In Austin, Texas, Minnie J. Chapa, a 75-year-old great-grandmother and proud renter of a nearly new, minimalist-style, three-bedroom home here, said old neighbors regularly ask her, "Do you live over there in the matchbox houses?"
To describe SOL Austin, the five-and-a-half-acre development in which Chapa resides, as "the matchbox houses" is both accurate and unfair, according to the Herald-Tribune.
Yes, the houses are small by American standards (they range from 1,030 to 1,816 square feet), and the architectural style is decidedly rectilinear.
But SOL, an acronym for Solutions Oriented Living, is an ambitious attempt to upend the conventions of the American subdivision. It was developed by a partnership between Chris Krager, a 43-year-old architect, and Russell M. Becker, 47, a civil engineer and owner of a construction company.
The community is intended not just to be materially sustainable, but net zero — a housing development that would produce all the energy it consumed, with solar panels and geothermal wells.
Read more about sustainable communities.
