MKD has added the above video to their Web site. It shows the assembly of their mkSolaire at the museum in Chicago. Fun to watch.

There are plenty more where that came from.

MSNBC's Virtual Lifestyles visited the mkSolaire in Chicago and filed the above video report. Look for:

• explanations of the home's green features
• an interview with Michelle Kaufmann
• a quick montage of the home's assembly
• various views inside and out
• a talking plant!

The price mentioned for the home: $450,000.

The Chicago Tribune visited Michelle Kaufmann's mkSolaire exhibit last week:

everything in and about the 2,500-square-foot home on exhibit just outside of the Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago has been designed to show the public how easy it can be to incorporate environmental sustainability into their own abodes.

Michelle Kaufmann commented on her hopes for the exhibit:

"We tried to look for ideas in every choice that we make in our homes ... hoping that everyone who goes through it will be inspired to make some change on some level.... Some people will walk away and want to do an entire new home, or some people will think when they go for their towels next and go for organic linens."

Some of the many features of the home:

• half the energy of traditional homes
• a third of the water of traditional homes
• water from the bathroom sink is diverted to the toilet
• a bicycle in the children's bedroom must be pedaled for 30 minutes to charge a battery to power video games

Interesting:

Visitors receive a resource guide that tells about the function of each feature, how they're assembled and where they can be purchased.

I missed last week, so here is two weeks of prefab news. Daily posts will resume this week; sorry for the gaps!

Jetson Green links to a student prefab project at Taliesin West:

The students, with Dean Victor Sidy and Jennifer Siegal of OMD, designed a simple but elegant home with sustainability in mind. At first, they were going to prefabricate the structure, but later decided to go instead with on-site, panelized construction using SIPs for the walls, roof, and floor.

Last week, Inhabitat's Prefab Friday discussed a unique idea for Olympic stadiums:

Currently there are plans in place to dismantle around 70% of the proposed London Olympic Stadium, pack up the components, and send them to the host of the 2016 Olympics!

Yesterday, Prefab Friday covered the Joshua Tree house that we've seen previously:

This steel clad prefab is a compact two bedroom “mountain refuge” with a welcoming, and surprisingly roomy, wooden interior.

Two weeks ago, Inhabitat looked at a container home in New Zealand.

LLoyd Alter, of Treehugger, wrote about green prefab at the Huffington Post:

They are everywhere in all the magazines: "Green" modern prefabs. But are they really green?

Treehugger visited the mkSolaire at Chicago's Museum of Science and Industry:

The Smart Home has been outfitted with some of the most sustainable and responsible options available for building and furnishing a house, while the landscaping illustrates many ways to sustain and replenish the surrounding environments we live in. It’s really spectacular to see the museum’s courtyard transformed in this way.

Finally, Dwell on Design started yesterday. We'll have a full review of happenings at the show this coming week.

We previously provided an overview of MKD's mkSolaire being installed at Chicago's Museum of Science and Industry. We also shared a video of the construction.

A couple weeks back, the home opened to the public. We haven't had the chance to visit, but many around the blogosphere have.

Dwell visited on May 8th and reports:

It was a gray and rainy day in Chicago yesterday, but ... Michelle Kaufmann's newest prefab was still producing more energy than it used.

The mkSolaire marks Kaufmann's entry into urban neighborhoods. Designed to fit into a standard 25 ft. wide city lot, the home is seven modules – five for 2500 square foot home and two for the garage, which is designed for flexible future use such as conversion to a guest house when the car is abandoned for good.

Jetson Green visited, along with the folks at PrairieMod, May 9th:

There are a couple of wonderful things about what this exhibit is doing. For example, it is making this approach to design completely accessible to the typical citizen in a relevant manner. It isn't just the stuff of highbrow design and shelter magazines. The Smart Home is absolutely real and is made for real people. It honestly inspires folks to see what can be accomplished with a thoughtful plan and current technology. Another exciting aspect is the fact that a prefab home can be built in the Midwest.

Also featured: an interview they recorded with Michelle Kaufmann.

Kaufmann's hometown newspaper, the Quad-City Times, reported on the home and filled in some details:

Admission to the house is $10, an extra fee for an exhibit celebrating the museum’s 75th anniversary and the 1933-34 "Century of Progress" Chicago World’s Fair.

The idea for the exhibit came about during a brainstorming session as museum staff members considered an attraction from 75 years ago called "Homes of Tomorrow."

"We thought how amazing would it be to build a fully functioning home on the museum property that honors the past but is forward-looking with green and smart technologies," said Anne Rashford, director of temporary exhibits.

Once the idea was set, it didn’t take long to find Kaufmann, 39.

Exhibit details and images are available on the Museum of Science and Industry site.

materialicio.us covered the Joshua Tree prefab:

steel skinned prefab with a wooden interior described as a ‘mountain refuge’, presented at the recent Milan Furniture Fair.

A number of blogs covered the EvolutiV House. Archinect saw it first. MoCo Loco picked up the trail. Treehugger added some details:

The 70 square meter Maison evolutiV was shown at the Salon Européen du bois et de l'Habitat Durable in April....

It is a low consumption modular wood home, ...composed of 2 prefabricated units...

materialicio.us saw the home. And Inhabitat's Prefab Friday liked the home enough to feature it:

The beauty of this design lies in its chestnut façade and inviting floor plan, but also in its small ecological footprint.

Treehugger wrote about a series of prefabs from Swedish company Next House (no relation to Empyrean International's NextHouse). We'll cover those in more detail down the line.

Jetson Green, in conjunction with PrairieMod, visited MKD's mkSolaire at the Chicago Museum of Science and Industry. We'll cover the unveiling in more detail soon.

We missed two of our "this week" posts, so here's a roundup of the past three weeks of prefab news.

Prefab Update shared a video of the installation of MKD's mkSolaire in Chicago:

MoCo Loco posted some pics of the recent kitHAUS K3 install in Big Sur, California.

Jetson Green got excited about a container loft project:

...the first, mid-rise container building in the U.S. is planned for downtown Salt Lake City. The project was designed by none other than Adam Kalkin, container architecture expert, and will be called City Center Lofts.

Inhabitat's Prefab Friday covered a prefab in Brazil, discussed the new joint venture between LivingHomes and KieranTimberlake, and took a look at the ZeroHouse.

Inhabitat also discovered the LV Home in Napa we've discussed previously.