The world of prefab and modular homes.
  Entries written by Peter

The OPEN Prototype Initiative (OPI)

Link to The OPEN Prototype Initiative (OPI)
http://www.openprototype.com/

We recently came across an interesting project called The OPEN Prototype Initiative (OPI). It is:

... developing a series of prototypical homes to test a new model for the design, fabrication and assembly of highly responsive places of living.

Founding partners:

More information is available on the OPI website:

We look forward to seeing more from this collaboration.

Related Posts:
   1. Bensonwood's Unity House (Mar 02, 2009)
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Taliesen Mod.Fab complete

Link to Taliesen Mod.Fab complete
http://www.taliesin.edu/pages/MODFAB.htm

Taliesin, the Frank Lloyd Wright School of Architecture, posted pictures of their completed Mod.Fab.

[The] prototype residence relies on panelized construction to allow for speed and economy on site or in a factory

PrairieMod tracked their progress from start to finish.

model: Mod.Fab
size: 600 sf
BR: 1
baths: 1

Hat Tip: Jetson Green on February 13, 2009.

Related Posts:
   1. This week: Taliesin, Joshua Tree, mkSolaire and more (Jun 07, 2008)
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The sustainability of modular housing

The New York Times recently discussed the sustainability of modular housing.

The modular housing industry likes to say that it has always had a few characteristics that today might be considered eco-friendly — from reduced waste to a smaller construction footprint.

But it’s only recently — and increasingly amid the flagging housing market — that manufacturers of factory-built homes have realized that concepts like efficiency and sustainability can make for good business strategy.

Mentioned in the article:

Read the entire article.

Author: Nick Chambers
Publication: New York Times
Section: Green Inc. Blog ("Energy, the Environment and the Bottom Line")
Length: 467 words
Date: February 11, 2009

(Hat tip: Charles Bevier of Building Systems on February 11, 2009.)

Related Posts:
   1. In the news: New World Home (Aug 31, 2009)
   2. New Old Green Modular™ by New World Home (Jul 10, 2009)
   3. New models from Ecohealth and Penn Lyon (Apr 06, 2009)
   4. Ecohealth in the news (Apr 06, 2009)
   5. Modular Construction in Green Building seminar on March 19, 2009 (Mar 16, 2009)
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Container home in Kansas City

Link to Container home in Kansas City
http://www.flickr.com/photos/homecontained

materialicious covered a shipping container house in Kansas City. They found the house via LamiDesign idea log.

The look is very basic. In any case, check out the 53 pictures on Flickr. It's interesting that one section has poured concrete walls.

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The Guardian's favorite prefabs from Inhabitat

Link to The Guardian's favorite prefabs from Inhabitat
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/gallery/2008/oct/16/greenbuilding-recycling

Back in October, The Guardian provided a gallery of pictures which they consider to be

the best green buildings from the design website Inhabitat

Note: Inhabitat is part of the Guardian Environment Network.

The gallery includes 3 prefab homes:

Hat tip: The Green Blog on October 20, 2008

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Adam Kalkin container home from 2003

Link to Adam Kalkin container home from 2003
http://www.architectureandhygiene.com/

Jetson Green recently shared pictures of an info_smallAdam Kalkin container house in Maine from 2003:

The beautiful home stretches the boundaries of modern design and is truly a work of art. It was created by stacking a dozen orange "reclaimed" shipping containers in a T-shape while replacing some of the steel panels with large windows looking out over the rocky peninsula to Blue Hill Bay.

Related Posts:
   1. Kalkin Quik House (May 15, 2007)
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The American House 08 by William Massie

Link to The American House 08 by William Massie
http://www.massiearchitecture.com/

In their February 2009 issue, Dwell Magazine features an article about info_smallAmerican House 08 by architect info_smallWilliam Massie.

For Massie, creating this “transportable” house proved inspirational.

For over a decade, attaching his computer to a laser cutter, he learned how to draw intricate shapes—such as jigsaw patterns for wood paneling—and have the machine cut them out seamlessly. He then bought his own computer numerically controlled (CNC) milling machine, which could drill down into a material to create molds. He was thus able to redefine how standard materials such as concrete, wood, and even rubber were used. They no longer had to be flat or rectangular—they could become sculptural forms.

The prefab part isn't really intended to be practical here:

When the house is moved again, some interior surfaces, such as the plaster ceilings, will, in Massie’s words, “have to be sacrificed.” Redoing them, and reinstalling the floor, will cost about $20,000. The total transport cost, apart from any work to connect the house to the site, will be nearly $45,000. The cost of the house itself? $750,000.

designer: info_smallWilliam Massie
price: $750,000+
size: ~2,500 sf
br: 2
baths: 2.5

The house is listed on ebay. The starting bid was $480,000 and the current bid is up to $490,100.

Read the Dwell article for more details, then visit Massie's website for numerous pictures and a virtual tour.

Subtitle: Art object or machine for living in? Architect William Massie’s personal prefab project takes the mass out of mass customization to create a one-of-a-kind wonder.
Author: David Hay
Publication: Dwell Magazine
Section: Homes
Length: 1,356 words
Date: February 2009

(Hat tip: Materialicious on December 22, 2008)

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The Clayton iHouse

Link to The Clayton iHouse
http://clayton-i-house.blogspot.com/

There has been a lot of buzz lately about the info_smalliHouse from info_smallClayton Homes. They do not offer model information on their main website, though there is a virtual tour of the house.

The (Maryville, TN) Daily Times interviewed Kevin Clayton, the company's CEO and president, on October 29, 2008.

Metro Pulse had a lengthy article on December 17, 2008:

The core product is a 992-square-foot one-bedroom home featuring a detached “Flex Room” connected by an “Outdoor Living Space” or deck made of recycled materials. If you look at the floor plan ... the main structure looks a little bit like a lower case “i,” with the Flex Room as its dot. Hence the name.

Jetson Green shared some great pictures on January 9, 2009.

TreeHugger had two separate posts on January 10, 2009, one by Lloyd Alter and the other by Brian Merchant.

Last, but not least, a fan created The Clayton iHouse blog. Although not affiliated with Clayton Homes, it is a great source of information.

model: info_smalliHouse
designer: info_smallClayton Homes
price: ~$100,000
size: 1,280 sf
beds: 2
baths: 2

Related Posts:
   1. Clayton iHouse now available (May 12, 2009)
   2. Clayton Homes Showcase of Homes this weekend in Knoxville, Tennessee (Oct 29, 2008)
   3. Clayton Homes Showcase of Homes this weekend in Greensboro, NC (Oct 09, 2008)
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The RINCON 5 from Marmol Radziner

Link to The RINCON 5 from Marmol Radziner
http://www.marmolradzinerprefab.com/rincon.html

We're still catching up on old news. In November, Jetson Green covered the info_smallRINCON 5 from info_smallMarmol Radziner Prefab:

RINCON is the moniker for their latest modular series, a line of homes that can double as a small prefab dwelling or ancillary living structure, you name it. The name is inspired by the Spanish word for "nook" -- an apt description for this little accessory structure.

model: info_smallRINCON 5
price: $179,000 base ($223,000 installed)
size: 660 sf
beds: 1
baths: 1

Related Posts:
   1. Podcast features Marmol Radziner and Blu Homes (Aug 14, 2009)
   2. Hollywood Hybrid by Marmol Radziner Prefab (Jul 11, 2009)
   3. The Skyline Series by Marmol Radziner Prefab (Jul 02, 2009)
   4. This week: Rincon 5 and OMD showhouse (Aug 16, 2008)
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Envision Prefab's container homes

Link to Envision Prefab's container homes
http://www.jetsongreen.com/2008/11/envision-prefab.html

In November, Jetson Green featured a post by one of their sponsors, info_smallEnvision Prefab.

Envision Prefab ... is bringing container architecture to a new level by creating complete modular housing out of these frames.

The home starts with the basic cargo containers. Factory technicians mark out the windows, doors, mechanical, and plumbing vents and cut through the corrugated metal walls. The interior wall is completely removed, and the containers are braced to prevent any deflections.

See the post for photographs of the construction sequence.

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Michelle Kaufmann: there's a bright side to the current housing market troubles

Link to Michelle Kaufmann: there's a bright side to the current housing market troubles
http://blog.michellekaufmann.com/

Back in November, info_smallMichelle Kaufmann released a new white paper (pdf) titled "Redefining Cost: A Beacon of Hope Shines through Housing Market Gloom".

In it, she says:

The convergence of the financial, energy, and housing crises has essentially become a perfect storm with the power not only to weed out the risky and damaging housing industry practices of old but also to encourage the promulgation of more economically and environmentally sustainable practices going forward.

While the paper doesn't address prefab specifically, it covers issues that could affect the industry. It's definitely worth a look.

Hat tip: Building Systems on November, 27, 2008.

Related Posts:
   1. Michelle Kaufmann Designs closing (May 27, 2009)
   2. MKD proposes green "nutrition labels," France already has a good start (Oct 14, 2008)
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The This Old House Home Collection

Link to The This Old House Home Collection
http://bensonwood.com/onthisoldhouse/

In 2005, Dwell magazine launched a line of co-branded prefab homes with several companies. In October, Time Inc's This Old House (TOH) announced they were following suit (paid subscription required):

... to create the This Old House Home Collection by Bensonwood

Publisher Matt Turck said TOH will get an undisclosed share of revenue. The homes will be priced from $300,000 to $600,000.

Turck added that the pact extends his brand's reputation beyond home improvement.

"Factory-built homes are the future of home building," the publisher said. "We want to connect our brand with the future of home building."

This news comes as the This Old House TV series wraps up construction on a info_smallBensonwood home that has served as the subject of the show's latest season. Further information on that project is available on the This Old House blog.

Title: This New House (paid subscription required)
Subtitle: Time Inc. home-improvement title in prefab home pact
Author: Lucia Moses
Publication: Mediaweek
Length: 446 words
Date: October 27, 2008

Related Posts:
   1. Building Systems blog podcasts (Jan 07, 2009)
   2. This Old House to go prefab (Apr 29, 2008)
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Building Systems blog podcasts

Yesterday's post included a link to a Building Systems blog podcast. Here are a few more prefab-related interviews from their podcast page.

Person Company Minutes
Tedd Benson info_smallBensonwood Homes 40
Blaine Zulkoski info_smallNorth American Log Homes ?
Michelle Kaufmann info_smallMichelle Kaufmann Designs 30

Just to keep them all in one post:
Carl Krave Pocket Neighborhoods ?

Related Posts:
   1. The This Old House Home Collection (Jan 08, 2009)
   2. Glencairn Cottages win an Aurora Award (Jan 06, 2009)
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Glencairn Cottages win an Aurora Award

Link to Glencairn Cottages win an Aurora Award
http://www.glencairncottages.com/charleston.shtml

Building Systems blog reported back in November:

Carl Krave, president of Pocket Neighborhoods, a builder and developer in the Tampa Bay, FL ... recently won the coveted Aurora Award for his Glencairn Cottages project.

These green and energy-efficient model homes, which are built off site by Nationwide Custom Homes (Martinsville, VA), replicate the old, historic homes seen in Key West, FL, and Charleston, SC. The project won the award for the best development on less than 100 acres

Worth a listen: their podcast about Krave's strategy.

Worth browsing: Glencairn Cottages

Builder: info_smallNationwide Custom Homes

Related Posts:
   1. Building Systems blog podcasts (Jan 07, 2009)
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Modular in Austin, Texas

Link to Modular in Austin, Texas
http://www.statesman.com/business/content/business/stories/statesmanhomes/10/26/1026prefab.html

Catching up on a backlog of old news. Here's a story out of Austin, Texas:

In about seven hours, Austin builder Gary Bellomy used a 100-foot-tall, 100-ton crane to erect a pair of townhomes that are expected to earn the top rating from Austin Energy's Green Building Program.

Not bad, considering a project this size would typically take months to build. The secret: modular construction.

Companies mentioned:

Read the full article for details.

subtitle: 2 projects show new designs, flair for architecture
author: Carrie Alexander
publication: Austin American-Statesmen
section: Homes
length: 985 words
date: October 26, 2008

Related Posts:
   1. ma modular homes by KRDB in Texas (May 27, 2009)
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Pictures of the Johnson Creek weeHouse

Link to Pictures of the Johnson Creek weeHouse
http://alchemyarch.blogspot.com/2008/12/not-so-weehouse-update.html

Earlier this month, Contemporist shared pictures of the newly finished Johnson Creek info_smallweeHouse in PA.

Original source: Alchemy blog

model: Johnson Creek info_smallweeHouse
construction method: modules
size: 2,200 sf
br: 3

Designer: info_smallAlchemy Architects.

Related Posts:
   1. Pictures of weeHouse settings in Colorado and New York (Aug 26, 2009)
   2. weeHouse in Continental Airlines magazine (Jun 16, 2009)
   3. weeHouse by Alchemy on display in WI; today and this weekend (May 22, 2009)
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The 2+ Weekend House from Jure Kotnik Arhitek

Link to The 2+ Weekend House from Jure Kotnik Arhitek
conhouse.com

Mocoloco covered the 2+ Weekend House, designed by info_smallJure Kotnik Arhitekt:

... the 2+ Weekend House is a container house with a difference - it's made with containers manufactured expressly for housing (vs. cargo containers). "As opposed to the other container projects, which mostly feed on the excess of available cargo containers, ConHouse pushes the development of containers manufactured especially for housing and office purposes."

The company's Conhouse (container house) Web site has lots of details:

See also: more pictures of the 2+ Weekend House.

model: 2+ Weekend House
construction method: containers

(Hat tip: materialicious on December 10, 2008; also covered by Treehugger on the same day)

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Michelle Kaufmann Designs named top firm by Residential Architect magazine

The info_smallMKD blog reports:

Michelle Kaufmann Designs is receiving the 2008 TOP FIRM Award from residential architect magazine, so I am here to accept the award on the company’s behalf. It is quite an honor...

More from residential architect:

In the five years since she started her firm ... Kaufmann has made remarkable progress in achieving this mission. Michelle Kaufmann Designs (MKD) has built 33 green, modular homes to date, mostly on the West Coast.... Thirty employees buzz busily around the firm's Oakland, Calif., headquarters, which possesses the same design sensibilities as its houses: clean lines; simple, yet high-quality materials; and an overall sense of calm and order.

Since 2006, the firm has built many projects in its own factory, mkConstructs, in Lakewood, Wash.... "Now we're taking what we've learned in all the construction phases and applying that to our designs," says Paul Warner, AIA, a principal at MKD.

Read the full article for details.

Author: Meghan Drueding
Publication: Residential Architect magazine
Length: 625 words
Date: November 1, 2008

Related Posts:
   1. Michelle Kaufmann Designs closing (May 27, 2009)
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Prefabs in Turkey

Link to Prefabs in Turkey
http://www.orcayapi.com/

Turkish newspaper Hürriyet reports on Turkey's first eco-friendly prefab homes by Orca Yapı Sistemleri:

Orca Yapı began work on the design in 2006. A project request from Sudan required the company to design a steel-structured prefabricated home unit, with a two-year guarantee, that could endure temperatures ranging from plus 50 degrees to minus 50 degrees Celsius. The company added their own requirement of earthquake durability, making it more attractive in the domestic market. The design's first thumbs-up came from the Ministry of Public Works whose tests revealed the house to be durable in earthquakes reaching 7.5 on the Richter scale.

Sustainability and earthquake durability aside, the real draw for the unit is the cost.... The baseline cost for a unit, which does not include any alternative energy production methods like the active solar power water heating system that is installed on the show model in Kocaeli, is $295 per square meter.

That comes out to about $27.50 a square foot. That's in Turkey; I wonder how much it would cost to build the same home here.

The company website is in Turkish, but they do have a video page that's worth a look.

Publication: Hürriyet
Length: 712 words
Date: October 31, 2008

(Hat tip: Treehugger)

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LOT-EK's Puma City

Link to LOT-EK's Puma City
lot-ek.com

Not a residence, but pretty impressive. Architecture blog Y08 took notice of info_smallLOT-EK's new Puma City:

24 shipping containers are retrofitted and transformed into PUMA CITY, a transportable retail and event building that is traveling around the world...

The building is fully dismountable and travels on a cargo ship ... it will be assembled and disassembled a number of times...

(Hat tips: Treehugger, Jetson Green, ecosistema urbano)

Related Posts:
   1. Puma City in Boston for 2 more days (May 14, 2009)
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GreenPod open house this weekend in Burlington, Washington

Link to GreenPod open house this weekend in Burlington, Washington
http://www.greenpoddevelopment.com/

We just received an email from Ann Raab at info_smallGreenPod Development:

Our first GreenPod home, Franny’s Pod, named after its owner ... will be complete in a few days!

Members of the press, government officials, and the public are invited to tour Franny's new home, talk with GreenPod designers and staff, and learn more about sustainable living.

where: Burlington, WA
location: Transform manufacturing plant, 11857 Bay Ridge Drive
date: December 13-14, 2008
time: 10:00am - 3:00pm
cost: Free!

Related Posts:
   1. GreenPod Development (Apr 02, 2009)
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Agriboard SIPs made from wheat and rice straw

Link to Agriboard SIPs made from wheat and rice straw
http://www.agriboard.com/

Treehugger's Lloyd Alter recently attended the Greenbuild International Conference and Expo in Boston. He describes Agriboard Structural Insulated Panels (SIPs) made by Agriboard Industries as

perhaps the best thing I saw

We previously covered SIPs and how they are made.

In constrast, an Agriboard SIP:

... uses wheat and rice straw that is normally burned or ploughed under, and builds it into a panel that delivers R-25, not as good as a styrofoam SIP but pretty good and in a form that gives you a tight envelope.

Related Posts:
   1. So, what are SIPs anyway? (Mar 27, 2007)
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Homes for Our Troops goes modular

We're still catching up on news from last month. Here's a story worth covering:

Homes for Our Troops is a non-profit organization that provides homes to military personnel with severe injuries or disabilities sustained in active-duty wartime. Tidewater Modular Homes of Virginia Beach teamed up with Nationwide to provide the house for Bartlett, which will be set on its foundation in Chesapeake on Veteran’s Day Nov. 11.

Bartlett, who lives in Norfolk, came to Martinsville on Wednesday for a reception at Nationwide. He toured his future home in progress, stepping through the rooms on a $110,000 pair of prosthetic legs.

His new modular home is 1,475 sf and handicapped-accessible.

Some links:

Author: Kim Barto
Publication: Martinsville Bulletin
Length: 1,173 words
Date: October 23, 2008

(Hat tip: Charles Bevier of Building Systems on October 24, 2008)

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The KTainer project

Link to The KTainer project
http://kathy.sneakyfrog.com/ktainer.html

A couple of weeks ago, materialicious covered Kathy Tafel's KTainer project:

With partners, I own land in a remote part of California. It has wild beauty, and some need of environmental restoration. Our first years there were spent in basic infrastructure such as water and road. To be there on a more regular basis, though, we needed to not spend hours setting up and tearing down a tent each time we visited. My partners built a yurt. I am building a house framed by shipping containers.

According to her website, the KTainer house was made from 4 24' containers which she purchased on Craigslist.

Also on the site, she details the process throughout various stages of construction and shares pictures:

Her conclusion:

there is far more romance in the idea of a shipping container home than the actuality of building one. Working with metal is a pain. You need to know metal-working skills or someone who has them. It is dangerous to work with power tools of course, but angle grinders and welders are especially not for the faint of heart. I am of course happy with the result, but this has been harder work than I imagined, and I didn't do the hardest labor.

If you are interested in shipping container homes, or considering building one yourself, Kathy's site is a must-visit.

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3 prefabs among winners of the second annual Lifecycle Building Challenge

Link to 3 prefabs among winners of the second annual Lifecycle Building Challenge
http://www.lifecyclebuilding.org/

The winners of the second annual Lifecycle Building Challenge (LBC2 or LBC 2008) were announced recently. About the challenge:

Lifecycle building is designing buildings to facilitate disassembly and material reuse to minimize waste, energy consumption, and associated greenhouse gas emissions. Also known as design for disassembly and design for deconstruction, lifecycle building describes the idea of creating buildings that are stocks of resources for future buildings.

Given those goals, it's no surprise that the three winners in the Building category are prefab:

TriPod by Carnegie Mellon University

TriPod is a prototype house demonstrating the "Plug and Play" concept and is designed to provide an innovative alternative to the currently unimaginative housing industry. ... [A] mechanical "core" ... acts as a motherboard that is able [to] accept multiple "pods" that are living, cooking, and sleeping spaces. This modular design allows homeowners to change their homes by adding or subtracting pods to suit their needs over time.

The Workshop by Schemata Workshop

There are two units in the building — in the first iteration the first story is an office; the second is an apartment. The building is elevated on concrete piers and cantilevers over an existing structure on-site

info_smallLoblolly House by info_smallKieranTimberlake Associates.

(See our previous coverage of Loblolly House.)

The challenge is sponsored by West Coast Green, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Building Materials Reuse Association, American Institute of Architects and Southface.

(Hat Tip: Jetson Green on October 29, 2008)

Related Posts:
   1. The EPA's Lifecycle Building Challenge; July 31 deadline (Jul 01, 2008)
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Washington Post on sticks, panels and modules

The goal of prefab is clear:

For more than a century, architects and builders have strived toward a prefabricated, industrialized house, one made in a factory so that economies of scale would be realized and the product would be affordable to all home buyers.

It's worth remembering that the current "stick built" process was itself an important innovation, "prefabricating" the basic components:

Until the 1830s, most houses in America were built with post and beam framing. All the pieces were hand-hewn and held in place with complex joinery, and home building was a time-consuming, costly process. Around then, however, steam-driven saws that could produce large quantities of accurately sized building lumber and machines that made huge quantities of iron nails began to appear in the larger cities.

An enterprising Chicago building contractor, George Washington Snow, saw the potential for these new products to revolutionize the building industry. He devised a method of framing that was much faster and far less costly.

One step forward in the meantime: panels (6% of homes built in the US in 2007).

the 2-by-4 stud walls sometimes are assembled in factories and hauled to a job site, an approach called panelizing.

A bigger step: modular (3% of homes built in the US in 2007).

a method of building in a factory an entire conventional wood-framed house in sections, loading each one onto a flatbed trailer, trucking it to a job site and then setting it in place with a crane.

Read the whole article for a few details on pros, cons, and possible futures.

Author: Katherine Salant
Publication: Washington Post
Section: Page F06
Length: 815 words
Date: November 1, 2008

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The Daily Telegraph looks at prefab options

Link to The Daily Telegraph looks at prefab options
microcompacthome.com

Last month, The Daily Telegraph in the UK compiled a list of prefab products, describing them as

a burgeoning crop of 'instant' homes that take the prefab to a whole new level.

Included on the list:

model designer

The Loft Cube Werner Aisslinger
  39-55 sq m
(420-592 sf)
£63,500 - £88,500
($95,496 - $133,042)

info_smallMicro Compact Home Richard Horden of info_smallHorden Cherry Lee
  2.6 m cubic units
(8.53 ft)
about £26,000 ($39,086)
excluding installation

Homes 2 Go Dutch company Spacebox, brought to Britain by Benfield ATT Homes
  18 sq m
(194 sf)
£22,950 ($34,500)
excluding delivery

Weberhaus
  200 sq m
(2,153 sf)
from £300,000 ($450,990)

info_smallM-house Tim Pyne
  100 sq m
(1,076 sf)
£147,500 ($221,736)

Eco Pod Aidan Quinn of Eco Hab
  28 sq m
(301 sf)
£30,000 ($45,099)

Read the full article for pictures and further details.

Author: Kiera Buckley-Jones and David Nicholls
Publication: Telegraph.co.uk
Section: Property / Features
Length: 743 words
Date: October 10, 2008

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Sanctuary Village modular development

Link to Sanctuary Village modular development
http://www.sanctuarync.com/gal_village.htm

Here's an interesting modular development that was announced last month:

Haven Custom Homes ... and Sanctuary Communities have begun construction on the first home in Sanctuary Village, a Traditional Neighborhood Development (TND) located in the western mountains of North Carolina ...

Sanctuary Village will be a walkable, mixed-use village that will encompass 24 acres of multi-generational living with mansion flats, village houses, tree houses, mountain cottages and a civic/commercial component that will include shops, cafes, book stores, cultural events and community gathering spots a short stroll from homes.

We found this explanation of a Traditional Neighborhood Development:

a comprehensive planning system that includes a variety of housing types and land uses in a defined area. The variety of uses permits educational facilities, civic buildings and commercial establishments to be located within walking distance of private homes...

Haven Custom Homes emphasizes the advantages of building "in an off-site, climate controlled environment where the materials used in your home are protected from the weather."

  • Precision construction resulting in straight walls, square corners, fitted windows and flat ceilings.
  • Extra reinforcements in bearing walls.
  • Move in 16-23 weeks after execution of a contract and your approval of final drawings and finish schedules.

Facts:

Links:

(Hat tip: Building Systems on October 29, 2008)

Related Posts:
   1. The Quarters by Haven Custom Homes and Sanctuary Communities (Apr 13, 2009)
   2. The Pennywise House by Russell Versaci (Mar 17, 2009)
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HandCrafted Homes in Better Homes & Gardens' New Home

Link to HandCrafted Homes in Better Homes & Gardens' New Home
http://www.handcraftedhomes.com/

In September, Charles Bevier of Building Systems blog mentioned a 2-page spread in the Fall/Winter 2008 issue of Better Homes & Gardens' New Home Magazine (BH&G).

BH&G shines the spotlight on the Gull Island.... The design is one of many Poole has created for ... the Southeast market, homes that are turnkeyed by a network of authorized builders.

The blog post summarizes comments by Bill Murray, general manager of HandCrafted, on the advantages of modular construction:

  • less time (120 days full turnkey versus 12 to 18 months for site building the old fashioned way)
  • meticulous inspection
  • modular units are constructed in the controlled environment and sealed from weather before shipping to the jobsite

The issue will be in newsstands through November.

manufacturer: info_smallHandCrafted Homes
size: 2,180 sf
bedrooms: 3
bathrooms: 2.5
status: available

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The Christian Science Monitor examines Everhouse

Link to The Christian Science Monitor examines Everhouse
http://features.csmonitor.com/innovation/2008/10/23/everhouse-a-new-plan-for-post-katrina-homes/

Two weeks ago, the Christian Science Monitor featured Everhouse, a simple design meant to address the post-hurricane housing shortage near the Gulf Coast:

700,000 homes damaged ... and 250,000 homes destroyed

The designer of Everhouse looked to the advantages of prefabrication to help.

To keep costs down, the components of an Everhouse are made by a factory in Palatka, Fla., and then delivered to the land where each unit will be built. And like a desk from Ikea, the pieces arrive with all the necessary materials included...

They opted for a “panelized” design, because the concrete panels are easy to transport and give both the designer and homeowner a good amount of flexibility in house plans.

Key benefit: the shell can be assembled in one day.

The company hopes to produce 1,500 homes per year.

model: Everhouse
designers: John Sawyer and Harold McKenna
size: 1,300 sf
price/sf: $68
notes: price is about half the cost of traditional affordable housing in the area

Sawyer also sees a shortage of skilled construction labor in the region. Read the article for his proposed solution.

Subtitle: A team redisigns the who, how, and what of Gulf Coast affordable housing
Author: Paul Sedan
Publication: Christian Science Monitor
Section: Innovation
Length: 865 words
Date: October 23, 2008

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Three Junipers iT house development

Link to Three Junipers iT house development
http://www.threejunipers.com/

From the husband and wife team at info_smallTaalman Koch Architecture comes news of a small development of 3 iT houses: Three Junipers.

Situated on 5 acres of pristine high desert landscape, each house offers an uninterrupted view of Pipes Canyon and the Pioneertown sawtooth peaks...

The iT house utilizes a "light touch" installation approach, minimizing the construction footprint through use of smaller scale, modular elements and minimal packaging material.

model: info_smalliT House
price/sf: $150 - $220
size: 1,600 sf
bedrooms: 3
bathrooms: 2

In tandem with that announcement, a new itHouse website has been launched with:

  • iT house configuration options
  • details on the framing system
  • explanation of the on-site assembly

Also worth a look: an informative blog following the construction of the first iT house.

(Hat tip: Jetson Green)

Related Posts:
   1. itHouse exhibit display by Taalman Koch Architecture (Aug 24, 2009)
   2. The iT House does some soul-searching (Apr 06, 2007)
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New prefab from Sander Architects in The New York Times

Link to New prefab from Sander Architects in The New York Times
http://www.sander-architects.com/residential/briard/briard.html

Last month, the New York Times covered a new prefab home in Culver City, CA designed by info_smallSander Architects:

Inspired by the house that Charles and Ray Eames created in 1949 from a prefabricated steel frame and doors, windows and the like ordered from a catalog, the architects took the project on the condition that they could pursue a novel strategy. Besides using acrylic, Panelite, recycled steel and Styrofoam, they would try unusual ingredients like sunflower husks for wall panels and bookshelves, and blue jeans (for insulation).

Some facts about the house:

  • 4,200 square feet
  • 30 feet high (due to zoning)
  • took 3 years to plan and construct the entire project

Final construction cost:

$528,000, only about a third of the going rate for architect-designed houses of this size in the Los Angeles area.

That comes out to about $125/sf. Not bad.

Check out a slideshow of the house (13 pictures). Read the entire article for more details.

Author: Michael Webb
Publication: The New York Times
Section: D6
Length: 832 words
Date: October 16, 2008

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Good Morning America visits the mkSolaire

Link to Good Morning America visits the mkSolaire
http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/SmartHome/popup?id=6074047

Good Morning America's weather anchor, Sam Champion, recently reported from the Smart Home: Green and Wired exhibit at Chicago's Museum of Science and Industry. Check out their video and pictures. Though not mentioned there, the Smart Home is the info_smallmkSolaire by info_smallMichelle Kaufmann Designs.

The exhibit runs through January 4, 2009. (See our earlier post for more info.)

Related Posts:
   1. MSNBC visits the mkSolaire (video) (Aug 13, 2008)
   2. mkSolaire on display through January 4th at Chicago's Museum of Science and Industry (Jun 02, 2008)
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Passive homes from Sweden

Link to Passive homes from Sweden
http://www.emrahus.se/vara_hus.asp?page=104#

Back in March, Swedish designer info_smallKjellgren Kaminsky Architecture and developer info_smallEmrahus presented six prefabricated "passive" homes at the Hem & Villa housing fair in Malmö, Sweden, with a second presentation last month.

