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The world of prefab and modular homes. |
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| piecehomes.com |
Because we couldn't be at Dwell on Design, we sent out some emails to see what attendees had to say. From Jonathan Davis at 
pieceHomes:
Dwell was a fantastic event, the pieceHomes booth was constantly busy with a stream of very interested, knowledgeable attendees. We launched two new homes along with our new line, extraPieces: modern, green, modular additions for existing homes.
A bit more about the two new homes:
...the Flat Wrap, another in the Wrap series, is a 1,765sf 3 bedroom one story home with expansive glazed walls allow for true indoor/outdoor living. The 1,900sf three story loft Cube House can be used for urban-infill where smaller footprints and higher density are appropriate.
With these two additional models, pieceHomes offers nine standard models, ranging in size from the one bedroom, 320 sf Container House to the 1,900sf Cube House. All of the pieceHomes models, including three custom projects, can be seen in their online brochure (pdf).
The extraPieces concept sounds intriguing:
extraPieces™ provide the extra space needed without having to build a whole new home. Add a family room or a master suite to an existing home, or build a new garage and studio in the backyard. Exterior materials can be customized to complement the finish of the existing home. Interiors can also be customized to meet particular needs and conditions, such as adding a kitchen and full bath to turn eP: studio into a guesthouse. Each of the extraPieces™ uses the same palate of green materials, energy efficient technologies and sustainable construction practices as the new homes by pieceHomes®.
The extraPieces range includes studio, master suite, and extension modules. This product is the first I've seen that offers such prefab solutions specifically for adding a room to your existing home. If they can match a traditional look, perhaps it could be Scott's prefab kitchen?
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| dwell.com |
We weren't able to attend this year's Dwell on Design show in LA, so we'll just do a recap from afar.
Dwell's student blogger Jose Garcia interviewed Michelle Kaufmann.
Curbed LA gave a rundown of the prefab neighborhood with a slideshow and commentary.
Marmol Radziner shared some details on their blog. They rolled out the new Rincon 5 at the show:
The 660 square foot Rincon 5 is the largest of our new series of single module accessory buildings. The Rincon 5 is designed to be used as a guest house, office, or vacation retreat.
Apartment Therapy posted their thoughts, with a slideshow.
One of the most popular (and cramped) exhibits was the 1000 sq. ft. HOM shotgun style pre-fab house. Personally our favourite of the homes showcased.
We'll cover HOM in more detail soon. Until then, Jetson Green provided some info:
Of the three models that HOM plans for production, the (smaller) 1000 sf design was exhibited throughout the weekend in LA. HOM designs cost in the $200 psf range, which calculates to approximately $200,000 for a 1000 sf house....
One interesting aspect of these manufactured homes is that they're characterized under the federal HUD code for manufactured housing. Similar to the modern designs we see with miniHome, HOM homes have an axle and wheels that are disguised by skirting and decking.
(For reference: our miniHome page.)
This year's prefab exhibitors:
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Empyrean International
- Gregg Fleishman Studio
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Hive Modular
- HOM
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kitHAUS
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Modern Cabana
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Marmol Radziner
- pieceHomes
Absent from the show, but present last year:
If you visited the show, please leave your impressions in a comment!
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| http://www.dwell.com/peopleplaces/conferences/14292127.html |
Dwell Magazine's third Dwell On Design conference and exhibition is coming to the Los Angeles Convention Center June 5-8.
June 5th and 6th will feature conference sessions on a wide range of topics. On June 6 Michael Sylvester of fabprefab will host a session on "Systems Building and Prefab." Speakers include:
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Michelle Kaufmann of MKD
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Leo Marmol of Marmol Radziner
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Jay Eli of Empyrean International
The public exhibition opens June 7th (emphasis added):
Everything you ever wanted to know about modern design in one very big place: 200+ exhibitors, an entire neighborhood of full-scale pre-fab structures completely landscaped and furnished by Dwell. Plus you'll get hands-on, actionable advice and information from architects, designers and other trade professionals.
Prefab companies that are listed as exhibiting include:
If you're interested in attending, you can register for the exhibition FREE; just enter the code "BDODEC".
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| piecehomes.com |
Low Impact Living interviewed the folks at pieceHomes:
affordability is key. A lot of companies are selling their factory-built work at $400-500/square foot—and they are gorgeous, but very expensive. Our goal is to produce some homes at the $200/sq foot level….we’d prefer to sell more smaller, affordable homes to more clients than a big, expensive home to a really wealthy client...We are working on several homes now….the first one is a custom design. It’s called Rindge. It started off as a conventionally built house. But we realized we could build it in modules with some minor changes to the structural engineering. We realized we could save money and time going that way.
CubeMe covered Camp Smull by Resolution: 4 Architecture.
Materialicio.us discussed the pinc house sport, from Pinc House, a company involved in the Some Assembly Required exhibition we've mentioned previously.
Jetson Green loves the Rapson Greenbelt, mentioned last week.
Inhabitat's Prefab Friday featured the Magic Box.
Treehugger looked at a unique prefab:
When your hard drive is full you can plug in another, because they are all designed to be modular and interchangeable. Why shouldn't houses work that way?
architecture.MNP found a cool Danish design:
Designed by Danish firm ONV Architects, the home is a modular [really?] prefab that is both customizable and [supposedly] affordable.Personally, I’m a huge fan of the overall form...
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| piecehomes.com |
The Good Human's Prefab Wednesday discusses IKEA's prefab concept:
No, you cannot walk into your local IKEA store and pick one up…but maybe someday. Wouldn’t that be pretty cool? “I guess we should get a bookcase, a planter, and oh, let’s pick up one of the BoKlok houses. OK honey?”
Inhabitat's Prefab Friday looks at pieceHomes:
It will be exciting to see where these and other pieceHomes pop up as they transform from renderings to affordable, green prefab realities.
Our previous coverage:
• IKEA's prefab concept
• pieceHomes
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| piecehomes.com |
While MKD made the biggest impression at West Coast Green, there were a couple of other prefab vendors present. pieceHomes, a new prefab company out of Los Angeles, is definitely worth a look. The offering is a collaboration between LA-based architecture firm davis studio Architecture + Design and modular builder XtremeHomes.
From the pieceHomes site:
"The pieceHomesTM standard line includes homes ranging from the 320sf Container House to the 1,825sf Venice Two. Davis Studio A+D has focused on designing smaller homes that will be affordable to a wide range of customers and that are particularly well suited for infill urban lots. These homes will be available complete and installed for under $200 per square foot. Every home will use a simple palate of green materials, energy efficient technologies, and sustainable construction practices. Davis Studio A+D will provide services to locate the house on the property to effectively take advantage of solar orientation, prevailing winds, local views and privacy issues."
Jetson Green reviewed the home prior to Dwell on Design:
"PieceHomes plants to distinguish itself among the pack by providing custom and standardized, modern, modular architecture that is green and afffordable. With a variety of home designs taking shape, PieceHomes will be available this fall..."
