The Lord asked me to build 50 nice houses. I argued that I wanted to make affordable housing for poor families adn he said, That is not this project. Then in a vision he asked me if I wanted to see it?
I suddenly realized I was seeing a door knob and when I opened it, I saw inside a house that looked distinctly American. I saw a single sofa seat by a floor lamp, a few steps up to a second level like in a split level bungalow, but the floor and deco was definitely not Filipino.
But when I turned around in the vision and looked around the property I was in for a real shock because I recognized the house front yard as the place I grew up in, in Pennsylvania. This is a typical 1970’s era suburban subdivision which you can see on the map spreads for dozens and dozens of miles.
He asked me if I can build this in the Philippines. I thought it was a trick question and said well this and well that, and he stopped me to clarify, “Build This.”
He said these houses will have an average cost of P7m. To start as soon as I find the land. And use MY NAME in the project title.
Frank Lloyd Wright.
Recently I began to study the house designs of FLW, as compared to other ‘modern’ designs and learned to distinguish our house models from typical ‘random rectangular’ designs. Our designs have a geometric freedom, are stylish and modern but never, (unless 100% purposefully as in the Brownstone models) resort to ‘repeated patterns of squares and rectangles.’
Doing the first versions of FLW inspired houses in 2020 I showed a prospectus to an American man I met in the mall named George. he really just wanted someone top talk to, but but it caused me to put together a nice quick brochure of this development.
When in 2021-2022 the Lord asked me to focus on this project I revised the best models I had made the previous two years and came up with a short list of 4 or 5 usable designs and began to make final versions.
To make 5o homes, with an average price of 7m, we will target an average size of 180m2 (1,900ft2) with a few houses at roughly 120, 150, 180, 210, and 240m2. Plots will be about 1,100m2 roughly and we aim to design five to seven main design families, with units of two to three sizes in each style. Not every house model will be available in every size, and by flipping a layout, moving sections around, changing landscape grade and design we can easily make 50 totally unique homes based on seven primary design models.
The first completed model in the latest design round is Braxton, a 160m2 design, with three bedrooms. My previous thinking was to always link the three parts of Kitchen-Dining-Living Room, as the heart and anchor of the family space, but after seeing Disney Golden Oak homes I realized the outdoor dining area I usually included informally should be integrated into these three areas officially, so it is being upgraded to be a more formal design, and this is the first house model done with this intentional format — although it was already a finished design so does not reflect this idea as much as later models, as the outdoor dining is not attached to the indoor dining but is accessed through the kitchen, which is still a nice design and may remain as is.
So with distinct curvilinear geometric motifs, oversized brick pillars and high glass walls around the living room / inner dining area, the Braxton model has a nicely fit out and spacious outside dining area that as I mentioned is accessed through the kitchen, but extends the indoor living space outdoors into the garden as most expatriates expect in a tropical home design. Atrium with an open-tread mahogany-slab floating staircase and internal balconies link the upstairs three bedrooms to the living-dining room area nicely. There is also a large balcony that is accessed through the masters suite, and maybe a 2/f verandah accessed through one of the other bedrooms on the 2/f.