Imagine a house where the front cladding features at least three, possibly four different colours and textures and the whole structure boasts a roofline that looks as if it was drawn to look like a mountain landscape. Or imagine a roofline that looks as if it was designed with the curved portion of a protractor, or instead, one that looks like a number of boxes have been stacked one on top of the other so that some are vertical and some are horizontal. Those images might be conjuring some of the newest show homes in St. Albert.
At first glance, the darker colours and unusual architectural shapes of the two-storey homes built by Sarasota on Lapierre Place have an industrial look to them. The houses clearly belong together with roofs that have at least six different planes and triangles jutting out against the sky.
Strangely, once inside the main show home, none of the intriguing exterior angles appear on the ceiling.
"They are designed that way to give them a 'wow' factor on the exterior. You have a rectangle and you do the best you can to make that rectangle stand out and especially on narrower lots, you need to get more creative so that it is noticed on the street," said Michelle Fogolin, sales director for Sarasota Homes, who first saw the look on homes designed in Calgary and Vancouver.
"You see a lot of homes with designs like this on the West Coast," Fogolin said.
In contrast, the walkout-basement style home across the street, designed and still under construction by Madison Park Homes, has a roofline that swoops across the main part of the house like an airport controller's lookout. Even at the framing stage, the house is unusual on a road filled with different-looking houses.
"I'd describe it as a modern style," said Madison Park Homes owner Mark Kuzio, who explained that the windows in the curved upper portion are actually false, and were left in to complement the raised-roof line.
Colourful cladding
One of the most noticeable trends this year is a move toward more colourful cladding, not just on show homes, but also on homes that have been renovated with new siding.
New cladding materials mean that homes now have siding that looks like rock or brick or even galvanized metal. Those seeking a look that seems to honour nature, might choose forest-green coloured siding or barn-red to complement the look of the faux slate trim. For a more contemporary appearance, they might choose siding that resembles corrugated metal to highlight the aluminum Longboard siding.
The cost of those contemporary siding materials varies not just by colour, but also by the materials that they are made of, said Carrie Wright, floor manager at LBH Building Centre.
One wood-looking siding featured at LBH is actually made of concrete. Hardi-Concrete siding isn't cheap, at just under $2 per square foot, but it is a product that makes sense in modern home design, especially for houses that are close together, because it is more fire resistant.
"It's about one-quarter inch thick and it's made of concrete so it won't melt the way vinyl siding might," Wright explained.
Colour makes a difference in price point too, she said.
"Darker colours in vinyl are considered a premium because they put more colour into it and it doesn't fade in the sun," she said, adding that vinyl siding begins at less than $1 per square foot.
Perhaps the most expensive sidings are beautiful looking wood-coloured aluminum Longboard and the faux rocks and brick siding, which would cost approximately $15 or $16 per square foot.
"Cost is the reason people don't usually finish their entire house with Longboard or the siding that looks like rocks. They use it as a highlight," Wright said.
Whatever siding is chosen, it may be used to make a pattern that is vertical or horizontal giving the homes a look that shouts with personality.
"It's not the same vanilla look over and over again. We change the direction of the material or we use Galvaloon, which is a siding that looks like galvanized metal. We mix vinyl with Longboard and deeper rust colours or olive with white and dark contrast so people have a design that describes who they are," Fogolin said.