Here's a paraphrase from Google's translation of the Emrahus home page:

The reason that we no longer need a heat source is that the house has well insulated walls and ceiling ... which retains the heat generated by household appliances, lights, TV set, and people who live in the house.

The houses:

model br size

Villa VÄRDE 3 1,292 sf
Villa Mittskepp 2 1,722 sf
Villa Sida Vid Sida 2 1,722 sf
Villa TÅRTAN 4 1,862 sf
Villa Fixa 4 2,045 sf
Villa Dragspel 2 - 4 1,076 - 2,153 sf

Blog coverage:

Related Posts:
   1. Villa Grow from Kjellgren Kaminsky and Emrahus (Mar 26, 2009)
   2. Small homes from Sweden (Oct 17, 2008)
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Casa Grossi and prefabricated concrete wall panels

Link to Casa Grossi and prefabricated concrete wall panels
http://www.guidottiarchitetti.com/index.php?node=288&lng=1&rif=91e54aded7

In Italy, info_smallGiacomo Guidotti e Riccarda Guidotti Studio di Architettura designed a home that uses prefabricated concrete wall panels as the exterior cladding. That's common in commercial and industrial buildings but rarely seen in residential construction.

One advantage of this method: the concrete forms both the exterior and interior wall surfaces, reducing time spent on finishes.

(Hat tip: materialicious)

The Swiss Architecture Museum included the home in an exhibition last year:

The Casa Grossi in Monte Carasso (2000-04) is particularly interesting. It is a narrow, rectangular building, a dwelling on the fringe of the building zone. This minimalist structure, clad with prefabricated concrete elements, conveys an impression of being hermetically sealed to the outside world, but surprises us with an atrium inside - serving as both a stairwell and an access core - lit from a roof light on the 2nd floor.


Here's some background information on prefabricated concrete wall panels from an excellent reference site called the Whole Building Design Guide.

Paul E. Gaudette explains:

Architectural precast concrete has been used since the early twentieth century and came into wide use in the 1960s. The exterior surface of precast concrete can vary from an exposed aggregate finish that is highly ornamental to a form face finish.... Some precast panels act as column covers while others extend over several floors in height and incorporate window openings...

In general, prefabricated concrete wall panels can serve one of two purposes:

Precast cladding or curtain walls are the most common use of precast concrete for building envelopes. These types of precast concrete panels do not transfer vertical loads but simply enclose the space. They are only designed to resist wind, seismic forces generated by their own weight, and forces required to transfer the weight of the panel to the support....

Load-bearing wall units resist and transfer loads from other elements and cannot be removed without affecting the strength or stability of the building.

It's not clear whether the Casa Grossi wall panels are load bearing.

Related Posts:
   1. The Perrinepod: concrete prefab from Australia (Aug 16, 2007)
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Prefabs for extreme conditions

Link to Prefabs for extreme conditions
http://www.icewall.com.au/?p=isc&m=gal&i=During%20Transportation/transportation01.jpg

materialicious covers a different sort of prefab product that's been around for a while. From the company site:

The Igloo Satellite Cabin is designed to provide safe, reliable accommodation in remote areas. It has been used for over 25 years in conditions ranging from the tropics to polar icecaps. Units can be flown by helicopter fully assembled, and often fully equipped, to locations inaccessible by road transport. Igloos are ideal short-term accommodation for exploration and research, as well as an attractive alternative for eco-tourism.

Igloos can be lengthened to six or more metres by adding sets of extension panels, or interlinked by tunnels to provide a complete weatherproof base.

The Australian Antarctic Division has a bit more info on the history of the cabins:

2007 marked the 25th year since the first fibreglass Igloo Satellite Cabin was designed and manufactured in Tasmania. As at January 2008, 159 Igloos had been purchased by 45 institutes and individuals in 18 countries, with the majority for use in Antarctica.

More details:

  • designed by the late Malcolm Wallhead
  • now manufactured under license by info_smallPenguin Composites
  • nicknamed “apples”
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Clayton Homes Showcase of Homes this weekend in Knoxville, Tennessee

Link to Clayton Homes Showcase of Homes this weekend in Knoxville, Tennessee
http://www.clayton-media.com/showcaseofhomes/knx_models/exterior/home28.html

info_smallClayton homes is holding a showcase of homes this Friday, Saturday & Sunday in Knoxville:

This is your opportunity ... to tour dozens of new homes without wasting gas or walking too much. Examine the amenities and style available in today's housing.

Whether you are looking to buy or just looking, it will be the one time this year to see so many houses in one place.

See our earlier post for more details on the company and their previous showcase.

According to their website, the following homes will be on display in Knoxville:

4 BR, 2 Bath   Size

Fireside II   2,048 sf

3 BR, 2 Bath   Size

Avondale Marquis   1,848 sf
Avondale   2,048 sf

Blazer   1,088 sf

Blue Ridge   1,216 sf

Century   2,176 sf

Cumberland Marquis   1,680 sf
  2,112 sf

Elevation Series   1,344 sf
  1,568 sf

Elkmont   1,456 sf
  1,680 sf

Esprit   1,064 sf

Excel   1,216 sf

Glencrest   1,792 sf

Heartlander   1,568 sf
  1,680 sf
  2,128 sf

Manchester   1,216 sf

Mountaineer   1,280 sf

Norris   2,432 sf

Pinebrook   1,568 sf

Pinecrest   1,680 sf

River Run - Original   1,344 sf
River Run   1,664 sf

Worthington   1,056 sf
Worthington - Original   1,568 sf

2 BR, 2 Bath   Size

Community   1,056 sf

I-Home, Green House   1,280 sf

One thing we couldn't tell from their site: which are "modular" (built to local codes) vs. "manufactured" (HUD code).

where: Knoxville, TN
location: Knoxville Convention Center, 701 Henley Street
date: October 31 - November 2, 2008
time: 9:00am - 9:00pm
cost: Free!

Related Posts:
   1. Clayton iHouse now available (May 12, 2009)
   2. The Clayton iHouse (Jan 14, 2009)
   3. Clayton Homes Showcase of Homes this weekend in Greensboro, NC (Oct 09, 2008)
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Blu Homes

Link to Blu Homes
bluhomes.com

We recently received an email from info_smallBlu Homes.

According to their website:

Our first homes are under development in Utah and Massachusetts, and are expected to be completed in Winter 2008.

All of their modular homes are fully finished, with a fabrication time of 4-6 weeks and installation time of less than 10 days. They offer several models:

model size baths price range

Origin studio - 2 BR 1 $50,000 - $115,000

Retreat 2 BR 2 $165,000 - $195,000
3 BR 2 $210,000 - $255,000

Balance 2 BR 1 $125,000 - $150,000
2 BR + office 2 $165,000 - $195,000

They also offer "Flex" spaces to enlarge an existing home.

From their site:

  • Co-founder and President, Bill Haney, shares (video, 2:35) their philosophy.
  • Follow their blog.

Preston at Jetson Green has covered the company:

As did Andrew Stone of Active Rain.

Related Posts:
   1. In the news: Blu Homes acquires rights to Michelle Kaufmann's designs (Sep 30, 2009)
   2. Podcast features Marmol Radziner and Blu Homes (Aug 14, 2009)
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The mkHearth

Link to The mkHearth
mkd-arc.com

info_smallMichelle Kaufmann Designs recently sent us an email announcing the launch of their latest home design, the info_smallmkHearth.

Inspired by the natural beauty found in rural structures in the american landscapes, the mkHearth™ home is a sustainable approach to the modern farmhouse. With flowing spaces that organically open to one another, the mkHearth™ home revolves around the center hearth space, a fireplace/cabinetry that circulates up the 3 stories.

model: info_smallmkHearth
size: 2,820 sf
beds: 4 + loft
price: $789,500
price/sf: $279
notes: Prices equal total estimated hard and soft costs.

Links:

Recent coverage:

Preston at Jetson Green loves it.

Stephanie at Apartment Therapy Re-Nest says:

Kaufmann's signature touches are evident in the clean, modern lines, and the way each room seamlessly flows into the next.

The one thing we always love about each of Kaufmann's designs is that they look like the perfect place to throw a party. The kitchen always opens to the dining room, to the living room, to outdoor space. The mkHearth is no exception.

Bridgette Steffen covered the house for Inhabitat's Prefab Friday:

We always love seeing hot designers come out with their next hit– and Michelle Kaufmann’s new mkHearth is likely to be the new hot prefab design.

Related Posts:
   1. The mkLoft from Michelle Kaufmann Designs (Nov 13, 2007)
   2. Michelle Kaufmann Designs (Apr 27, 2007)
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Prefab seminar in Marin County, California

A real estate agent and a mortgage broker are co-hosting a seminar on modernist prefab next month in the San Francisco Bay Area:

This unique engagement will bring together leading professionals and experts in the field of building, design, real estate, and finance. Anyone who is contemplating the possibility of building a modernist prefab or custom home in Marin County should try to attend this event. Attendance is extremely limited and attendees will be selected on a first registered, first accepted basis.

speaker: Justin Brown of info_smallMichelle Kaufmann Designs
speaker: Renee Adelmann of info_smallMarin Modern Real Estate
speaker: Brian Stewart of JCF Advisors / All California Mortgage
where: San Rafael, CA
date: November 6, 2008
time: 7:00pm - 9:00pm (reception at 6:30pm)
cost: Free!
notes: You must register via their website. Confirmed attendees will receive exact location details.

(Hat tip: Live Modern)

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The SF Chronicle looks at the Harbinger

Link to The SF Chronicle looks at the Harbinger
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/object/article?f=/c/a/2008/09/24/HOR71301UK.DTL&o=0

Last month, the San Francisco Chronicle published an article on West Coast Green's showhome, the Harbinger House from info_smallSG Blocks LLC:

What makes this year's showcase home different from the prefab modular model seen last year [MKD's info_smallmkLotus] in San Francisco is not all the green bells and whistles ... it's the actual framework of the house that is truly innovative. This year's showstopper is made from five 40-foot-long shipping containers that once roamed the high seas

The article repeated a comment we've seen a few times:

a layman can't tell that, underneath its sleek lines, Harbinger was once a collection of lowly shipping crates

The advantages of shipping containers?

They're made of heavy-gauge steel, which holds up nicely in a hurricane or earthquake, but is usually too expensive to use in construction. [SG Blocks] gets the containers cheap - $500 to $2,000 a pop - because the fuel costs to ship them back empty to China or other places overseas are prohibitive. Because of the United States' huge trade imbalance, there are many empty containers lying around.

Harbinger details:

  • made from 5 shipping containers
  • 2 stories
  • 1,700 square feet
  • about 5% less expensive than building in wood or other conventional materials
  • can be built 40% faster

SG Blocks facts:

  • founder: David Cross
  • location: St. Louis
  • has built 6 single-family homes in the US (designed by Lawrence Group)
  • 400-unit elder-care facility in Oceanside, CA will be unveiled soon

Author: Paul Kilduff
Publication: San Francisco Chronicle
Section: G - 3
Length: 807 words
Date: September 24, 2008

Related Posts:
   1. West Coast Green 2008: The Harbinger House (Oct 08, 2008)
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Prefabs in the Community (today in Philadelphia)

Link to Prefabs in the Community (today in Philadelphia)
http://www.acleanbreak.org/

If you are planning to attend A Clean Break in Philadelphia this weekend, don't miss their presentations being held across the street from the exhibit. Here's one:

speaker: Geoff Warner, AIA of info_smallAlchemy Architects
speaker: Dan Rockhill, JL Constant Distinguished Professor of Architecture and director of Studio 804 at the University of Kansas, and principal of info_smallRockhill & Associates
where: Philadelphia, PA
location: The University of the Arts, CBS Auditorium in Hamilton Hall, 320 Broad Street
date: Saturday, October 18, 2008
time: 2:00 - 3:15pm
cost: free
notes: Q&A led by PeiLin Chen of info_smallDiamond & Associates

Each will discuss their unique modular programs and successes with this chosen method of construction, particularly as an affordable and environmentally-friendly solution to land vacancy and community revitalization.

Related Posts:
   1. Opening night for A Clean Break in Philadelphia (Oct 16, 2008)
   2. A Clean Break, in Philadelphia (Oct 01, 2008)
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Small homes from Sweden

Link to Small homes from Sweden
http://www.jonaswagell.se/html/minihouse1.html

Design blog Dezeen reports on the Mini House, which takes advantage of new zoning laws in Sweden:

Since January 1st 2008 Swedish property owners are allowed to build a 15 sqm house on their land without a building permit.

The details:

  • indoor space: 15 square meters (161.5 sf)
  • outdoor space: 15 square meters (161.5 sf)
  • 2 people can assemble in 1-2 days
  • built with SIPS (panels made of plywood and styrofoam)
  • 8 components per house (assembly process shown on the Nordic Marine site)
  • requires site preparation of a foundation e.g. concrete slab
  • won the Innovation Award 2008 from the Swedish Chamber of Commerce in the UK

More about the concept:

Mini house is a “friggebod” concept which brings some fun and excitement to a dull and conservative market. The concept means prefabrication, flat-pack delivery and weekend-long build-up! Building a house should be fun and easy. Kind of like putting together an Ikea cabinet!

(As best we can tell, friggebod means garden hut or shed.)

See the original post for 11 pictures and more details.

model: Mini house
available: Europe
size: 161.5 sf
price: €12,200 - €17,700 ($16,500 - $24,000)
br: 1

(Hat tip: Treehugger)

Related Posts:
   1. Passive homes from Sweden (Nov 04, 2008)
   2. More small prefab: Metroshed (Jun 19, 2007)
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Opening night for A Clean Break in Philadelphia

Link to Opening night for A Clean Break in Philadelphia
http://www.acleanbreak.org/news.htm

Tonight (Oct. 16) from 7:00-10:00 pm is opening night for A Clean Break: "An exhibition of modern prefab architecture and high-design, low-waste innovations for the urban environment."

The full exhibition runs from Oct. 17-30. Their description:

... a pop-up neighborhood of modern and sustainable design with an emphasis on modular and prefabricated homes. The outdoor exhibition offers full-scale homes to tour, installations by architects, urban farming, transportation, environmentally-friendly furniture, public art and other high-design, low-waste products.

See our Oct. 1 post (linked below) for more details.

Worth noting: pictures of the info_smallweeHouse arriving.

Related Posts:
   1. Prefabs in the Community (today in Philadelphia) (Oct 18, 2008)
   2. A Clean Break, in Philadelphia (Oct 01, 2008)
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Modular home seminar tomorrow in Sagamore, MA

Link to Modular home seminar tomorrow in Sagamore, MA
http://www.rdamodularhomes.com/model.htm

If you are considering a modular home and live near Boston, MA or Providence, RI:

what: The Modular Advantage - "Why Should I Build Modular?"
where: Model Home at 1 Bluff Road (off Rt. 6A), Sagamore, MA (near Cape Cod)
when: Thursday, October 16, 6:30-8:30pm
RSVP: 508-888-6244 or 508-888-4212 (limited seating)
price: Free!

  • Learn What A Full Service Builder Does For You.
  • Discover The Benefits Of Modular Construction.
  • Understand The True Cost Of "Drop Ship" Homes.
  • Permitting Process
  • Tear Downs & Rebuilds
  • Popularity of in-law-additions
  • Free Mortgage & Financial Information.

A little more info on the company:

RDA Inc. offers full real estate, permitting, financing and construction services to handle the new home building process from concept through completion.

Interesting to note, they build only info_smallWestchester Modular Homes.

Their site offers additional information:

(Hat tip: Patriot Ledger, Quincy, MA)

Update: fixed the city in the title.

Related Posts:
   1. 3-unit modular in Saratoga Springs, NY (Mar 10, 2009)
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MKD proposes green "nutrition labels," France already has a good start

Link to MKD proposes green
michellekaufmann.com

Last week, info_smallMichelle Kaufmann Designs released a white paper on "nutrition labels for homes":

Green homes are in demand. Buying a green home, however, can be a mystifying, exasperating process. With all the various green home labels and certifications available, buyers want for a way to compare the sustainability of one for-sale home to another. Applying a universal sustainability label to homes, just as we apply nutrition labels to food, would answer this need and further encourage the growth of the green housing market...

By coincidence, we just read an article in Green Building Elements that suggests France already has a good start. The article covers the EvolutiV house by designer info_smallOlgga Architectes:

The media in France AND the architecture firm who designed the house feel compelled to advertise efficiency in terms of a single number that is easy to understand and can be used to compare this home to others one might choose. I’ve rarely if ever seen that in discussion of US prefab options (or other green homes) - outside of a LEED rating, we’re often left to guess exactly how eco-friendly that home is. We’d love to see this become more widespread in the US - information is power, and simple, objective numbers like this can help us separate the truly eco-friendly from innovative designs that are green in name (or advertising) only.

Related Posts:
   1. Michelle Kaufmann Designs closing (May 27, 2009)
   2. Michelle Kaufmann: there's a bright side to the current housing market troubles (Jan 09, 2009)
   3. Michelle Kaufmann interview at Green by Design (Dec 02, 2008)
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New York Times asks: will prefab "catch on?"

Link to New York Times asks: will prefab
nytimes.com

On the New York Times' Freakonomics blog, Annika Mengisen wonders whether prefab will ever catch on. For answers, she questioned two authors of prefab books, Allison Arieff and James Trulove.

Here are the questions posed; read the full post for their answers.

  • Where do prefab houses stand in the U.S. real estate market?
  • What, if anything, is the housing crisis doing to prefab?
  • What would push prefab beyond a niche market?
  • If prefab did catch on, what would the economic implications be?
  • What does prefab do for the environment?
  • What could prefab do for storm-prone areas?
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Reminder: Marmol Radziner open house this Sunday

Just a reminder:

There will be a info_smallMarmol Radziner Open House in Venice, CA this Sunday, October 12, from 2pm - 5pm. Free but reservation required.

Next week you can hear firm principal Leo Marmol, FAIA. Wednesday, October 15, 6pm - 8pm ($22).

Related Posts:
   1. Upcoming Marmol Radziner events (Sep 09, 2008)
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Clayton Homes Showcase of Homes this weekend in Greensboro, NC

Link to Clayton Homes Showcase of Homes this weekend in Greensboro, NC
http://www.clayton-media.com/showcaseofhomes/greensboro.html

info_smallClayton Homes is holding a Showcase of Homes at the Triad Center in Greensboro, NC this weekend, October 10-12. From the press release:

Literally, Clayton Homes constructs a temporary neighborhood in the parking lot of The Triad Center, fully adorned with sidewalks, landscaping, mailboxes and street signs. The Showcase of Homes provides an opportunity for people to tour a variety of manufactured homes and see how dramatically the homes have changed in recent years.

What to expect:

  • 20 new, fully-furnished homes on display
  • on-the-spot financing
  • hot dogs, drinks and popcorn
  • $100 gas card drawings each half hour

Clayton CEO Kevin Clayton explains:

Our unofficial motto is 'Best Home -- Best Price' and we take that very seriously.

It has been his mission since taking over as CEO ten years ago to produce manufactured housing that surpasses site-built homes in look, quality, and value.

Clayton Homes produces both "manufactured" and "modular" housing. These terms have a specific meaning in the industry, part of which is covered on their website:

Manufactured Home: Built entirely in the factory under federal code administered by the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD).... Covers single or multi-section homes and includes transport to the site and installation.

The industry stopped using the term "mobile home" (and presumably "trailer home") when the HUD code became effective June 15, 1976. Not mentioned: manufactured homes do NOT qualify for a traditional mortgage, in part because the homes tend to lose value every year.

Modular Home: Built to state, local or regional code where the home will be located. System-built homes are transported to sites and installed.

These homes are built to the same standards as conventional "site-built" homes and qualify for a standard mortgage. (In fact they are often somewhat stronger in order to survive transportation and installation by crane.)

At least one home in the Showcase had 2 stories (see above), so it appears that a mix of both types will be shown.

More about Clayton Homes:

  • owned by Warren Buffet's Berkshire Hathaway
  • recent news coverage outlines how they've avoided the current sub-prime issues

what: info_smallClayton Homes is holding a Showcase of Homes
where: Triad Center in Greensboro, NC
date: October 10-12
time: 9am - 7pm
details: free and open to public

Related Posts:
   1. Clayton iHouse now available (May 12, 2009)
   2. The Clayton iHouse (Jan 14, 2009)
   3. Clayton Homes Showcase of Homes this weekend in Knoxville, Tennessee (Oct 29, 2008)
   4. What is the difference? (Jul 21, 2007)
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West Coast Green 2008: The Harbinger House

Link to West Coast Green 2008: The Harbinger House

We didn't make it to this year's West Coast Green, but followed the coverage of those who did. Most interesting: SG Blocks' Harbinger show house.

We previously gave an overview of the house in the run-up to the show. The home was designed by Lawrence Group and built by SG Blocks, SG standing for "sustainable, green."

Inhabitat visited and gave a full review. I found this quote about containers particularly interesting:

The same local skilled workers who repair the containers are hired to repurpose them into house modules, which can then be easily shipped on trains. This process translates into a miniscule transportation footprint and blazingly fast build times: “when you deliver the finished components to site, you can install up to 12 containers using one crane in one day - that’s the equivalent of a 5,000 square foot house that is set in place in one day”.

Preston over at Jetson Green toured the house.

Everyone I talked to loved it. You might think that a shipping container home would feel closed-in and constrictive, but this home certainly wasn't. At 1700 sf, everything felt just right to me.

The home will be on view at other trade events:

The Harbinger Home will go on a journey just as the containers did. It will go to the Urban Land Institute next for their October show, then up to Washington DC for Ecobuild America [in December].

Private Island Blog approves:

The home is ideal for island life as it is set up for the use of solar power and rainwater recycling.

The story behind the name:

West Coast Green had a contest in the naming of the house. The winner, Gregory Schaefer, came up with "Harbinger House", saying:

'By definition, a harbinger is something which allows us to see the future, a foretelling, a symbolic event or bridge. I think we usually are aware of these in hindsight, but here, today we can clearly see the future. The Harbinger House is a model of sustainable design that needs recognition for its forward thinking vision and creativity.'

Visit the West Coast Green site for a long (55 minute) video of the assembly of the Harbinger House. Floorplans are also available.

Related Posts:
   1. West Coast Green in San Francisco: October 1-3, 2009 (Sep 25, 2009)
   2. The SF Chronicle looks at the Harbinger (Oct 23, 2008)
   3. West Coast Green 2008 coming September 25-27 (Aug 14, 2008)
1 comment, 0 trackbacks (URL) , 

Three weeHouse open houses in the next two weeks

Link to Three weeHouse open houses in the next two weeks
weehouses.com

Via email from info_smallAlchemy Architects, we learned about 3 upcoming open houses for the info_smallweeHouse.

Saturday, October 11, 2008

  • 10am - 5pm
  • Sloansville, NY

Sunday, October 12, 2008

  • 10am - 5pm
  • Ulster Park, NY

As these two homes are private residences, please RSVP and get specific directions by emailing Betsy Gabler: betsy@weehouses.com.

The third open house is public:

Thursday, October 16 - Thursday, October 30, 2008

Related Posts:
   1. weeHouse in Continental Airlines magazine (Jun 16, 2009)
   2. weeHouse by Alchemy on display in WI; today and this weekend (May 22, 2009)
   3. weeHouses are now cheaper than ever (and can even power themselves!) (Sep 04, 2008)
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Panasonic's modular homes

Link to Panasonic's modular homes
panasonic.net

A blog called Greenlight has some interesting news:

The Japanese electronics giant has assembled a strategic plan to start making modular homes in about three to five years that will combine green construction along with sophisticated electronics to curb energy consumption.

While the energy savings ideas are new, Panasonic "already has a construction division that makes modular homes in Japan."

Though not likely to be coming to the US anytime soon:

the U.S. could be the last market it approaches...

Related Posts:
   1. Your next home could be a Toyota (Aug 05, 2008)
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This week: Swedish prefab, BURST*008 and Redondo Beach containers

Link to This week: Swedish prefab, BURST*008 and Redondo Beach containers
http://www.modernliving.se/

Contemporist looked at homes from info_smallModern Living in Sweden.

Inhabitat's Prefab Friday covered info_smallBURST*008:

The BURST homes ... are clearly not about affordability, but about systematizing the process of designing homes based on specific rules.

Inhabitat also wrote about the Redondo Beach house from info_smallDeMaria Design Associates:

The home, constructed with a combination of prefabricated shipping containers and traditional buildings materials, is a stunning beachfront residence.

Related Posts:
   1. Prefab at CES: Logical Homes and Peter DeMaria (Jan 16, 2008)
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Sidekick Homes from Kephart Living

Link to Sidekick Homes from Kephart Living
kephartliving.com

ColoradoBiz Magazine reports on Sidekick Homes from info_smallKephart Living:

Sidekick specializes in ADUs, or accessory dwelling units. They're anti-McMansions, small — sometimes tiny — living quarters built for backyards of existing homes, typically for aging relatives. Hence, they’re sometimes called "mother-in-law" or "granny" flats.

That's a great niche for modular construction.

The article included some local details:

One complication for the backyard ADU business is that zoning rules vary among municipalities and neighborhoods. ....

"They’re promoted by cities like Arvada [Colorado] as a way to help with the affordable housing issue and the issue of housing the aging population, which are both coming together pretty strongly right now," Kephart says.

In Denver, ADUs are allowed only in neighborhoods zoned for mixed use, such as Stapleton...

Other basics:

  • price: $75,000 - $200,000
  • size: 400 - 1160 square feet
  • owner Michael Kephart launched Sidekick Homes early this spring

The best part:

They're ... pre-built and trucked from the factory to the home site with everything from the ceiling fixtures to the kitchen counters intact.

Author: Mike Taylor
Publication: ColoradoBiz Magazine
Section: Small Biz
Length: 686 words
Date: September 30, 2008

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Watch the assembly of Michelle Kaufmann's mkSolaire

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.

length: 1:20

Related Posts:
   1. Michelle Kaufmann Designs closing (May 27, 2009)
   2. mkSolaire to be featured in Chicago museum exhibit (Jan 18, 2008)
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A Clean Break, in Philadelphia

Link to A Clean Break, in Philadelphia
weehouses.com

Architectural Record reports:

From October 17 to 30, a temporary prefab “neighborhood” in Philadelphia will offer an optimistic view of what a revitalized city might look like in the near future. A Clean Break, curated by Minima Gallery, will be a central event of DesignPhiladelphia, an annual series of lectures, studio tours, and exhibitions organized by the Design Center at Philadelphia University.

The show will feature two actual prefabs:

Also in the exhibition:

renderings of residences designed by Gans Studio & dArchitects, Studio 804, and Interface Studio Architects ...

The exhibition is free and open to the public.

what: Prefab exhibition
where: 313 South Broad Street at Spruce, Philadelphia
date: October 17-30, 2008
time: Daily, 11:00-7:00
details: free, open to the public

Related Posts:
   1. Modular3 by Studio 804 in Kansas City (Jun 30, 2009)
   2. Prefabs in the Community (today in Philadelphia) (Oct 18, 2008)
   3. Opening night for A Clean Break in Philadelphia (Oct 16, 2008)
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NPR covers Home Delivery

Link to NPR covers Home Delivery
http://www.npr.org/templates/common/image_enlargement.php?imageResId=94130108

Last week, NPR covered MoMA's Home Delivery exhibition. The story shared many of the same details we've already reported. However, one new tidbit was the mention of a large prefab project going up in Brooklyn:

On a former landfill in the reedy seaboard of southern Brooklyn, where ocean breezes gently stroke the air, the sound of power tools splinters the morning silence.... the first phase of the Nehemiah Spring Creek affordable housing development.

Spring Creek looks like any construction project, built the conventional way. But the town houses lining these just-paved streets aren't actually built on site. They were trucked in, arriving at the site in almost move-in condition...

The town houses are prefabricated, manufactured miles away in a vast warehouse at the Brooklyn Navy Yard. Then they are brought here whole on a flat-bed truck at night, when they won't interfere too much with New York City traffic...

The online article and accompanying audio are worth a visit.

show: Morning Edition
station: National Public Radio
author: Jim Zarroli
length: 1,700 words; 7:19
publication date: September 15, 2008

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Michelle Kaufmann Designs completes 30 homes

From a recent press release:

Michelle Kaufmann ... completes 30 homes, sees business triple over past year.

This seems noteworthy, especially considering the current state of the US housing market. Congratulations to info_smallMKD!

Related Posts:
   1. Michelle Kaufmann Designs closing (May 27, 2009)
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Allison Arieff reviews Home Delivery

Earlier this month on her New York Times blog, Allison Arieff posted a well-argued commentary on MoMA's Home Delivery show:

The puzzling thing about "Home Delivery" is its focus on homes that you can’t actually have delivered. The exhibition is chock full of gorgeous and historically significant architectural drawings and models, but the curatorial agenda of the show is muddled.

Specifically:

...it’s hard to understand the decision to exclude from the exhibit the small but significant group of architects who are actually producing prefab homes on a significant scale today.

She mentions:

In contrast, Arieff liked the Whitney Museum's now-closed show on housing pioneer Buckminster Fuller:

Eccentric to be sure, this visionary couldn’t have been more prescient with his concerns about the way we live.... In contrast, "Home Delivery" has tons of cool stuff to look at, but it really does feel odd that a show about homes has so little to say about the experience of actually living in one.

I'm sorry that we missed that one.

Read the full post for more details; Arieff knows the field.

blog: By Design
publication: The New York Times
author: Allison Arieff
length: 1,400 words
publication date: September 15, 2008

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This week: new materialicious, responses to affordable green prefab and Cellophane House

materialicious moved from materialicio.us to materialicious.com. They've been reposting old content and adding some new content.

Jetson Green's guest post on affordable, green prefabs sparked a few responses around the web. Treehugger's Lloyd Alter concluded:

If Jim Kunstler is right and the American suburban experiment is dead, then there will be lots of cheap labor about and prefab is pretty much dead too- it will never be competitive.

But at some point when the housing market returns and there are banks that lend money, people are going to demand the quality and consistency that comes from a factory. That's why cars aren't built in driveways.

BuildingGreen also had something to say:

Unlike Ludeman, I'm not ready to give up on prefabrication just yet. I still think there's promise in the idea of prefabricated green, especially in the mainstream and affordable housing markets. As for green modernist housing, the benefits of prefabrication may never come through for such a relatively small market.

