FreeGreen.com's blog

Simple Villa, Two-Car Garage

Keep It Simple & Open

• Designed By: FreeGreen Team
• Size: 1694 s.f.
• Rooms: 3 bedrooms 2.5 bathrooms
• Best suited for: Temperate to Warm Climates
• Cost: low to high
• Design Style: Contemporary, Spanish
• 25-60% More Efficient than Code Built House*

This product line was inspired by Southern California’s outdoorsy lifestyle. Homes have a casual Mediterranean feel and are perfect for temperate or warm climates where cross-ventilation and passive cooling can reduce the cost of air conditioning. Relaxed elegance and a Spanish influence provide curb appeal and comfort. Integrated patios and garden spaces extend the living area, creating a smooth transition between indoors and outdoors. The three bedroom Simple Villa is a European-inspired home that features an open living room plan, a blend of indoor & outdoor living spaces, and generous exterior living areas. The FreeGreen designers have taken care to include several design options that cater to different aesthetic tastes and accommodate different budgets. The home is large enough to accommo­date a typical family but modest in size to ensure efficient operation. For this house we wanted to create a simple de­sign that, with a multitude of different options, would allow changing from soft contemporary to Spanish influences.

Simple & Clean

Modern Suburban Minimalism

The standing seem metal roof, smooth white stucco, and rich wood tones give it a crisp modern feel that accentuate the clean lines

Integrated planter boxes provide color and texture to this friendly suburban minimalism

Clean Country Dining Area

All Closed Up

The white built-ins by KraftMaid match the kitchen cabinets and provide enclosures to the belongings on the shelves

The bamboo flooring is a beautiful alternative to traditional hardwoods that is easy to clean and promotes healthy indoor air quality

Light and Clean Dining Area

Elegant Functionality

Natural earth and wood tones create a light, airy feel to the space

Exposed wood beams give the ceiling texture and provide a hint of rusticity

Light and Clean Kitchen

Open-Air Design

The simple kitchen layout with the half-bar provides generous cooking and food preparation area as well as an excellent morning breakfast stop

Open shelving, in addition to the generous array of windows, give this kitchen a light, airy feel.

Budget Friendly Living Area

Polished Simplicity

Polished concrete floors are a low-cost, clean, and easy to maintain floor­ing option

The furniture, including the TV stand, couches, and shelving are all avail­able at IKEA for affordable prices

Energy Features

Options for Integration

Heat Recovery Ventilator accomplishes two tasks: 1) It ensures healthy indoor air quality 2) It mediates the thermal properties between the out­going and incoming airstreams, which further-increases efficiency

Building electricity is offset by 2.04kW of solar shingles by Eagle Inte­grated Solar

About FreeGreen Inc.

FreeGreen was co-founded by Ben Uyeda and Dave Wax as a spin-off from their first startup, Zero Energy Design (a leading high-end custom green home architecture firm). FreeGreen launched on April 1st, 2008. Its website provides consumers and builders with free energy efficient house plans. The designs range from traditional to modern and come with an energy performance analysis to prove how “green” they are. Also provided are computer generated interior and exterior renderings, detailed construction documents including framing plans and construction details, LEED-H analysis and checklist, and a list of green products that were included in the design and energy reports. FreeGreen is able to give away such high quality designs because product vendors pay to have a spot in the photo-realistic renderings. Custom reviews, green aspects, and applicable third party certifications are provided to so consumers can make judgments on products for themselves. In addition to its free stock plans, FreeGreen also offers design customization and consultation.

“At FreeGreen we hope to encourage progressive building practices by making green home designs free for everyone”

FreeGreen.com Launches—Offers Free Green Home Plans to Consumers, a New Advertising Medium to the Home Products Industry and an Open source Platform for Designers

Boston, MA, (PRWeb) June 12, 2008 --Consumers who once believed “green” to be a status reserved for those in the upper echelon of the housing market can now get green home plans for free.

David Wax, Ben Uyeda and the Freegreen team are upending the traditional stock house plan business model. They are bringing their green plans to the masses by charging exactly what most builders and clients are willing to pay for house designs: nothing.

In the home design industry, good design is hard to come by. The majority of the 200 web sites offers the usual colonial and ranch style designs, provide consumers with basic construction documents and charge $750 - $2,000 dollars per plan.

FreeGreen wants to change this. They offer modern green designs, detailed construction documents, 3D computer generated renderings, and a slew of other features.

To generate revenue, FreeGreen will charge green product vendors, retailers, and other home building firms a slotting/performance fee for specifying their products and services in the home plans.

In the building of a green home, the selection of green materials and efficient mechanical systems is of equal importance—not only for the design, but to achieve the desired performance of the home and applicable green certifications.

David Wax, CEO of FreeGreen Inc., explains that, “Selecting these products can be an overwhelming task and an experienced green architect is not an option for most consumers.”

FreeGreen allows builders and homeowners to select and customize home plans in a well organized online experience. Based upon user selections, a large-format PDF of buildable architectural documents, product lists, and local contractors is compiled and provided free for download.

Chief Architectural Officer, Ben Uyeda says, “We encourage users to submit feedback on the FreeGreen Blog and even submit design ideas. Our team is working towards providing an open source platform that will allow the site’s online catalogue to grow exponentially.”

TreeHugger writer Lloyd Alter is excited about the new site.

Architects can't make money doing one-off houses and most people aren't willing to pay for it, or don't even value it. The traditional model is broken, so why not market architecture like software or blogs and give it away, making money from the ads? Finally there is a model where somebody "looks forward to helping you [architects and designers] get the exposure and revenue you deserve."

There are three designs currently available for download in modern and traditional styles. Uyeda is promising at least one new plan month.

FreeGreen’s initial launch produced 1,500 registered users and 2,000 free house plan downloads. Its instant success stemmed from the viral nature in which word of the company and its free and high quality plans spread through the blogosphere on sites such as Inhabitat, Treehugger and SpringWise.

About FreeGreen Inc.

FreeGreen was co-founded by five principals as a spin-off from their first startup, Zero Energy Design (a leading high-end custom green home architecture firm). FreeGreen launched its site on April 1st, 2008. In addition to its free stock plans, FreeGreen also offers design customization and consultation.

At FreeGreen we hope to encourage progressive building practices by making green home designs free for everyone.