Area and Perimeter House Project

We wanted to apply our knowledge of area and perimeter to real life so students got to design a house.  The house had to contain a living room, kitchen, 2 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms and a laundry room.  It also had to be between 1200-1500 square feet.  Groups had to design their house on graph paper and calculate the area and perimeter of each room.  When their plans were finished they could design a 3D model of their house on the computer.  They also had to research ways to make their house energy efficient, like adding solar panels or extra windows for natural light.