6 Principles To an Affordable Home Design

Would you like to create an affordable home?

If you’re one of those people who are deciding to build a new home over buying an existing one, you’ve probably already been thinking about money and the cost of building. Designing and building a new, modern home at a budget-friendly price can be a challenge.

The key to keeping costs down is proper planning.

The more time you put in up front to determine your goals for the project to figure out exactly what you want, how you want it built, and where you want it built, the more you’ll be able to make good cost-effective and smart decisions from the start.

This article is an introduction to a 7-part series on Affordable Home Design. In the following articles, we cover specific design principles to help you plan, design, and build a more cost-effective home.

Let’s take a look at what we’ll cover.

BONUS: Download the Affordable Home Design Guide to help you plan and design a cost-effective home. It has the best tips and strategies to save you time and money in the home design and construction process.

Designing an Affordable Home

In this Affordable Home Design series, we’re walk through a few overarching design and construction principles to help you build an affordable home. We will cover the following topics:

Keep in mind that many of the principles we discuss are not mutually exclusive. Oftentimes, they serve dual purposes and create an overall design concept that optimizes efficiency in many ways (cost, time, labor, energy, materiality, layout, detailing, etc). That is the goal. You want a cohesive design approach.

Please note: These principals work for us and our clients. There are so many things to consider when determining cost saving strategies. Something that works for one project in one location may not work for another project, so be sure to review these strategies with your designer and/or builder. One thing that is constant across all projects is that building an affordable house does require being engaged in the design and construction process and often going outside the traditional boundaries.

Affordable Home Principles

Designing an affordable home should be no different than designing any other home. You should always be mindful of the cost implications of your decisions and look for ways to reduce costs without compromising on project goals.

When you first start out, you want to find an optimal location on your site to build your home. Good site planning that responds to site features, local climatic conditions, and solar orientation (to take advantage of passive heating and cooling) is the first place to look for ways to reduce costs.

Once you have selected the location and orientation of your home, the design process shifts from site planning to home design. Your home design should have an efficient floor plan that eliminates redundant space, maximizes usable space, and reduces unnecessary square footage. The shape and form of your home should also be a simple design that is easy and efficient to build and incorporates cost-effective materials and simple details.

Planning for an energy efficient design early on with good efficient passive and active components will help conserve and reduce energy while you’re living in the home.

And lastly, building a successful affordable home depends largely on the quality and commitment of your builder. An efficient and cost-effective construction process that incorporates all your cost-effective design strategies will result in a dream home that you can be happy living in for years to come.

Why These Principles Are Important

Successfully using these strategies when designing your new home allows you to take control of project costs. These strategies can significantly reduce the upfront construction costs and the time it takes to build your home. They can also reduce your operating expenses after construction by lowering utility bills and maintenance costs. Who doesn’t want to keep money in their pockets?!

When you’re considering strategies to successfully build an affordable home, consider these questions as guides:

How can I reduce construction costs (material + labor) and construction time?
How can I lower operating (monthly utility bills) and maintenance (repairs, replacements) costs?
How can I design a home that ensures the highest return on investment?
How can I apply these cost saving measures and still achieve my project goals?

It’s often hard to keep track of costs during the design phase. A few of your interesting design ideas could make or break the project budget if you aren’t careful about their cost implications. Also, if you’re unsure about whether you’ll get approved for a construction loan, these strategies might tip the scale in your favor.

Employing some of these design strategies will undoubtedly save money by reducing your construction budget and future living expenses, AND increase the market value of your home.

The trick is to masterfully weave these design principals into a cohesive design approach so they don’t come across as individual piecemeal cutting cost measures. You want these strategies to go unnoticed so people just see a well-designed home that fits your needs and wants. THAT is what good design is. And that is what makes a successful project.