At the dawn of the twentieth century, architects and social visionaries proclaimed that housing in the coming age would be ruled by industrialization. Cities would be remade as modern, progressive utopias–stamped out of great industrial workshops and inhabited by those whose hands and minds crafted them.
One hundred years later, however, the housing industry has unquestionably failed to obtain this vision. In a century that produced flight, space-travel, telecommunication, computers, nuclear physics, pharmacology, and the internet, the two greatest innovations in housing were drywall and the thirty-year mortgage. Every other thing we consume has become more advanced, more reliable, more attractive, and more affordable. Housing has become bigger, flimsier, and more expensive. In a world driven by innovation, housing has by-and-large been driven primarily by inflation.
This inflationary trajectory exploded into the great housing boom of the 2000’s–an era in which amateur hobbyists with neither training nor oversight could leave their rightful avocations and make a killing veiling crumbling old homes in a thin veneer of contemporary taste. Caught up in the frenzy of free money and flipping, housing in the early 2000’s became little more than the most fertile soil in which to grow the national money supply through ever more debt piled on the backs of ever more burdened homeowners. Housing produced monetary policy, not homes.
The 2000’s boom has crashed into the end of the decade with substantial consequence. In September of 2005, the US Department of Housing and Urban Development reported that new single-family homes were being built at an annual rate of 1,798,000 units. This was down slightly from earlier months. The recently released October 2008 figures show homes being built at an annual rate of 531,000 units. This represents a 71% decline in construction activity in just three years and the lowest rate of construction since 1982. Only 23 months since 1960 have seen fewer single family units constructed than were constructed in October of 2008.
So what now?
Innovation.
LABhaus is a project five years in the making. Born of an urban luxury development group, LABhaus embodies progressive design, luxurious fittings, premium construction, and environmental awareness. Even the most basic LABhaus designs were conceived in the vein of multi-million-dollar lofts and boutique hotels. LABhaus homes feature the finest Italian kitchens available, spectacular designer finish packages, custom-milled bathroom fixtures, and are powered by the sun. LABhaus designs are intrinsically modern, yet always elegant and restrained. LABhaus plans are practical. They feature generous room sizes, ample storage, and sundrenched spaces. Yet what destinguishes LABhaus is attainability.
At LABhaus, our core design philosophy extends beyond architecture. The purchase and construction process itself was a core component of LABhaus design. Typical ’boutique’ development groups use design and luxury to create an air of exclusivity and to maximize profit at all levels; ‘design’ and ‘luxury’ come to mean astronomical prices. Typical ‘affordable’ development groups strip away as much comfort and quality as possible to maximize profits; ‘affordablity’ means suffering thread-bare accomodations and questionable quality. LABhaus is not driven the standard mission of selling as little as possible for as much as possible. On the contrary, LABhaus is driven by a mission to offer as much as possible for the least possible price. LABhaus homes are not priced to the highest possible comparable value in a given market. LABhaus homes are priced to the lowest production cost in a national market. The sole regional variance is the price of land.
The unique LABhaus purchase model offers consumers MSRP pricing and offers landholders an opportunity become LABhaus partners without having to engage in typical real estate financing models which lead to massive price inflation for end-users. The production process is similarly refined. Drawing inspiration from the automotive industry, LABhaus invests substantial energy into design and innovation in advance to create the most attractive, most efficient homes possible and offers outstanding standard configurations and option packages. As a result LABhaus’s industry-leading supply chain offers consumer’s fittings and features previously unfathonomable at such an affordable price point. LABhaus kitchens, for example, would cost as much as 50% of the total cost of the house if purchased at retail.
LABhaus is currently partnered with two of North America’s leading home builders, Sun Building Systems LLC and Indiana Building Systems, and is working with local partners throughout the East Coast and Mid-West of the United States. Please explore our product and let us know how we can make your dreams a reality.
