It actually started 100 years ago.

That's when Sears, Roebuck & Co. the first catalog home, and not much has changed since. Today’s McMansions may be spacious, solid, and financially sounds, but they’re an outdated concept, given our diverse lifestyles and advances in technology.

You deserve better.
A home should be an extension of who you are, not just a roof over your head. So we asked a handful of architects to help us reinvent it. Their mandate: Create well-conceived spaces that fit how we live. We asked for generous, spacious layouts free of unnecessary frills, but loaded with smart features we didn’t realize we needed. We asked for homes that are kind to the environment and our bank accounts. We asked for homes that find the middle ground between modern and pedestrian.

We selected three firms,
assigning each a distinct region of the country based on the company’s strengths, previous work, and submitted proposal. We insisted that construction costs be capped near the average new-home price in each region; that the home be as green as possible, given the budget, materials, and microclimate; and that each be flexible enough to make either newlyweds or a family of six feel at home.

The architects delivered, and then some.
One shut off all direct light to the second floor to save energy. Another built a rainwater collection system that feeds an irrigation system, drinking-water reserve, and backyard pool. Another designed a renter’s apartment within the home to help defray mortgage costs. Together, their designs prove that thoughtful, intelligent architecture is not a pipe dream for the average American. The best part: None of these firms are too busy to turn down work (yet). And all of them want to turn these dreams into a reality—your reality.

The Perfect Home Challenge

We charged three architects with creating innovative, inexpensive, and exciting new home designs.

From the Editors of Men's Health Living

Midwestern homes tend to hew to the cookie-cutter format more than most; that's why this design presented unique challenges. Construction costs are lower and land is easier to come by, but integrating the design into the context of an otherwise drab neighborhood was a key goal.

SIZE: 3,000 square feet
BEDS/BATHS: 3 bedrooms, 4 baths
COST: $200,000 to $400,000, depending on configuration


Every architect remembers his first client. Tonino Vicari’s was the director of recycling in Ann Arbor, Michigan. “We couldn’t just pay lip service to the green movement,” he recalls. “Our design had to include real energy-saving features.” Vicari positioned the home to reduce the so-called heat load from direct sunlight, used salvaged wood from a nearby barn for the garage, and installed radiant-heat floors to reduce winter energy costs by two-thirds. Since then, Vicari’s firm has gained a reputation for smart, eco-conscious houses. Now, he says, sustainability is “business as usual.”
Building in a landscape as diverse as the Midwest has its challenges, so Vicari created his Men’s Health Living home to fit with any setting, from suburbs to rolling prairies. “I envision owners who like to entertain, who like to be healthy and in shape,” he says. “So I designed the inside to reflect that lifestyle.”

Leave wood where it belongs
Bamboo millwork is the only wood used in the home Tonino Vicari designed. The reedlike wood grows at a rate of 20 feet per year, making it the most renewable of fibers. The rest of the structure, from framing to floors, is made of concrete, stone, steel, and glass—all durable, recyclable construction materials that sidestep the lumber drain of the average home. (More than 40 percent of the 4 billion trees harvested in the United States and Canada go to the housing industry, according to the American Forest and Paper Association.) The sturdy construction also boosts strength and longevity. “This house will last three times longer than a wood-frame building,” says Vicari.

Give guests a home, too
The semidetached garage features flexible living space above it—the perfect location for a quiet, quasi-remote office or a private guest suite.

Put the sun to work
The home’s northern facade features fewer windows, to reduce the amount of heat the house collects during the summer, when the sun is high in the sky. The south-facing facade selectively allows light through its solar-glazed windows—more during the winter, when the sun stays low on the southern horizon, to offset the cost of heating the home. The south-facing windows also capture energy by way of photovoltaic cells, to further defray electricity costs. On the third floor, Vicari used a new type of photovoltaic glass from Carvist (carvist.net/photoglass.php). Because it’s tinted, he was able to open the bedrooms to the outside without exposing residents to the world. All the windows in the house are triple-pane, which insulate better than standard double-pane glass in both cold and hot weather.

Add exterior touches
Outdoor accent lighting can dramatically improve the look of a home and help deter burglars. But incandescent lighting jacks up energy costs. Tonino chose LED fixtures from IOLighting (iolighting.com). LEDs use 90 percent less energy and last 50 times longer than incandescent bulbs. They’re even 20 percent more efficient than compact fluorescent bulbs.

Boost your home’s IQ
Bill Gates dropped millions of dollars building a brain into his Redmond, Washington, home, where custom computer systems monitor everything from energy usage to lighting. “Today, you can do all that with a simple PC,” says Vicari. In this design, Vicari has connected the appliances, lighting, and electronics to a central monitoring system that lets the homeowner know how much energy is being used where, and suggests ways to cut back. The U.S. Department of Energy estimates that the average house wastes half of its total electrical consumption annually.

Reuse rainwater
The folded roof on Tonino’s home funnels rainwater into a central collection system, where it’s filtered and stored in the house as drinking water, pool water, and irrigation for the grass and plants. Tonino says the system could save from 10,000 to 80,000 gallons of water each year, depending on the home’s location. “In most midwestern regions, the water you collect is cleaner than the well water, and usually much cleaner than tap water,” says Vicari.

Emphasize open spaces
Tonino uses lighting, furniture, and ambience to separate rooms from one another—instead of adding walls that would break up the expansive feel of the home. The open floor plan makes the space seem larger than it really is.

Tailor the layout to the lifestyle
Smart design anticipates how residents will use a home. For example, the second-floor entertainment room has fewer windows than other areas. Less light increases privacy and improves the viewing experience for residents using the entertainment center.

Check out the urban sanctuary