Inhabitat's Prefab Friday looked at the Cellophane House from info_smallKieranTimberlake Associates:

If its ease of construction doesn’t amaze you, consider the aluminum frame and structural polycarbonate floor plates. Or the easy bolt connections that facilitated the easy assembly and the available built-in environmentally-friendly features, and then you just might be wondering if you covet the ingenuity behind these homes.

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Photo tour of the new Marmol Radziner Palms House

Link to Photo tour of the new Marmol Radziner Palms House
ttp://www.coochicoos.com

Design blog coochicoos shared some photos from his weekend visit to info_smallMarmol Radziner's Palms House.

Related Posts:
   1. Hollywood Hybrid by Marmol Radziner Prefab (Jul 11, 2009)
   2. The Skyline Series by Marmol Radziner Prefab (Jul 02, 2009)
   3. Marmol Radziner's Palms House (Aug 08, 2008)
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Conscious Choice looks at the prefab market

Link to Conscious Choice looks at the prefab market
http://www.consciouschoice.com/

This month's Conscious Choice, "an enlightened urban lifestyle magazine," examines Prefab 2.0 in a recent article:

Judging by magazines, museums and word of mouth, you might think we were in a prefab housing Golden Age.

You’d be wrong — but not by much. Yes, prefab housing is getting more attention than it has for decades. And yes, beautiful prefab homes are on display at museums and design exhibitions. But just because they’ve built them doesn’t mean homeowners are coming in droves. Instead, only about 100 homeowners live in prefab homes in the U.S....

(One quibble: the estimate of 100 is only true based on a narrow definition, e.g. modernist prefab built in the last few years. We take a much broader view of prefab.)

The article included several profiles from around the US:

Chicago, Illinois

Prefab is an interesting idea and like any good academic, Chris Conley wanted to put the theory to a test. So when he and his family set out to build a weekend home in Libertyville, they decided to be their own guinea pigs.

Designer: the homeowner, Chris Conley

Venice, California

The one-story house has turned out to be the home of their dreams. The house came out on time and on budget.

Designer: Jennifer Siegal of info_smallOffice of Mobile Design

Seattle, Washington

He was so convinced prefab was the future that he and his partner Bill Shepherd bought some land on Whidbey Island to try one out.

But if his experience is any example, prefab may not yet be ready for prime time.

Designer: info_smallRocio Romero

New York, New York

Logistically, they were hoping that building the house in the factory would save time and money. But it didn’t quite work out that way, says Morrow. Getting the permits and doing the finish work, like building a screened-in porch and attaching the four modules to one another, took the same amount of time as any other house.

Designer: info_smallResolution: 4 Architecture

San Francisco, California

"We wanted high-quality and enduring style," says [homeowner] Haney. "What we weren't prepared for was the quality of the house. I have built several houses and this is by far the best quality home I've ever lived in. It's fabulous. When you build on-site, there's little quality control. The individual contractors are all supposed to do their jobs, but the overall aesthetic is almost left to chance. In a factory, you have quality control at every step."

Designer: info_smallMichelle Kaufmann

Read the full article for additional details.

title: Prefab 2.0
subtitle: Is prefab housing ready for primetime?
publication: Conscious Choice
author: Heather Boerner
length: 1,500 words
publication date: September 2008

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This week: Werner Sobek, sheds, and domes

Link to This week: Werner Sobek, sheds, and domes
http://www.wernersobek.com/

Apartment Therapy Chicago looked at Werner Sobek's R128 and H16 homes:

These structures aren't available through a manufacturer; they're custom homes designed using lightweight, modular parts. The "prefab" part of these homes lies in their skillful engineering. R218 (shown above) is made from 100% recyclable, easy-to-assemble mortise and tenon joints and bolted joints, while the H16 is made from prefabricated architectural concrete...

And Apartment Therapy New York caught The New York Times' coverage of "high-style sheds":

The focus of the story is on the immediate gratification of prefab sheds ...

Prior to the New York Times' articles, Treehugger wrote about friggebods, or Swedish garden sheds:

Dorte Mandrup Arkitekter have designed a lovely little 100 square foot cabin/office/guest room prefab that is lovely to look at.

Inhabitat's Prefab Friday covered the Danish Easy Domes:

The dome offers individuals the opportunity to build their own high quality homes, coming with pre-built wooden sections, ready to assemble on either a concrete or timber plinth. Once on site, the dome houses take only one day to raise and seal, and for domes less than 50 square foot, no crane is needed to complete construction.

Related Posts:
   1. The New York Times looks at small prefab and more small prefab (Sep 11, 2008)
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The New York Times looks at small prefab and more small prefab

Link to The New York Times looks at small prefab and more small prefab
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/11/garden/11tiny.html

On Wednesday, The New York Times filed a pair of articles on small homes. The first, specifically covered prefab sheds:

Tiny, high-style prefabricated sheds like the Kithaus have received a great deal of attention over the last year, with admiring coverage in design blogs and magazines, and roughly four times more companies producing them now than five years ago. So far, the market is still small, though a tipping point of sorts may have been reached this year, when Design Within Reach began selling the Kithaus, along with furnishing packages to turn it into an instant office, bedroom, pool house or den.

Companies and models included in that article:

The second explained the "tiny house" phenomenon:

... spaces that are smaller than 1,000 square feet and, in some cases, smaller than 100. Tiny houses have been a fringe curiosity for a decade or more, but devotees believe the concept’s time has finally arrived.

Prefab models mentioned:

publication: The New York Times
author: Michael Cannell
length: 1,250 words
publication date: September 10, 2008

publication: The New York Times
author: Steven Kurutz
length: 1,600 words
publication date: September 10, 2008

Related Posts:
   1. Small houses in the Economist (Feb 27, 2009)
   2. This week: Werner Sobek, sheds, and domes (Sep 13, 2008)
   3. Tiny Houses (May 23, 2007)
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Upcoming Marmol Radziner events

Link to Upcoming Marmol Radziner events
marmolradzinerprefab.com

info_smallMarmol Radziner recently completed construction of their Palms House in Venice, CA. Here are the Open House dates:

Click the above links to reserve a slot. Space is still available on all dates.

Event better, you can attend a special session at the house hosted by firm principal Leo Marmol, FAIA:

what: Open House of Marmol Radziner Palms House
where: Palms House, Venice, CA
when: 9/14, 9/27, 10/12 from 2pm - 5pm
details: reservations are mandatory; click the above date links to reserve your spot

what: "An Evening with Leo Marmol"
where: Palms House, Venice, CA
when: 9/24, 10/15 from 6pm - 8pm
price: $22.00
details: reservations are mandatory; click the above date links to reserve your spot

Related Posts:
   1. Hollywood Hybrid by Marmol Radziner Prefab (Jul 11, 2009)
   2. Reminder: Marmol Radziner open house this Sunday (Oct 10, 2008)
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Unique plywood framing concept

Link to Unique plywood framing concept
http://media.www.bsudailynews.com

An interesting story from Ball State University in Muncie, Indiana:

Michael Gibson recently finished a building prototype that utilizes prefabrication techniques in a way that has never been done before....

Gibson's plan included two standard prefab walls and two experimental walls he called lattice walls that were made of plywood instead of the standard dimensional lumber, which he said wastes materials. The lattice walls also used less material because of an assembly form called nesting, in which several lightweight boards nest together in a V-shaped fashion.

"The beautiful thing about the lattice walls and how they nested together was that they used less nuts and bolts," Gibson said. "They were also very lightweight, and the pressure from the roof was pretty evenly distributed, which prevented the structure from racking."

Most of the companies we track use a small number of accepted framing techniques. Some use SIPs:

Others use traditional framing (whether wood or steel):

And a few use unique metal framing systems:

Worth noting: the plywood framing system used in the info_smallBURST* model, currently on view at MoMA's Home Delivery show, used a similar plywood framing system.

subtitle: Prototype utilizes experimental walls made of plywood
publication: The Ball State Daily News Online
author: Sean Armie
length: 550 words
publication date: September 7, 2008

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This week: Lifepod and weeHouses in the UK

Link to This week: Lifepod and weeHouses in the UK
http://www.kyuche.com/lifepod08.html

Inhabitat's Prefab Friday looked at the Lifepod:

Escape to the beach, the mountains or the trees in San Francisco-based Kyu Che’s sustainable Lifepod. Loosely based on the traditional Mongolian ger (or ‘yurt’ as the Russian translation goes), the Lifepod is at once organic and high-tech. Built to be highly portable, the Lifepod is a fully functioning, off-the-grid mini capsule for modern nomadic living.

Shedworking reported that Alchemy Architects are considering bringing their weeHouses to the UK:

Mark Ramuz from Garden2office is talking to them about the possibility of bringing over the smallest of their buildings if there is enough interest.

Related Posts:
   1. weeHouse in Continental Airlines magazine (Jun 16, 2009)
   2. weeHouse by Alchemy on display in WI; today and this weekend (May 22, 2009)
   3. Yurts! (May 28, 2007)
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weeHouses are now cheaper than ever (and can even power themselves!)

A recent email from info_smallAlchemy Architects says:

We have now included more and lowered our prices! 2,000 SF weeHouses with Good Stuff are around $125/SF or less, leaving you extra coins to put into your site.

Old pricing was in the $150/SF range, so it's quite a drop. Actual pricing depends on your part of the country.

Also mentioned:

Order a weeHouse SMALL with an off-grid Solar Package before November 1, 2008 for only $99,000 [$109,000 for CA and other states west of Colorado]. Outfitted with Fusion's 720W AC Energy Kit, you only need to provide the foundation, well, and septic to have a completely finished retreat.

Higher capacity solar kits are available for larger homes. For details: FusionModular.com.

Related Posts:
   1. weeHouse for sale in Wisconsin (Aug 04, 2009)
   2. weeHouse for sale in Duluth, MN (Jul 17, 2009)
   3. weeHouse in Continental Airlines magazine (Jun 16, 2009)
   4. weeHouse by Alchemy on display in WI; today and this weekend (May 22, 2009)
   5. Three weeHouse open houses in the next two weeks (Oct 07, 2008)
   6. New 4x weeHouses join the weeLineup (May 19, 2008)
   7. New weeHouse website (Dec 21, 2007)
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A Prefab Project: the house and blog are done

We've thoroughly enjoyed A Prefab Project which chronicles the construction of a Resolution: 4 Architecture prefab in West Virginia. Homeowner Chris more or less calls it quits in a recent post, and I can't help but be a little sad.

Granted, the home is complete, but the blog has been such a great resource for understanding the process of building a prefab.

If you haven't taken a look at the blog previously, it's definitely worth it, especially now that the long road is coming to an end.

Related Posts:
   1. Lost River Modern by Resolution 4 (Aug 13, 2009)
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This week: two weeks of prefab news

Link to This week: two weeks of prefab news
http://www.arkitekthus.se/

Well, not exactly "this week", more like "the last two weeks." Here's all the news from while I was away on vacation.

Earlier this month, architecture blog Contemporist covered some minimal prefabs from Swedish company Arkitekthus:

Their goal is to bring good design to a larger market that otherwise could not afford an architect designed home.

Inhabitat's Prefab Friday looked at Travelodge's shipping container hotel in England:

The completed design uses eighty-six containers of various sizes that were retrofitted into bedrooms and bolted together onsite. The exterior has been clad and fitted with windows, thus converting the assemblage into a seamless 120-bedroom hotel.

Inhabitat also showed off the XO Mobile Structure from 70ºN Arkitektur:

... embodies an extreme of living simply - or simply living. The gorgeous prefab features a minimalist two-room construction that comes as-is and goes anywhere you please.

The Dwell blog discussed prefab sheds:

Lately, I've been coveting a Modern Cabana or Modern Shed for my personal back-40 in Los Angeles.

Treehugger cited another Dwell blog article in a post about "park models," or trailers, and their relation to prefab:

There is a vast infrastructure of trailer parks around North America that are due for change and upgrading, and a few visionary park operators are beginning to look at the market for modern.

(I posted this Tuesday, but it still carries the tag of our This Week series, usually released on Saturdays)

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I'll be away this week ... new posts soon

I am on vacation all of this week, but will be returning September 1. Look for new posts then.

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Washington Post looks at prefab through the lens of Home Delivery

Link to Washington Post looks at prefab through the lens of Home Delivery

The Washington Post discussed MoMA's Home Delivery show earlier this week, leading with a quite provocative line:

The architect who masters prefabricated housing -- how to make homes that are well designed, mass-produced, affordable and easy to build -- may well go down in history as the Last Architect.

Got my attention, at least. The article continues with the prodding:

As a fascinating and important new Museum of Modern Art exhibition, "Home Delivery: Fabricating the Modern Dwelling," makes clear, they have mostly failed. But if anyone ever succeeds, perhaps the grand challenge of domestic architecture would be over -- time's up, pencils down.

The article makes many such observations and poses a few questions:

The paradox of the prefab dream, which began with proles in boxes, is that it lingers in the bourgeois craving for luxury goods and second houses.

And so does prefab turn out to be just another designer accessory, not so different from Louis Vuitton handbags or Prada shoes, industrial status symbols that are basically the same from unit to unit? Is it true once again that the blessings of modernism, supposedly a gift for the many, are really just a prize for the few?

Some specific thoughts on the homes in the show:

the ridiculously small confines of the Micro Compact House will [not] leave you with any desire to live there.

the System3 project ... is a compelling piece of architecture by any standard.... Stand in the System3 for a few moments, and you want to live here.

In summary:

"Home Delivery: Fabricating the Modern Dwelling" will leave you honestly conflicted, dubious about where history has brought the prefab dream. And more than ready to move into a prefab castle, just as soon as you can buy a nice plot of land and muster the down payment...

What do our readers think about The Posts's observations? Have most of prefab's early practitioners failed? Is prefab just a "prize for the few?"

While reading the full article, be sure to check out the accompanying slideshow.

subtitle: Prefabricated Housing Gets Prime Real Estate in Exhibit at MoMA
publication: The Washington Post
author: Philip Kennicott
length: 1,850 words
publication date: August 17, 2008

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Home Delivery shots at Flickr

Link to Home Delivery shots at Flickr
http://www.flickr.com/photos/16353290@N00/2726144568/

From Materialicio.us, here's a useful tip for those interested in MoMA's Home Delivery exhibition:

I just went to see the show myself this past monday, and I put the best of the photos I took up on Flickr the next day. I tagged them and yesterday decided to see who else had visited and tagged their photos with “Home Delivery”. I was pleasantly surprised to see many other photos on Flickr. A great way to get a photo tour if you can’t make it to the show.

The link: Flickr Home Delivery search

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Witold Rybczynski goes to MoMA

Link to Witold Rybczynski goes to MoMA
http://www.slate.com/id/2197176/slideshow/2197362/fs/0//entry/2197359/

Witold Rybczynski filed a slideshow report from MoMA's Home Delivery show. In his usually candid style, he gives his impressions of the show, inside and out:

Prefabricated houses have remained an elusive goal for architects, and the MoMA show is a stylish litany of second-place finishers, also-rans, if-onlys, and downright losers.

I'd dare to say that just being included in the MoMA show makes each of the featured projects a first-place, upright winner, but maybe that's just me. Anyway, back to Witold:

After considering some 500 firms, the museum chose younger, lesser-known architects, and the range of solutions demonstrates both a sense of enthusiasm and a variety of novel prefabrication technologies.

He shares his thoughts on the info_smallBURST*008:

The rather crudely built structure looks out of place here—or, I suspect, anywhere.

The info_smallSystem3:

most people's idea of contemporary prefabrication: It's elegant, stylish, and rather austere.

Larry Sass's Instant House:

an ingenious and very complicated answer to the wrong question. ... The laser-cut decorative fretwork on the porch is nice, though.

The info_smallm-ch:

Nothing revolutionary here, but a very nicely designed package.

(Though he suggests buying an Airstream trailer instead.)

And the info_smallCellophane House:

The design, fabrication, and construction are seamlessly integrated, and the various pieces are automatically ordered from the fabricator to suit the design as it is entered into the architect's computer. If there is a Next Big Idea in prefabrication, this may be it.

For the rest of Rybczynski's thoughts and some great photos, check out the whole slideshow at Slate.

subtitle: Would you buy a home made in a factory?
publication: Slate
author: Witold Rybczynski
length: 10 images, 1,200 words
publication date: August 13, 2008

(Hat tip: Treehugger)

Related Posts:
   1. MoMA does prefab (Jan 08, 2008)
   2. NPR interviews Slate's prefab skeptic (Nov 01, 2007)
   3. Slate: The Prefab Fad (Aug 27, 2007)
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Modular Homes according to the Christian Science Monitor

Link to Modular Homes according to the Christian Science Monitor
http://features.csmonitor.com/environment/2008/08/13/factory-built-homes-may-be-greener/

The Christian Science Monitor took a look at modular homes last week, focusing on the green qualities:

This summer, two exhibitions of modular houses – at Chicago’s Museum of Science and Industry (MSI) and New York’s Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) – are putting a spotlight on how off-site building techniques can shrink the carbon footprint of a new house.

The article cites a number of reasons why building in the factory is a good idea:

  • finish construction usually takes a few weeks, not months, saving energy by requiring fewer trips to the job site by construction workers
  • by building indoors, workers can also more easily make sure that energy-saving features like insulation are carefully and properly installed for maximum effectiveness
  • individual home-building companies may not have the resources to keep current on the latest "high-performance building" techniques ... but modular homes can have state-of-the-art environmental design built into them at the factory

The companies mentioned in the article:

Read the complete article for details.

subtitle: Modular houses are built to higher standards and with less waste, proponents say
publication: The Christian Science Monitor
author: Gregory M. Lamb
length: 1,100 words
publication date: August 13, 2008

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This week: Rincon 5 and OMD showhouse

Link to This week: Rincon 5 and OMD showhouse
marmolradzinerprefab.com

I was away this weekend, so here's last week's prefab news a bit late. (Posted Tuesday, but dated Saturday in line with our "This week" series.)

Inhabitat's Prefab Friday looked at info_smallMarmol Radziner's new Rincon 5:

The unit was recently showcased in a Los Angeles event that explored its possibilities as a guest house, yoga studio, and home office. Want to make your new guest bedroom a Rincon 5? The basic unit costs $223,000 to be built, delivered and installed, plus the price of whichever upgrades you think your guests will appreciate most.

Materialicio.us noted that the price of the OMD showhouse in Venice has been reduced. The home (without the lot) was originally listed at $295,000, and then reduced to $259,000. Now:

reduced to $175,000

Related Posts:
   1. The RINCON 5 from Marmol Radziner (Jan 13, 2009)
   2. OMD ShowHouse for sale, with reduced price (Apr 03, 2008)
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West Coast Green container Showhouse from SG Blocks

Link to West Coast Green container Showhouse from SG Blocks
http://www.westcoastgreen.com/program/showhouse.php

This year's West Coast Green features a new Showhouse built of containers:

At its core, the 1,700 sqft two-story home will be made of reused shipping containers, which will make construction, in any environment, sustainable, fast, and safe.

Being built right on the tradeshow floor, the home will open to a series of outdoor living spaces and decks, showcasing a dramatic outdoor kitchen ... and a stunning garden of native and naturalized plants and mature olive trees.

The stats:

  • 1,700 sf
  • 2 bedrooms
  • 2 bathrooms
  • 2 stories

Jetson Green likes it:

It's a 1700 sf container home, but you probably can't tell just by looking. Sustainability will be number one, with GreenPoint and LEED certification in the plans. Plus, it seems that ecofabulous will be doing the interior design work, so the home, you can believe, will be modish, posh, and green.

Until August 18, you have the opportunity to come up with a name:

Name the Showhouse!
We’ll pick the top submissions, and post them for everyone to vote on.
Whatever name gets the most votes, wins!
We will announce the winning name on September 1st

company: SG Blocks
where: West Coast Green building conference
when: September 25-27, 2008

Related Posts:
   1. West Coast Green in San Francisco: October 1-3, 2009 (Sep 25, 2009)
   2. CNN: SG Blocks (Jun 15, 2009)
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West Coast Green 2008 coming September 25-27

Link to West Coast Green 2008 coming September 25-27

This year's West Coast Green building conference and expo comes to San Jose, California at the end of September:

You’ll find over 380 exhibitors showcasing the latest in resource-efficiency among a stunning array of green and healthy building products. Over 100 experts and visionary leaders will be presenting their latest developments, insights, and inspiration at the expanding frontiers of the field.

While there aren't many prefab-specific agenda items worth noting, the conference's educational agenda includes a presentation by info_smallMichelle Kaufmann on "The Art of Mass Customization".

The long list of presenters includes Allison Arieff, former editor of Dwell magazine, and even Al Gore.

The show features a Showhouse built of containers; we'll cover that tomorrow.

where: San Jose Convention Center, San Jose, CA
when: September 25-27, 2008
registration: $20 ($30 at the door) for Homeowner Day, September 27. $375/day before July 31, $400/day at the door for full conference access.
features: SG Blocks™ Showhouse; speakers Al Gore, Allison Arieff (former editor of Dwell magazine), info_smallMichelle Kaufmann

Related Posts:
   1. West Coast Green in San Francisco: October 1-3, 2009 (Sep 25, 2009)
   2. West Coast Green 2008: The Harbinger House (Oct 08, 2008)
   3. Allison Arieff in LA Times (Mar 18, 2008)
   4. West Coast Green round-up (Oct 02, 2007)
   5. West Coast Green: the mkLotus show house (Sep 25, 2007)
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MSNBC visits the mkSolaire (video)

MSNBC's Virtual Lifestyles visited the info_smallmkSolaire 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.

publication: MSNBC
author: Anne Thompson
length: 3:08
publication date: May 29, 2008

Related Posts:
   1. Good Morning America visits the mkSolaire (Nov 05, 2008)
   2. mkSolaire on display through January 4th at Chicago's Museum of Science and Industry (Jun 02, 2008)
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Chicago Tribune on Michelle Kaufmann's mkSolaire

Link to Chicago Tribune on Michelle Kaufmann's mkSolaire
mkd-arc.com

The Chicago Tribune visited info_smallMichelle Kaufmann's info_smallmkSolaire 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.

subtitle: Exhibit shows saving energy within reach
publication: The Chicago Tribune
author: Caryn Rousseau
length: 500 words
publication date: August 8, 2008

Related Posts:
   1. Michelle Kaufmann Designs closing (May 27, 2009)
   2. mkSolaire on display through January 4th at Chicago's Museum of Science and Industry (Jun 02, 2008)
   3. mkSolaire to be featured in Chicago museum exhibit (Jan 18, 2008)
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This week: more MoMA, Glenburn, and GreenMobile

e-OCULUS, the blog for the New York chapter of the American Institute of Architects, criticized MoMA's Home Delivery exhibition:

Even though digital fabrication is interesting, I believe there is so much more that goes into prefab housing today than mass production. The eras represented in the exhibition are coming together to create contemporary prefabrication that exists out of necessity, invention, experimentation, as well as digital design. If MoMA had chosen to include examples of buildings that are built, or at least in planning phases ... the exhibition would have more relevance and urgency needed to put the many current prefab ideas into production.

DVICE, a blog from SciFi.com, shared some favorites from the show.

Inhabitat had a double Prefab Friday. First, they linked to ScribeMedia's video from MoMA, seen above:

Chock full of interviews with architects and led by Chief Curator of Architecture & Design Barry Bergdoll, it’s a must-see for anyone interested in a current survey of the potential of prefabricated housing.

Second, they covered the Glenburn House:

...it would be easy to miss this deceptively simple, yet elegant house nestled into the surrounding countryside. But once you have reached this beautiful abode designed by Sean Godsell it’s hard to forget it.

A useful link: Sean Godsell's site.

Jetson Green provided an update on the GreenMobile® from Mississippi State University:

At present, the university ... is trying to finalize agreements with industrial partners.

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Marmol Radziner's Palms House

The Marmol Radziner blog has lots of news about their recently completed Palms House.

The home's specs:

  • 2,800 sf
  • 3 bedrooms
  • 2.5 bathrooms
  • living/dining, kitchen, office

KTLA, a TV station out of LA, visited the house last week and filed a number of video reports (hosted by a slightly overbearing correspondent). One is seen above. A couple others:

Back in June (sorry we missed this!), the home was featured on Planet Green Channel's Renovation Nation:

Our episode highlights the green features of prefab building and follows the Palms House as it traveled through our factory.

Be on the lookout for a re-run in your area.

Related Posts:
   1. Hollywood Hybrid by Marmol Radziner Prefab (Jul 11, 2009)
   2. The Skyline Series by Marmol Radziner Prefab (Jul 02, 2009)
   3. Photo tour of the new Marmol Radziner Palms House (Sep 18, 2008)
   4. This week: Marmol install, Chile, and BURST (Jun 28, 2008)
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Loblolly House book (and DVD!)

Link to Loblolly House book (and DVD!)
papress.com

Another new book: info_smallKieranTimberlake Associates principles Stephen Kieran and James Timberlake profile the design and construction of their info_smallLoblolly House in a volume released in June:

Through the use of state-of-the-art building information modeling (BIM), the architects were able to streamline the design-build process. Thousands of parts were collapsed and integrated into a few dozen panels and blocks that slid into an aluminum frame set on wooden pylons. Consisting of 70 percent prefabricated components, the kit-of-parts house was assembled (mostly with a wrench) and lifted into place on-site in less than six weeks.

The Dwell blog approves:

... handsomely documents the entire design-build process of the Loblolly House.... I dare say this book should be required reading for all architects, contractors, and developers.

Also worth noting:

The book includes a DVD of the film "A House in the Trees" by producers Rick Deppe and Kathleen Blake, a real-time documentary of the design, fabrication, and assembly of Loblolly House.

The list price of $40.00 is reduced to $26.40 at Amazon.

See also: our page of prefab books.

subtitle: Elements of a New Architecture
author: Stephen Kieran and James Timberlake
release date: June 2008
list price: $40.00
details: 176 pages, Hardcover
publisher: Princeton Architecture Press

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Marmol Radziner monograph released

Link to Marmol Radziner monograph released
papress.com

info_smallMarmol Radziner + Associates released a new monograph last month. Written by firm principles Leo Marmol and Ron Radziner, the book also features a foreword by Paul Goldberger, architecture critic for The New Yorker. From publisher Princeton Architectural Press:

If you design some of the most stylish and beautiful modern houses in the Los Angeles area, including many for celebrity clients, how do you ensure that the projects are built to the standards you, and your patrons, demand? If you're the highly sought-after firm of Marmol Radziner + Associates, you do what an increasing number of practices are doing: become your own contractor, building your projects with the same rigor and beauty with which they were designed, and, in the process, remake your firm into one of the most visible and successful design-build firms in the country....

[The book] explains in detail how this pioneering design-build firm — one of the few led by architects — has managed to integrate building–installation, construction, and fabrication into one seamless design process.

Keep an eye on the Marmol Radziner blog for announcements of book signings.

Listed at $40.00, the book is on sale at Amazon for $26.40.

See also: our page of prefab books.

subtitle: Between Architecture and Construction
author: Leo Marmol and Ron Radziner
release date: July 2008
list price: $40.00
details: 176 pages, Hardcover
publisher: Princeton Architecture Press

Related Posts:
   1. Hollywood Hybrid by Marmol Radziner Prefab (Jul 11, 2009)
   2. Marmol Radziner Prefab writes a blog (Feb 20, 2008)
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Your next home could be a Toyota

Link to Your next home could be a Toyota
toyota.co.jp

Very interesting -- though apparently not headed to the US. From an article in the Wall Street Journal:

Best known for its top-selling cars like the Prius and Corolla, Toyota is looking to apply its ecofriendly image and technical know-how to help boost sales of its small and little-known prefabricated-housing division.

Unbeknownst to most of us, Toyota prefabs have been around for awhile:

Since 1975, Toyota has been building steel-frame houses designed to withstand earthquakes and typhoons and keep out burglars.

The tie-in with Toyota's vehicles is certainly interesting:

Toyota's aspirations as a home builder are also gaining new importance with the planned launch by 2010 of its plug-in vehicles, gas-electric hybrid cars with powerful lithium-ion batteries that drivers will need to recharge at home. The car maker is testing an electricity-monitoring system in its homes that would charge the vehicle during off-peak hours to keep utility bills low, while the car's battery can serve as an electrical backup, powering the home during blackouts.

I can't help but quote this imagery:

At the Kasugai Housing Works in central Japan, one of Toyota's three prefab-housing factories, an assembly line of robots, conveyor belts and helmeted workers produced a steady flow of rectangular steel-framed cubicles finished with staircases, kitchen cupboards, bathtubs and toilets.

The timeline sounds right:

Most Toyota homes are made from six or more of these large cubicles, which are assembled -- like Legos -- on the building site. From its start on the factory floor to its final completion on site, a Toyota home can be built in 45 days, less than half the time it takes for contractors to build a typical wooden-frame home, Toyota says.

Alas:

Other than what it called a one-time "experiment" building a development of 50 homes near its truck plant in San Antonio in 2006, Toyota says it has no ambitious plans to build homes outside Japan.

The company's past sales leave much room for expansion, within Japan and abroad:

  • 5,000 units in 2006
  • 4,600 units in 2007

I couldn't find an official Toyota Homes Website, just this little tidbit from Toyota's homepage.

Read the whole article for some housing issues that are specific to Japan.

subtitle: Steel-Frame Houses Get Renewed Push, Tie-In to Electric Cars
publication: The Wall Street Journal
author: John Murphy
length: 1,000 words
publication date: July 2, 2008

Related Posts:
   1. Panasonic's modular homes (Oct 06, 2008)
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More on Zamore

Here's a round-up of other recent coverage on Zamore Homes.

Inc.com included Zamore's pitch:

...I sell detailed designs, plus a list of materials that customers can have shipped from nearby facilities, including Trussway for building supplies and Ikea for cabinets. I was the general contractor for the first three homes, which will be on sale in Houston this summer. Eventually I'll charge $3,000 to $7,000 for the list and drawings.

materialicio.us concludes:

Pretty damn cool, if you ask me…

Dwell's blog wonders:

But is Zamore’s method the most sustainable? Michelle Kaufman, a leader in the prefab industry, argues that, in her experience, it’s more energy efficient to build offsite.

Apartment Therapy Los Angeles remarks:

Now if they could only reduce the price of the land itself here, we'd be living in pre-fab comforts!

