Although many of us are presented with the chance to take an extraordinary risk, we often pass on it, afraid of both known and unknown consequences. CR Herro, vice president of environmental affairs at Meritage Homes, signed up for a risky endeavor when he agreed to work on the 2018 BUILDER concept home. Meritage Homes more than six months ago set the focus for the project, the reNEWable Living Home, and at that time Herro took the reins.
In this short video, he explains how the project encapsulates what Meritage Homes has been thinking about for the past 10 years and puts it all into one home. The project incorporates innovation in a way that provides value for families and becomes the new frontier for the way that the industry can change homes.
In starting the design and concept for the home, Herro worked with BUILDER, materials suppliers, the architect, BSB Design, and other industry partners to tap into the best ideas from each. They envisioned how to design a house with the technology available today. To do that, Herro says they had to question everything.
It turns out that the group didn’t need to reinvent much. Everything that the project incorporates has been used in the past in some capacity, it just might be a process that has never made its way to volume building. While the home building industry has been slow at adapting new technologies or techniques, Herro claims that’s not because these new ways of building don’t work, rather, it’s because the trades have been aligned to build as they know how to build.
“I’m excited that we are going to build something that people actually want that is going to change the industry and make it better than it is today,” he says.
The reNEWable Living Home project team has examined how to improve residential construction methods throughout this process. By challenging the norm, Meritage Homes has ended up building differently than it has in the past. And, the only consequences have been changing a bit of the supply chain and changing the thinking of the traditional trade base.
“Really good ideas happen all the time, but that doesn’t matter until you actually do it,” Herro says.
For more insight into the home, visit www.builderonline.com/renewable.
