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rural starter home - habitat for humanity

Model Home, first model completed 2025

This affordable starter home design was developed in partnership with the Columbia Greene County Habitat for Humanity to provide quality, low cost, energy efficient and replicable starter homes for low to moderate income families. The simple form and finishes, coupled with green construction technologies, provides a quality starter home that will help a diverse range of local residents enter the homeownership market, build equity, and establish stability in their lives.

Columbia Greene Habitat is committed to providing home ownership opportunities for those with incomes between 50-75% of the Area Median Income (AMI.) This demographic has been shut out of the real estate market in recent years by stagnating incomes, increasing property values, rising taxes and the lack of new starter-home construction. This efficient building concept will allow building at the scale that fits the rural communities in upper Hudson Valley, while offering several layout options and variations to maximize flexibility.

The living space is designed to be compact, functional, and energy efficiency while still feeling spacious and maximizing daylight throughout the day. Large glass doors provide visual access to the outside while being oriented in such a way to retain privacy on tighter sites. A curb mounted skylight at the peak of the living space reduces the likelihood of leaks and provides distributed natural daylight through refraction throughout the day regardless of the position of the sun.

Designed as a panelized system, the entire house’s panels can be packed into a standard box truck, removing the need for a trucking company for transport. The first home is to be completed in mid 2025 with factory built models to begin in 2026.

led by Dimitri Brand, support provided by DAKO architects