>What makes housing affordable? Low rent/purchase cost. How about no cost – even income for the buyer? A duplex does this – they don’t have to be ugly. And affordable housing, if realized in a certain way, can be very profitable. But, it still needs to be affordable. Greed is not part of good affordable housing (I would like these to be price protected ideally). Low utilities from good thermal design is a must, as is low to no maintenance exteriors (80 years). Live/work options are great – no commuting and tax deductible space in the home. Both sides have weather protected areas outside the “garage,” which could be a family room, office, kitchen, work out space etc. with the option of using it for a garage when needed. Garden space an added bonus.The designs are flexible – meant to be modified for different user’s needs. The center space has the option of being used for solar gain when possible and closed off when it is a thermal liability.

The concept displayed here is to have affordable housing for others (or an Airbnb) pay the mortgage and taxes for the owner, and a roommate actually provide income for upgrades and additional amenities.

These duplexes are designed to be serviceable for hundreds of years minimum – they are highly disaster resistant and resistant to all manner of typical building failures. They have heavy duty, storm, fire and security shutters. And ultimately they are easily recycled.

What more could one want? We typically get the second to the last image – community/environment/diversity killing, infrastructure heavy sprawl, when we could get something closer to paradise for a lot less money and maintenance. I have designed complete, affordable, live/work communities using this type of housing. The kind that rich people would ask, “Why can’t we have something like that?”