Hometta: small, modern home plans for the budget-minded

   

Readers of our print edition last week saw our blurb on Hometta, the just-launched firm that's selling architectural plans for what it calls small, sustainable houses. More than two dozen firms nationwide are offering off-the-shelf plans, including this three-bedroom design called the Seed'Em House from Mike Jacobs Architecture. (Jacobs collaborated with architect Aaron Neubert on a Laurel Canyon house that we featured as a cover story in 2007.)

At $1,195 to $3,195, the Hometta plans are being marketed as a way to get an architect-crafted modern house without the costs associated with custom design. We're still not convinced that such a non-site-specific approach will yield efficient, livable spaces, but a spokeswoman reassures skeptics that for an additional fee, architects are available to tweak plans for specific needs. Click to the jump for more renderings.

All the Hometta plans are 2,500 square feet or smaller. Participating designers include Houston-based Brett Zamore, whose clever Shot-Trot house first gained our attention as a subject in Karrie Jacobs' book, "The Perfect $100,000 House: A Trip Across America and Back in Pursuit of a Place to Call Home." (If you haven't read it, add it to your summer reading list.)

Above right is the Rubix House by the Los Angeles firm Jones, Partners: Architecture. Below right is a rendering of a Hometta plan by the Borden Partnership, also of L.A.

-- Craig Nakano

All renderings courtesy of Hometta