ADU Inspiration…The Rose House
The city of Santa Cruz offered a design competition for ADU design. Great idea! Check it out here
Some while back, the city of Portland had a “skinny house competition.” It would be great if they’d do the same for ADUs.
And while we’re on the topic of ADU inspiration, I’d like to mention the “Rose House.” This 800 Sq Ft ADu uses ZERO energy! Here’s a bit of tech-geek on how it works.


Here’s a link to the site plans from Sera’s website. One thing I find interesting about this is that – like my proposal – the ADU required an adjustment. However, the adjustment was made based on the main house being 2040 sq. ft. Looking at the property it appears the main house is 1,000 sq. ft. with a finished basement (684) an unfinished basement (336) and an attached garage (360). I’m not sure how they are getting to the 2040 number….maybe it’s a math screw up.
From the city website, ADUs can be 33% of the LIVING space, so it looks like they are counting the entire basement (finished and unfinished) as part of this number.