Jetson Green covered the homes earlier this month.

Related Posts:
   1. Zamore Homes (Aug 01, 2008)
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This week: Method Homes, HOM, containers and lots more Home Delivery

Link to This week: Method Homes, HOM, containers and lots more Home Delivery
http://www.homlifestyle.com/

A busy week!

Inhabitat's Prefab Friday enjoyed Method Homes' cabin:

we’re happy to report that Method Home’s modern wood wonder has blossomed into a beautiful home.

Inhabitat also covered HOM:

Simple, purposeful, ecological and crafted, HOM houses are meant as secondary residences; a HOM away from home to which busy urbanites can escape in style.

Jetson Green wrote about a container home in San Francisco, designed by Leger Wanaselja Architecture:

It's a simple design that shows what [is] possible with innovative home construction.

Visit Jetson Green for the full post and a bunch of photos of the home. The previous day, Preston previewed the West Coast Green showhome:

It's a 1700 sf container home, but you probably can't tell just by looking.

We'll cover West Coast Green and the showhome in more detail soon.

And a little more news on MoMA's Home Delivery show. New York's The Villager discussed the show:

“Home Delivery" ... is a coup for quality. It’s also a tour of prefab past, a spiffy toy store of drawings, models and actual toys from the century-plus history of industrialized home construction.

Business Week reran a short article from Architectural Record on the show:

One of New York's most exciting cultural venues this summer is a vacant lot in Midtown Manhattan....

Moco Loco ran a series of posts on their favorite three homes in the show. They introduced the show Monday. On Tuesday, they covered the info_smallSystem3 house:

Inside, its austere bearing gives way to a more luxurious simplicity...

Wednesday's post featured an interview with Cellophane House designer James Timberlake:

What will happen to this particular home on October 21? We are working on this concurrently with the show. We have discussed the possibility of auctioning the house.

Thursday's post looked at info_smallBURST*:

But marveling at the architecture is not the point of BURST*. Ultimately, the structure puts the emphasis on nature: The house’s rear elevation unfurls in a cascade of bleacher-style seating, all the better to sit and enjoy the view—out.

Related Posts:
   1. Method Prefab (Sep 03, 2009)
   2. Balance S-M-L Series from Method Homes (Mar 12, 2009)
   3. HOM Escape in Style: modern manufactured homes (Jun 18, 2008)
   4. Home Delivery blog goes live! (Mar 25, 2008)
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Zamore Homes

Link to Zamore Homes
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/headline/features/5893924.html

Last week, The Houston Chronicle took an in-depth look at Zamore Homes.

When Sears started selling kit houses by mail in 1908, the company promised that a man of average abilities could assemble any of the models in the catalog — from a small gabled cottage to a roomy Dutch colonial....

Exactly one century later, Houston architect Brett Zamore is bringing kit homes back.

Zamore assumes that the average man or woman of today has neither the desire nor the ability to assemble a home. That's why Zamore Homes will gather the materials, coordinate delivery and manage the construction process....

Some homes are local:

Zamore is just finishing construction on three kit houses in Houston's West End, on Center near Thompson.

Some not:

Mississippi native Karen Parker ... mother of six lost her Biloxi home to Hurricane Katrina ... selected Zamore's design and finally moved into her 1,400-square-feet home this past January.

The article provides a good working definition of "prefab":

In the strictest terms, prefabricated homes are built and assembled in a factory and then shipped to the property. In a larger sense, the term could also apply to homes with prefabricated parts that are assembled on site.

Zamore Homes models fall into the latter category.

In all, there are seven designs, in sizes that reach 2,200 square feet. But the KIT05 can grow as large as the homeowner wants.

Here's the models and specs from the Zamore Homes site:

  • KIT00: 400 sf, 1 bedroom ("little casita")
  • KIT01: 992 sf, 2 bedrooms
  • KIT02: 1,250 sf, 2 bedrooms
  • KIT03: 2,000 sf, 2 bedrooms
  • KIT04: 2,200 sf, 3 bedrooms
  • KIT05: varies
  • KIT06: 1,300 sf, 3 bedrooms
  • KIT500: 504 sf, 1 bedroom

Compared to local costs in the Houston area:

... new construction going for $130 to $170 per square foot.

The pricing sounds quite competitive:

Zamore's kit homes cost between $110 and $150 per square foot, which includes hard and soft construction costs. [information on hard vs. soft construction costs]

Here's our quick comparison to other kit homes:

CompanyModelsMaterials suppliedAdvises
info_smallRocio Romeroinfo_smallLV Seriesonly the walls and roof framingwindows, finishes and other materials
info_smallkitHAUSinfo_smallk3everything except interior fixtures (plumbing, lighting)None
info_smallJeriko Houseinfo_smallJeriko Houseall finishesNone

The materials and finishes page on the Zamore Homes site is worth a look.

Read the full article for more details.

publication: The Houston Chronicle
author: Maggie Galehouse
length: 1,800 words
publication date: July 17, 2008

Related Posts:
   1. More on Zamore (Aug 04, 2008)
   2. Historic Prefab: Sears Homes (Jul 26, 2007)
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Home Delivery in the MSM

Listen (~16:00) to a broadcast from New Hampshire Public Radio about the show, featuring an interview with Stephen Kieran of info_smallKieranTimberlake Associates.

Bloomberg Television's James Russell reviewed the exhibition:

... a wildly ambitious display of the pleasures and peculiarities of prefabricated houses. The prototypes, augmented inside the museum by a rich history of the genre, capture both the earnestness of architecture's obsession with industrial technique and its faith in technology as an agent of progress.

Read the whole thing for some specific criticism -- and possible upside.

USA Today offered an overview:

an engrossing survey of the prefab movement...

The New York Times profiled info_smallBURST*08 and architects Jeremy Edmiston and Douglas Gauthier. The path to realizing the home was not an easy one:

... arranging all the parts into the right piles so they could just be snapped into place at MoMA turned into a logistical nightmare lasting weeks rather than days. While they sorted, the 15 or so architecture students on hand were trying to reassure the contractors about a model that looked as sturdy as a collapsible fan. As for the architects, they were running back and forth to their offices, scrambling to update the drawings and struggling to raise money.

The full chronicle of the home's construction is worth a read, but sadly, it sounds like we won't be seeing future prefabs from the pair:

For the two architects, however, the success is bittersweet. After nine years their partnership has ended. “This is our last project together,” Mr. Edmiston said.

New York Magazine's architecture critic also reviewed the show:

This sporadically exciting but ultimately diffuse show begins indoors, on the sixth floor, and sidles up on the present by way of the past. It opens, brilliantly, with both....an exhibit that can’t quite decide whether prefabrication should be treated with irony or exuberance.

publication: New Hampshire Public Radio
author: Virginia Prescott
length: ~16:00
publication date: July 17, 2008

publication: Bloomberg Television
author: James S. Russell
length: 860 words
publication date: July 21, 2008

publication: USA Today
author: David Minthorn
length: 625 words
publication date: July 22, 2008

publication: The New York Times
author: Ariel Kaminer
length: 1,100 words
publication date: July 22, 2008

publication: New York Magazine
author: Justin Davidson
length: 940 words
publication date: July 20, 2008

Related Posts:
   1. Home Delivery in the blogs (Jul 23, 2008)
   2. MoMA does prefab (Jan 08, 2008)
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Online exhibition for Home Delivery show

Link to Online exhibition for Home Delivery show

Dwell reports:

...for those who can’t visit the city anytime soon, the museum now has an online version of the show, replete with installation videos, archival footage, and an interactive timeline of prefab housing.

Admittedly, clicking through Home Delivery can’t beat scaling the five structures that now stand in the museum’s adjacent lot. But it’s certainly the next best thing.

The online exhibition takes over the top portion of the blog. It's quite comprehensive; well worth a look.

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This week: Ideabox, Method Homes, and unconventional

Link to This week: Ideabox, Method Homes, and unconventional
http://methodhomes.net/

Jetson Green wrote about Ideabox.

Ideabox has been busy adding ... Cubes to their product mix.... The cubes are 215 sf each and can be attached to Confluence Modern to grow the size a little bit.

JG also covered the Method Homes Cabin:

...Method Homes' first foray into green prefab is met with success as the home is complete -- it looks gorgeous and exudes the company's "Down to Earth Prefab" tagline. The cabin home is currently available for tours and, if you like it, you can place an order for your own.

Moco Loco also looked at the cabin:

The first prefab cabin by Seattle-based Method Homes (completed in 3 months) is based on a flexible template that allows for a full range of customization.

We'll take a more in depth look at both companies soon.

Inhabitat's Prefab Friday looked at two different unconventional prefabs. First, they covered strange treehouses from Our Planet Retreats:

Our Planet Retreats, an innovative UK-based company, is building eco-resorts in gorgeous pristine locations like the Phillipines, Vanatu, and Papua New Guinea. Visiting guests stay in simple floating spheres in the trees that are reached by spiral stairs. Crafted from fiberglass and built by locals, each sphere can accommodate up to 4 people.

They also wrote about EcoShack's Nomad Yurt:

...a beautiful soft-shelled structure that finds elegance in its simplicity.

(Dated Saturday but actually posted on Monday. Sorry for the delay.)

Related Posts:
   1. Method Prefab (Sep 03, 2009)
   2. Ideabox Open House on March 26, 2009 in Port Townsend, WA (Mar 23, 2009)
   3. Balance S-M-L Series from Method Homes (Mar 12, 2009)
   4. This week: Method Homes, Énóvo, Canühome (May 17, 2008)
   5. This week: prefab concepts, debate, and more (Aug 25, 2007)
   6. Yurts! (May 28, 2007)
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Home Delivery in the blogs

Link to Home Delivery in the blogs

MoMA's Home Delivery exhibition opened this weekend. The blogs were full of coverage.

Voxant's TheNewsRoom includes a video report. (Note: the video is interesting -- but runs automatically, may be slow, and may cause browser problems.)

Zavod Big, a design blog in Eastern Europe, covered the "Touch" home from Kannustalo of Finland.

Green in Medusa featured some beautiful images of the show, plus this note:

Whether you like these architects and the concept of Pre-Fab or not the show is worth visiting.

Treehugger featured pictures last week and a look at several reviews on Monday.

Dwell shared some photos.

Core 77 showed off an image of a futuristic wall fragment at the show.

future forum 2008 included exquisite photographs, interesting discussion, and this conclusion:

HOME DELIVERY is an impressive narrative about both failures and successes of the concept. What is evident in the optics of the MoMA showcase is that prefabricated homes have evolved over the years and now come in astonishing variety and appeal to the most sophisticated expectations.

C-MONSTER.net also has photos.

Related Posts:
   1. Home Delivery in the MSM (Jul 30, 2008)
   2. MoMA does prefab (Jan 08, 2008)
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Home Delivery exhibition catalog available for purchase

Link to Home Delivery exhibition catalog available for purchase

MoMA's exhibition catalog is available for purchase (Amazon, sale price $29.70), but won't ship until August 1.

The catalog includes three essays:

  • "Home Delivery: Viscidities of a Modernist Dream from Taylorized Serial Production to Digital Customization" by Barry Bergdoll [curator]
  • "Scandinavia: Prefabrication as a Model of Society" by Swedish historian and critic Rasmus Wærn
  • "Postulating the Potential of Prefab: the Case of Japan" by Ken Tadashi Oshima, a historian of Japanese architecture.

Other contents:

  • "substantial descriptive texts" of each of the 63 projects in the show, written by Peter Christensen
  • contributions from guest authors Robert Rubin, Friedrich von Borries, and Florian Breipohl
  • a chronology of prefabricated buildings
  • a selected bibliography

Sounds like a must-have.

subtitle: Fabricating the Modern Dwelling
author: Ken Oshima, Rasmus Waern, Barry Bergdoll, Peter Christensen
release date: August 2008
list price: $45.00
details: 248 pages, Hardcover
publisher: The Museum of Modern Art

Related Posts:
   1. MoMA does prefab (Jan 08, 2008)
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This week: Greensburg 5.4.7 Art Center

Link to This week: Greensburg 5.4.7 Art Center

The blogs were mostly abuzz with news of MoMA's Home Delivery show this week. We'll provide a rundown of coverage early next week.

In other prefab news, Inhabitat's Prefab Friday looked at a community art center designed and built by Studio804 of the University of Kansas School of Architecture:

...this innovative building uses modular design with the length of long truck trailers as the defining width component measure - an outside the box thinking that makes larger prefab buildings possible.

Lots more info on the project page.

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MoMA's Home Delivery gets a glowing review from the NY Times

Link to MoMA's Home Delivery gets a glowing review from the NY Times
http://www.nytimes.com/slideshow/2008/07/18/arts/0718-DWELL_index.html

The New York Times architecture critic provided a glowing review of MoMA's Home Delivery in this morning's paper:

"Home Delivery: Fabricating the Modern Dwelling," which opens on Sunday at the Museum of Modern Art, is a delightful surprise....In a tour de force Mr. Bergdoll [the show's curator] was able to build five full-scale model houses for the show in a lot just west of the museum. The effect is startling: expressions of a suburban utopian world surrounded by Midtown’s looming skyscrapers.

Mr. Bergdoll has not only managed to track down some unexpected gems, he has also arranged them in a way that allows us to see them with fresh eyes. He makes a convincing case that prefabricated housing was both a central theme of Modernist history and a dream that remains very much alive today.

We've provided extensive coverage of the full-scale homes; this review adds details on the accompanying exhibits:

[the show] presents more than 80 projects, from humble experiments in suburban living to stunning works of cretive imagination.

Here's a sample: (plus some external links we dug up)

Read the full article for more details and a new slideshow with 12 images.

One correction to the article: the frame of the info_smallCellophane House is aluminum not "lightweight steel."

subtitle: At MoMA, a Look at Instant Houses, Past, Present and Future
publication: The New York Times
author: Nicolai Ouroussoff
length: 1,500 words, 12 slides
publication date: July 18, 2008

Related Posts:
   1. KieranTimberlake's Cellophane House (Jul 14, 2008)
   2. Worth a look: New York Times Home Delivery slideshow (Jul 09, 2008)
   3. MoMA's prefab homes nearing delivery (Jun 09, 2008)
   4. BURST* update (Mar 25, 2008)
   5. System3 from Oskar Leo Kaufmann and Albert Rüf (Jan 18, 2008)
   6. The m-ch (micro compact home) (Jan 10, 2008)
   7. Lawrence Sass and yourHouse (Jan 09, 2008)
   8. MoMA does prefab (Jan 08, 2008)
   9. Maison Tropicale sold for $4.97m (Jun 06, 2007)
   10. Prefabs get demolished (May 07, 2007)
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Pop-up hotel technology from Abilmo

Link to Pop-up hotel technology from Abilmo
http://www.abilmo.fr/en/content/view/16/30/

Abilmo produces and supplies prefabricated, "pop-up" hotel rooms for large events in Europe:

Far too many events lasting only a few days are faced with the challenge of ... accommodation which cannot be satisfied by the existing hotel capacity.

The solution comes in a small, efficient package:

Each room once folded measures: 4.40m x 2.38m x .468m [14.4' x 7.8' x 1.5']

Compact loading of 18 foldable multi-purpose rooms per truck.

Each room includes most of the comforts one would expect in a hotel:

  • Ceiling hung with cloth, low voltage lighting, wood flooring, furniture in wood
  • Area of 12 Sqm [130 sf]
  • Thermal and acoustic insulation, individual heating and air conditioning system
  • Individual bathroom with WC, shower and hot water

Abilmo's concept seems to have applications beyond hotel rooms. The concept of reusability is becoming more popular; we've seen a few examples in the past couple years. Most recently, we've reported on the groHome, winner of last year's EPA Lifecycle Building Challenge and info_smallKieranTimberlake's Cellophane House. Both of these models embrace the idea of reusable building parts.

Treehugger seems convinced:

It is an interesting idea - why build an entire hotel for a big event when you can just move it around?

A video tour of the home:

available: Europe
size: ~130 sf
br: 1
details: collapsable, reusable

Related Posts:
   1. Prefab hotel in London (Mar 03, 2008)
   2. Prefab hotel rooms in Amsterdam (Aug 24, 2007)
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KieranTimberlake's Cellophane House

Link to KieranTimberlake's Cellophane House
http://kierantimberlake.com/featured_projects/cellophane_house_1.html

Last week, Lloyd Alter wrote about info_smallKieranTimberlake's info_smallCellophane House ... which reminded me that we hadn't yet covered it in detail. The home is one of the five in MoMA's Home Delivery exhibition.

Referencing a talk given by Steven Kieran and James Timberlake a few years back, Lloyd explained why the Cellophane House is so exciting:

I saw that prefab wasn't just about building in a factory, but was about reinventing the way we build, not just where.

...

"Chunking" is what car manufacturers do; they have subassemblies that are put together into modules, and then put together into the finished product. Builders already do a bit of that, buying pre-hung doors and nail-in windows. KieranTimberlake take it to the next level on the Cellophane House.

Visit Treehugger to read Lloyd's complete post.

Here's more info from the KieranTimberlake project page for the home:

Cellophane House is a five-story, offsite fabricated dwelling... The 1800 square-foot residence has two bedrooms, two bathrooms, living and dining space, a roof terrace, and a carport.

Like their info_smallLoblolly House, this one is designed to be easy to put together and take apart.

Cellophane House relies on a system of customizable elements. An aluminum frame serves as a matrix on which other factory made elements like floors and ceilings, stairs, bathrooms, and mechanical rooms can be attached. The aluminum structural framing is bolted, rather than welded, allowing it to be taken apart as easily as it is assembled. Moreover, this frame allows any of the walls, floors, structure, or envelope to be replaced at any time, without invasive modifications.

They describe the concept using soaring rhetoric:

A building is, at root, nothing more than an assemblage of materials forming an enclosure. We recognize that these materials came from somewhere, are held together for a time by the techniques of construction, and will at some future time transition into another state. While we tend to think of buildings as permanent, they are in fact only a resting state for materials, a temporary equilibrium that is destined to be upset by the entropic forces that drive the physical universe.

Definitely worth a view: a time-lapse video of the home's assembly.

I'll give Lloyd the final word (as I'm inclined to agree):

[The Cellophane House is] a demonstration of pushing the technological building envelope to the very edge; like so many things that came out of the space program that are now part of our everyday life, there are ideas here that in ten years will probably be part of every building.

style: modern
size: 1,800 sf
br: 2
how: aluminum framing system

Related Posts:
   1. James Timberlake discusses lean manufacturing (Mar 05, 2009)
   2. MoMA's Home Delivery gets a glowing review from the NY Times (Jul 18, 2008)
   3. groHome can be taken apart (Jul 02, 2008)
   4. System3 from Oskar Leo Kaufmann and Albert Rüf (Jan 18, 2008)
   5. BURST*003 from SYSTEMarchitects (Jan 11, 2008)
   6. The m-ch (micro compact home) (Jan 10, 2008)
   7. Lawrence Sass and yourHouse (Jan 09, 2008)
   8. MoMA does prefab (Jan 08, 2008)
1 comment, 0 trackbacks (URL) , 

This week: all about MoMA Home Delivery

Link to This week: all about MoMA Home Delivery
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/13/magazine/13Matter-t.html

MoMA's Home Delivery show opens a week from tomorrow so it's been getting a lot of attention around the web.

The New York Times added a little article blurb to the slideshow they posted the other day:

Even by New York City standards, it’s quite a sight. On a 17,000-square-foot vacant lot just west of the Museum of Modern Art, a mini-suburb of contemporary houses is being built — practically overnight.

Lloyd Alter of Treehugger wrote a series of posts on the exhibition:

HAUTE*NATURE took a green perspective.

We'll let Inhabitat's Prefab Friday have the last word:

get down to the MOMA to take in this fantastic prefab extravaganza.

Related Posts:
   1. Worth a look: New York Times Home Delivery slideshow (Jul 09, 2008)
   2. MoMA does prefab (Jan 08, 2008)
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A Prefab Project you can rent

Link to A Prefab Project you can rent
lostrivermodern.com

We've been following A Prefab Project's construction of a info_smallResolution: 4 Architecture home since near the beginning.

Over a year later, the home is complete and available to rent. It's an excellent opportunity to understand what a Resolution: 4 Architecture home can be. Homeowners Chris and Sarah have definitely put a lot of energy and care into the home, and it shows.

A few guests have been testing the place out over the past couple months. Chris shared some stories:

... all of the folks who have stayed so far have been superstars. John and Laura, our first guests, talked with me for an hour on the phone about their visit, and took copious notes. (And have already booked two more weekends!) Chris and Ritamary chipped in one of those wire brush scrubbers for the grill. Ross and Libby sent along a professional-quality blurb and a fancy corkscrew. And Jake, whose Herculean bicycle trip from Pittsburgh to our cabin really cannot be appreciated unless you are a biker.

Jake documented his bicycle trip to the cabin with a blog and great photos.

Our previous coverage of the project:

where: Lost River, West Virginia
price: $150 weekdays, $200 weekends

Related Posts:
   1. Lost River Modern by Resolution 4 (Aug 13, 2009)
   2. A Prefab Project budget (Aug 20, 2007)
   3. Learn from a Prefab Project (Jul 23, 2007)
   4. A Prefab Project delivery and set! (Jul 05, 2007)
   5. A Prefab Project (Jun 06, 2007)
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Worth a look: New York Times Home Delivery slideshow

Link to Worth a look: New York Times Home Delivery slideshow
http://www.nytimes.com/slideshow/2008/07/09/arts/20080709_PREFAB_SLIDESHOW_4.html

Today the New York Times published an online slideshow documenting the progress of the homes in MoMA's Home Delivery exhibition.

Definitely worth a view.

publication: The New York Times
length: 7 slides
publication date: July 9, 2008

Related Posts:
   1. MoMA's Home Delivery gets a glowing review from the NY Times (Jul 18, 2008)
   2. This week: all about MoMA Home Delivery (Jul 12, 2008)
   3. MoMA does prefab (Jan 08, 2008)
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UK prefab school

We don't usually cover non-residential prefabs, but a quick blurb published in the The Times (UK) caught my eye last month:

Work has begun on Britain’s first flat-pack school, which is arriving in a convoy of 20 lorries from a prefab building specialist in Switzerland.

St Agnes CE Primary in Longsight, Manchester, will be built from ready-made wooden frames that cut construction time, saving hundreds of thousands of pounds. Six hundred computer-cut wooden panels will be added, to complete the three-storey building. The biggest panels weigh two tonnes and are 12m (36ft) long.

Manchester's Evening News provided a little more info and the above video:

The panels will be made in a factory near Lausanne in Switzerland which specialises in manufacturing pre-fabricated panels from sustainable forests nearby. Holes for doors, window and sockets are drilled in advance using precise cutting techniques.

Other advantages:

Designers say the specially-treated timber joists are even more fire-resistant than steel, which can buckle and break under high temperatures.

Last year we covered a house in the San Francisco area that used a similar system made by Thoma Holz in Austria.

publication: The Manchester Evening News
length: 600 words
publication date: May 30, 2008

Related Posts:
   1. Modular classroom from Project Frog (Dec 08, 2008)
   2. This week: French prefab, school, and more (Nov 17, 2007)
   3. This week: prefab school, CA prefab and SIPs (May 26, 2007)
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The Home Delivery blog is hiding some of their best videos

Link to The Home Delivery blog is hiding some of their best videos
http://momahomedelivery.org

I'm a little obsessed with the progress updates over at MoMa's Home Delivery blog. Not least: several of the videos are great -- but some of their best are hidden behind a proprietary interface.

Try this. In the top right corner of their blog, move your mouse over the image. With luck, a control bar will slide up a bit from the bottom. Click the tiny square icon on the right and notice that the hard-to-read gray text on a light gray background changes. In theory, that means you switched to another video. In practice, it's hard to tell since there's not much action in some of them.

The time-lapse installation videos are definitely worth a look -- though it would be much better if each video was in a separate post that bloggers could link to.

Related Posts:
   1. Home Delivery update: install videos to drool over (Jun 26, 2008)
   2. Home Delivery blog goes live! (Mar 25, 2008)
1 comment, 0 trackbacks (URL) , 

This week: Home Delivery, immigrant housing, prefab in NYC, and more

Link to This week: Home Delivery, immigrant housing, prefab in NYC, and more
http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/2008/arch-sass-0703.html

MIT's news office described the work of professor Larry Sass for MoMA's Home Delivery exhibition. (We covered details of his "Digitally Fabricated House for New Orleans" and the MIT yourHOUSE project back in January.)

Inhabitat's Prefab Friday took advantage of the holiday to talk about prefab and migration:

How can architecture reconcile the transborder pressures of providing adequate housing with the inevitable tides of hyper-immigration? How can it help manage the increasing sprawl of the destitute colonias swelling between the two countries? And how can we bring new models of planning and infrastructure to areas of booming migrant settlement?

Materialicio.us covered a new community of homes, built by Wieler, a company which we will cover in depth soon:

Nathan Wieler and his wife were the owners of the original Res4a Dwell House who worked with Dwell to set up the original competition, built the house, tried to sell the house but remained there, and went on to promote prefabs...

Related Posts:
   1. Lawrence Sass and yourHouse (Jan 09, 2008)
   2. MoMA does prefab (Jan 08, 2008)
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groHome can be taken apart

Link to groHome can be taken apart
http://www.lifecyclebuilding.org/2007/winner-grohome.php

Yesterday we mentioned the EPA's Lifecycle Building Challenge. We're most intrigued by last year's winning student entry, Texas A&M's groHome:

Using a library of pre-manufactured components brought to a site and assembled efficiently, the structure is designed with a specialized bolted connector [joint] that allows for components to be unplugged easily and without damage. Radio Frequency Identification Tags (RFID) can be embedded to take inventory and check the history of components.

More detail on the "gro(w)ability" of the home:

The plug and play concept is taken from the computer industry. .... The chrysalis of this idea is in our joint, the groJoint. It is designed to receive a beam on four sides and column or foundation on the top and bottom. Connections are all bolted which allows for components to be "unplugged" easily and without damaging the component....

The Texas A&M Solar Decathalon Website has more background information on the team and the project.

A few of the prefab companies we cover already use similar standardized systems:

Related Posts:
   1. KieranTimberlake's Cellophane House (Jul 14, 2008)
   2. The EPA's Lifecycle Building Challenge; July 31 deadline (Jul 01, 2008)
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The EPA's Lifecycle Building Challenge; July 31 deadline

Link to The EPA's Lifecycle Building Challenge; July 31 deadline
http://www.lifecyclebuilding.org/

We missed this item last year when we covered West Coast Green 2007: the EPA's Lifecycle Building Challenge. From a West Coast Green email:

... a design competition for students and professionals focusing solely on innovation regarding deconstruction and building material reuse.

And the Lifecycle Building Challenge was born! Submissions from architects, students, planners and builders poured in, ranging from de-nailer guns to radio-tagged, re-useable wall panels to design that considers reuse as it's primary function.

The awards were presented last year at West Coast Green.

The Challenge returns to this year's show. The ability to take apart a building and re-assemble it elsewhere seems like prefab in its purest form.

where: West Coast Green 2008
deadline: July 31, 2008

Related Posts:
   1. 3 prefabs among winners of the second annual Lifecycle Building Challenge (Nov 20, 2008)
   2. groHome can be taken apart (Jul 02, 2008)
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WIRED LivingHome still for sale; price reduced

Link to WIRED LivingHome still for sale; price reduced
http://www.rochedaleln.com/download/editing/flash/013.jpg

We first looked at the WIRED LivingHome back in July 2007. The home was open to the public in November and shortly thereafter was put on the market. According to Curbed LA:

...the home, originally listed at $4.15 million, has been re-staged and priced at $3.75 million.

Likely, the nation's real estate slump has something to do with the price revision. If you're looking for a top-of-the-line prefab though, here's what you get:

  • 5 bedrooms
  • 4 bathrooms
  • 4,057 sf
  • $924/sf

Tons of pictures are available at Redfin and on the home's own site. Curbed toured the home in November and provides some additional photos.

Our other coverage:

designer: Ray Kappe for info_smallLivingHomes
where: Brentwood, CA
price: $3.75m
details: 5 br, 4 bath, 4,057 sf

Related Posts:
   1. In the news: WIRED LivingHome (Sep 02, 2009)
   2. New LivingHomes video and photos (Aug 03, 2009)
   3. KieranTimberlake LivingHomes (Jun 24, 2009)
   4. WIRED LivingHome open for tours! (Nov 06, 2007)
   5. WIRED webcam (Sep 10, 2007)
   6. LivingHomes gets WIRED ... for $4 million (Jul 02, 2007)
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This week: Marmol install, Chile, and BURST

The LA Times featured the above video (3:03, following a short advertisement) of the install of the info_smallMarmol Radziner prefab in Venice, CA that we mentioned last week.

Jetson Green enjoyed the video:

It's fun ... because you can see Ron Radziner's enthusiasm bubble inside as he explains one of his company's newest creations. These guys are having fun, you can just tell.

Inhabitat's Prefab Friday took a look at La Reserva:

This stunning prefab in Colina, Chile, is the work of Santiago-based architect Sebastián Irarrázaval. Despite its unique form, it is not meant as a custom design but rather a housing solution that can take shape repeatedly. Constructed of concrete, steel and timber, the 120 square meter structure (1290 sq ft) lives large with a simple geometric that is at ease with the surrounding landscape.

Plenty Magazine's blog covered the info_smallBURST* models that will be a part of the upcoming Home Delivery exhibition at MoMA:

“Everyone thinks prefab is just a big chunk of house you dump on a site and then you bolt it down,” says [designer] Gauthier. “Ours is a little bit more like an Ikea project. It’s thousands of pieces that can all be handled and stitched together on site.” Though the interior of the Burst*008 house will be modified to respond to the constraints of New York City and the MoMA’s specific building requirements, the structure will share many attributes with its Australian seaside counterpart.

Related Posts:
   1. The Skyline Series by Marmol Radziner Prefab (Jul 02, 2009)
   2. Marmol Radziner's Palms House (Aug 08, 2008)
   3. This week: historical, Flatpak, LVL tour, and more (Jun 21, 2008)
   4. BURST*003 from SYSTEMarchitects (Jan 11, 2008)
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The LA Times on Sander Architects and steel framing

Link to The LA Times on Sander Architects and steel framing
http://www.latimes.com/classified/realestate/news/la-re-metal8-2008jun08,0,6176670.story

info_smallSander Architects designs homes that use prefabricated steel skeletons. The Los Angeles Times discusses the advantages of steel:

With costs below those of conventional building methods, quick and easy assembly and no termite issues, prefabricated or pre-engineered steel buildings are finding a place in the residential home market.

