Project Description
2012 RADA
Single-Family Housing / Merit
When Garbett Homes wanted a fresh approach to the multi-family work it had been doing, the company tapped Irvine, Calif based architecture firm KTGY, which proposed the developer change course and do modern eco-friendly single-family homes. “We told them we’d like to make the inside as high-tech as the outside,” says John Tully, a KTGY founding partner.
The firm’s effort, the Solaris Collection at Daybreak, is intended for first-time buyers, but the homes are loaded with standard features that are more common with higher-end residences, such as roof top photo voltaics, solar thermal hot water, and geo-thermal heating and cooling. Each home also offers options that include compact fluorescent lights, low-E windows, low-flow faucets, dual-flush toilets, and Energy Star appliances. “When it comes to solar, the key to the success of the project is that you have to keep the square footage down and make the homes energy efficient,” Tully explains. “The developer was sophisticated enough to realize that.”
The firm modulated the massing of the alley-loaded homes with color, fiber cement, and stucco, and varied the elevations to make the street scape seem fresh. As a testament to the project’s success, all but three of the homes sold within six months of completion, and it has become the fastest selling the builder has ever experienced. “The floor plans are good,” one judge said, “and [the project] takes sustainability seriously.”