40 Acres and Something Cool

SmartBuilders piece together a "Clever" Home

If you were to travel to the end of Reems Creek Rd and continue onward and upward you would eventually come to the valley perimeter and there you would find a tall, sleek box sitting on 40 private acres overlooking the vastness of the western North Carolina mountains. This 3200 square foot box, constructed of structural insulated panels, known as SIPs, is being pieced together and finished off this month for a new resident from Florida. The cross country effort included Clever Home designers from San Francisco, Insulspan fabricators from Michigan and SmartBuilders being the local player pulling this project together.

I met Gawain Mainwaring, owner of SmartBuilders, at the site for a tour. He showed me some of the details of this 3 bedroom and 2 ½ bath home that came shipped to him in pieces. The four-story home is topped off with a master suite on top that opens up to its own private terrace with a fire pit. The entry level contains the great room with a sleek KitchenAid kitchen. The dramatic overhead light fixture the owner made himself using LED lighting and a plumb bob refracts light and adds movement to the space. Clever!Overall, the owner has created a wonderfully layered and cool home to enjoy for years to come. I give him great credit for braving the frontier of modular construction over distances. In the end it is a great product. I don’t know the details of the costs involved on this particular home, however, it is my experience that doing this type of modular construction affordably can still be challenging in our area and throughout the country. There are cost hurdles given the complexity of manufacturing, shipping and coordinating. Given the great local designers, builders and design/build teams (including SmartBuilders) we have in this area it is my feeling that you can get something site specific and site built just as affordably today with tailored results. I simply recommend comparing options. Either way I appreciate the collaboration that went into this great new addition to the growing modern landscape of Asheville.Stay tuned for more modern from SmartBuilders in the future!Article by Troy Winterrowd, Photos by Troy Winterrowd and SmartBuilders