Homeowner Thomas Small explains part of his reason for choosing steel:

"Most of the metal in this house is recycled and will be recyclable at the end of its use in this house," Small said.

"And there's also very little waste with metal. It was made at the factory and then shipped here. There was no sawdust. No cutting," he said. "And we didn't have to hire specialized builders. It was built by the contractor who built the rest of the house, and bolted together very easily."

Firm principal Whitney Sander describes the process:

"It fits together like an erector set," Sander explained. "And it goes together in three weeks. The inside takes longer, but the prefabrication can save you months and thousands of dollars."

Some numbers from recent Sander Architects projects:

Two projects completed within the last year cost about $130 per square foot or about one-third of traditional custom residential costs, which can top $400 per square foot, according to Sander.

Small's construction costs were about $175 to $200 per square foot, compared with $120 to $350 for traditional non-custom homes, according to construction experts.

These sounds like impressive savings, though finishes and other construction unrelated to the steel skeleton play a large part in determining final construction costs. Read the complete article for more about Sander Architects and steel framing.

author: Michelle Hofmann
publication: The Los Angeles Times
length: 1,000 words
publication date: June 8, 2008

Related Posts:
   1. Custom homes with prefab bones (Mar 29, 2007)
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Home Delivery update: install videos to drool over

This last week has seen some impressive progress in the installation of homes for MoMA's Home Delivery exhibition, opening July 20.

In the video above, the System3 home hatches from its shipping containers and is craned onto its temporary foundation in midtown Manhattan. The bones of the BURST*008 model can also be seen in the video, from about 0:10 to 0:25.

Visit the Home Delivery blog for up-to-the-minute blog posts, images and videos.

Related Posts:
   1. The Home Delivery blog is hiding some of their best videos (Jul 08, 2008)
   2. BURST* update (Mar 25, 2008)
   3. System3 from Oskar Leo Kaufmann and Albert Rüf (Jan 18, 2008)
   4. BURST*003 from SYSTEMarchitects (Jan 11, 2008)
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Prefab apartments to make downtown Seattle affordable?

Link to Prefab apartments to make downtown Seattle affordable?
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/businesstechnology/2004440036_inhabit27.html

The Seattle Times reported a few weeks back on an attempt by Unico Properties to bring affordable housing to Seattle:

Several years ago, Unico lost some good downtown office tenants to outlying locations. Sperling says that when he asked the companies why they were moving, they told him most of their employees spent too much time commuting and couldn't afford to live in Seattle.

So, Unico turned to modular construction:

The company retained architectural firms Mithun and HyBrid to explore whether units could be built economically that might appeal to the design, environmental and technological tastes of young urbanites.

The result: the two Inhabit prototypes. The wood-frame units were built in a factory in Burlington, Skagit County, trucked to Seattle, and lifted by crane onto the plaza at the base of Unico's Rainier Tower.

For reference: Mithun, HyBrid Architecture.

The savings?

[The Inhabit units cost] 15 percent less than a conventional project.... [and] the prototypes were built in just three weeks. Units could be put together while other work is going on at the site, and neighbors wouldn't experience as much disruption.

Features of the units include:

  • 480 - 675 sf
  • studio - 1 bedroom
  • 62 units total
  • floor-to-ceiling windows, a "green" roof to reduce stormwater runoff

Our previous coverage of prefabs being used for similar high-density developments:

author: Eric Pyne
publication: The Seattle Times
length: 950 words
publication date: May 27, 2008

(Hattip: Jetson Green)

Related Posts:
   1. KieranTimberlake and LivingHomes: match made in prefab heaven? (Jun 19, 2008)
   2. Prefab hotel in London (Mar 03, 2008)
   3. mkLoft development in Denver (Nov 26, 2007)
0 comments, 0 trackbacks (URL) , 

Modular construction can help homes to resist hurricanes

Link to Modular construction can help homes to resist hurricanes
http://www.katrina.noaa.gov/satellite/images/katrina-08-29-2005-1345z2.jpg

We've previously mentioned Mississippi's Safeway Homes in regards to their strength and affordability. The Sun Herald ("Southern Mississippi's Newspaper") explains further:

Modular homes built in north Mississippi are the first in this state to receive a Fortified Home designation that qualifies the owner for...insurance discounts once the home is properly installed.

"The desire was to build a home that was very strong, but also very low-cost to maintain," said Dan Hobbs, CEO of Safeway Homes in Lexington, Miss. "The whole purpose was to build excellent quality work-force housing. It's cost-efficient housing."

Some specifics about how the Fortified Home program works:

Safeway Homes are designed to withstand 150-mph winds. While the design has received Fortified Home approval, the designation is awarded only after certified personnel have completed foundation and final inspections to ensure each home is properly and permanently anchored, and meets elevation requirements.

To learn more about the "Fortified...for safer living®" program, visit the Institute for Business & Home Safety site. Read the full Sun Herald article for more details on Safeway Home's designation.

subtitle: Modular company meets safety standards that could lower insurance bill
company: Safeway Homes
author: Anita Lee
publication: The Sun Herald
length: 575 words
publication date: June 10, 2008

Related Posts:
   1. Modular construction helps make homes affordable (Nov 21, 2007)
0 comments, 0 trackbacks (URL) , 

Two EcoSteel projects moving along

Link to Two EcoSteel projects moving along
© Steve Cullen - from http://picasaweb.google.com/CullenRanch/CROAndMilkyWay

I've received an update on a few info_smallEcoSteel projects. There's been significant progress with the house and observatory (pictured above), designed by info_smallGregory La Vardera, that we first covered them about a year ago.

The large project consists of a 7,000+ sf custom home, a "toy garage" and a private observatory. Definitely not your average home! Because of the project's remote location in Rodeo, New Mexico, not many contractors were available. So, homeowner Steve Cullen chose prefab. Some of the advantages:

  • faster build
  • ease of delivery and installation
  • design flexibility
  • strength and quality control
  • eco-efficiency

A number of images of the home's progress, as well as some cool night shots of the observatory are available on Picasa.

Another project, Goshawk Ranch, has its own blog. Under construction since September, the home looks to be moving along. The blog's most recent post shows the newly installed wall panels and front door.

EcoSteel's prefab system consists of a home's steel frame, both interior and exterior, along with exterior wall and roof panels. The remainder of the design and materials are left to the homeowner and local contractors. We discussed the system in detail last year.

This skeleton-and-skin sort of offering is not uncommon. A number of other prefab companies sell similar systems, with a range of additional design help. info_smallRocio Romero's info_smallLV Series homes come without finishes, but with a list of recommendations on finishes and vendors. And info_smallSander Architects design the entire home, but only prefabricate the steel framing.

Related Posts:
   1. EcoSteel Plat House (Jun 05, 2009)
   2. Emphasizing quality not price (Apr 10, 2007)
0 comments, 0 trackbacks (URL) , 

This week: historical, Flatpak, LVL tour, and more

Link to This week: historical, Flatpak, LVL tour, and more
http://andreasangelidakis.blogspot.com/2008/06/tube-prefabby-guy-dessauges.html

Treehugger covered an historical, and quite unconventional, prefab:

Around 1960, Swiss artist Guy Dessauges wondered why we were so square. "The vault resists pressure much larger than the flat ceiling. For the same quality of materials. I wondered why we could not use the cylinder to build a home. The only problem was the diameter of the cylinder. It was necessary to have a diameter large enough to install two floors. The idea crystallized in ten minutes."*

*translated quote from Treehugger

Inhabitat's Prefab Friday loved the photos of the info_smallFlatpak House we've seen before.

The LVL home tour received some good coverage this week. The blog "the girl in the green dress" wrote:

the lvl open house in maine was a success with about 100 people visiting my friend jim's house.

She also took some photos that were picked up by Jetson Green and Materialicio.us.

Curbed LA provided a photo update of a Marmol Radziner home going up in Venice, CA:

last we heard, the home, which belongs to firm founder Leo Marmol, will be done in about a month.

Related Posts:
   1. Sausalito, CA FlatPak for sale (Jun 26, 2009)
   2. This week: Marmol install, Chile, and BURST (Jun 28, 2008)
   3. Tour a Rocio Romero LVL Home on June 14th in Maine (May 27, 2008)
   4. Flatpak house in Aspen (Mar 14, 2008)
0 comments, 0 trackbacks (URL) , 

Alchemy Architects write a blog

Link to Alchemy Architects write a blog
http://weehouses.com/flash/weeGallery/gallery/johnsoncreek/large/9.jpg

info_smallAlchemy Architects has had a blog for a while, but just recently, Alchemy's Betsy Gabler has been updating frequently with information on the info_smallweeHouse.

One post covered a not-so-weeHouse in PA:

Owners of the Johnson Creek weeHouse have graciously provided some great new pictures of their 4 box weeHouse in Pennsylvania.

The Alchemy Architects website provides a description of the home (seen above) and additional images:

This 2,200SF 3BR retreat home consists of a larger main unit accommodating most daily activities and a smaller sleeping tower. Both units are connected by an elevated patio bridge component.

A post from last week profiled a weeHouse in upstate New York:

  • process started with Alchemy in October 2007; site work (client started from scratch which means even putting in their own septic and well systems) and preliminary design happened throughout the winter of 2007-2008
  • house is due to be 'set' in Fall 2008
  • floor plan follows the weeHouse side x side PAIR that has two bedrooms and one bath; client added screen porch (great idea!) using Alchemy's additional design services and also worked with their general contractor to customize a walk-in basement...
  • total square footage (including exterior deck and porch) = 1250
  • (06/08): price for weeHouse PAIR in NY is listed at $189K; this house with additional design options/fees is still coming in at under $200K (about $160/SF); additional costs include site work, basement, transportation, and set/hook-up fees (many of these are priced differently by region)

We're still waiting for the Build a wee page to become active. Hopefully we'll see that announced on the blog soon!

Also: there's a weeHouse page, updated frequently, on Facebook. You have to be a friend to see the profile, but you can find it through a search.

Related Posts:
   1. New weeHouse website (Dec 21, 2007)
0 comments, 0 trackbacks (URL) , 

KieranTimberlake and LivingHomes: match made in prefab heaven?

Link to KieranTimberlake and LivingHomes: match made in prefab heaven?
livinghomes.net

We briefly covered the KieranTimberlake and LivingHomes partnership when it was announced in March. The official announcement (pdf):

Combining their respective expertise and knowledge, LivingHomes and KieranTimberlake have developed the LivingHomes Building System [LBS], a proprietary platform that combines modules for kitchens, baths and utility cores, and "Smart Panels™", that integrate mechanical ducting, electrical and plumbing. With complexity and cost concentrated in particular panels and modules, this flexible building system allows for high-volume fabrication ... and easier transportation.

Last year, we discussed KieranTimberlake's earlier "smart cartridges" which were used in the construction of their info_smallLoblolly House. A bit more about the advantages of the system:

In addition to lower cost and faster production, the LBS allows for the unprecedented adaptability of previously 'fixed' spaces. The new "expandable" single family LivingHome by KieranTimberlake is designed to grow with the changing needs of its inhabitants and can be easily reconfigured from a modest 900 sf dwelling for a single person or young couple to a spacious 2,160 sf four-bedroom home for a growing family. LivingHome owners will be able to purchase addition rooms from LivingHomes, when they need them, and LivingHomes will assemble those rooms on site.

The LivingHomes by KieranTimberlake line features just two models, the KT1 and the KT2. The KT1 comes in three subtle variations, each able to be expanded differently.

For instance, the KT1.1 can grow from the 1 bedroom, 1,020 sf "small" version to the 4 bedroom, 2,160 sf "large" version by adding three additional modules. Difficult to describe with words, the extensions seem both logical and organic; take a look at the KT1.1 brochure (pdf) to see how the changes occur.

About the KT2:

The LivingHomes KT2 line of single family townhomes feature three floors of living with attached two car garages, making them an excellent alternative to multi-story condominium developments.

This sort of expandability makes perfect sense with prefab structures and KieranTimberlake's "Smart Panels™" seem to be a key component. I for one am interested to see how this partnership grows. Something that should help them along: prices between $155/sf - $215/sf.

model: KT1 from info_smallLivingHomes and info_smallKieranTimberlake
size: 1,020 - 2,160 sf
status: planned
expected price: $155/sf - $215/sf
br: 1 - 4
style: modern
how: modules

model: KT2 from info_smallLivingHomes and info_smallKieranTimberlake
size: 1,540 sf
status: planned
expected price: $135/sf - $185/sf
br: 2
style: modern
how: modules

Related Posts:
   1. Ray Kappe multifamily by LivingHomes (Jul 09, 2009)
   2. KieranTimberlake LivingHomes (Jun 24, 2009)
   3. Prefab apartments to make downtown Seattle affordable? (Jun 25, 2008)
   4. KieranTimberlake partners with LivingHomes (Mar 19, 2008)
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HOM Escape in Style: modern manufactured homes

Link to HOM Escape in Style: modern manufactured homes

Dwell on Design visitors loved the prototype info_smallHOM Escape in Style. Kimberly Parker, head of PR for HOM, provided some details.

[It] is a comprehensive product line of fully manufactured, high-design modern homes and carefully crafted furniture, accessories and systems.

Designed by KAA Design Group in Los Angeles, the three different HOM models range from 1,000 - 3,600 sf and can include as many as 6 bedrooms! The listed price per sf is $200, though customization options will most likely push that number higher.

HOM is a manufactured home -- commonly known as a "trailer":

HOM is different from pre-fab, modular, or component housing in that it utilizes a proven 85-year old industry to build and transport the product while a North American dealer distribution network manages the entire process.

One advantage of the "mobile home" designation of HOM:

The HOM unit is towed to your site on its own axle and wheels by a semi-trailer truck. The axle and wheels remain in place under the HOM, disguised by skirting and the modular deck system, thus allowing HOM to be relocated in the future. HOM falls under the federal HUD code of manufactured housing. This category replaced what was formally referred to as "mobile housing" in the early 1980s.

There are a number of differences between the more traditional construction of most prefabs and the construction of manufactured housing. Each has its own advantages and disadvantages that should be considered before buying. We'll write more on those differences soon.

model: Model 1
size: 1,000 sf
br: 2

model: Model 2
size: 2,000 sf
br: 3-4

model: Model 3
size: 3,600 sf
br: 4-6

All models:
status: prototype/not yet for sale
price: ~$200/sf
style: modern
method: trailers ("manufactured")
housing code: HUD

Related Posts:
   1. Builder Magazine highlights prefab houses (May 29, 2009)
   2. This week: Method Homes, HOM, containers and lots more Home Delivery (Aug 02, 2008)
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pieceHomes introduces extraPieces, modular additions for existing homes

Link to pieceHomes introduces extraPieces, modular additions for existing homes
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 info_smallpieceHomes:

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?

model: extraPieces from info_smallpieceHomes
size: 475 - 910 sf
br: 0-1
style: modern
how: modules

Related Posts:
   1. West Coast Green: pieceHomes (Oct 01, 2007)
   2. Wanted: a Prefab Kitchen (Apr 30, 2007)
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Last week: House for an Ecologist and George Maciunas

Link to Last week: House for an Ecologist and George Maciunas
http://www.aia.org/cod_ideas06_winners

I got quite sick over the weekend, so I am playing catch-up. Sorry for the delay! There was a lot of prefab news last week; we'll cover the majority of it in other posts.

Inhabitat's Prefab Friday looked at the contest-winning Landscape House (a conceptual design):

In 2006 the AIA set forth an architecture challenge to create ‘A House for an Ecologist’– a home base from which a US Fish and Wildlife Service Ecologist in Residence could live and conduct field research.

Read the post for details.

The Maya Stendhal Gallery is hosting a prefab exhibition from June 5 to August 23.

George Maciunas Prefabricated Building System presents an exciting chapter in artist George Maciunas’ prolific oeuvre, focusing on his ventures in architecture. The exhibition critically examines a particular architectural project for a prefabricated mass housing system, which Maciunas drafted in the late 1950s and developed toward utopian ends through 1965.

It looks like I'm not the only one who missed the opening. Coverage last week included materialicio.us and Treehugger.

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Tour an MKD home in Santa Barbara, June 14

Link to Tour an MKD home in Santa Barbara, June 14
blog.michellekaufmann.com

A info_smallSunset™ BreezeHouse® designed by info_smallMichelle Kaufmann Designs will be open for tours this weekend. From an MKD email:

Beginning at 10am on Saturday, June 14th, a custom Sunset® Breezehouse™ will be open to the public thanks to the Built Green Santa Barbara Expo, Conference & Tour being held that weekend. We built this custom Sunset® Breezehouse™ for an artist couple and their children so it not only reflects their family’s commitment to sustainable living but also their unique personalities and talents.

Some details about the home from the tour page:

The Santa Barbara Breezehouse is unique in its construction. The units flanking the BreezeSpace were built at a factory in Tacoma, Washington – including the framing, insulation, electrical, flooring, tiles, walls and plumbing components – then transported to Santa Barbara on flatbed trucks and craned into place on the foundation. This process reduced the amount of on-site waste generated and the total construction time for the project. Site work was done by local green builders Allen Associates.

(For reference: Allen Associates)

Also worth attending:

The evening prior to that, June 13th at 6pm, I will be delivering a keynote address at the Built Green conference and would love to have you there for that, as well!

Most importantly, both the tour and the conference are free.

The MKD blog shares more details, including images (like the one of the moveable aluminum shutters above).

Well worth a visit!

where: Santa Barbara, CA
date: June 14, 2008
time: 10am - 4pm
cost: free!

Related Posts:
   1. Sunset Modern Cottage on display June 12 - July 19, 2009 (Jun 10, 2009)
   2. Michelle Kaufmann Designs closing (May 27, 2009)
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Dwell on Design 2008 recap

Link to Dwell on Design 2008 recap
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 info_smallminiHome page.)

This year's prefab exhibitors:

Absent from the show, but present last year:

If you visited the show, please leave your impressions in a comment!

Related Posts:
   1. Dwell on Design 2009 at the end of June (Jun 19, 2009)
   2. Dwell on Design bringing an entire neighborhood of prefab homes to LA June 5-8; get in FREE (May 23, 2008)
   3. Dwell on Design recap (Sep 24, 2007)
   4. Dwell on Design preview (Sep 12, 2007)
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brio54: you decide what you want and how you want to build it

Link to brio54: you decide what you want and how you want to build it
www.brio54.com/

info_smallbrio54 is a new prefab outfit started by architect Gernot Bruckner and partner Philip Macari. Their focus:

Passion for modern green design, and a simpler, more affordable building process.

We are committed to providing modern people with an environment that reflects their personal and functional needs.

While they are still working to build their first prototype, the plan sounds like a good one:

Aside from being the creators and the driving force behind the 'brio54|brand', we are in charge of product development. The production, delivery, and installation of our homes is handled by a team of national and international partners.

Specifically, Stock Building Supply, a company with 310 locations throughout the United States handles the supply of all materials to your site. The Brio54/Stock delivery system uses something called 'feature paks':

It combines on-site and factory based fabrication into one '[H]ybrid' solution....

'You-pick' offers a fast and easy way to customize your 'feature paks' to fit your needs.

Brio54 promises that their "owner-builder based construction system requires no general contractor..." and offers two options for project management, depending on your comfort level (and budget):

'Hands-off': Stock provides the overall project management between paks and the site supervision.

'Hands-on': You save, we advise. Overall project management and site supervision is your responsibility.

Currently, the website provides details for three different concepts, the H1, H2 and H3, ranging from 2,400 to 2,900 sf. The completed homes include interiors provided by Valcucine/DOM, insulated concrete foundation walls from Amvic Building Systems and windows and doors from SwissShade & Security.

Jetson Green covered the brio54 models in February. Inhabitat's Prefab Friday followed and fell in love. GLiving.tv also commented:

The aim of brio54 is to offer functional, inspiring and affordable modern design to the masses, and from what I can tell, they’ve succeeded (at least at the concept stage).

It all sounds exciting; I can't wait to see some pricing info and the prototype when complete.

model: H1, H2, H3 from info_smallbrio54
status: prototype
size: 2,400 - 2,900 sf
br: 3-4
style: modern
how: kit

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MoMA's prefab homes nearing delivery

Link to MoMA's prefab homes nearing delivery
http://www.nysun.com/arts/turning-a-1200-piece-puzzle-into-a-home-with-moma/78789/

With MoMA's Home Delivery exhibition just 6 weeks out, signs of substantive progress are appearing. And it's definitely fun to follow along.

From an article in the New York Sun last week:

Inside a 20,000-square-foot warehouse space in Brooklyn's Gowanus neighborhood, about two dozen people gather most weekday mornings to work on a giant plywood puzzle. There are square-shaped pieces with oval holes in their midsection and jagged ones, resembling enormous saw blades. When they complete the 1,200-piece puzzle, they will have built a house -- or at least the skeleton of one.

Next week, that residence — collapsed into three accordion-like pieces — will be loaded onto a flatbed truck and taken to a vacant lot abutting the Museum of Modern Art. There, the design of the New York architects Jeremy Edmiston and Douglas Gauthier will rise in June, alongside four other modern dwellings

The article speaks of info_smallBurst*.008 from Gauthier Architects. We get a little more info from the MoMA Home Delivery blog:

So far the hiccups we’ve had have been solved by the application of elbow grease and collaboration. Our gratitude to all who have given us both.

Other homes are also moving along. info_smallKieran Timberlake's Cellophane House has a frame and quite a bit of glowing acrylic!

The info_smallSystem3 House is in a shipping container (very cool one minute video) somewhere in the middle of the Atlantic.

And, DelMarvaNow.com shared some details on the fabrication of the 'Housing for New Orleans' exhibition home. That home is a version of yourHouse by MIT's Lawrence Sass.

Check out the full Home Delivery blog to see videos, images and tons of updates on each home's construction. Read the full New York Sun article for more detail on the Burst* project and the exhibition.

author: Gabrielle Birkner
publication: The New York Sun
length: 875 words
publication date: May 29, 2008

Related Posts:
   1. MoMA's Home Delivery gets a glowing review from the NY Times (Jul 18, 2008)
   2. Home Delivery blog goes live! (Mar 25, 2008)
   3. BURST* update (Mar 25, 2008)
   4. System3 from Oskar Leo Kaufmann and Albert Rüf (Jan 18, 2008)
   5. Lawrence Sass and yourHouse (Jan 09, 2008)
   6. MoMA does prefab (Jan 08, 2008)
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This week: Taliesin, Joshua Tree, mkSolaire and more

Link to This week: Taliesin, Joshua Tree, mkSolaire and more
http://prairiemod.typepad.com/prairiemod/2008/06/taliesin-prefab.html

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.

Related Posts:
   1. Taliesen Mod.Fab complete  (Feb 24, 2009)
   2. Dwell on Design bringing an entire neighborhood of prefab homes to LA June 5-8; get in FREE (May 23, 2008)
   3. This week: Joshua Tree, EvolutiV, mkSolaire debuts and more (May 10, 2008)
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mkSolaire on display through January 4th at Chicago's Museum of Science and Industry

Link to mkSolaire on display through January 4th at Chicago's Museum of Science and Industry
http://msichicago.org/whats-here/exhibits/smart-home/

We previously provided an overview of info_smallMKD's info_smallmkSolaire 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.

where: Museum of Science and Industry, Chicago, IL
when: through January 4, 2009
details: visiting the home requires a special ticket with a timed reservation; plenty of times are available
price: $10, in addition to $13 museum general admission

Related Posts:
   1. MKD Smart Home to reopen March 19 (Feb 23, 2009)
   2. Good Morning America visits the mkSolaire (Nov 05, 2008)
   3. MSNBC visits the mkSolaire (video) (Aug 13, 2008)
   4. Chicago Tribune on Michelle Kaufmann's mkSolaire (Aug 12, 2008)
   5. This week: kitHAUS, mkSolaire, containers and more (Apr 05, 2008)
   6. mkSolaire to be featured in Chicago museum exhibit (Jan 18, 2008)
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Colorado modular on a budget

Link to Colorado modular on a budget
www.denverpost.com/headlines/ci_9365484

The Denver Post reports on a modular homeowner near Denver:

Jill Warner is having a new home built in Salida that's as green as possible without "going overboard," she said.

...

Warner wanted to buy a prefab home from the beginning, but her early research revealed a stiff price tag — about $320 per square foot using an out-of-state builder.

Then she dug deeper and found companies closer to home. That cut the price by more than half.

Warner found Northstar Homes, based in Loveland, Colorado. According to Hollis Hunt of Northstar:

...people incorrectly assume going green means a sizable price tag. He says homebuyers can make choices that won't break the bank.

Their site features some helpful resources, including a list of modular home myths.

Read the full article for other tips on how to build prefab and meet your budget. The article also updates readers on the MKD development in Denver that we've reported on previously.

subtitle: Factory-built homes create less waste than traditional homes, helping to shrink carbon footprints
author: Christian Toto
publication: The Denver Post
length: 704 words
publication date: May 25, 2008

Related Posts:
   1. Aspen goes modular  (Dec 04, 2008)
   2. mkLoft development in Denver (Nov 26, 2007)
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This week: London, Resolution: 4, OMD and more

Link to This week: London, Resolution: 4, OMD and more
www.bere.co.uk/

Inhabitat's Prefab Friday reported on a London prefab:

Added to an end-of-terrace house in North London, Focus House is a delightful prefabricated eco-home for a family of five....

Made in Austria and then transported to London in kit form, the building is formed of KLH UK solid timber panels, clad in zinc paneling.

Treehugger's Lloyd Alter discussed a visit to the offices of info_smallResolution: 4 Architecture.

The Chicago Tribune reprinted the interview with Alison Arieff that we covered back in March.

Arieff herself blogged at the NY Times about a prefab school by info_smallOMD that we've covered in the past.

Jetson Green covered an award for the Abōd:

Abōd was honored by the AIA this year with a Small Project Award. The AIA explained the concept: "[...]The resulting design incorporating the Catenary arch is simple and structurally sound but also aesthetically pleasing and can be built by 4 people in just one day with only a screwdriver and an awl."

Off Beat Homes enjoys the info_smallFlatpak House.

Arch Daily took a look at a home in Ecuador that uses a unique prefabricated concrete block system.

G Living examined student housing made of containers.

Related Posts:
   1. Allison Arieff in LA Times (Mar 18, 2008)
   2. This week: French prefab, school, and more (Nov 17, 2007)
   3. This week: prefab school, CA prefab and SIPs (May 26, 2007)
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Dwell on Design bringing an entire neighborhood of prefab homes to LA June 5-8; get in FREE

Link to Dwell on Design bringing an entire neighborhood of prefab homes to LA June 5-8; get in FREE
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:

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".

where: Los Angeles Convention Center, Los Angeles, CA
when: Conference: June 5-6, 2008; Exhibition: June 7-8, 2008
sponsor: Dwell Magazine
registration: $25 for exhibition only (FREE with the code "BDODEC"), $349 for full conference and exhibition

Related Posts:
   1. Dwell on Design 2009 at the end of June (Jun 19, 2009)
   2. Dwell on Design 2008 recap (Jun 11, 2008)
   3. This week: Taliesin, Joshua Tree, mkSolaire and more (Jun 07, 2008)
   4. Dwell on Design recap (Sep 24, 2007)
   5. Dwell on Design Conference (Aug 15, 2007)
   6. Dwell Magazine, Dwell Homes (Apr 17, 2007)
0 comments, 0 trackbacks (URL) , 

New 4x weeHouses join the weeLineup

Link to New 4x weeHouses join the weeLineup
weehouse.com

From the mailbox:

Not-so-weeHouses designed for full-time living are now part of Alchemy's 2008 weeHouse line. We're introducing two new 4x (four-by) houses featuring 3 bedrooms, 2-1/2 baths, and 2200 square feet of living space.

The two 4x models join eight existing info_smallweeHouse models from info_smallAlchemy Architects, and represent the largest weeHouses yet to be introduced. Some background on the designs:

One challenge in pre-designing one house for different people on different sites is that the design can compromise individual needs. With the 4x, we've taken a single, efficient-but-spacious layout and made it flexible enough to work for various needs. Whether your site is a narrow urban lot or a spacious rural one, whether it faces North, South, East or West, the 4x is adaptable. In an über-flexible solution, we can even turn the house upside down (¡) to accommodate second level entries on sloping lots.

The two options:

  • 2x4 : 2 layers of 2 boxes with an overhanging top floor. There's an emphasis on windows on the long side perfect for wider lots.
  • 4x4 : 4 independent sliding boxes create decks and overhangs on the ends, making this layout ideally suited for narrower or urban lots.

Both houses have a central storage core, two possible kitchen orientations and flexible arrangements for entries and large master suites.

Also worth mentioning: basic weeHouse pricing for any region in the country is now available. Kudos to the weeHouse folks for making that information so accessible!

model: 2x4 weeHouse
price: from $319,000 (~$150/sf)
size: 2,150 sf
br: 3
style: modern
how: complete modules

model: 4x4 weeHouse
price: from $319,000 (~$150/sf)
size: 2,090 sf
br: 3
style: modern
how: complete modules

Related Posts:
   1. weeHouse in Continental Airlines magazine (Jun 16, 2009)
   2. weeHouse by Alchemy on display in WI; today and this weekend (May 22, 2009)
   3. weeHouses are now cheaper than ever (and can even power themselves!) (Sep 04, 2008)
   4. New weeHouse website (Dec 21, 2007)
   5. Itsy Bitsy weeHouse (Mar 26, 2007)
0 comments, 0 trackbacks (URL) , 

I've been busy; daily posts will resume soon!

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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This week: Method Homes, Énóvo, Canühome

Link to This week: Method Homes, Énóvo, Canühome
http://www.inhabitat.com/2008/05/16/method-homes-modular-cabin/

Inhabitat's Prefab Friday discussed the Method Homes Modular Cabin:

This month we’re welcoming a brand new builder to the prefab scene as Method Homes launches its first house!

Method’s prefab prototype is currently in the final stages of construction ... We can’t wait to see the finished product!

Jetson Green covered the Énóvo House, a modular from Montreal:

...from my research, the Énóvo name seems to represent something bigger -- the idea that a green, modular home can evolve with the needs of the owner. According to the website, Énóvo can be adapted to most any terrain, and because it's configured by modules, the design can morph according to the various particularities [of] an owner's life and needs.

