The Handmade House at The Ramble is a showplace on several levels. First of all, it's the product of a distinguished design team and Asheville's premier development group, who've created an appealing house in an appealing neighborhood. It's a state-of-the-art example of energy-efficiency and environmental responsibility. But what makes it stand apart, even from other homes by these same designers and builders, is the effort by the project's partners, HandMade in America, and Biltmore Farms, LLC, to demonstrate how the well-thought-out integration of regional craft takes even a fine custom home to a new level.

Walking through the HandMade House, you'll be struck by the power of even the smallest details -- a drawer pull, a chair covering, a single piece of flatware -- to signal sense of place. Uniqueness. You can be nowhere else in the world.

That one-of-a-kind sensibility translates into value everyone can appreciate, whether they're builders anxious to assert their distinctiveness in the marketplace or home owners determined to retain their individuality and still inhabit space that feels as if it belongs in the community and the region. You'll sense all these value advantages. You'll also sense something else: The contributions of some 100 regional artisans raises the quality of the experience to gallery levels. Yet the HandMade House is not a gallery. Instead of merely providing a venue for regional art, this collaboration creates a fully integrated art object all its own. And best of all, it's an example that can be replicated time and again on a range of scales from home to neighborhood to region.