Affordable Green Housing Project
Madison, Wisconsin

The Madison Area Community Land Trust (MACLT) purchased a site for 11 to 15 homes and a small office building for several non-profit groups. The MACLT's mission is to provide housing that is affordable via limited-appreciation and special land leases. Design Coalition and a project steering committee worked for nearly four years to find ways to make new affordable homes energy- and resource-efficient. One outcome was a 40 page report (downloadable), prepared via a grant from the Wisconsin Energy Bureau, which models five different 'energy portraits' of the same house design, and compares the long-term affordability of numerous design choices.

Construction was completed in 2002 of the first three homes, based on Design Coalition's designs. The three-bedroom homes are approximately 1,400 square feet in size, and feature wheelchair accessible first floors, and high-performance energy-efficient construction of low-toxin materials.

These affordable homes feature:
• livable, space-efficient floor plan
• full wheelchair accessibility on first floor
• roof orientation and slope for future solar collectors
• high performance wall and roof insulation
• Wisconsin Energy Star approved
• energy-recovery ventilation
• low-toxin interior paints and other materials

For more information, see the article in the Wisconsin State Journal.

Above: The first 3 houses.