Jetson Green also shared several photos of the Canühome:

Designed by Institute Without Boundaries, canühome is a healthy, sustainable, and affordable home.

We'll be sure to cover all three models in more detail soon.

(Dated Saturday but actually posted on Sunday. Sorry for the delay.)

Related Posts:
   1. Method Prefab (Sep 03, 2009)
   2. Balance S-M-L Series from Method Homes (Mar 12, 2009)
   3. This week: Ideabox, Method Homes, and unconventional (Jul 26, 2008)
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This week: Joshua Tree, EvolutiV, mkSolaire debuts and more

Link to This week: Joshua Tree, EvolutiV, mkSolaire debuts and more
www.hangarprefab.com

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 info_smallEmpyrean International's info_smallNextHouse). We'll cover those in more detail down the line.

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

Related Posts:
   1. This week: Taliesin, Joshua Tree, mkSolaire and more (Jun 07, 2008)
   2. mkSolaire to be featured in Chicago museum exhibit (Jan 18, 2008)
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This week: Milan, German prefab, Marmol Radziner and more

Link to This week: Milan, German prefab, Marmol Radziner and more
http://www.dwell.com/daily/blog/18148519.html

The Dwell blog reported on prefabs at the Milan Furniture Fair.

Contemporist covered the Huf Haus, a kit company in Germany:

...you can choose to put these post and beam homes together yourself, or Huf Haus will manage the whole project for you.

Curbed LA reports on info_smallMarmol Radziner:

The firm, known for its high-end prefab homes (such as their Desert Hot Springs prototype), will launch a new line of prefab models that will be priced 20-25 percent less than their existing line.

Apartment Therapy Re-Nest sang praises for info_smallMKD and shared a slideshow of Michelle Kaufmann's info_smallGlidehouse.

Inhabitat's Prefab Friday shared the info_smallWings prefab from info_smallJenesys Building Systems:

Wings is taking off in great prefab form.

Related Posts:
   1. The Skyline Series by Marmol Radziner Prefab (Jul 02, 2009)
   2. Jenesys Building System's E Cube (Jun 27, 2007)
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The Silicon Valley NextHouse: prefab and custom

Link to The Silicon Valley NextHouse: prefab and custom
http://www.mercurynews.com/homeandgarden/ci_8982600?nclick_check=1

We've covered the Empyrean NextHouse in Silicon Valley before; here's a new story about the home from the San Jose Mercury News:

The 2,400-square-foot house was built in panels by manufacturer Empyrean at its factory in Acton, Mass., shipped to the Bay Area and assembled on-site. It incorporates energy-efficient technology and sustainable materials and is the seventh in a series called the NextHouse; the project has been a collaboration with San Francisco-based Dwell magazine, which has 12 more under way across the country.

Lots of people think prefab equals one-size-fits-all.

"Prefab is somewhere in the middle between the builder home, which is like a pair of jeans that's made for the average person, and the custom home, which is like a couture item," says Sam Grawe, editor in chief at Dwell, which has been promoting modern prefab architecture since its debut more than seven years ago.

"Prefab gives you the opportunity to design your own home but also has the efficiencies of the builder's model."

subtitle: Modern designs show the new face of factory-built houses
author: Holly Hayes
publication: San Jose Mercury News
length: 1,100 words
publication date: April 19, 2008

Related Posts:
   1. Tour an Empyrean NextHouse in Silicon Valley: March 27, 29-30 (Mar 11, 2008)
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This Old House to go prefab

Link to This Old House to go prefab
http://oldhousemyhouse.thisoldhouse.com/2008/04/welcome-to-west.html

Via the American Chronicle:

...This Old House partners with custom homebuilding company, Bensonwood, to build a new timberframe home.... Cutting-edge techniques, including extensive uses of prefabrication and green technologies, will be implemented to construct a new home on property owned by the Favat family in Weston, Massachusetts....

As both the architectural firm and prefabricator on the project, Bensonwood will build 75 percent of the house in a controlled workshop environment. Entire wall systems and room modules will be built, outfitted for plumbing and wiring, with windows and finishes added, in many cases, right in the workshop. Additionally, the timberframe will be created using traditional hand-craftsmanship, as well as the latest computer-aided woodworking technology, providing a level of structural integrity that will last hundreds of years. Many of the home's components will be assembled onsite by crane over a three-week period in early June....

Thisoldhouse.com will feature progress of the Weston project 24/7 through four Webcams powered by EarthCam....

More info on Bensonwood is available at their website.

Also worth a mention: This Old House has a blog, Old House My House, which will be a great place to keep track of the progress of the Weston prefab.

publication: American Chronicle
length: 950 words
publication date: April 25, 2008

Related Posts:
   1. The This Old House Home Collection (Jan 08, 2009)
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This week: MKD videos, prefab rental, and more

We missed last week, so here is two weeks of prefab news.

Jetson Green found three promotional videos of MKD homes from the MKD blog. One is included below:

Curbed LA shared details of a new prefab rental built by info_smallSander Architects:

...this one-bedroom, one-bath, 1,000 square foot rental is described as being a "stunning new 'green' loft on a tree-lined cul-de-sac in a beautiful residential neighborhood just blocks from downtown Culver City, Sony Studios, Helms District, and Hayden Tract...Cost: $2,300 per month.

materialicio.us wrote about the Prebuilt Mod House Range:

...for those who like their homes clean and crisp with a modernist edge. These finely detailed, timber clad pavilions are based on a modular system offering the ultimate in flexibility...

Inhabitat's Prefab Friday covered a prefab cabin two weeks ago:

...the Clara Cabin from hiveMODULAR is a perfect solution. You get all the comforts of cabin life - a bed, reprieve from the bugs, and weather - while still being able to connect to the surrounding nature.

This week, Prefab Friday looked at a Swedish prefab:

...the Plus House embraces its Nordic roots and rural setting as a thoroughly modern take on the Swedish barn house.

Hive Modular sent out an email update and shared a Picasa page which shows many of their more recent designs.

Related Posts:
   1. Michelle Kaufmann Designs closing (May 27, 2009)
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Building a home in 90 days in Maryland

Link to Building a home in 90 days in Maryland
http://www.gazette.net/stories/032108/businew193118_32408.shtml

Back in March, Maryland's Gazette.net reported:

Amid today’s gloom and doom in the housing industry, Vince and Stephanie Scuderi are happy — finally — to talk about building their dream home.

They chose a modular home design, an alternative construction method that can save time and money....

The house was together within hours, with all the major workings in place, including framing, drywall, roofing, plumbing, electrical wiring, cabinetry and trim.

‘‘The only problem sometimes raised by the homeowner is that they see it assembled in one or two days, then wonder why it takes another 90 to 120 days to finish,” Dean said. After assembly, much work remains, including well, septic and other utility hookups, porches and decks, driveways and landscaping.

Manufacturer: North American Housing Corp.

The full article has more details and images.

author: Steve Berberich
publication: Gazette.net
length: 1,100 words

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Boston-area home goes modular (with video)

This is a great video from New England's NECN:

A little context:

One year ago, the Lee family was unhappy with their home.... They decided to take their old house down to the ground and build a modular home on the land....

The Lees ordered their modular home from a Pennsylvania company. They went modular not because of money, but because of time. The house was assembled like a puzzle - piece by piece.

Each box was about 85% complete on the inside when it was put together....

Modular was clearly the way to go.

Also featured: Sean Sweeney of Heritage Modular.

site: NECN
length: 5:30
release date: April 12, 2008

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This week: container video, WIELER, sheds and more

Link to This week: container video, WIELER, sheds and more
http://www.inhabitat.com/2008/04/11/prefab-friday-custom-designed-wieler/

Inhabitat's Prefab Friday showed off a WIELER home:

Architect Dustin Ehrlich has created a custom prefab home near Chapel Hill, NC. Commissioned by his parents and constructed by WIELER, the structure mixes stone, wood, stainless steel and rusted corrugated metal to create an extraordinary first, and lasting, impression.

Jetson Green shared a video on container architecture:

In this super informative interview, G Living sits down with Peter DeMaria to talk about his work using containers in modern home design and construction. I was really impressed with DeMaria -- he tells you everything you ever wanted to know about container architecture...
Jetson Green also discovered the iT House blog.

Apartment Therapy New York discussed the New York Times' coverage of prefab sheds.

Related Posts:
   1. LA Times on mini prefabs (Jun 18, 2009)
   2. Modern sheds, cabanas, and studios (Apr 16, 2007)
   3. The iT House does some soul-searching (Apr 06, 2007)
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CA Boom V recap

Link to CA Boom V recap
http://la.curbed.com/archives/2008/03/ca_boom_the_pre.php

We couldn't attend this year's CA Boom show in Los Angeles, so here are a few recaps from others:

Curbed LA took a look at the Modern-Shed booth:

One interesting new [entrant] was ... the itty-bitty Modern Shed and its quaint homemade sale sign in the window: "$15,000 with deck. Free Local Delivery."
They also went on a tour of the Red Barn Prefab that we covered previously:
The designer of the home was on site, and gave a brief introductory speech before we started exploring and snapping pictures. The home was built using re-engineered steel, concrete floors (natch) and eco-timber flooring.... The home took nine months to build and actually has a twin next door...

The LA Times slideshow included a tour of an info_smallOMD home.

We previously covered Allison Arieff's related interview; here's the accompanying slideshow.

Related Posts:
   1. Allison Arieff in LA Times (Mar 18, 2008)
   2. CA Boom V coming soon: March 14-16 (Mar 05, 2008)
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Marmol Radziner home installed in Santa Cruz, California

Link to Marmol Radziner home installed in Santa Cruz, California
(http://www.scsextra.com/story.php?sid=66690

The Santa Cruz Sentinel reports:

Technology entrepreneur Philippe Kahn has taken home construction, environmental stewardship and style to a new level.

Kahn ... had his new home near the Santa Cruz Small Craft Harbor trucked in from Los Angeles.

The prefabricated house was delivered last week in 18 pieces, each wrapped in white plastic and stored in the harbor parking lot. By today, the pieces, made of steel and glass, will be fit together like a puzzle to make a 3,200-square-foot, three-bedroom home on Fairview Place....

Kahn's home was constructed by Marmol Radziner, a Los Angeles architectural firm that specializes in custom, green modern homes built with prefabricated technologies.

Read the full article for more details and additional photos.

author: Shanna McCord
publication: Santa Cruz Sentinel
length: 500 words
publication date: March 17, 2008

Related Posts:
   1. The Skyline Series by Marmol Radziner Prefab (Jul 02, 2009)
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Empyrean International launches new website

Link to Empyrean International launches new website
empyreanint.com

Modular builder info_smallEmpyrean International has launched a new website. We've previously covered their Acorn and Deck Houses and discussed their info_smallDwell NextHouse at length.

The new site features much improved navigation and more detailed information:

Speaking of Empyrean, the Silicon Valley NextHouse was open to visitors last week. Interior designer Sally Kuchar was there and shared stories and photos on her sallyTV blog.

Related Posts:
   1. Tour an Empyrean NextHouse in Silicon Valley: March 27, 29-30 (Mar 11, 2008)
   2. Empyrean's Acorn and Deck House (Nov 16, 2007)
   3. Empyrean and the NextHouse (Apr 20, 2007)
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This week: kitHAUS, mkSolaire, containers and more

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 info_smallkitHAUS info_smallK3 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 info_smallLivingHomes and info_smallKieranTimberlake, and took a look at the ZeroHouse.

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

Related Posts:
   1. LA Times on mini prefabs (Jun 18, 2009)
   2. mkSolaire on display through January 4th at Chicago's Museum of Science and Industry (Jun 02, 2008)
   3. KieranTimberlake partners with LivingHomes (Mar 19, 2008)
   4. Zero House on gadget blogs (Nov 19, 2007)
   5. Tours of an LV Series home in the Napa Valley (Jul 12, 2007)
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OMD ShowHouse for sale, with reduced price

Link to OMD ShowHouse for sale, with reduced price
http://la.curbed.com/archives/2008/02/on_the_market_s_10.php

Via Curbed LA:

Designer Jennifer Siegal’s widely published prefab prototype, the OMD ShowHouse, originally priced at $295,000 just last month, gets chopped. It's now down to $259,000.

The real estate listing at TVOA.net ("The Value of Architecture") shows $249,000. Key fact:

PRICE DOES NOT INCLUDE LAND – UNIT MUST BE TRUCKED TO BUYER’S OWN SITE.

More details on the home are available at the OMD website.

model: info_smallOMD ShowHouse
where: Venice, CA
style: modern
size: 720 sf
br: 1
price: $259,000 ($360/sf)

Related Posts:
   1. This week: Rincon 5 and OMD showhouse (Aug 16, 2008)
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Modular dormitories

Link to Modular dormitories

The New York Times reports on modular dormitories:

The three-story dormitory at Yale’s Pierson College, which houses about 18 students, was assembled during spring break.

Read the full article for details.

author: Alison Gregor
publication: The New York Times
length: 1,200 words
date: March 26, 2008

0 comments, 0 trackbacks (URL)

Home Delivery blog goes live!

Link to Home Delivery blog goes live!
momahomedelivery.org

MoMA is curating a blog for the Home Delivery exhibition. It went live Monday.

So far, Kieran Timberlake has posted on the Cellophane House:

STATUS:

  • Design work including a full-scale mockup is 100% complete.
  • 95% of the materials have been ordered.
  • Structural materials for two chunks have been delivered to the factory.
  • SmartWrap™ façade material is being fabricated at sub-contractors shop.
  • Fabrication in the factory has begun.

And Douglas Gauthier and Jeremy Edmiston have updated the progress on their BURST*.008 design:

For Home Delivery, the fabrication method has evolved to account for a four to five week on-site construction timeframe, as well as the intricacies of house building in midtown Manhattan.

Check out the blog for weekly updates from each team: http://www.momahomedelivery.org/.

Related Posts:
   1. This week: Method Homes, HOM, containers and lots more Home Delivery (Aug 02, 2008)
   2. The Home Delivery blog is hiding some of their best videos (Jul 08, 2008)
   3. MoMA's prefab homes nearing delivery (Jun 09, 2008)
   4. System3 from Oskar Leo Kaufmann and Albert Rüf (Jan 18, 2008)
   5. BURST*003 from SYSTEMarchitects (Jan 11, 2008)
   6. The m-ch (micro compact home) (Jan 10, 2008)
   7. Lawrence Sass and yourHouse (Jan 09, 2008)
   8. MoMA does prefab (Jan 08, 2008)
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BURST* update

Link to BURST* update

We received an email from Katherine Keltner at the offices of Gauthier Architects. She provided an update and correction regarding the BURST* model appearing in the upcoming Home Delivery show at MoMA:

BURST.003 was completed in 2006 under SYSTEMarchitects: Douglas Gauthier and Jeremy Edmiston.

BURST.008 is being installed at MoMA and is designed as a collaboration between Douglas Gauthier [now at his own firm] and Jeremy Edmiston.

We'll provide more information on the BURST.008 model when details are released. In the meantime, check out the other coverage we have of the exhibition:

Related Posts:
   1. MoMA's Home Delivery gets a glowing review from the NY Times (Jul 18, 2008)
   2. Home Delivery update: install videos to drool over (Jun 26, 2008)
   3. MoMA's prefab homes nearing delivery (Jun 09, 2008)
   4. BURST*003 from SYSTEMarchitects (Jan 11, 2008)
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Prefab Futures at Pratt Institute: April 3

Link to Prefab Futures at Pratt Institute: April 3
pratt.edu

On April 3, New York's Pratt Institute will hold a symposium on Prefab Futures:

The one-day conference will present research and scholarship related to the history of prefabrication, contemporary and emerging techniques and approaches to prefabrication, as well as the social and sustainable potential of prefab and prefab technologies.

Participants include:

Follow the link below for more info. Here's a tidbit they don't mention on the site: the event is free and open to the public.

where: Pratt Institute, Brooklyn, NY
date: April 3, 2008
time: 8am-7pm
price: free! (bring valid ID)

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KieranTimberlake partners with LivingHomes

Link to KieranTimberlake partners with LivingHomes
livinghomes.net

Via Curbed LA:

LivingHomes is partnering with Philadelphia-based architecture firm KieranTimberlake Associates on an “expandable” single-family (pictured above) prefab green homes that can grow from 900 square feet to 2,230 square feet. All parts of the home are made in a factory--and owners can essentially order more parts of their home as their family grows... Additionally, the home will be priced at $215 a square foot, but as the country catches on to the expandable home, costs are expected to drop to $155 a home.

The post quotes Steve Glenn of info_smallLivingHomes:

As you marry, have kids, add in-laws to the household, etc., you’re either moving a lot or constantly renovating, which is time-consuming, expensive, stressful, and very wasteful from a resource perspective.... LivingHomes by KieranTimberlake introduce an important new capability to homes – the ability to efficiently and cost-effectively adapt to people’s changing lifestyle living needs.

Treehugger adds:

As a cured architect and developer, I could only dream of what the result might be if one mixed the talents and innovations of architects like Kieran Timberlake with a business visionary like Steve Glenn and set them to produce small, efficient projects that don't need a Silicon Valley multimillionaire's income to own.

That's worth some research, and we'll share the details soon.

Related Posts:
   1. Ray Kappe multifamily by LivingHomes (Jul 09, 2009)
   2. KieranTimberlake LivingHomes (Jun 24, 2009)
   3. KieranTimberlake and LivingHomes: match made in prefab heaven? (Jun 19, 2008)
   4. This week: kitHAUS, mkSolaire, containers and more (Apr 05, 2008)
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Allison Arieff in LA Times

Link to Allison Arieff in LA Times

This article is too good to excerpt. 14 questions; interesting answers. Go read it!

author: David A. Keeps
publication: Los Angeles Times
length: 1,400 words
date: March 13, 2008

Related Posts:
   1. West Coast Green 2008 coming September 25-27 (Aug 14, 2008)
   2. This week: London, Resolution: 4, OMD and more (May 24, 2008)
   3. CA Boom V recap  (Apr 11, 2008)
0 comments, 0 trackbacks (URL) , 

This week: Marmol Radziner set, Modular Homes Inc., and more ABŌD

Link to This week: Marmol Radziner set, Modular Homes Inc., and more ABŌD
www.marmolradzinerprefab.com/blog/2008/03/14/prefab-installation-in-californias-central-coast

The Marmol Radziner Prefab blog wrote about the installation of a new home in California. Check out the post for pictures, including the vibrant blue denim insulation seen above.

greenbuildingsNYC discussed Modular Homes, Inc.:

...an Edison, New Jersey-based custom modular home builder that will break ground in April on what it hopes will be a LEED-certified model home in Robbinsville, New Jersey....

Inhabitat's Prefab Friday covered the ABŌD affordable prefab we saw last week.

Related Posts:
   1. The Skyline Series by Marmol Radziner Prefab (Jul 02, 2009)
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Flatpak house in Aspen

Link to Flatpak house in Aspen
www.flickr.com/photos/flatpakhouse/2202532508/in/set-72157601570849354/

A blog named Denver Modern Homes points out this great Flickr photoset of a info_smallFlatpak house in Aspen.

where: Aspen, Colorado
length: 39 images

Related Posts:
   1. Sausalito, CA FlatPak for sale (Jun 26, 2009)
   2. Aspen goes modular  (Dec 04, 2008)
   3. This week: historical, Flatpak, LVL tour, and more (Jun 21, 2008)
   4. Lazor Office's FlatPak House (Apr 19, 2007)
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Tour an Empyrean NextHouse in Silicon Valley: March 27, 29-30

Link to Tour an Empyrean NextHouse in Silicon Valley: March 27, 29-30
www.dwell.com/homes/dwellhomes/siliconvalley/16260026.html

Yesterday, Dwell magazine announced an open house:

Modern prefab has arrived in Mountain View, CA in the form of a progressive single-family home -- the Dwell NextHouse by Empyrean. ... A unique opportunity to tour the 2,400 sq ft prefabricated home will be available.... Dwell invites attendees to become engaged in a dialogue about modern and prefab home design.

Their site has a schedule and information on the speakers:

  • Joel Turkel, Designer of the NextHouse
  • Sally Kuchar, Interior Designer for the Dwell Home: Silicon Valley
  • Michael Sylvester, of fabprefab
  • Jhaelen Eli, consulting designer to Empyrean

Can't make it? Or want a preview? Jetson Green found this entertaining video tour from interior designer Sally Kuchar:

model: info_smallNextHouse
manufacturer: info_smallEmpyrean
where: Mountain View, CA
when: March 27, 9am - 6pm (trade)
when: March 29-30, 10am - 6pm (consumer)

Related Posts:
   1. The Silicon Valley NextHouse: prefab and custom (May 01, 2008)
   2. Empyrean International launches new website (Apr 07, 2008)
   3. Empyrean and the NextHouse (Apr 20, 2007)
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Tour (virtually) an LV home in Maine

Link to Tour (virtually) an LV home in Maine
gallery.apartmenttherapy.com/photo/012408romerotour/_slide_

Apartment Therapy Chicago covers an info_smallLV Home in Eliot, Maine:

When James and Rui were ready to build on their lakefront land, they contacted architect Rocio Romero. The Missouri-based designer is well known for her minimalist prefab homes, which arrive flat-packed and can go up in a few months' time. James and Rui worked with Rocio to develop a standard LV Home (Rocio's trademark design) with a custom interior that would make the most of their incredible natural surroundings. The highlight of this home is definitely the views....

Read the post for more details or go directly to the slideshow (16 images).

Related Posts:
   1. Tour a Rocio Romero LVL Home on June 14th in Maine (May 27, 2008)
   2. Rocio Romero's National LV Open House Tour (Mar 04, 2008)
   3. Tours of an LV Series home in the Napa Valley (Jul 12, 2007)
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Lucian Hood at CA Boom V

The description for the vendor "Lucian T. Hood, Architect" on the CA Boom site isn't very clear. With no mention of prefab at LucianHoodArchitect.com, I emailed to get some details:

Skelly Oil bought the prefab manuf. co. and hired me to design and draw single family dwellings ... duplex, town houses, apartments, more... I am bringing my Skelly brochure we sent out nationwide and can chat about the product ...

He's not there just for prefab. He'll be at CA Boom to answer all sorts of questions on architecture and construction, a role he has some experience in:

I have done 4 Public Access TV shows and 3 months guest host (every Sat) radio show (call in to the Architect) so I am at the show ... to help, inform, guide, answer at no cost.

Related Posts:
   1. CA Boom V coming soon: March 14-16 (Mar 05, 2008)
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This week: nomads, home-in-a-box, RuralZED, and more

Link to This week: nomads, home-in-a-box, RuralZED, and more
nomadhome.com

Materialicio.us reported on the nomad home:

Another modular, truckable prefab, this time from Austria, by architect Gerold Peham. Sizes range from 44m2 [473 sf] to 88m2 [947 sf].

Materialicio.us also covered abōd:

Abōd™ was created by BSB Design to provide affordable housing for families in Africa. Easily mass-produced and deliverable by truck, ship or plane, the “home in a box” includes the entire 120sf structure (unassembled) that fits into a box 4’ x 12’ x 2’...

Treehugger shared the RuralZED prefab from the UK:

We were very excited when Sami first showed us ruralZED, the UK's first commercially viable, affordable and ready to purchase zero-carbon home; now there is more information on the RuralZED website.

Inhabitat's Prefab Friday featured two different homes this week. They also covered RuralZED:

...they claim [it] is Britain’s most affordable green prefab home and is also able to meet its strictest energy standards. Oh, and did we mention that it is a flatpack?
And looked at the iPAD:
We’ve been waiting and hoping for more from New Zealand architect Andre Hodgskin who first wowed us with BACHKIT™, a gorgeous holiday home of prefab pavilions designed in 2000.

Related Posts:
   1. iPAD: more from New Zealand  (Jan 03, 2008)
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The Duncan House in the New York Times

Link to The Duncan House in the New York Times
travel.nytimes.com/2008/03/02/travel/02cultured.html

We previously reported on Frank Lloyd Wright's prefab Duncan House. The New York Times travel section picks up the story:

We were inside the work of the master. Like any Frank Lloyd Wright house, this one was immediately recognizable.

And briefly, it was ours. The Duncan House is a vacation rental, one of half a dozen Wright houses where paying guests can move in for a weekend or a few days and pretend to be home.

Read the full article for details on the other Wright houses (though the Duncan house is the only prefab).

author: Barbara Ireland
publication: The New York Times
length: 1,200 words
publication date: March 2, 2008

Related Posts:
   1. Spend a night in a restored Wright prefab (Aug 30, 2007)
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CA Boom V coming soon: March 14-16

Link to CA Boom V coming soon: March 14-16

Last year's CA Boom IV show brought twelve prefab companies to Barker Hanger in Santa Monica, CA. I attended the show, spoke to some vendors and tried to get my head around others. We won't be able to attend this year's CA Boom V, but if you're in the area and seriously interested in prefab, it's well worth a visit:

CA Boom is NOT the place “to talk about the potential of and the maybe/someday value of prefab”, rather this is the Buyer/Seller event for you to “comparison shop” the leading manufacturers who “have delivered houses.”

If you are ready to make a purchase (for instance you have land) and you need to choose who to purchase from, then get on a plane and get to CA Boom. Serious prefab buyers make their purchases at CA Boom.

I counted eight prefab vendors as of today:

As we stated last year, CA Boom's Prefab Zone has strict requirements for the companies present:

  1. ability to provide real price quotes
  2. ability to receive and accept orders
  3. have at least one built dwelling
  4. have a manufacturing process in place (not just a plan)
  5. have knowledge of how to deliver and install the dwelling

Also worth looking for (date and time TBA):

"THE FOUR WOMEN OF PREFAB" panel discussion featuring prominent prefab architects Michelle Kaufmann, Jennifer Siegal and Rocio Romero, and moderated by Allison Arieff, the former editor-in-chief of DWELL magazine.

name: CA Boom V
what: "prefab exhibition, design + architecture home tours and ... panel discussions"
where: Barker Hanger, Santa Monica Airport, Santa Monica, CA
when: March 14-16, 2008 (March 14 is trade only)
time: 11am - 5pm (6pm Saturday)
price: $20/day, architecture tours extra
more info: press release (pdf)

Related Posts:
   1. CA Boom V recap  (Apr 11, 2008)
   2. Lucian Hood at CA Boom V (Mar 10, 2008)
   3. CA Boom roundup 3: the eccentrics (Apr 03, 2007)
   4. CA Boom roundup 2: "that one" (Apr 02, 2007)
   5. CA Boom roundup 1: confusion and flux (Apr 02, 2007)
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Rocio Romero's National LV Open House Tour

Link to Rocio Romero's National LV Open House Tour
rocioromero.com

Via Inhabitat on Feb. 29:

To date, more than 110 LV prefabs have become home to owners throughout 23 states in the US, with 40 more under construction. While prefab fans have been able to tour the Rocio Romero show home in Missouri for several years, this weekend marks the first time that a finished LV is available for viewing in New York. The first National LV Open House Tour kicks off on March 1st (tomorrow!) in the Hudson Valley!

Sorry that we posted too late for the New York open house, but there will be more! The Rocio Romero site fills in the blanks:

This event is one of four that will be held throughout the country. The 2008 National Tour will provide attendees the opportunity to see and feel the LV space.  Ms. Romero, Rocio Romero staff, homeowners, and general contractors will be present to discuss the LV design features, custom design options, the build process, and construction costs. Since 2003, more than 6,000 individuals have visited the Rocio Romero show home in Perryville, Missouri. Our new national tours will allow attendees to view our newest homes and experience the wide array of customization and lifestyles available to LV home owners.

The open house featured four pre-reserved time slots, costing $40/person. We'll do our best to get the dates for the other three events with plenty of advance notice.

company: info_smallRocio Romero
when: dates TBA
where: locations TBA

Related Posts:
   1. Sunset Magazine features LVM by Rocio Romero (Jul 22, 2009)
   2. Tour a Rocio Romero LVL Home on June 14th in Maine (May 27, 2008)
   3. Tour (virtually) an LV home in Maine (Mar 11, 2008)
   4. Tracking the progress of an LVL home (Dec 11, 2007)
   5. Tours of an LV Series home in the Napa Valley (Jul 12, 2007)
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Prefab hotel in London

Link to Prefab hotel in London
jetsongreen.com

We've covered prefab hotel rooms in Amsterdam. Now Reuters UK reports:

You see a vacant east London building lot paved over with asphalt and used as a car park. Tim [Pyne] sees the site of a rack-'em, stack-'em prefab temporary designer boutique hotel.

An architect with years of experience designing temporary buildings for exhibitions, [Pyne] says prefab is the answer for a city like London, where quick development means a shortage of space, and shabby areas are suddenly chic.

His design is called the M-Hotel and it consists of a steel frame with trailer-style mobile homes fitted out with designer furnishings, stacked four high...

Jetson Green says:

I love the possibilities and ideas ... it's cool and innovative. The m-hotel is designed as a series of steel-framed slot boxes that slide into the frame (which makes for easy dismantling in the future). 

Also from Tim Pyne: The info_smallm-house.

author: Peter Graff
publication: Reuters UK
length: 330 words
publication date: February 29, 2008

Related Posts:
   1. Pop-up hotel technology from Abilmo (Jul 16, 2008)
   2. Prefab apartments to make downtown Seattle affordable? (Jun 25, 2008)
   3. Prefab hotel rooms in Amsterdam (Aug 24, 2007)
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This week: pieceHomes, Res: 4, Magic and more

Link to This week: pieceHomes, Res: 4, Magic and more
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 info_smallResolution: 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 info_smallMagic 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...

Related Posts:
   1. This week: Loq•kit, Rapson Greenbelt, and more (Feb 23, 2008)
   2. West Coast Green: pieceHomes (Oct 01, 2007)
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Bo Klok doors open

Link to Bo Klok doors open
ikea.com

We reported last year on retailer IKEA's prefab homes. More from The Guardian:

Britain's first "Ikealand" opened its metal-panelled pine doors yesterday in an experiment designed to spread the company's off-the-shelf principle from wardrobes and sofas to entire houses.

The first of 93 flatpack homes designed and equipped by the household goods store went on show in Gateshead on Tyneside, where scores of would-be buyers are being vetted to ensure that their savings and income are modest enough to qualify....

