Stephen Kendall Phd

Homeworks®: a New American Townhouse Stephen Kendall Phd

Homeworks® constitutes a natural evolution of the venerable wood frame housing tradition that dominates North American house building. Absence of a systemic rethinking of this tradition has meant that wood frame housing ­ as a building culture - has lagged behind other economic sectors in quality improvement, sensitivity to consumer preferences and sustainability. Whereas other sectors of the building industry are adopting a more rational and "change-ready" approach - internationally termed "open building" - wood frame housing remains mired in the obsolete concept of "whole-building integration". This inhibits innovation, prevents adoption of smarter labor practices, and produces a housing stock that will be a burden on future generations.

Homeworks® calls for a strict separation between the part of the house that should have a long life, and the part of the house that can be customized initially and adapt over time in response to changing household preferences and upgrades in consumer-sensitive technologies. These parts are called the "Shell" and the "Infil". The Shell is necessarily part of the local setting in all its physical, cultural, regulatory and environmental dimensions. The Shell helps make the urban scene. The Infill is not so constrained by the local scene. It is - and should increasingly be - approved by national certification agencies and distributed in the global marketplace of consumer-oriented products, "kits" and services. It responds more directly to the pulse of change, whereas the Shell is meant to age in place and become part of the social memory of an urban landscape.

Drawing on developments toward open building taking place internationally, and recognizing that changes to a way of building only happen incrementally and can only happen as a process of cultivation, Homeworks® offers principles that may help set the stage for a much needed maturation of wood frame house-building.