Home Building Trends: People are still building home theaters?

If you’re curious about home design trends as reported by the architects, you might appreciate these highlights from the AIA (American Institute of Architects)’s second quarter 2012 Home Design Trends Survey.

Special Function Rooms

I find it odd that the demand for energy efficiency and low-maintenance living are DOWN since 2011. Not surprisingly, home offices are still the most important “special function” rooms.

Not huge changes any direction, but if you’re into seeing what modern home builders and their buyers are interested in, you’ll like the graphs.

Would you live in an Erdhaus?

From the article:

German for Earth House, an Erdhaus is built by digging out the perimeter where the house will stand. From the dirt and mud dug out, bricks are formed and stacked to become the building material itself. Widely popular in Europe, this technique is also starting its way onto the grounds of the United States. Another interesting fact is that this technology dates back to the Neolithic times. Such process eliminates most construction steps that are hazardous to the environment and that cause a huge dent on the developers’ pocket.

There are some more amazing images of Earth Houses on this FlickRiver page or available just by googling images.  (Some of them are reminiscent of Hobbit holes. In fact, isn’t that EXACTLY what they are?)

The article at Agent Image (a real estate web design site) goes on to list a number of other eco-friendly building options that are apparently catching on in the United States. How many have you heard of?

An an example of an Earth House (but not one you could build in South Dakota if you didn’t want to be underwater.)