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Homes should serve as havens that shield owners from both the stresses of modern life and the headaches of construction. At our firm, we build single-family “high-performance” residences, which means they’re not only good for the environment, but they are also lower maintenance to provide a healthy setting for people’s bodies and minds. Although execution is everything (and the devil is in the details), tapping into these three strategies when designing homes can help guide your success when building ultra-luxury, high-performance homes.
1. Profound Quality
Roughly 25% of an investment property is hidden behind the walls. The “quality” you promise and deliver should not be a style or an appearance. Your brand of quality should be about durable systems, prescient design, best-in-class interpretations of building codes and solving problems before they happen.
Take water, for example. You can install a basic filter, or you can opt for a “water perfection system” that removes chlorine and other carcinogens, creating pure tap water recommended by nutritionists. In regard to waterproofing, you can also line the entire house with water-resistant membranes and a leak defense system that will shut off the water if it detects it is flowing for too long, whether you are on vacation or simply in another part of the house. As for water conservation, in a drought-stricken state like California, where we are based and build our homes, builders can create rainwater cisterns to serve the toilets and landscape irrigation system. In an earthquake or another emergency, the cistern can be tapped and the water purified.
2. Lavish Wellness
“Wellness” is arguably the most meaningful luxury, as it combines the good life with effortless health. You can make dazzling built-in bars with natural stone counters and gold tile, but you shouldn’t forget about scarce resources like peace and quiet. So, you might seriously consider acoustic mitigation, whether it’s wrapping the plumbing lines, using triple-paned glass or installing insulated walls.
Research shows how important natural light is for our health, improving productivity, mood, sleep quality and more. So, we love to build north-facing elevations entirely of windows. With additional skylights, you can create a home where occupants need not switch on the lights in the daytime. Add in a ventilation system to clean and replace the air in the house throughout the day and the wellness benefits are substantial.
In order to maximize the positive impact of nature, the homes you build need great indoor-outdoor flow. Consider combining wide open floor plans with highly engineered expanses of glass and sophisticated landscaping, including outdoor living spaces such as an alfresco dining room with chandeliers or an eating area around an outdoor fireplace.
Last but not least, and perhaps most obvious, ultra-high-end homes require hotel-caliber offerings, so you should plan on dedicated wellness areas, such as clusters of spa rooms, including gyms, saunas, steam rooms, massage rooms and outdoor hot tubs.
3. “Wow” Amenities
Sometimes you can astonish and entice buyers with small, seemingly irrelevant things — ventilated shoe cabinets in the mudroom or special flooring in the elevator. Other times, it is a surprisingly large subterranean art gallery with an upscale lighting system that is one step away from being a discotheque or sports court.
We believe in honoring all five senses, but nothing is more important in homebuilding than sight. Memorable vistas capture the imagination and even soothe the soul. Views of water aren’t just about beauty and status; research suggests they can have a positive impact on health. So, you should not shy away from paying a premium for land with a view of water, and you should make sure your architects site the house in a way to honor the view and frame it well.
Whatever they are, “wow” amenities need to be fresh and innovative. For example, one of our houses had no off-street parking. We dug through the hillside and made a curving tunnel driveway, bat-cave-style, which leads to a four-car garage with a car turntable. You need to ask yourself: What will surprise and delight?
In summary, in the ultra-high-end home market, you have to take risks. When it comes to quality, you can’t cut corners. I tell my team: “If anything, aim so high as to create a new corner.” When it comes to wellness, go for the deepest version of it. And with regard to the “wow,” remember that this home is not about keeping up with the Joneses. It’s about being ahead of the curve, well in front of them.