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The world of prefab and modular homes. |
Some of you may have noticed the lack of daily posts recently. I've been driving cross-country, trying to squeeze in some work between visiting friends and family.
Daily posts and site updates will resume in a few weeks.
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Hello, Scott here. Peter has just released a new feature that I designed (and he painstakingly implemented). It combines our previous one-click navigation with a more flexible search using checkboxes.
The earlier approach was quick:
- click any parameter to go directly to those results
- click any other parameter to drill-down farther
Here's how it looked (for homes priced between $100k - $199k with 1,500 - 1,999 sf):
Many online stores use this approach, but it has one big problem: what if your target doesn't match the specified ranges? Maybe you'd like 3-4 BR between 1,500-2,999 (which spans 2 ranges). That would take 4 different searches! The solution is simple: checkboxes.
Now you can be thorough:
- click the checkbox for any parameter
- click the checkbox for any other parameters
- click "Search"
Many sites feature direct drill-down, others have checkboxes. We have both working together in the same form. (If you've seen this combination anywhere else, please send us the URL!) To add or remove a single parameter from your search, just click on it directly. To change several, use the checkboxes and click Search.
As before, options that have no data are crossed out. You can click on one to reset your search and see results for just that item.
Please try this new interface to what we think is the world's most complete database of modernist prefab homes that are available to order. (Plus some traditional style homes, and lots of prototype and custom prefabs.)
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| amazon.com |
I've been going through a bunch of old notes and found a link to PreFab Now. MocoLoco explains:
If any of Trulove's books are an indicator, PreFab Now should include the state of the art in contemporary prefabricated home design. The promo copy hints at this; "Architects are using new construction technologies and materials to create complex designs that make every prefabricated home look custom- designed.". The book also "addresses the advantages and disadvantages of choosing a prefab home over a custom-built one [and] covers cost, sustainability, and durability."
To help keep track of books we cover on Prefabcosm, we've added a new page: 
Prefab books.
In addition to news articles and websites, we blogged about several videos of prefab and modular homes last year. A full list of videos we covered, in the order we covered them:
We covered many informative websites on prefab and modular homes last year. A few of our favorite posts:
In May, we found the
LV Series Yahoo! Group, a great resource on Rocio Romero's LV Series homes
We wrote about
Nashville Modern Prefab in June. The plan: to build a Hive Modular home. Sadly, it looks like work has stalled.
- Shedworking entered our radar at the end of June. The blog is a great source of information on small prefab homes.
We love
A Prefab Project, which tracks the progress of a Resolution: 4 Architecture home in West Virginia. In July, we watched the home being delivered.
Also in July:
Hive Modular started a blog.
Sears Homes were some of the earliest prefabs. We were excited when we found a great resource on the homes: the
Sears Archives.
I'd forgotten about this one: we covered a great Flickr set of a
Flatpack House going up. Now the home is much more complete.
In December, we came across
ModularHomeChoice.com. It offers some useful information about building a modular home.
And we saw
Secret Fortress Hideout, a blog all about the construction of an LVL Home.
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| telegraph.co.uk |
A few of our favorite blogs posted round-up posts at the end of last year. Materialicio.us listed their top 25 stories of 2007, including a number of great prefabs. Jetson Green covered his most popular articles.
We were inspired to review our posts, clean-up the tags and share some highlights -- even if a bit late. First up, our favorite prefab news articles from last year.
From major US newspapers:
The New York Times wrote about prefabs as second homes.
The New York Post wrote about modular homes.
The Los Angeles Times discussed
OMD and the Swellhouse.
The
Loblolly House appeared in the Washington Post and the Philadelphia Inquirer.
Local papers:
We followed the replacement of FEMA trailers with modular homes.
Looked at modular homes in Long Island.
Covered modular homes in Mississippi.
And saw that modulars can be any size.
And more:
August brought Witold Rybczynski's Prefab Fad article. We disagreed.
In October, we got excited about bringing the factory to the site and a pretty cool prefab penthouse.
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We've added status designators to each model and variation page. The BURST* page is shown above, with status "prototype." Each model is designated as either:
available: can be purchased now (example: micro compact home)
prototype: includes concepts, demonstration homes, and models that will be available in the future (example: Aperture House)
discontinued: ... but worth tracking to see how the industry changes over time (example: v2shell)
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We've been quietly organizing our database of prefab and modular homes by style (traditional or modern), price, size, bedrooms and construction method. Click any choice to see the matching home models; click again to refine your search. At each stage, options that have no data are crossed out.
Other new features:
• a new company index that summarizes what each provides
• individual pages for each home model and variation
• you can now leave comments on home models, variations and companies
• an improved front page with direct access to key features of the site
We have more changes planned; please let us know if you have any specific information requests.
With the new design and code updates, our feed URLs have changed. If you have been reading our blog via the RSS feed, please change the URL that you use to fetch the feed.
The blog feed is now at:
http://prefabcosm.com/blog/feeds/posts/
The comment feed is now at:
http://prefabcosm.com/blog/feeds/comments/
The old feeds will work for a short period of time and then we will retire them, so please make the change now. If you get stuck or have any questions, let us know!
We updated the design of our site this weekend, e.g. stronger highlight in the "nav bar" (navigation menu on the left) and links have moved from the regular bright blue underline to medium blue without underline. Feedback welcome!
And, lots of changes under the hood: please let us know if you notice any glitches. We've already fixed several...
Tip: to make sure you have the latest stylesheets, hold down the "alt" key (or "option" on the Mac) and click the reload icon in your browser.
Our aim is to create the web's #1 resource for prefab and modular homes.
Prefab is poised to change the housing industry. The new emphasis on cutting-edge design and high-quality construction complements the traditional benefits of shorter construction times and the potential for lower costs.
Our primary audience is the potential prefab or modular homeowner.
Our second audience is the prefab industry, including the people and companies that contribute to and produce the materials, products and events that build prefab homes.
As a designer and builder myself, I hope to bring you the latest news, with some added insight. I look forward to sharing my passion for design, and playing whatever small role I can to help move the prefab industry forward.
