Analysis Of ONX Precast Florida Homes
ONX is revolutionizing home construction in the Florida market on several fronts. They are using off site construction methods AND using concrete rather than wood as the construction material of choice. This is welcome news as Florida is prone to severe weather which has caused many insurers to pull out of the state. Homeowner's insurance has become very expensive. By switching to precast concrete walls and floors, ONX is offering the right building solution at the right time. By producing precast components in factories ONX is bringing mass production methods to construction. And by becoming both component manufacturer and developer ONX is able to bring mass production methods not only to the component fabrication side of construction but also - and crucially - to the construction site itself. What ONX has accomplished in the last few years is impressive indeed.
It is in the area of the look and feel of the house, its grounds, and its relationship to its neighbors where I believe a change in format would be most beneficial. For its initial foray into the housing market it is perfectly understandable that ONX would pursue a straightforward approach where what amounts to the American Foursquare house - in the case of its On Alba project - is sited on its lot by way of conventional lot boundary setbacks. The issue with this is that it results in a house almost completely devoid of outdoor privacy. At the same time the long setback from the street means much of the lot is not used - to which can be added the two side setbacks. What remains is the backyard amounting to only a fraction of the total lot and it must be emphasized, an area largely devoid of privacy as it is exposed to sight-lines coming from a multitude of neighboring homes.
Now just as site built is giving way to offsite, and just as stick framing is giving way to precast, it is proposed that the foursquare and conventional setback siting give way to the duplex mirrored front to back and packaged with private courtyards in between. To summarize, the complete solution for the new way of building AND living is the precast duplex comprised of sandwich panel walls and hollow core floors and configured as the long narrow duplex running width-
wise from street to street with the space in between reclaimed from useless barren setbacks to delightful, private courtyards.
The Foursquare houses shown are an approximation of the ONX homes being put up in ONX's On Alba suburban housing development in Florida City, FLA which you can view on Zillow https://www.zillow.com/community/on-alba/30150917_plid/ Florida City is near the bottom of Florida some 40 miles south of Miami. By my measurements on Google Maps the lot size for the On Alba community are around 40' wide by 90' deep working out to a density of 12 units / acre, high as far as most suburban sub-developments go. For my self styled 'design brief' I used this lot size, creating a front to back duplex which fit within these boundaries. The duplex was made 20' wide and 75' deep. With living space on the ground level and bedrooms upstairs this worked out to some 3,000 sq ft of conditioned space. This is a bit larger than the approximately 2,300 sq ft of the ONX homes but keeps with the same 5 bedroom, 4 bath format.
Now because the duplex is rectangular rather than square, the living room is much longer than the ONX On Alba Foursquare - as is the dining room - and as is the kitchen. But the biggest difference is the long private garden courtyard on the opposite side of the dining and living room whose lush plantings and flowering vines are 'brought indoors', in Frank Lloyd Wright's parlance, by way of tall glass walls. Another significant difference is that instead of a pitched roof, the weather-tightness of the hollow core cast floor is taken advantage of to fashion a rooftop deck which functions as the outdoor room of the conventional backyard. One last feature worth mentioning is the deck just above the street which creates an additional pleasant seating area. Detailed images for this duplex are viewable by clicking on the first image shown above.
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