USA WEEKEND Magazine readers chose this house to go to a family in need in the Washington, D.C. area. This design won over two others with 45 percent of the vote in the online contest. On Make A Difference Day, Oct. 28, the USA WEEKEND Katrina Cottage will be one step closer to being the permanent home of a deserving family. USA WEEKEND and the Congress for New Urbanism partnered on this effort for Make A Difference Day, the magazine's national day of volunteering. The house was created by Miami architect Steve Mouzon and manufactured and donated by Housing International of California. The USA WEEKEND Katrina Cottage is part of a family of designs that originated in the Gulf region in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. Mouzon, like the other designers who developed these high-quality, small-scale homes in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, is a member of the non-profit association of planners, designers, engineers, and other specialists called the Congress for the New Urbanism. The Congress and its members have been prominent in post-hurricane planning in Mississippi and Louisiana since October of 2005. The following co-sponsors contributed materials and furnishings: Home Depot, Windsor Windows, Restoration Hardware, James Hardie, McElroy Metal, and Smith & Hawken. The architectural and planning firm of Duany Plater-Zyberk & Co. assisted with site planning and design liaison in the D.C. area.

SOLUTIONS

Little house, big plan
A year later, out of the tragedy of Hurricane Katrina, comes a powerful idea: to build quality homes for those in need -- anywhere.
By Dennis McCafferty

These unique "Katrina Cottages" have inspired designers to explore new housing ideas elsewhere.

It's tiny, with airy, big windows, an inviting front porch and a lemonade-yellow exterior -- a veritable steel magnolia, pretty on the outside but super-sturdy and built to last.

Rising out of the wreckage of the still-devastated Hurricane Katrina region, this little house is creating a big sensation.

A year after Katrina plundered the Gulf Coast on Aug. 29, 2005, you see so much more that needs to get done: In St. Bernard Parish, La., the remains of entire homes -- wood frames, bedsheets, mattresses, couches and refrigerators -- are piled high on curbs, still waiting for crews to come take it all away. A sign on one house for sale brags, "No flood water/2nd floor."

Then, travel more than 90 miles east to Ocean Springs, Miss., and you see something different -- a sign of hope. The sunny, so-called "Katrina Cottage" is turning heads. One of many efforts aimed at restoring the area, the cottages, designed by Congress for the New Urbanism (CNU), a non-profit consortium of architects and planners, capture the spirit of a new movement to create quality, affordable housing. The hurricane's devastation added momentum to efforts by big thinkers like CNU to address those needs here and elsewhere around the country.

Ocean Springs architect Bruce Tolar, a convert to the designs, is looking to build a Katrina Cottage development in his ravaged community that would include about 20 homes and stores: "We want to provide a place for our neighbors here that feels like home."

Resident Marty Wagoner will move his family back to their beachfront lot in September and into a 760-square-foot, approximately $80,000 Katrina Cottage now being built there. "We'll live there while we get another primary residence built, and then we'll keep the cottage as a guest home," says Wagoner, 45. The pint-sized house will include a living room, dining room, kitchen, two bedrooms and bathroom, with cement siding designed to withstand high winds. Its small size keeps it both affordable and energy efficient.

The award-winning architects behind the Katrina Cottage, who call themselves "new urbanists," have designed three similar 1,200-square-foot houses, one of which will be built in Washington D.C., to underscore the national scope of this movement.

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Cottage at top: Sandy Sorlien; Watercolors at bottom: Design by Stephen A. Mouzon; Drawing by James Wassell; Watercoloring by Eusebio Azcue