Prices on the cul-de-sac off Marigold Avenue, where each unit comes with 22 Skimmia shrubs and an apple tree in the garden, range from £99,500 [$198,000] for a one-bedroom flat to £149,000 [$295,000] for a three-bedroom house...

Treehugger adds:

Seen as a way for them to get onto the property ladder, these houses will sell for $260,000 for a two bedroom townhouse. Assembled in a factory nearby, they get to the site ready to be bolted together and take about 16 weeks from start to completion.

The system is called BoKlok (Ikea speak for smart living) and was developed in conjunction with Ikea.

I did a little research on prices in the area; these look competitive.

author: Martin Wainwright
publication: The Guardian (UK)
length: 400 words
publication date: January 31, 2008

Related Posts:
   1. This week: IKEA goes prefab, mountain retreats, and a prefab high-rise (Apr 21, 2007)
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PreFab Now and a new resource for Prefabcosm

Link to PreFab Now and a new resource for Prefabcosm
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: info_smallPrefab books.

title: Prefab Now
author: James Trulove
release date: Mar 2007
list price: $39.95
details: 192 pages, hardcover
publisher: Collins Design

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Boston area home goes prefab and green

Link to Boston area home goes prefab and green
boston.com

From last month's Boston Globe:

...a three-bedroom, 2-bath home built in pieces in a factory and assembled onsite in less than a day - opens to the public today...

It is the latest output from PowerHouse Enterprises, a Lawrence company out to extend the conventions of "eco-friendly" to include economical as well as ecological aspects....

The full article has the details.

author: Michael Prager
length: 1,250 words
publication date: January 20, 2008

Related Posts:
   1. CNET and the PowerPod (Oct 16, 2007)
   2. PowerHouse: emphasizing solar (Aug 14, 2007)
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Beyond prefab: The Rolling Bench

Link to Beyond prefab: The Rolling Bench

Every now and then, we come across an item that isn't prefab but that we think is worth sharing. Here's one from Yanko Design:

Don’t you love the days following a rainstorm? The streets seem to gleam, the air is cleaner, and people are generally in a better mood to finally see the sun again. The only thing that sucks are all those wet benches and chairs. Fortunately clever designers (the Korean design gang) came up with a simple solution. The slats on these benches can rotate to the dry side by cranking the handle.

There are a few more details about designer Sung Woo Park over at Coroflot.

what: The Rolling Bench
designers: Sungwoo Park, Yoonha Paick, Jongdeuk Son, Banseok Yoon, Eunbi Cho & Minjung Sim
details: not yet for sale

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This week: Loq•kit, Rapson Greenbelt, and more

Link to This week: Loq•kit, Rapson Greenbelt, and more
wieler.com

Inhabitat's Prefab Friday discussed the Rapson Greenbelt:

Modernist architect Ralph Rapson has managed to reinterpret a 60-year old design with the green panache of a 21st century prefab...

The Greenbelt got its name from the distinct interior glass atrium that appeared in the original 1,800 sq ft design. The 21st century Greenbelt is available in seven configurations ranging from 576 to 2,660 square feet. Our favorite is Greenbelt 1, the design that most closely reflects the intention of the original.

CubeMe covered the modular Loq•kit, which was first mentioned on Inhabitat back in December.

Materialicio.us provided even more photos of the Maison Tropicale in London.

Related Posts:
   1. This week: pieceHomes, Res: 4, Magic and more (Mar 02, 2008)
   2. This week: containers, concepts, and kitHAUS (Dec 01, 2007)
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Building a prefab in New York City

Link to Building a prefab in New York City
Resolution: 4 Architecture via nytimes.com

The New York Times reports:

The social event of the season in Locust Point, a quiet enclave of tidy family homes along the East Bronx waterfront, took place just over a week ago when a crane lifted two 18-ton halves of a prefabricated house off flatbed trailers and stacked them like Legos on an empty lot....

Resolution 4: Architecture of Manhattan...designed the Bronx house...

Joseph Tanney, a partner in the firm, was approached in 2005 by Regina Marengo, president of an engineering consultancy company, about putting a modern prefab on the Bronx waterfront property where she and her husband, William, had lived in a bungalow for two decades.

Read more about the info_smallResolution: 4 Architecture prefab in the full article.

author: Jennifer Bleyer
length: 425 words
publication date: February 10, 2008

(Hat tip: Prefab Dweller)

Related Posts:
   1. The New York Times: Bronx prefab update (Dec 05, 2008)
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Tour the Marmol Radziner Desert House before it's sold

Link to Tour the Marmol Radziner Desert House before it's sold
md-d.com

From Apartment Therapy:

If you're heading out to the desert for Modernism Week and are curious about prefabs, you've got a chance to see a drop dead gorgeous one.... The Desert Prefab house has been called possibly the most beautiful prefabricated building this side of the Pacific, and it's for sale!

More detail on the house from the LA Times:

It is the house that won new respect for factory-built prefab housing: Leo Marmol's sleek, solar-powered, steel-and-glass Desert House in Desert Hot Springs, Calif. It has been Marmol's weekend house since he built it in 2005, but it is now listed for sale for $1.85 million....

The L-shaped house is the prototype for Marmol Radziner Prefab, an architecture and design firm based in Los Angeles. Framed with recycled steel, it features teak cabinets, concrete floors tinted the color of desert sand and glass walls. It consists of 10 modules in all -- four house modules and six deck modules, to encourage outdoor living. The three-bedroom house features a guest wing with studio space, partially shaded decks, a swimming pool and sweeping mountain views.

And a sales pitch from the real estate listing:

First Offering: The Desert House, 2005. Art, architecture and environmental awareness have been forged together in Marmol-Radziner's custom prototype for their burgeoning prefab division.... From the two-parcel, nearly 7.5 acre site on which the main house, guest house, studio and nearly 2,400 square feet of outdoor decks reside, broad panoramic vistas across the pool capture the all encompassing desert floor sweeping out to towering Mount San Jacinto and San Gorgonio.

Here's the rundown on the tours:

what: tours of info_smallMarmol Radziner's Desert Prefab
where: 14875 McCarger Rd., Desert Hot Springs, CA
date: Saturday, March 1, 2008
time: 1pm-4pm

...on the sale:

what: info_smallMarmol Radziner's Desert Prefab
where: Desert Hot Springs, CA
price: $1.85m ($881/sf)
br: 3
size: 2,100 sf
features: Recycled steel framing, highly energy-efficient glass, and solar-assisted power

...on the LA Times article:

author: Peter Viles
length: 450 words
publication date: January 23, 2008

Related Posts:
   1. The Skyline Series by Marmol Radziner Prefab (Jul 02, 2009)
   2. Marmol Radziner Prefab writes a blog (Feb 20, 2008)
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Marmol Radziner Prefab writes a blog

Link to Marmol Radziner Prefab writes a blog
marmolradzinerprefab.com

info_smallMarmol Radziner have a launched a blog:

We hope to post regularly on a range of topics, including the various projects that we currently have in design and production, events around the country, or just interesting articles and ideas that influence what we do.

In the coming months, we’ll be blogging a lot about the Venice House (a.k.a. California House 6). This house is currently in our factory and will be delivered to a small, urban lot this spring. We designed [the] house to respond to the narrow, infill site by having the home look inwards towards small, private courtyard spaces. This allowed us to maintain an open, bright feeling that connects indoor and outdoor spaces despite the small lot.

A recent post discussed putting a concrete floor in a prefab house:

We loved how the concrete floors in the Desert House looked, but we shied away from using them in our first few projects that we produced in our own factory. The Desert House’s concrete were so beautiful, but also so heavy, which made the installation quite challenging...

We'll keep track of any big updates over at the new blog, but be sure to check it out for yourselves.

Related Posts:
   1. The Skyline Series by Marmol Radziner Prefab (Jul 02, 2009)
   2. Marmol Radziner monograph released (Aug 06, 2008)
   3. Tour the Marmol Radziner Desert House before it's sold (Feb 21, 2008)
   4. Marmol Radziner videos (Aug 17, 2007)
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From New Orleans: the Jeriko House

Link to From New Orleans: the Jeriko House
jerikohouse.com

We mentioned the info_smallJeriko House last year. Here are some construction details:

Jeriko House is based on a sophisticated high-tech 'kit-of-parts' building system providing high strength and incredible ease of assembly.... The heart of this system is its unique high-performance aluminum framing derived from the 'T-slot' framing commonly used in industrial automation applications. Made from aerospace-grade aluminum formed into precision shaped 'profiles' offering the approximate strength of steel with a great savings in weight, the Jeriko House frame structure is resilient, weatherproof, rustproof, and pest-proof....

Using special modular connectors, the Jeriko House frame is assembled in a classic post & beam structure. Houses as small as 240 square feet and larger than 6,000 square feet can be built. These unit shapes can be combined in a variety of ways....

In addition to custom options, the Web site shows four sample floorplans:

As of July 2007, three projects were underway:

...now under construction in Louisiana: a 4320-sq-ft Lakefront home; a 5500-sq-ft luxury home in Mandeville; and a 250-sq-ft garden retreat in Metairie...

designer: info_smallJeriko House
size: 2,032 - 4,320 sf
br: 2-3
style: modern
how: kit of parts

Related Posts:
   1. This week: Jeriko House, Drop House, and more (Oct 13, 2007)
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This week: Maison, Japan and Brio54

Link to This week: Maison, Japan and Brio54
treehugger.com

Treehugger shared some history of the info_smallMaison Tropicale:

It was discovered by Eric Touchaleaume who has been called the "Indiana Jones of furniture collecting". He has spent the last decade scouring remote parts of the world for valuable artifacts such as this house. Having bought 600 of Prouvé's chairs, he became obsessed with finding the house. Hearing that someone had seen one in Brazzaville, he travelled there and found two of them damaged by bullet holes and corrosion. It took six months to get the buildings out of the Congo because of the civil war and tribal conflicts.

Jetson Green covered a modern prefab in Japan:

A group we've mentioned previously, useful + agreeable, is doing this by working with Atelier Tekuto to export his home designs outside of Japan.

Using next generation prefab methods and modern materials, the pictured home design will be sold through the internet. The website lists designs as being available for purchase for $100,000...

Inhabitat's Prefab Friday looked at a series of prefabs from development firm Brio54. We will look at those more closely soon.

Related Posts:
   1. Maison Tropicale to be displayed in London (Jan 25, 2008)
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The Royal Q from Royal Homes and Kohn Shnier Architects

Link to The Royal Q from Royal Homes and Kohn Shnier Architects
royalhomes.com

info_smallRoyal Homes is a major manufacturer of modular homes in Canada. Back in 2005, the company commissioned info_smallKohn Shnier Architects to design the info_smallRoyal Q modular:

...six hundred and twenty square feet of efficient, modern design with two bedrooms, tons of storage, all of the necessities and a few of the niceties of life...

We will deliver and install in most of Ontario and Michigan, as long as there is a road big enough for our trucks and crane....

Royal Homes completed construction on the larger info_smallRoyal Q Muskoka (pictured above) in July of last year. From Treehugger:

The building is essentially a sixteen foot deep wall; ... the maximum width that can go down the road, and Martin Kohn took advantage of this to create the thin, long structure....

The terrain is rock, and quite steep. It was disturbed as little as possible, and tree removal was minimized. Because of the difference in grade, Kohn placed the living areas upstairs and the bedrooms below; this way one can change after swimming and then go upstairs to the living areas. One enters by crossing a long bridge from the parking area to the house.

model: info_smallRoyal Q 1
manufacturer: info_smallRoyal Homes
size: 620 sf
br: 2
style: modern
how: complete modules

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Prefab goes retail: buy a kitHAUS at Design Within Reach

Link to Prefab goes retail: buy a kitHAUS at Design Within Reach
dwr.com

This is interesting. A retailer called Design Within Reach (NASDAQ:DWRI) is now offering prefab:

Designed by Tom Sandonato and Martin Wehmann, this 9'x13' structure redefines conventional prefab with its proprietary clamping system that makes installation quick, economic and practically waste-free. What also caught our attention about Kithaus is how it can tuck into any area, even remote locations, without needing ultra-heavy equipment. All of the lightweight, anodized aluminum pieces are pre-cut and drilled in Southern California and shipped to you for on-site assembly. Installation is fast, taking only a few days, and Kithaus is built with eco-friendly components.

Treehugger thinks it's a good idea:

This is fulfilling the promise of prefab: Architecture as industrial design, available to anyone off the shelf at any time. Architecture as product instead of service, possibly the future and salvation of the profession.

To support the sales of the info_smallkitHAUS models, a number of in-store events will be held:

LocationDateTime
Beverly Hills, CAWednesday, February 136-8pm
Scottsdale, AZThursday, February 216-8pm
Las Vegas Town Square, NVWednesday, February 277-9pm
Chicago North Avenue, IL Thursday, March 206-9pm
Dallas, TXThursday, March 276-9pm
Minneapolis, MNThursday, April 36-9pm
Portland, ORThursday, April 246-8pm
San Francisco – Fillmore, CAThursday, May 16-8pm
Atlanta, GASaturday, May 107:30-9:30pm
Palo Alto, CA Thursday, June 266-8pm

A little history of Design Within Reach:

Design Within Reach is the source for fully licensed classics. Our business started when our founder tried to furnish his apartment with the mid-century classics he'd come to appreciate while living in London.
And some corporate background:
Design Within Reach, Inc. is recognized nationwide as a preeminent provider of distinctive modern design furnishings and accessories. The Company markets and sells products in numerous categories to both residential and commercial customers through the DWR catalog, website and studios.

Related Posts:
   1. LA Times on mini prefabs (Jun 18, 2009)
   2. Thursday evening in Philadelphia: Leo Marmol on "Prefab myths and facts" (Apr 02, 2008)
   3. Prefab goes to the mall: kitHAUS in San Diego (Aug 06, 2007)
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The m-house

Link to The m-house

The info_smallm-house is another small prefab home from the UK (we mentioned the home back in September):

...over 1000 sqft of beautifully designed and detailed contemporary house or office. It is entirely manufactured under controlled factory conditions, which guarantees both quality of build and delivery time. m-house arrives in two pieces, each 3m (10' approx) wide, which are then joined together on site, which takes about a day. It comes completely fitted-out and ready for you to move into immediately, and delivery is 12 weeks after order.

Features include:

  • under floor heating throughout (electric or gas)

  • solid fuel stove for cosy nights in front of the fire

  • fitted kitchen with loads of worksurface and storage

  • fridge, freezer, hob, oven and dishwasher (all Neff in Europe)

  • utility/ drying room with a washing machine with a decent spin speed

  • tiled bathroom with nice sanitaryware and a mains pressure shower

  • big double-ended steel bath with a view out of the window

  • kingsize bed decks with storage below and big shelves for books

  • fitted wardrobes with mirrors inside the doors

  • nice wool bedroom carpets

For some great images of the m-house, check out Ken Sparkes' flickr photostream. And watch this video of the designer from the BBC.

model: info_smallm-house
designer: Tim Pyne
price: ~$290,000 (~$290/sf)
size: 1,000 sf
br: 2
style: modern
how: 2 modules

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Historic prefab: Marcel Breuer's Plas-2-Point house

Link to Historic prefab: Marcel Breuer's Plas-2-Point house
http://referencelibrary.blogspot.com/2007/08/marcel-breuer-prefab.html

Periodically we like to look back at early prefabs. Architect and furniture designer Marcel Lajos Breuer (1902 - 1981) was a contemporary of Jean Prouvé (1901 - 1984). In 1942, Breuer designed the info_smallPlas-2-Point as "easily transportable, low-cost housing for returning GIs".

More details from a University of Oregon research paper:

This building was in fact never built, but is well documented as a pioneer in prefabricated housing types because of its ability to be mass produced with all the benefits this entailed in terms of cost improved quality, and above all, given post-war demand, rapid production....

The "plas-2-point" design was not the most aesthetically pleasing, but it was eminently practical. It owed this practicality to the fact that it was demountable, meaning one unit could be picked up and moved to another foundation with minimal effort, and conceived as an assembly line product that could easily be mass produced and shipped all over the country.

Two features make this house unique in its design and construction. First, it rests on two short piers (see foundation plan), thus avoiding the need for expensive foundation and cellar costs that are common to nearly all housing types.

Second, and probably most interesting, is that it is entirely supported by two vertical posts at the ends of the structure. These posts hold a central plywood girder that, in turn, supports cantilevered plywood trusses which form the roof and floor. The side walls are made of rigid plywood panels that are in tension, holding down the roof like a tent.

This construction system allows for all the forces to be resolved internally and transfered down to the ground at two specific points, thus becoming cost efficient in the reduction of materials needed in construction.

Those interested in the home's structure should read the full paper.

designer: Marcel Breuer
how: complete modules

author: Tony Salas and Steve Bolinger
length: 1,150 words
date: Spring 1995

Related Posts:
   1. Maison Tropicale to be displayed in London (Jan 25, 2008)
   2. Maison Tropicale sold for $4.97m (Jun 06, 2007)
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Zenkaya: sleek prefab from South Africa

Link to Zenkaya: sleek prefab from South Africa
zenkaya.com

info_smallZenkaya is a prefab from South Africa:

The Zenkaya is delivered completed, ready to live in, to your site right on the back of a flat bed truck.

Zenkaya is for the discerning people who value things differently. Those who appreciate their time and don’t want to spend that unforeseen time and energy to control and manage the construction and design process, especially when it is a far away place.
....
Zenkaya design was based on core sustainable principles. To start with, well proportioned rooms, efficient use of spaces and standard size materials were identified and drawn....

The wall panels feature Chromadek (coated metal) on the outside and either polystyrene or OSB (oriented strand board) on the inside.

In form, the Zenkaya models remind me of the concrete info_smallperrinepod.

Last year, Apartment Therapy New York called the homes "stunning."

materialicio.us said:

I love the fabulous ZENKAYA as much as anyone else.

[SPACEOUTLOUD] shared photos of the homes on display at a show in Cape Town.


designer: info_smallZenkaya
style: modern
how: complete modules

Zenkaya models range from 86 sf to 790 sf:

size: 220-660 sf
br: 1-2

size: 91 sf
br: 0-1

model: info_smallBushKAYA
size: 220-790 sf
br: 1-2

model: info_smallMiniKAYA
size: 86 sf
br: 0-1

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This week: aluminum from Japan, Sweden, and more

Link to This week: aluminum from Japan, Sweden, and more

Treehugger covered an aluminum prefab idea from Japan:

...an aluminum structural system that also works as a radiator for heat, and a conduit for electrical and plumbing.

Treehugger also linked to Greg LaVardera's post on prefab in Sweden.

Metro Hippie wrote about info_smallLazor Office's info_smallFlatpak House.

Inhabitat's Prefab Friday looked at a container home in San Francisco:

...there isn’t a shortage of uses for containers as shelter, especially for those who like that super industrial architecture aesthetic. Leger Wanaselja Architecture finished their Container House at the close of last year, bringing a more traditional look to the container composed residence.

Related Posts:
   1. How prefab homes are built in Sweden (Feb 04, 2008)
   2. Lazor Office's FlatPak House (Apr 19, 2007)
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The ASAP• house: modern, modular

Link to The ASAP• house: modern, modular
ASAP•house blog

The New York Times covered the info_smallASAP• house last week:

The architect, Laszlo Kiss, has designed a four-bedroom prototype in Sag Harbor that he says uses the constant temperature of the earth and the power of the sun for heat and electricity. The house, which he is calling About Saving a Planet, or ASAP, was built in a Pennsylvania factory, delivered in three sections by truck to a quarter-acre lot in Sag Harbor and assembled there in late December.

A bit more info from the ASAP• house site:

The ASAP• house consists of three prefabricated modules which are set on a high strength concrete, also prefabricated, foundation manufactured by Superior Wall.  The house modules arrive at the site 80% finished and requiring only final assembly and minor interior and exterior work.

Each of the three modules have their own functions. The center module contains circulation, closets and bathrooms. The garden side module contains one large room that is subdivided into three areas, the Kitchen, Dinning/Living Room and a Study, by free standing storage units. The third module contains the four Bedrooms and an Entry Hall. The ASAP• house is completed by two large porches that create outdoor living spaces and provide shade.

The ASAP• house has a full basement that is insulated and can be finished at a later date.

Back in November, Inhabitat wrote about the home. Jetson Green was excited:

It'll be fun to follow the blog progress and see the finished product.  At that point, we'll officially have one more prefab contender, and more particularly, one that can service the Northeast! 

The home's blog features some good progress reports, including the delivery and set of the modules.

company: info_smallASAP• house
style: modern
size: 2,500sf
bedrooms: 4
bathrooms: 2.5
how: modules
foundation: Superior Walls
features: solar and geo-thermal heating/cooling standard, full basement, front and rear porches

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Minarc's M3house and eBOX series 05

Link to Minarc's M3house and eBOX series 05
m3house.com

Santa Monica-based Minarc has a (minimal) new website for their M3house.

We first encountered Minarc last April. Treehugger covered them again in July:

We admired the Minarc house by Tryggvi Thorsteinsson and Erla Dögg Ingjaldsdóttir when it was in Dwell; now we learn that they are offering it in a prefab version. The designers...have wanted to design a high-tech modern home that only used materials "in their most organic form and that used recycled materials wherever possible."...They are offering three modular versions built from 2x6 walls, lots of insulation and radiant flooring.

land+living shared several images of a non-prefab prototype from a tour last year. The Minarc brochure (pdf) released at the time explained their info_smalleBOX series 05. It looks like the M3house will be quite different.

We look forward to more details on the new home. The image above is the only thing on the new site; what a tease!

designer: info_smallMinarc
style: modern
how: complete modules

Related Posts:
   1. This week: Japanese prefab, SIPs, and the greenness of big homes (Apr 14, 2007)
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Last year on Prefabcosm: videos

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:

Name/Description Subject Length Date
Hive Modular landscape architect info_smallHive Modular 4:34 9/20/06
Hive Modular HGTV show info_smallHive Modular 6:51 2/08/07
Nashville Modern Prefab info_smallHive Modular 1:09 2/26/07
miniHome tour info_smallminiHome 5:07 3/24/07
Pacific Palisades Prefab info_smallOMD 4:11 4/15/07
Resolution: 4 Architecture factory info_smallResolution: 4 Architecture 3:40 5/28/07
Dwell Home open house info_smallResolution: 4 Architecture 2:19 5/28/07
Fly-through of a 3d rendering info_smallResolution: 4 Architecture 0:45 5/28/07
SG Blocks container install SG Blocks 0:31 7/31/07
CNET at the XtremeHomes factory info_smallXtremeHomes
info_smallMKD
3:14 8/30/07
CNET covers the PowerPod PowerPod 5:44 9/18/07
CNET visits the mkLotus info_smallMKD
info_smallmkLotus
3:13 10/2/07
SG Blocks Art Fennel interview SG Blocks 7:44 11/13/07
Res: 4 interview at OpenHouse NYC info_smallResolution: 4 Architecture 4:04 12/1/07
Marmol Radziner videos (7 videos) info_smallMarmol Radziner varies varies
Bob Vila covers modular (44 videos) miscellaneous varies varies
LivingHome installation info_smallLivingHomes ? ?
Modular homes on Cool Stuff Being Made miscellaneous >15:00 ?
Installation of Nevada House 1 info_smallMarmol Radziner 4:51 ?

Related Posts:
   1. Last year on Prefabcosm: historical (Feb 01, 2008)
   2. Last year on Prefabcosm: events (Jan 31, 2008)
   3. Last year on Prefabcosm: news (Jan 30, 2008)
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Last year on Prefabcosm: websites

We covered many informative websites on prefab and modular homes last year. A few of our favorite posts:

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How prefab homes are built in Sweden

Link to How prefab homes are built in Sweden
blog.lamidesign.com/2007/12/letters-from-sweden-land-of-modern-land.html

info_smallGreg LaVardera brings us Letters from Sweden - land of modern, land of prefab:

In my previous entry I introduced Scott, my correspondent from Sweden. An American builder relocated to a suburb of Stockholm, he landed in an alternate reality where modern housing was everywhere, commonplace, even dare I say unremarkable. None of the stigmas or resistance we have come to associate with building a modern house were present. Every builder offered solid modern design in the range of homes they sold, and were more than happy to sell you one. On top of this prefabrication techniques were the norm. Sizable portions of the houses Scott saw being built were put together in the factory...

What did Scott find?

"...the majority of new construction is built like this. I would call the house panelized - but it is "way way panelized" and is a total package. The houses come on trucks from rural places in Sweden. The windows are in, the insulation, wiring, wallboard where possible - every thing - the pipes, the wiring systems, the doors, stairs ... everything has been engineered and rationalized to reduce labor, find energy and material economy and work with the method of construction where stuff is pre-assembled as much as possible inside a building and then "erected" or installed on the site under very compressed schedules...."

Read the full post for Greg's comparison to prefab on this side of the pond.

Related Posts:
   1. The Mountain Lodge in Sweden from PS Arkitektur (Jan 28, 2009)
   2. This week: aluminum from Japan, Sweden, and more (Feb 09, 2008)
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This week: Maison Tropicale

Link to This week: Maison Tropicale
dezeen.com

Dezeen shared photos of the info_smallMaison Tropicale going up in London.

The Good Human's Prefab Wednesday is still on hiatus.

Inhabitat's Prefab Friday took the week off.

There was plenty of other prefab news and happenings this week which we will cover in individual posts soon!

Related Posts:
   1. Maison Tropicale to be displayed in London (Jan 25, 2008)
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Last year on Prefabcosm: historical

Link to Last year on Prefabcosm: historical

It's fun to compare contemporary prefabs to the classic models. We covered a few historical prefabs last year:

Related Posts:
   1. Last year on Prefabcosm: videos (Feb 06, 2008)
   2. Last year on Prefabcosm: events (Jan 31, 2008)
   3. Last year on Prefabcosm: news (Jan 30, 2008)
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Last year on Prefabcosm: events

Link to Last year on Prefabcosm: events
nytimes.com/2007/05/16/nyregion/16house.html

We covered several prefab and modular home conferences last year:

And tours of prefab homes:

And museum exhibitions about prefab, our favorite being the opportunity to walk through Jean Prouve's Maison Tropicale.

Related Posts:
   1. Last year on Prefabcosm: videos (Feb 06, 2008)
   2. Last year on Prefabcosm: historical (Feb 01, 2008)
   3. Last year on Prefabcosm: news (Jan 30, 2008)
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Last year on Prefabcosm: news

Link to Last year on Prefabcosm: news
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:

Local papers:

And more:

Related Posts:
   1. Last year on Prefabcosm: videos (Feb 06, 2008)
   2. Last year on Prefabcosm: historical (Feb 01, 2008)
   3. Last year on Prefabcosm: events (Jan 31, 2008)
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Historic prefab: pre-assembled wall panels

Link to Historic prefab: pre-assembled wall panels
http://www.flickr.com/photos/moderns-r-us/2096961684/in/set-72157603396700830/

Core 77 reports:

Before pre-fab became so fabulously fab, the Small Homes Council at the University of Illinois in Urbana, Illinois published Homes From Pre-Assembled Wall Panels in 1954.

A bit more about the Small Homes Council, now known as the Building Research Council:

For over 50 years, BRC (formerly known as the Small Homes Council) has conducted housing research and provided public service to residents, homeowners, builders, contractors, engineers, architects, and others in the housing industry. Today BRC continues to draw on the expertise of its own staff and a campus-wide network of experts to improve the state of our built environment.

Current research projects include studies on building performance, moisture control, toxicity issues in residential building materials, windstorm resistance, diversity issues in the architectural profession, and housing environments design and evaluation.

We could not locate the book on AbeBooks.

Still employing similar techniques:
• info_smallLV Series
• info_smallModern Shed

Related Posts:
   1. Historic prefab: Venturo and the Futuro House (Jan 22, 2008)
   2. Historic Prefab: How to identify a Sears Kit Home (Dec 17, 2007)
   3. Historic Prefab: Iron prefab for sale (Nov 02, 2007)
   4. Historic Prefab: Sears Homes (Jul 26, 2007)
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This week: Magic Boxes, criticism and boathouses

Link to This week: Magic Boxes, criticism and boathouses
magicboxusa.com

Blogs couldn't get enough of info_smallThe Magic Box, first seen on Moco Loco. Treehugger said:

Don't know what it costs, don't know what it's made of ... I will just say it is very pretty.

Jetson Green jumped in:

So I ask, after looking at the photos, does this Magic Box represent what's to come in the future? The Magic Box is cubic and versatile and small. It can go anywhere and be used as anything.

Not sure where The Good Human's Prefab Wednesday went, but they've been off since Jan. 3.

Inhabitat's Prefab Friday discussed a strange "prefab":

Winter shelter in the Arctic can take form in an upside down hunting boat – a traditional Inuit practice. Covey Island Boatworks, award winning builders of hand-crafted yachts, power and sailboats, has brought that idea into dry dock developing a prototype wood and epoxy prefab that applies boatbuilding principles directly to an extreme Arctic home.

Jetson Green showed off the flexibility of shipping containers:

It's hard not to gawk at the images of this building.

(Posted on Monday, but dated Saturday to match the rest of our This Week series.)

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Maison Tropicale to be displayed in London

Link to Maison Tropicale to be displayed in London
nytimes.com

Jean Prouvé's info_smallMaison Tropicale, which we talked about last year, will be on display in London:

From the steamy jungle of Brazzaville in the Republic of Congo to the January drizzle of London's South Bank comes a tropical villa for the people. This weekend sees the construction of an unlikely addition to the capital's skyline: a prototype Modernist house designed in the Fifties by French architect Jean Prouvé.

The historic colonial building, a kind of flatpack pioneer, has been brought to Britain for the first time by the Design Museum in partnership with Tate Modern. Today the gallery is halfway through reassembling La Maison Tropicale.... The Tate hopes the new house will be visited by as many as two million people.

author: Vanessa Thorpe
publication: The Observer [UK]
length: 380 words
date: January 20, 2008

Related Posts:
   1. This week: Maison, Japan and Brio54 (Feb 16, 2008)
   2. Historic prefab: Marcel Breuer's Plas-2-Point house (Feb 12, 2008)
   3. This week: Maison Tropicale (Feb 02, 2008)
   4. Maison Tropicale sold for $4.97m (Jun 06, 2007)
   5. More pictures of the Maison Tropicale (May 22, 2007)
   6. $6 million prefab up for sale (May 18, 2007)
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MetroShed introduces smaller MetroCabin

Link to MetroShed introduces smaller MetroCabin
metroshed.com

From a recent info_smallMetroShed press release:

MetroShed ... has launched a brand new livable 12 foot deep by 16 foot wide MetroCabin for sale in the U.S.

