As the 21st century approaches, will it bring anything new to home building? The answer is yes.
New things are coming. Many of them are on display at the NAHB National Research Home Park in Bowie, MD, in houses featuring innovative ideas and materials built by the NAHB Research Center. If you want to see the future, this is a good place to start.
If you go, the first thing you will notice is that near-future homes aren't likely to look that different from today's homes. The design of the research homes is not radically different from standard new homes built everywhere. But some other things are different.
Concrete masonry transformed: Let's begin with the house that's called the Lifestyle 2000 House. You have to look twice at this house to realize that the entire visible exterior is made, not of wood or composition wood materials, but of concrete masonry. With their beautiful shades and coloring, these materials have the traditional warmth of wood but will never need painting or repair.
Other features of the house include light wells that allow daylight into the basement; concrete masonry joists that were fabricated on-site; special blocks placed over the joists to create a concrete masonry ground floor and a heat exchanger system that utilizes heat in the utility and fireplace flues for the whole house.
Home Living for Persons with Disabilities: This house is of such standard design that you wonder why it is in the park. In fact, it is a standard modular house made by a leading manufacturer, but it incorporates many subtle features to make the house more accessible to persons with disabilities.
The changes include: doors that are 36 inches wide rather than the standard 33 inches to improve wheelchair access; casement windows in the living room that are installed at below-usual height so the operating cranks are available to a person in a wheelchair; and first-and-second-floor closets that are lined up one above the other making it possible to break through their common ceiling/floor to install an elevator without tearing the house apart. Most impressively, all the modifications added only 2 percent to the cost of the house.
The Resource Conservation House: Next door is the Resource Conservation House, built with materials that conserve the nation's resources. These include a cast-in-place foundation system utilizing insulation panels made partly from recycled plastic; roof panels made from recycled computer housing; photovoltaic panels for generating electricity from sunlight, built into the housing of a garden swing; and a ground-source heat pump that draws on the steady, 55-degree temperature five feet below the surface of the earth to heat and cool the house.
The 21st Century Townhouses: Across the street, four townhouses are under construction. they are the 21st Century Townhouses and will feature two themes: using alternatives to lumber in home building and advanced energy efficiency.
Key features include: pre-insulated foundation panels; light-weight aerated concrete units that can be cut with a handsaw; steel framing and roofs; spray-applied modified urethane foam insulations that contains no CFC's; and photovoltaic panels made in the form of roof shingles.
What happens to all of these products and ideas? Those that pass the tests of research and demonstration head toward the mainstream of U.S. home building.
The Research Center plays a major role in keeping the path between new and better products and ideas and their use in homes direct and short. If it works and is cost effective, you will see it in homes in Pensacola -- soon.
May not be used without written permission from The Home Builders Association of Northwest Florida.