open floor plan, proper passive solar design, and a roof deck with a garden\green roof.

Green Elements: The roof design of this plan allows for the collection of rainwater to be used for a roof deck garden. The flat roof features a gentle tapering that brings water to a single downspout. A rain water barrel on the roof deck level captures rainwater for usage in the garden. The roof of the 2nd floor suite would be a great place for solar panels and is large enough to accommodate a solar array that could make this house a zero energy house.

Passive design was carefully considered and the construction drawings include details for providing passive shading devices that will keep the summer sun out while letting in the winter sun.

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Designer Notes
FreeGreen created the Basic Bar House Plan to be cool, highly functional designs that are truly affordable. We challenged our designers to find innovative ways to reduce cost while instilling useful features and amenities. The overarching strategy was to re-think the main factors in construction cost: labor, building size/square footage, and materials. The approach we used to reduce paid labor was to integrate Do It Yourself “DIY” projects into the designs. This is a great way for the home owner to reduce costs while instilling their own sense of style into the home.

House Plan Data
Size: 1,400
Lot types: Suburban, Urban
Climate regions: All
House Plan Price: Free

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Designer Notes
We find beauty in quiet understated forms, expressive structure, timeless materials, and carefully resolved details. Our designs celebrate light-filled open spaces with a strong connection to the outdoors. Our unapologetically contemporary approach to design combines a love of the new with a respect for the old and attempts to create timeless forms with conceptual clarity.

Dedication to environmental responsibility is fundamental to our philosophy. Constructing and operating buildings is resource intensive and Feldman Architecture strives to minimize our impact by designing energy-efficient buildings that incorporate sustainable technologies and renewable materials.

Green Features
1. Radiant Heating System
Radiant floor heating with high efficiency boiler and storage tank. This system can be designed to integrate a solar hot water heating system.

2. Bonded Logic recycled denim insulation
A green alternative to fiberglass insulation.

3. Low e2 dual pane windows with a thermal break
Low e2 dual pane windows help lower heating and cooling loads in your house by regulating the thermal gain/loss through the windows. Thermal breaks in the frame help avoid thermal bridges which contribute to heat loss and condensation on the interior of metal frame windows.

4. 30% fly ash content in concrete
Recycled fly ash in the concrete foundation.

5. TPO high albedo roof
Light colored or white membrane roof reflects sunlight and reduces heat gain through the roof. Also helps minimize the “heat island” effect.

House Plan Data
Size: 2,025
Lot types: Suburban, Urban
Climate regions: All
House Plan Price: $900

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View Box
The budget version (pictured) of the view box product line is slightly smaller and has fewer windows than the basic versions. This home can be clad in a variety of different materials.

Designer Notes
We started with a simple one story box and a generous living area that flows into the kitchen. Simple forms mean fewer corners allowing for cost efficient framing and minimal construction waste. An awning over the front door distinguishes the main entrance and can provide visual contrast if desired. The foundation of this design can be easily adapted to fit both sloped and flat sites.

An entire wall of windows captures the views and brings them deep into the main living space. An excessive use of windows is one of the reasons modern design has been thought of as more expensive than traditional homes. High performance glazing is significantly more costly than walls and provides only a fraction of the insulation properties. This designs uses windows to maximize the views in the main living space while keeping the overall usage of windows in a budget responsible manner.

Green Features
A conditioned crawl space is the preferred method of construction in homes where a crawl space is required. A non conditioned crawl space (even one that is well insulated and properly vented) can have serious moisture problems. By bringing the crawl space into the conditioned envelope all of these problems are eliminated. In addition to being a clean, dry and warm space, a conditioned crawl space also provides an excellent location to place mechanical equipment and run duct work without consuming valuable living space above. Exterior window awnings above south facing windows are a great method for reducing heat gains in the summer. Go from low energy to zero energy by installing photo voltaic solar panels on the roof.

House Plan Data
Size: 1,397
Lot types: Suburban, Urban
Climate regions: All
Estimated price to build: $141 to $198K

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Suburban Loft House Plan
For this home, FreeGreen’s designers wanted to create a home that was modest in size yet still had an upscale, custom feel. Despite its size, there is still generous space for a home office. The home features several integrated indoor-outdoor spaces that cater to specific functions. The different design options accommodate economy, mid-level, and hi end/luxury budgets.

Green Features
Optimal Orientation: The front door should face west so that the majority of the homes windows face south. Southern-facing windows are ideal for passive solar heating. Nevertheless, this design will still be very efficient if built in a different direction. FreeGreen can customize plans for your specific building site.

Flat Roof Profiles: By installing solar panels, you essentially buy your energy instead of renting it from a utility company. FreeGreen provides a roof profile options so that you can install up to 5 kW of solar panels on your roof in a variety of orientations.

Building Envelope: The building envelope is the barrier between the indoor and outdoor environment. The quality of a home’s building envelope is the difference between an energy efficient, healthy home and a leaky, unhealthy home. This FreeGreen design features an efficient wall construction detail and specifies high performance windows and doors to provide you with a safe and comfortable home.

Reliable and Efficient Heating and Cooling Systems: Heating and cooling represent the largest energy loads in a home. High efficiency and properly sized furnaces and air conditioning units greatly reduce energy consumption. The Suburban Loft utilizes a high efficiency forced air system to provide heating and cooling. All of the equipment and ductwork are located within the building envelope, which further contributes to the high efficiency. The system is coupled with a Heat Recovery Ventilator (HRV) which provides energy efficient ventilation to maintain excellent indoor air quality. Hot water is generated with a whole-house tankless water heater. The tankless water heater provides unlimited hot water at extremely high levels of efficiency.

Cost Effective Innovative Technologies: FreeGreen has selected innovative building technologies that provide exceptional performance relative their cost.

House Plan Data
Size range: 1,200 – 2,600
Lot types: Suburban, Urban, Lake Front
Climate regions: All
Estimated price to build: $211K to $332K

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