Goals

The model home design will be a catalyst for a sustainable lifestyle by achieving the following:

It will inspire its inhabitants by providing them with a great connection to nature and a healthy living environment. A greater appreciation for any positive element is developed through connection and interaction. The greater the interaction, the greater the appreciation. By incorporating nature and healthy design into the home’s experiences, its occupants will likely from a stronger relationship with both resulting in a greater feeling of satisfaction towards their homes.

It will provide thoughtfully designed spaces that have been thoroughly considered in terms of use and livability. By creating a living environment with more emphasis on person-environment interactions its occupants will experience greater comfort, more efficient functional capabilities, and an enhanced quality of home life. Happiness depends more on the ability to have good daily experiences than it does on anything else. A home should encourage such experiences. When people are happy they are more likely to partake in activities that benefit themselves, others, and their environments.

It will offer spaces that make sustainable habits, actions, and behaviors manageable and user-friendly. There is no question that many Americans desire a more sustainable lifestyle. Because “where you are influences who you are and what you’ll do” (Gallagher 32) a home should be designed to positively affect the actions of its occupants. A space can be counterproductive in terms if a person’s growth toward becoming who they want to be or it can be catalytic.

Hmmm?

There is a general agreement that sustainability can only be achieved through the modification of lifestyle choices. Yet various studies have shown that positive attitudes toward change do not parallel actions taken toward that change.

Just as the purchaser of a hybrid vehicle can commute two hours a day, stop at Dunkin’ Donuts every morning, and toss their trash out the window, so can the purchaser of a green home run water, trash recyclables, and leave the lights on all day.

So, how can a home be designed to serve as a catalyst for a sustainable lifestyle?

The Sustainable American Lifestyle

Throughout history notable technologies and changes made to the home were brought about by need and/or shifts in cultural habits. The bedroom because of the increased desire for privacy, the Great Room because of family equality, the L and U-shaped furniture arrangements in a living room because of the TV. So what are today’s needs? Many Americans have begun to embrace simple shifts in habit like recycling, taking public transit, and purchasing organic foods. While others are planting vegetable gardens at home, ditching the garbage disposal for an under counter composter, and committing to a paperless household. As more and more Americans begin to change their behaviors, the need for a new residential model will grow.

Being sustainable is hard!

According to a survey issued by the government of Britain 25% of the people polled agreed with the statement "It takes too much effort to do things that are environmentally friendly."

Check out the article here