Katrina Cottages Rebuild Hope
The photo of this little cottage marks a big change in the way our society views low income housing. This tiny structure offers a home where great dreams are kept alive and strength is afforded to all types of struggling families.
While three hundred square feet of living space may not sound like much, it is more than enough for people in dire need. This small space represents something grand and much larger than anyone ever dreamed when this cottage house plan was originally considered.
Marianne Cusato, designer of the cottage, states, “The Katrina Cottage is a chance; a chance for people to rebuild their lives.”
Cusato was one of more than 100 designers and planning specialists from around the country to travel to Biloxi, Mississippi, for the Governor’s Commission on Recover, Rebuilding and Renewal in October 2005. Only two months after the catastrophic Hurricane Katrina, Governor Haley Barbour got together a team led by famed Miami planner and town designer Andres Duany, and organized by the Congress for the New Urbanism. The group joined with colleagues from the coastal region for a week of planning called the Mississippi Renewal Forum. One of the tasks before the group was to come up with affordable, immediate housing that would maintain the style of the surrounding region.
New York designer Cusato nailed the project with her design and the Katrina Cottage was officially born. Cusato explains, “The premise was to build old towns again. We wanted to recreate the places that were most loved.”
The Katrina Cottage achieves this goal well. Designed for residents left homeless after the storm, this safe and beautiful structure offers a much-needed alternative to the standard FEMA trailer. Cusato was inspired by traditional coastal regional architecture to design the 300 square foot cottage.
Cusato states that, “The sad truth is that the issued ‘temporary’ housing is by no means temporary. We need something that will be able to be built quickly and securely and that will uphold the style of the region.”
These small cottage house plans have a distinct Mississippi flavor. The cottage features a kitchen, bathroom, living room and bedroom with space for two bunk beds. There is a large porch with built-in benches offering additional storage space. The full-sized outdoor living area is an ideal place to relax and mingle with friends. Exploring the compact, functional design of the Katrina Cottage can help you develop your own cottage style house plan.
The Katrina Cottage also meets or exceeds all FEMA regulations to create a safe environment. The secure structure will be anchored to a conventional foundation with footings rather than placed on a slab. Despite its small size, the cement siding and metal roof will withstand 130-mile winds and a Category 3 hurricane. Cusato says, “Hurricane season is a given. It’s going to happen again and again. Putting people in trailers that won’t hold up is putting people in harm’s way.”
Nothing about the cottage says “temporary.” The Katrina Cottage is designed to grow into existing property or can be clustered together to create a village that would otherwise be a trailer park. Though rebuilding a house can take months or years, residents can return to their own property as soon as possible in a Katrina Cottage. The cottage can be built in a back corner where the family can reside while the main home is being built. Afterward, the cottage can be used as a guest house or studio or even be built as a wing of the main house with the main house directly attached to the cottage. Exploring these unique designs can help you create a unique cottage house plan of your own.
The price of the Katrina Cottage is under $35,000, which is comparable to the cost of a FEMA trailer. However, the trailers are discarded to landfills after 18 months while the cottages will bring families joy for many years to come.
The cottage’s design was fine tuned by architect Michael Barranco of Jackson, Mississippi. Jason Spellings of Icon Artisan Homes and his crew constructed a prototype from Barranco’s design called the Katrina Cottage 1, which debuted at the International Builders Show in Orlando in January 2006.
Cusato comments, “The cottage really resonated with people. Everyone kept saying how ‘cute’ the cottage is and it just shows that design matters. It doesn’t have to be expensive to be beautiful if we redefine how we think about those things.”
Many people seeing the cottage at the show suggested building them for a vacation retreat or deer hunting cabin. Developers even considered it for high-end beach communities. The Katrina Cottage promises to be the inspiration for future cottage house plans.
While that was not the message Cusato was trying to send, she feels she proved the main purpose that affordable housing can be trendy and mainstream.
Katrina Cottage 1 is now officially a home. The prototype went on display for a couple of months before it was donated to a local family left homeless from the hurricane. That is just the beginning according to Cusato whose focus now is to get the cottages mass-produced. The main goal is to have homes prefabricated and on-hand for families or to have them stick-built on site, if necessary. She expresses, “I would love to walk down a street of these things.” During the past year, this dream has become a reality and now several Lowe’s Home Improvement stores in the southern coastal states have begun carrying the pre-packaged materials for the Katrina cottage available for purchase as a kit. The Katrina Cottages and their various designs can also be viewed and purchased online at www.lowes.com.
Outside of the Hurricane Katrina crisis, the Katrina Cottage can also be used throughout the country for low-income housing, a vacation home or cabin/cottage, or as coastal/beach rental property.
Cusato says, “We have the ability within our society to make this change and make a difference. The Katrina Cottage can lead the nation in what could be a revolution of affordable housing.”
The story of the Katrina Cottage continues to unfold with hopes to provide homes for many people where they can get grounded, rebuild their lives and build dreams. Cusato states, “Giving people dignified housing is giving them a shot.” Everyone deserves that shot and a cottage house plan such as this can make it happen.
For additional information, visit www.cusatocottages.com. These plans, drawings and photos are the property of Cusato Cottages LLC, and protected by the Federal Copyright Laws. Any use of the information contained herein beyond the one-time use authorized by a plan purchase, or any duplication, publication, sale or distribution of any part of these Plans requires the prior written consent of Cusato Cottages LLC.
Katrina Cottage 1 was built in a barn at the Mississippi State Fair Grounds by a dedicated crew led by Jason Spellings of Icon Artisan Homes who finished the cottage in about 20 days. The prototype was hauled to Florida to display for an estimated 100,000 attendees at the International Builders Show in January 2006. James Hardie, a principal sponsor of the display, produces the fiber cement siding used in this prototype.
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