Villa Est Villa Florida

In Florida, they call a duplex a villa....from what I can tell. The typical Florida villa is a 'shotgun' structure - or to be precise a double barreled shotgun structure. With a comparatively narrow frontage developers can optimize the number of units per lineal stretch of street. At the same time, there is an economy of scale. Building a single structure with two units is much less expensive than building two separate units, the endpoint in this economy of scale being the mass apartment block.

From what I can tell, Florida villa builders still pretty much follow the SFR protocol for villa layout. They put the 'lanai', the outside living area to the back and treat the area on each side of the villa as throwaway space. VRT proposes a simple reworking of this layout, placing a long, high party wall BETWEEN each two-unit villa. The lanai is then moved from the back to the side. Now in many cases the Floridian lanai is roofed over. VRT does away with the structural roof in favor of the retractable awning. This the best of both worlds: Protection from the harsh sun during the day, access to the vastness of the Milky Way in the evening. Also a word on the screen structures so popular in Florida

for enclosing the pool and spa areas. VRT is all in. In fact if feasible, VRT foresees bringing into these screened in structures a bit of design. In the villa shown the attempt was made to create something of the feel of an outdoor cathedral with particular appreciation for Fay Jone's marvelous Thorncrown Chapel.

VRT believes its time to really emphasize the outdoor living space of the lanai so that in nice weather the whole day can be spent outside. Ive followed Frank Lloyd Wright's strategy of simplifying and dramatizing the rooms of a house, making the living / dining room quite large with high ceilings while de-emphasizing the bedrooms - keeping them small but perfectly adequate.

VRT believes buyers looking for luxury would be willing to go the villa route provided the villas are spacious, comfortable, well landscaped, and work as well or better for indoor / outdoor living as much more expensive SFRs.

As shown each unit of the villa is a two car garage, 3 bedroom 2 bath, 25' x 100', situated on lots 45' x 200'. This workouts out to a footprint of five units per acre. Said differently five structures of two units each would fit on two acres.

VRT LOVES ICF if feasible and is ok with concrete block otherwise. Now the 'Fleetwood' sliding door - all the rage in LA - is showing up in new Florida construction. VRT is into these doors - and has incorporated them in an SFR design. However VRT found that with the villa a different configuration seems to work better where the indoor living space is separated from an outside garden by a fixed glass wall. Traditional doors provide access to the screened in lanai from the living space and the bedrooms - very convenient for accessing the spa from the bedrooms.