MOTHER’s Low-Cost Home-Building Contest: The Winners

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The Kennedy's three-story, passive-solar home cost only $11.85 per square foot for materials.
The Kennedy's three-story, passive-solar home cost only $11.85 per square foot for materials.
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The solarium can be thermally isolated from the rest of the house.
The solarium can be thermally isolated from the rest of the house.
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Counters and cabinets are all custom-made.
Counters and cabinets are all custom-made.
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The north side of the Kennedy home is bermed to protect it from winter winds.
The north side of the Kennedy home is bermed to protect it from winter winds.
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Blueprint one of the Kennedy's winning low-budget home-building design. 
Blueprint one of the Kennedy's winning low-budget home-building design. 
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Blueprint two of the Kennedy's winning low-budget home-building design.
Blueprint two of the Kennedy's winning low-budget home-building design.
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Blueprint three of the Kennedy's winning low-budget home-building design.
Blueprint three of the Kennedy's winning low-budget home-building design.
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Photo of the Mason home's winning low-budget home-building design.
Photo of the Mason home's winning low-budget home-building design.
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Photo of the Marquardt home's winning low-budget home-building design.
Photo of the Marquardt home's winning low-budget home-building design.
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Photo of the Fletcher home's winning low-budget home-building design.
Photo of the Fletcher home's winning low-budget home-building design.
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Photo of the Finley home's winning low-budget home-building design.
Photo of the Finley home's winning low-budget home-building design.
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Low-cost home-building contest cost figures.
Low-cost home-building contest cost figures.

After months of agonizing deliberation, our six-member panel of judges has narrowed the finalists to five superior designs in MOTHER’S Low-Cost Home-Building Contest.

MOTHER’s Low-Cost-Home-Building Contest Winners

It sounded simple enough at first: We’d have a contest to see who could build the least expensive home. Maybe there’d be a first, second, and third prize, and the top entries could split $1,000 into $500, $300, and $200 awards. We’d have a six-member panel of judges — an architect, two professional builders, and a trio of MOTHER EARTH NEWS editors with various levels of building expertise — to bring a broad base to the scrutiny. Well, a year has passed since we announced the contest, and we can tell you for sure that it didn’t turn out to be quite as simple as we’d imagined.

For one thing, there are big houses and little ones, and economy of scale certainly applies to construction: A 3,000-square foot home is much easier to build for less than $15 per square foot than is a 1,000-square-foot one. Initially, we planned to correct for this by limiting entries to houses of 1,500 or more square feet. The trouble is, the best way to limit overall home cost is to keep the dwelling small. Not wishing to eliminate any potentially interesting entries, we lifted that restriction. Then there was the question of houses built from trees on the owners’ property. Should we throw in the cost of the land and, if applicable, the cost of purchasing a sawmill to cut the timber? And, of course, to some degree you do get what you pay for. A cheaper house isn’t necessarily a better one; should long-term operating costs be considered?

As the 33 entries in the Low-Cost Home-Building Contest began arriving in April 1985, the need to weigh these and other considerations became increasingly obvious. In short, it became apparent that we couldn’t simply divide material cost by square footage to pick a winner. Nonetheless, we were receiving some extraordinary entries. All of them represented ingenious ideas, but a few of the designs did stand out.

  • Published on Mar 1, 1986
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