Cottages such as this were designed as "Katrina Cottage" emergency housing, but their implication goes far beyond this idea. How could they be used in unnatural disasters such as Urban Renewal or arson or plain old urban decay is a question that should be addressed.
A newer model could be created that would be, in some ways, analagous to
Levittown, New York where inhabitants are in the midst of yet another "rebuilding" of the original cottages that were built for returning service men and their families. In the Levittown model, Levitt envisioned small well built "cottages which were affordable and could be added onto and enlarged as family's grew.
As servicemen returned from WWII, as grown men who had seen the world, they married young women, who had worked in the men's jobs for 4+ years, and neither wanted to live with parents. Levitt offered them the American dream and the GI Bill offered them education.
A relative bought a Levittown cottage over 20 years ago at a price he could only find in Levittown. He saw the potential and over the years improved the structure by finishing the second floor into more bedrooms and a bath and a half for his children . In the rear of the house, he enclosed a large screen porch and added a large fireplace which is now a family room that each Christmas is filled with family and friends munching finger food as they wait for Christmas eve dinner (Italian - 7 courses of 7 fish from the 7 seas). As he expanded, so did neighbors and now the neighborhood is beautiful and so desireable that his retirement fund will be doubled if not tripled should he sell.
Presently, in cities like Columbus Ohio, builders and "planners" are building multi-million construction projects of
houses and
condos. What is amazing is that these groups do not take the next logical step to stop the almost complete white flight of families from inner cities. All those "metro-sexuals" we have heard so much about are great for a few years of (over) spending in the inner city, but how many full families will shop at boutique stores and eat in "fern bars" or accept the inner core financial exuberance with their expendable dollars? They will not, thus they will either never come to downtown to live or they will leave as soon as they realize their error. They will go to the dreaded suburbs where their needs are met by corporate America in a way the government is incapable of realizing.
As corporate big-box stores prosper by making life affordable for families who want to live in "safe" neighborhoods close to their schools and amenities, our downtowns flail about trying to make downtown sexy. How about making downtown family friendly, i.e., affordable, safe and with schools and stores nearby. Stores that repair shoes, dryclean or stock rodent deterent as examples.
This could be an answer. Starter homes that are well built, easily expanded and just waiting to be built on blighted lots that occupy downtowns all over the nation. Starter homes that attract and keep young families and businesses hoping to found a neighborhood and a life that will give them memories and returns many years down the road.
Below are three examples as first built structures, then added on to family homes and properties growing into established properties developing into neighborhoods.
Go
here for more
images,
plans, and
photographs.
I mean, between divorce and tornadoes, somebody's gonna lose their trailer.
