What will new homes in Houston look like in 2011?

The trendsetting New American Home showcased at the International Builders Show in Orlando last week may offer the answer,or at least some guidance to builders and homebuyers looking for fresh trends.

For 28 years, the New American Home, a show house built for display during the National Association of Home Builders convention, has been spinning off ideas that are copied around the nation.

The 2011 trends? If ideas emerging from the latest New American Home take hold, expect to see new houses being designed with cleaner lines, a nod to more contemporary designs, as well as homes with fewer ostentatious frills and luxuries.

This year’s New American Home is 8,400- square-foot concrete structure in Orlando, Fla. During a tour of the four-bedroom house last week, we searched for new ideas that would be useful for Culturemap readers in Texas. The home’s design can best be labeled “modern classical,” says the home’s interior designer Kate Clarke of Continental Interiors of Winter Park, Fla.

What’s modern classical?

“It’s a transitional look between contemporary and traditional. It bridges the gap,” Clarke says. “It’s a simple, clean-line project with geometric and linear (elements). Linear is the all important thing.”

To emphasize the linear look, Clarke placed several horizontal bands of aluminum along the extra-long fireplace in the family room of the New American Home.

The lesson? As the country emerges from the recession, simpler, less gaudy designs and amenities will be employed as builders and buyers keep in-step with the economy. This will be translated into building houses with simpler roof lines and a move toward contemporary homes, says Christopher Donnelly of Donnelly Architecture, the architect of the New American Home.

The New American Master’s Hub

The New American Home highlights an interesting design idea for luxury builders — the master bedroom hub. The central hub room is a private, windowless octagon-shaped room with comfortable seating, a fireplace and a television. Spinning off from the hub are the three “spokes” of the master suite — a gigantic walk-in closet; a large bathroom with dual showers, spa tub and a urinal; and the bedroom. The master bedroom has no television — it’s a peaceful place devoted to sleep and rest.

The quiet oasis bedroom — that’s the idea that may really take off and be popular.

Overall, energy efficiency will be a goal that builders want and consumers demand.

Some of the energy savers in the New American Home are hardly new — such as capturing cross ventilation to catch the breeze when humidity is down. Others are ideas just hitting the mainstream after three decades of talk, like the gray water recycling system and rainwater “harvesting.”

The show home’s low VOC paint, tankless hot water system are already in the Houston home buying marketplace and many Houston builders are using low-flow showerheads and faucets.

The New American Homes’ solar-assisted heating-and air-conditioning system, solar hot water heater with gas backup and Formaldehyde-free wood cabinetry are good, but still pricey. For the buyer who may not live in a home for more than a few years, it may not make economic sense to spend heavily for those features,

The New American Home’s in-law suite is another idea which could work well for boomerang kids coming back home after college, as well as for aging parents. The in-law suite has its own kitchen and laundry room.

The front of the New American Home is full of native and drought tolerant plants to save on water and change minds about fertilizing and cutting. But the surprise was the backyard had realistic artificial grass, fluffy and soft to the touch and hard for the eye to perceive that, yes, it is fake.

The New American Home, valued at $2.8 million, was built in an older upscale neighborhood near downtown Orlando as a joint project of the National Association of Home Builders and Builder magazine.

No. 2 — The Vision House

Another show house at the Builders Show was The Vision House, built in a mature neighborhood near downtown Orlando by Green Builder magazine and a host of professionals.

The Vision House was built with sustainability and energy efficiency as a priority. Its metal roof, manufactured by Fabral, was chosen for its ability to reflect heat. A five-inch thick coating of spray foam insulation was chosen to reduce heating and cooling costs.

In the interior of the home, the builders used Mohawk brand wood flooring that is made from wood reclaimed from demolished buildings. The kitchen’s cooktop, made by KitchenAid, uses induction technology that heats up the pan, but not the cooktop to enhance energy efficiency.

The two-story home, called an “urban farmhouse” by its architect, Ed Binkley, has abundant porches and decks to provide outdoor living areas. To make the home even more sustainable, the plantings around the house included citrus trees, which the promoters called “edible landscaping.”

Ralph Bivins, former president of the National Association of Real Estate Editors, is editor-in-chief of RealtyNewsReport.com.