Katrina Cottage grows; moves north

Conceived in the coastal misery of post-hurricane Mississippi, the Katrina Cottage is the house that refuses to be restricted to its native turf. On the last week of October, the latest version of this diminutive new urbanist dwelling opened a thousand miles to the northeast — in Silver Spring, Maryland.
Some called it the USA Weekend Katrina Cottage, in honor of the newspaper supplement that publicized it nationwide. Stephen Mouzon, architect of this particular variation on the vernacular cottage theme, labeled it Katrina Cottage VIII, or KC-DC for short.
“This cottage is far more expandable than any other Katrina Cottage designed to date; expandability was the core of the design,” said Mouzon. “It contains four Grow Zones, each of which can expand in two directions.” Using components produced by Housing International at its factory in Reserve, Louisiana, KC-DC is 523 square feet but is capable of growing to 1,303 square feet or more. It has nine-foot ceilings and has columns and porch railing based on an old houses Mouzon saw in Old Town Alexandria, Virginia.
“It’s composed totally of green materials,” including bamboo and slate flooring and wood walls, Mouzon said of KC-DC. There are no glued-on or laminated veneers. The finishes are very low in volatile organic compounds (VOCs) or have none at all, so they will not give off potentially harmful gases. The structure is recycled steel frame, impervious to rot and termites. Housing International donated the house to a family whose home in Silver Spring was falling apart. Organizers said that when manufactured on a large scale, the 1,303 sq. ft. modular model would cost about $150,000, excluding site, foundation, shipping, and utilities.
The first constructed Katrina Cottage, designed by Marianne Cusato of New York as part of the Mississippi Renewal Forum in October 2005, won the first-ever People’s Design Award this October from the Smithsonian Institution’s Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum. Cooper-Hewitt Director Paul Warwick Thompson said hundreds of votes were cast for the cottage on the museum’s website, recognizing it as “a dignified alternative to conventional temporary housing.”

Models due in early ‘07
By early 2007, four Katrina Cottage models will be offered as packages of materials at Lowe’s Home Improvement stores in Louisiana and Mississippi. The company is aiming for a price of $45 per square foot, not including construction, foundations, and heating, ventilating, and cooling equipment.
As New Urban News went to press, states that were struck by hurricanes in 2005 were waiting to hear how much each of them might get from a $400 million federal pilot program intended to provide high-quality temporary housing, including cottages of this sort. The program is administered by the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the Department of Homeland Security.
Mouzon has organized a comprehensive website he describes as “the nerve center of the entire Katrina Cottages movement.” It contains information on various delivery systems (kit, manufactured, modular, panelized, and site-built) along with design ideas, news, and other resources. Visit www.katrinacottages.com.