The Congress of Residential Architecture

Link to CORA's main website http://www.corarchitecture.org/

MANIFESTO

The majority of Americans live in poorly designed homes that are haphazardly sited, thoughtlessly constructed, and, in some cases, hazardous to their health.

The quality of most new single-family construction for the last 40 years is at best only adequate. Despite general progress in building technology, few home design innovations have been sought after by the home building industry. The vast majority of single-family house plans built today are simply variations of a few dozen house plans that are decades old. These homes rarely are adapted to their specific locations, have plans that reflect the way most of us live, are pleasing to the eye, or contain details that give them a sense of quality. Our built environment is plagued by sprawl—by a relentless consumption of building materials and land, with little attempt to honor either.

Record numbers of houses are being built each year with higher construction budgets than ever before, yet residential architects are largely at the margins of this boom. Led by developers, the home construction bonanza is
driven by dollars and not by concerns about design integrity, human safety and well-being, and environmental sustainability. Their success would seem to indicate that the “industry standard” single-family home is all that is desired by the general public and causes no concern to the architecture profession.

Despite appearances, both architects and homeowners care about the state of residential design. Those of us who design homes as the central focus of our architectural careers know there are thousands of architects and millions of homeowners throughout the country who take home design seriously. Among the general public, there's a booming market for information on home design, demonstrated by a proliferation of television programs, Internet sites, and printed publications on the subject. Homeowners and would-be homebuyers are increasingly discontent with the current state of housing, and they're looking for solutions. As a result, a growing number of architects are actively writing and talking about house design to the general public as a distinct discipline of the architecture profession.

Change is needed; change is possible. We believe that by coming together as a congress, residential architects can be a powerful and effective force for positive change.

MISSION STATEMENT

The purpose of the Congress of Residential Architecture (CORA) is to provide a continuing forum for advocating and enhancing residential architecture by all individuals, both professionals and non-professionals, that share a common interest in improving the quality of the homes and communities we live in. These forums will be focused on the following principles:

1Sharing knowledge amongst professionals whose business has a focus in residential architecture, especially those who have focused their business on single-family homes.

2  Sharing knowledge amongst home owners and community members that are interested in improving the quality of community through improvements in residential architecture.

3  Demonstrating the relevance and value of single-family residential design to the public at large.

4  Enhancing the knowledge and development of design methodologies and technical and social research to benefit the practice of single-family residential design.

5  Fostering communication between CORA members and publishing and professional organizations to make single-family residential design accessible to the general public.

I'm sorry folks, the CORA web site needs to be completely rebuilt.

We need a new NON-FLASH CORA site.

Right now it is impossible to give somebody a link that takes them directly to a specific page in the CORA site. That is because all navigation is internal through the Flash structure. It makes it impossible to direct somebody to specific content, which makes the site just about USELESS. Flash spells INACCESSIBLE.

It needs to be redone.