The following article is written by architect Stan Schachne from the Florida marketplace. I thought his views on the demise of the McMansion were spot on and wanted to share this article with the lot of you.
A renovated 1952 home in an older residential neighbourhood takes on a completely new look
With the downturn in the housing market there is one good thing that is taking effect. The industry is seeing a decline in demolition of older homes in older established neighborhoods and the so called McMansions being built in their place. The stigma of the large house that fills out the lot is a thing of the past. The scale of these houses usually interrupts the scale of the residential neighborhood. Most home buyers think that bigger is better. What they don’t understand is good home design offsets voluminous spaces that actually use more energy and serve no purpose. A good house design will be efficient in plan and function. Good design also takes advantage of the lot by including usable green space and comfortable setbacks from the property lines.
The current focus of energy efficiency in home design has integrated new elements in home design that have been ignored over the past ten years. The implementation of solar water heaters, energy efficient windows, insulation, water saving plumbing fixtures and better air conditioning and heating systems have helped save home owners money and maintenance cost. I believe the new trend in housing design will incorporate new compact space efficient plans with extensive energy saving elements. The new home buyer will see that they can be happy and comfortable in a non McMansion home. - Stan Schachne, Architect & Builder
I’ve been waiting for this for years! I hope this is true. So many of the McMansions aside from being awkward and inefficient were just plain bad, sometimes appalling design; not to mention the sameness of them. As an indication of this trend, in our area a lot was bought in 2004 for $2 million. A huge, upscale spec house was built and put on the market for $12 million. All the fancy trimmings, but no buyers. About a month ago it was auctioned off for $4.5 million.