...adding square footage to ... existing property has become a realistic alternative to many more people looking to expand space for an art studio, home office, exercise room, yoga room or guest suite.

The 12x16 MetroCabin features curved steel roof beams (with available straight roof package), Duro-Last Roofing, Batt Insulated Pre-Fab SIP walls, Birch Interior Panels, Meta Floor System and Premium heavy duty slide and glide doors.

The new info_small12' x 16' MetroCabin joins the original info_small16' x 20' MetroCabin in the MetroShed product lineup.

Jetson Green wants one:

Matter of fact, I've said it before, but I'd love to have one of these in the back to blog and exercise in.

size: ~190 sf
price: $17,460 ($92/sf)

Related Posts:
   1. More small prefab: Metroshed (Jun 19, 2007)
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More on Oskar Leo Kaufmann and Albert Rüf

Link to More on Oskar Leo Kaufmann and Albert Rüf
olkruf.com

I wrote about info_smallOskar Leo Kaufmann and Albert Rüf's info_smallSystem3 last week. It will be included in The Museum of Modern Art's Home Delivery exhibition.

The two designers have been working in the prefab arena since 1996. Past models include:
• info_smallSystem 01 and info_smallSystem 02 based on "elements"
• info_smallSu-Si, info_smallFred, info_smallHouses A&B based on "units"

The System3 home merges the idea of "units" with that of "elements":

Due to the separation into serving units and "naked elements", the building process is optimized.

  1. The serving unit is a completely prefabricated box including all installations. All different trades, such as electrician, plumber, etc. do their work at the service unit factory and do not have to do any on-site work....

  2. The solid elements such as wall, floor, and ceiling are made of solid slabs of wood. The producer uses CNC-technology to cut out all openings.

  3. ...the window producer prefabricates all windows.

  4. ...the skin producer prefabricates the building's skin that includes thermal insulation, waterproofing and vapor barrier.

To me, it seems logical: keep the production of the technical pieces, the "serving units", in the factory where quality control can be tighter; let on-site work be limited to assembly and nothing more. This approach would save both time and money, limiting the trades and expertise needed at the home site; it reminds me of info_smallKieranTimberlake's info_smallLoblolly House, which we covered last June:

The assembly process begins with off-site fabricated floor and ceiling panels, termed 'smart cartridges.' They distribute radiant heating, hot and cold water, waste water, ventilation, and electricity through the house. Fully integrated bathroom and mechanical room modules are lifted into position. Exterior wall panels containing structure, insulation, windows, interior finishes and the exterior wood rain screen complete the cladding.
(KieranTimberlake's Cellophane House will also appear in the MoMA show.)

Such a mixed-method approach compares to the two major types of prefabrication that we cover on Prefabcosm: SIPs (used by companies like info_smallCleverHomes and info_smallJensys Buildings) and complete modules (like those from info_smallOMD and info_smallweeHouse). Using just SIPs leaves the majority of the skilled work for the site, e.g. installation of utilities. Complete modules are both expensive and difficult to get to the home site. Merging the two methods allows for greater flexibility, less cost, higher quality, and shortened construction time.

With 10+ years working on prefab, Oskar Leo Kaufmann and Albert Rüf are worth watching. While they have yet to translate their experiments into a mass-market product, their work lends much understanding to how the home-construction industry might best take advantage of prefabrication.

Related Posts:
   1. System3 from Oskar Leo Kaufmann and Albert Rüf (Jan 18, 2008)
   2. MoMA does prefab (Jan 08, 2008)
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Historic prefab: Venturo and the Futuro House

Link to Historic prefab: Venturo and the Futuro House
futuro-house.net/

info_smallVenturo, a fiberglass prefab from the 1970's has been talked about quite a bit around the blogosphere the past couple weeks. Treehugger says:

There is really nothing new about many of the modern prefabs that everyone is going gaga over; back in the 70's Finnish architect Matti Suuronen designed the Venturo, a bit less extreme than his wonderful Futuro House. It appears to have been used primarily as gas stations for BP.

More from Finnish blog Tuovinen:

The "Venturo" is a modular, easily transportable building system, having excellent insulation, low weight and designed for minimum assembly on site.

It is built of high quality materials in order to ensure maximum weathering properties for use in arctic as well as tropical climates and is almost maintenance free.

Being of low weight and factory preassembled, the Venturo means very low erections and foundation costs, where heavy equipment can be avoided.

Nineteen Venturos were built:

First prototype of this model was designed January 9, 1971 and first production unit was built June 1, 1971. According to Museum of Finnish Architecture, BP was built in 1971. BP-Högmo is the second Venturo built according to MFA....

The Venturo was released by Finnish company info_smallOy Polykem Ab following the success of Suuronen's earlier info_smallFuturo House. From a paper titled Futuro's Way by Marko Home and Mike Taanila:

Capitalising on the Futuro´s international exposure, Polykem Ltd. soon launched a whole series of plastic buildings designed by Suuronen. The Casa Finlandia series included the CF-100/200 service station (1969), the CF-10 kiosk (1970) and the CF-45 residential/commercial building, better known as the Venturo (1971). All the buildings in the Casa Finlandia series were designed to be durable and convenient to mass-produce, transport and assemble. The numerical suffix in each building´s name indicates its floor area in square metres. Polykem strove to sharpen the international profile of the Casa Finlandia series by publishing stylish 4-colour brochures complete with vivid product descriptions and catchy slogans.

More on the Futuro House from enthusiast Marc Berting:

Matti Suuronen designed this UFO shaped dwelling in 1968, initially for use as a ski-cabin or holiday home....

The Futuro house was completely furnished and could accommodate 8 people. It was constructed entirely out of reinforced plastic, a new, light and inexpensive material back then. The plan was to mass-produce it, so it would be cheap enough to house all people around the earth. Because it was so light-weight, it was easily transportable by helicopter. Mobile living was the new possibility for the future. People could now take their moveable home with them, to wherever they went, and live like modern nomads.

Unfortunately the 1973 oil crisis spoiled all these plans. Prices of plastic raised production costs too high to be profitable. Only 96 Futuro houses were ever built. Besides the 48 made in Finland, also at least 48 were manufactured abroad on license.

Related Posts:
   1. Historic prefab: pre-assembled wall panels (Jan 28, 2008)
   2. Historic Prefab: How to identify a Sears Kit Home (Dec 17, 2007)
   3. Historic Prefab: Iron prefab for sale (Nov 02, 2007)
   4. Historic Prefab: Sears Homes (Jul 26, 2007)
1 comment, 0 trackbacks (URL) , 

Modular Today Web site

We recently added Modular Today to our sidebar. The site is useful for anyone looking to build a modular home, with information ranging from an expected timeline to a financing guide.

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This week: straw bales, green mobile homes, and more

Link to This week: straw bales, green mobile homes, and more
www.strohhaus.net/

The Good Human's Prefab Wednesday took the week off.

Inhabitat's Prefab Friday looked at a Swiss prefab that uses straw bales:

We’re quite taken by Strohhaus in Eschenz, Switzerland. Designed by Zurich-based architect Felix Jerusalem, this home masterfully combines prefab with sustainable materials, primarily prefabricated strawboard panels that provide affordable, environmentally sound insulation.

Jetson Green covered GreenMobile, an "ultra-affordable, modular green [manufactured] home":

GreenMobile was awarded $5.8 M from FEMA to further develop the prototype and roughly 80 units are in the pipeline right after that prototype comes through.

GreenMobile is expected to cost about $50k

100khouse likes the 'Option' House, covered on Prefab Friday a couple weeks back.

Related Posts:
   1. This week: year in review, Sea Train and more (Dec 29, 2007)
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mkSolaire to be featured in Chicago museum exhibit

Link to mkSolaire to be featured in Chicago museum exhibit

The Michelle Kaufmann blog announces:

...we have been working very hard for the past few months to get to this point and are now finally ready and delighted to announce that MKD is going to be a part of the “Smart Home: Green + Wired, Powered by ComEd and Warmed by Peoples Gas” exhibit at MSI that’s opening this spring! The exhibit is going to include a full-size mkSolaire™ home to be built in on parkland on the southeast side of the Museum and will showcase the very best in sustainable living concepts and solutions.

A bit more from the museum exhibit page:

During its 75th Anniversary year, the Museum of Science and Industry will be building a functioning, three-story modular and sustainable “green” home ... to highlight unique home technologies for the 21st century.

The Greater Fort Wayne [Illinois] Business Weekly quotes Art Breitenstein of the home's builder, All American Homes:

The home’s module construction will be under way for two or three more weeks on one of the All American assembly lines in Decatur....

“This is a special house, a very high-priced house; it has the best of the best. ... there’s a lot of new technology in there that’s one-of-a-kind that if it becomes accepted by consumers, like anything else, the price comes down of course.”

Jetson Green says:

I can't wait to see more!

where: Museum of Science and Industry, Chicago, IL
when: May 8, 2008 - January 4, 2009

Related Posts:
   1. MKD Smart Home to reopen March 19 (Feb 23, 2009)
   2. Watch the assembly of Michelle Kaufmann's mkSolaire (Oct 02, 2008)
   3. Chicago Tribune on Michelle Kaufmann's mkSolaire (Aug 12, 2008)
   4. mkSolaire on display through January 4th at Chicago's Museum of Science and Industry (Jun 02, 2008)
   5. This week: Joshua Tree, EvolutiV, mkSolaire debuts and more (May 10, 2008)
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System3 from Oskar Leo Kaufmann and Albert Rüf

Link to System3 from Oskar Leo Kaufmann and Albert Rüf
from Oskar Leo Kaufmann and Albert Rüf

info_smallSystem3, from Austrian designers info_smallOskar Leo Kaufmann and Albert Rüf, will also be showcased in MoMA's Home Delivery: Fabricating the Modern Dwellings show:

The system is based on the separation of a building into "serving space" and "naked space".

The "serving space" is a completely prefabricated serving unit that provides all staircases, kitchens, baths, installations, electricity, heating, and cooling systems for the entire building. The "naked space" (space that is only defined by the placed furniture, such as living or sleeping rooms) is formed by "naked elements": solid slabs of wood...windows, skin. All "naked" elements are also prefabricated and are delivered directly from factory to building site, where everything can be assembled in a few days.

Each unit fits in a shipping container, giving it the characteristic "long and narrow" format. Several units can be placed side by side: system3_combo2
Or stacked:
system3_combo

Overall, an intriguing approach that I can't wait to see realized at MoMA. Oskar Leo Kaufmann and Albert Rüf have been experimenting with prefab since 1996. We'll look at their past work in more depth soon!

model: info_smallSystem3
style: modern
how: complete modules

Related Posts:
   1. MoMA's Home Delivery gets a glowing review from the NY Times (Jul 18, 2008)
   2. KieranTimberlake's Cellophane House (Jul 14, 2008)
   3. Home Delivery update: install videos to drool over (Jun 26, 2008)
   4. MoMA's prefab homes nearing delivery (Jun 09, 2008)
   5. Home Delivery blog goes live! (Mar 25, 2008)
   6. More on Oskar Leo Kaufmann and Albert Rüf (Jan 23, 2008)
   7. BURST*003 from SYSTEMarchitects (Jan 11, 2008)
   8. The m-ch (micro compact home) (Jan 10, 2008)
   9. Lawrence Sass and yourHouse (Jan 09, 2008)
   10. MoMA does prefab (Jan 08, 2008)
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Live Xtremely Green: the XtremeHomes blog

Link to Live Xtremely Green: the XtremeHomes blog
xtremehomes.blogspot.com

I wandered over to the info_smallXtremeHomes site the other day and found that they are now writing a blog:

A brief collection of thoughts on the growth of the green building industry. What's real, what's not and what people are expecting.

Definitely worth keeping an eye on.

company: info_smallXtremeHomes

Related Posts:
   1. XtremeHomes: modular building the green way (Aug 10, 2007)
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Prefab at CES: Logical Homes and Peter DeMaria

Link to Prefab at CES: Logical Homes and Peter DeMaria
dwell.com

From the Dwell blog:

The Consumer Electronics Show may have the flashiest booths of any trade gathering in the world. .... So imagine my relief when I saw a modest prefab home built at the far end of one of the main halls. .... It was built inside the convention center for Olevia, a company that makes energy efficient televisions.

The Aegean is a container home from info_smallLogical Homes, the Packaged Architecture™ brand of Los Angeles architect Peter DeMaria.

MocoLoco provided more details:

...the exhibit at CES represents the first built prototype.
and quotes an email from Michael Sylvester of Fabprefab fame:
The house has modern lines and a long cantilevered roof - you can hardly see that this home is based on the adaptive re-use of two forty foot cargo containers.

Inhabitat liked the prototype:

...the stunning shipping container prefab definitely caught our eye.

The line of homes is based on the architect's Redondo Beach House:

The traditional design, permit and construction process, compounded by skyrocketing construction costs, has necessitated a re-birth of the design/build approach to creating Architecture.... This project is a Recycled Steel Shipping Container based building that also employs a combination of conventional stick frame construction and prefabricated assemblies. These materials result in an end product that is affordable and nearly indestructable. The modified containers are mold proof, fire proof, termite proof, structurally superior to wood framing and along with various other “components” come together to create a system/kit of parts that is predicated on cost savings, construction timesavings, and energy/environmentally conscious priorities....

CNN covered the Redondo Beach Home in 2006:

(Hat tip: Treehugger commented.)

Related Posts:
   1. This week: Swedish prefab, BURST*008 and Redondo Beach containers (Oct 04, 2008)
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Take a (long!) tour of the WIRED LivingHome

Link to Take a (long!) tour of the WIRED LivingHome
wired.com

Systm, a web video series from Revision3, files a long, detailed video report from the WIRED LivingHome:

This $4 million home in LA isn't exactly what we think of when wanting to integrate more green, eco-friendly aspects to our lives, but it does offer up some great options. LEED certified and designed by architect Ray Kappe, this home offers a great, simple way of constructing a house without compromising the uniqueness of a custom built home.

company: info_smallLivingHomes
length: 21:26
site: Revision3
release date: December 31, 2007

Check out the multimedia page on the WIRED LivingHome site for additional photos and videos.

Related Posts:
   1. In the news: WIRED LivingHome (Sep 02, 2009)
   2. New LivingHomes video and photos (Aug 03, 2009)
   3. WIRED LivingHome open for tours! (Nov 06, 2007)
   4. WIRED webcam (Sep 10, 2007)
   5. LivingHomes gets WIRED ... for $4 million (Jul 02, 2007)
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WIRED on small prefab

Link to WIRED on small prefab
wired.com

WIRED published an annotated slideshow of small prefabs last week:

The world is getting hotter and more crowded every day, and modular, prefab housing is just what the doctor ordered. When you go small, it's not just about energy efficiency and carbon footprints -- it's also about being strange, cool and beautiful. We've chosen our favorite houses that meld style with globally conscious living. Enjoy.

Models included:
•  info_smallweeHouse
•  info_smallModern Cabana
•  info_smallMarmol Radziner Prefab
•  info_smallmicro compact home

Treehugger summarized:

Some are real and some are vaporware; all have been around the block a few times. And of course, the comments include "why are these so expensive?"

author: Rob Beschizza
publication: WIRED
length: 12 slides

Related Posts:
   1. LA Times on mini prefabs (Jun 18, 2009)
   2. The m-ch (micro compact home) (Jan 10, 2008)
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This week: OMD in LA, container Travelodge, lots of MoMA and more

Link to This week: OMD in LA, container Travelodge, lots of MoMA and more
designmobile.com

Curbed LA watched an info_smallOMD home being delivered:

These shots, taken last month, show the delivery of a two-story prefabricated home going up in the Ocean Park neighborhood of Santa Monica. The 2,200 square foot home is comprised of 4 modular units; these shots show the upper two being installed.

Treehugger reports:

We previously showed the Travelpod, an experimental prefab from Travelodge, and thought it was an interesting one-off. We were wrong; the company is looking seriously at prefab hotels and is building their first in the west London district of Uxbridge, right now.

The Good Human's Prefab Wednesday was off this week.

Inhabitat's Prefab Friday made a surprising architectural discovery at the the Consumer Electronics Show. We'll cover that model soon.

architecture.MNP discussed a recently completed info_smallResolution: 4 project.

A number of folks had thoughts on the Home Delivery prefab exhibition at MoMA. The Dream Antilles had a good idea:

If these houses are supposed to be good, somebody should live in them during the show and the people who view the exhibit should be visitors in the houses.

Jaunted provided some new details:

Foundations will be laid in February and the homes will arrive in late May, popping up in next to no time.

The Chicago Tribune predicts:

Given MoMA's taste-making power and its location in the media capital of the world, the show could go a long way toward making prefab housing something more than just a glimmer in visionaries' eyes.

greenbuildingsNYC is excited. The Gothamist commented, as did Curbed. Treehugger mentioned the show. The Chronicle of Higher Education likes the idea that professors' work will be included in the show.

Related Posts:
   1. MoMA does prefab (Jan 08, 2008)
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Prefabcosm update: available, prototype, discontinued

Link to Prefabcosm update: available, prototype, discontinued

We've added status designators to each model and variation page. The info_smallBURST* page is shown above, with status "prototype." Each model is designated as either:

available: can be purchased now (example: info_smallmicro compact home)

prototype: includes concepts, demonstration homes, and models that will be available in the future (example: info_smallAperture House)

discontinued: ... but worth tracking to see how the industry changes over time (example: info_smallv2shell)

Related Posts:
   1. New checkbox search for our database of prefab and modular homes (Mar 07, 2008)
   2. Prefabcosm update: one-click navigation of prefab and modular homes (Dec 27, 2007)
   3. Our feed URLs are changing! (Oct 29, 2007)
   4. Prefabcosm site changes! (Oct 29, 2007)
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BURST*003 from SYSTEMarchitects

Link to BURST*003 from SYSTEMarchitects
all images: systemarchitects.net

Update: The model appearing in the MoMA show will be the BURST*008.

info_smallSYSTEMarchitects' info_smallBURST*003 house is the third prefab model featured in the MoMA prefab exhibition.

Artdaily provides some details:

Designed to be assembled on site from laser-cut pieces, the Burst *003 house is a computer-designed remake of the typical prefabricated box. Working from a computer formula that automates the specific pieces needed to create the house desired, the project is based on a system that can be adapted to a changing set of criteria. The 2003 prototype of the Burst *003 project was built on Australia's Northeast coast, and won the Royal Australian Institute of Architects 2006 Wilkinson award.

Architecture Australia explains further:

Laying out the plywood pieces was achieved using the software program used in garment manufacture with very little wastage. While high technology is used throughout the design and manufacturing process, low technology is intentionally employed for assembly and for maintenance. Assembly requires fewer skills but intense cooperation and concentration. The building was put together by architecture students in something akin to a barn raising. The architects are fond of this image, yet recognize that the design’s reliance on numbers of enthusiastic and sympathetic cheap labourers will make it less desirable for some.

This fabrication method reminds me of the yourHouse. The process is explained through images and text on the SYSTEMarchitects site:

Plywood cut by a computer-controlled laser. Delivered to site in sheets with the ribs numbered, scored, and holes cut.

burst3

Laser cutting 1 of 400 sheets.

burst1

Sorting 1,100 pieces of laser-cut plywood.

burst4

Underside of floor structure.

burst9

Laser-cutting efficiency -- the total waste from the plywood sheets.

I can't help but be excited for the potential of the BURST* system and look forward to seeing the home at MoMA.

style: modern
how: kit of parts

Related Posts:
   1. KieranTimberlake's Cellophane House (Jul 14, 2008)
   2. This week: Marmol install, Chile, and BURST (Jun 28, 2008)
   3. Home Delivery update: install videos to drool over (Jun 26, 2008)
   4. Home Delivery blog goes live! (Mar 25, 2008)
   5. BURST* update (Mar 25, 2008)
   6. System3 from Oskar Leo Kaufmann and Albert Rüf (Jan 18, 2008)
   7. MoMA does prefab (Jan 08, 2008)
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The m-ch (micro compact home)

Link to The m-ch (micro compact home)
all images: microcompacthome.com

The info_smallm-ch (micro compact home) will also be included in the upcoming MoMA prefab exhibition.

The New York Times says:

Mr. Horden’s Micro Compact House — Mr. Bergdoll [of MoMA] described it as “a giant livable Sony radio cube” — is topped with photovoltaic panels and has wind turbines in its walls, allowing the house to generate its own electricity. An aluminum-clad perfect cube, with about 76 square feet of living space, the tiny dwelling is intended for use as athletic or student housing, or as a miniature vacation house. Mr. Bergdoll met with Mr. Horden in one of his cubes, a space so compact that the architect managed to make espresso on the kitchen counter without leaving his seat at the dining table.

The house is commercially available — it recently went on the market in Europe — and can be delivered by helicopter or crane.

microcompact2

From the micro compact home site:

The micro compact home [m-ch] is a lightweight compact dwelling for one or two people. Its compact dimensions of 2.6m [8.5 ft] cube adapt it to a variety of sites and circumstances, and its functioning spaces of sleeping, working / dining, cooking and hygiene make it suitable for everyday use.

Informed by aviation and automotive design and manufactured at the micro compact home production centre in Austria, the m-ch can be delivered throughout Europe with project individual graphics and interior finishes.

The team of researchers and designers based in London and at the Technical University in Munich developed the m-ch as an answer to an increasing demand for short stay living for students, business people, sports and leisure use and for weekenders. The m-ch, now in use and available throughout Europe, combines techniques for high quality compact 'living' spaces deployed in aircraft, yachts, cars, and micro apartments. Its design has been informed by the classic scale and order of a Japanese tea-house, combined with advanced concepts and technologies. Living in an m-ch means focusing on the essential - less is more. The use of progressive materials complements the sleek design. Quality of design, touch and use are the key objectives for the micro compact home team....for 'short stay smart living'.

microcompact1

The specifics:

The m-ch has a timber frame structure with anodised aluminium external cladding, insulated with polyurethane and fitted with aluminium frame double glazed windows and front door with security double lock; graphics can be applied for sponsors, exhibition and business use.

  • two compact double beds...
  • storage space for bedding and cleaning equipment
  • a sliding table ... for dining for up to five people
  • flat screen television in the living/dining space
  • a shower and toilet cubicle
  • a kitchen area, which is fitted with electrical points and features a double hob, sink and extending tap, microwave, fridge and freezer units, three compartment waste unit, storage shelves, cutlery drawers with gentle return sprung slides and double level work surfaces
  • thermostat controlled ducted warm air heating, air conditioning, water heating
  • fire alarm and smoke detectors

m-ch units are available to purchase for delivery to geographical Europe at a guide price of EUR 25,000 to EUR 34,000 (subject to contract).

More images of the interior:
microcompact3 microcompact4 microcompact6 microcompact7

We've mentioned the home before in our This Week series. Back in June, we also linked to a video of the m-ch.

style: modern
size: 74 sf
price: EUR 25,000 - 34,000 (~$37,000-$50,000; $500-$675/sf)
bedrooms: 1
bathrooms: 1
how: complete modules

Related Posts:
   1. MoMA's Home Delivery gets a glowing review from the NY Times (Jul 18, 2008)
   2. KieranTimberlake's Cellophane House (Jul 14, 2008)
   3. Home Delivery blog goes live! (Mar 25, 2008)
   4. System3 from Oskar Leo Kaufmann and Albert Rüf (Jan 18, 2008)
   5. WIRED on small prefab (Jan 14, 2008)
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Lawrence Sass and yourHouse

Link to Lawrence Sass and yourHouse
web.mit.edu/yourhouse/

Yesterday we reported on the Home Delivery: Fabricating the Modern Dwelling exhibition at MoMA. In the coming days, we will preview each of the companies and homes featured in the exhibition.

First, let's take a look at yourHouse, from Lawrence Sass at MIT:

This design of yourHOUSE is a reinterpretation of historical New Orleans style “Shotgun” Housing utilizing recycled plywood as the main structural material. The house will be fabricated and assembled entirely of friction-fit components, completely eliminating the need for mechanical fasteners such as nails and screws.  This fabrication technique is made possible through the extensive use of computer numerical control (CNC) milling machines....

The goal of the yourHOUSE project is to exemplify a design process which utilizes cutting-edge technologies rooted in long term research efforts with the intent to illustrate a system that allows prefabricated housing to be low-cost and yet high-quality.

The processes include:

Digitalization
yourHouse4

Digitalization is a 2-stage process which preceeds a materialziation process. First, 2-dimensional data was taken from the documentation and used to create elevation drawings. From this data, 3-dimensional data was extrapolated and digitally modeled so that the house facades could be transformed into solid physical models through a final materialization process.

Materialization
yourHouse1

Materialization begins by breaking down the digital model into a logic of component parts and assemblies. In the figure above is one such breakdown of a front porch column assembly

yourHouse2

The final stage in the materialization process involves what is termed, 3D printing. This stage allows the researcher to examine the digital model as a solid physical body. In the figure above are 1:30 scale 3D prints of the four originally documented New Orleans 'Shotgun' house facades

The yourHouse concept also embraces customization:
yourHouse5

One of the core strategies driving project yourHOUSE is the use of mass-customized as well as mass-standardized components. This strategy happens at multiple scales ranging from details to major structural features. As seen in the figure above, the main body of the house employs a standardized structural shell while the front porch of the house can be customized to suit the inhabitant's desires.

It will be exciting to see this concept realized for the MoMA show.

model: yourHouse by Lawrence Sass
style: traditional
how: kit of parts

Related Posts:
   1. MoMA's Home Delivery gets a glowing review from the NY Times (Jul 18, 2008)
   2. KieranTimberlake's Cellophane House (Jul 14, 2008)
   3. This week: Home Delivery, immigrant housing, prefab in NYC, and more (Jul 05, 2008)
   4. MoMA's prefab homes nearing delivery (Jun 09, 2008)
   5. Home Delivery blog goes live! (Mar 25, 2008)
   6. System3 from Oskar Leo Kaufmann and Albert Rüf (Jan 18, 2008)
   7. MoMA does prefab (Jan 08, 2008)
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MoMA does prefab

Link to MoMA does prefab
nytimes.com

The New York Times reports:

...the Museum of Modern Art has commissioned five architects to erect their own prefab dwellings in a vacant lot on West 53rd Street, adjacent to the museum. Whittled down from a pool of about 400, the five architects are participating in “Home Delivery: Fabricating the Modern Dwelling,” an exhibition opening in July.

The five, to be announced today by the museum, are KieranTimberlake Associates of Philadelphia; Lawrence Sass of Cambridge, Mass.; Douglas Gauthier and Jeremy Edmiston of Manhattan; Oskar Leo Kaufmann and Albert Rüf of Austria; and Richard Horden of Horden Cherry Lee in London.

The MoMa site fills in some blanks:

This exhibition will offer the most thorough examination of both the historical and contemporary significance of factory-produced architectures to date. With increasing concern about issues such as sustainability and the swelling global population, prefabrication has again taken center stage as a prime solution to a host of pressing needs. The prefabricated structure has long served as a central precept in the history of modern architecture, and it continues to spur innovative manufacturing and imaginative design....

The exhibition will examine this phenomenon through historical documents, full-scale reassemblies, and films that trace the roots of prefabrication in the work of architects including Frank Lloyd Wright, Jean Prouvé, and Richard Rogers, corporations such as Lustron, and the imaginative systems of other influential figures, including Thomas Edison and R. Buckminster Fuller.

This contextual component of the exhibition will provide the foundation for a handful of full-scale commissions to be built in MoMA's vacant west lot....The fabrication and delivery of these projects will be documented in a special online exhibition, which will underline prefabrication's importance as a matter of process over product. Furthermore, the delivery and assembly of these projects will function as a real-time urban event that will be visible to the general public from the city streets

A Prefab Project says:

Perhaps notable for the absence of any of the commercially successful prefab architects working in the US, still kind of a big deal...

Haute Nature also commented.

When: July 20 - October 20, 2008

Related Posts:
   1. Witold Rybczynski goes to MoMA (Aug 19, 2008)
   2. Home Delivery in the MSM (Jul 30, 2008)
   3. Home Delivery in the blogs (Jul 23, 2008)
   4. Home Delivery exhibition catalog available for purchase (Jul 22, 2008)
   5. MoMA's Home Delivery gets a glowing review from the NY Times (Jul 18, 2008)
   6. KieranTimberlake's Cellophane House (Jul 14, 2008)
   7. This week: all about MoMA Home Delivery (Jul 12, 2008)
   8. Worth a look: New York Times Home Delivery slideshow (Jul 09, 2008)
   9. This week: Home Delivery, immigrant housing, prefab in NYC, and more (Jul 05, 2008)
   10. MoMA's prefab homes nearing delivery (Jun 09, 2008)
   11. Home Delivery blog goes live! (Mar 25, 2008)
   12. More on Oskar Leo Kaufmann and Albert Rüf (Jan 23, 2008)
   13. System3 from Oskar Leo Kaufmann and Albert Rüf (Jan 18, 2008)
   14. This week: OMD in LA, container Travelodge, lots of MoMA and more (Jan 12, 2008)
   15. BURST*003 from SYSTEMarchitects (Jan 11, 2008)
   16. Lawrence Sass and yourHouse (Jan 09, 2008)
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This week: trailers, perrinepod, and more

Link to This week: trailers, perrinepod, and more
trailerwrap.net

G Living commented on the TrailerWrap project:

While the low cost motive behind the introduction of mobile homes in the mid-1900s was a good one, the execution was often aesthetically reprehensible, shoddily constructed and inefficient energy-wise. TrailerWrap set out to take these small, dilapidated (often abandoned) structures and re-fashion them into something exciting and remarkable, yet sustainable and affordable.

Freshome covered the info_smallPerrinepod:

a cute prefab home that can be built in just 3 days and withstand everything from earthquakes to cyclones.

The Good Human's Prefab Wednesday showed a prefab development in London that was covered last year on some of the other blogs.

Inhabitat's Prefab Friday featured the Single Hauz, a sort of house-meets-billboard:

...the idea takes shape in such a stylish little form that we can’t help ponder the challenge posed: how much space do you really need and where do you want it?

TreeHugger posted a video of info_smallAdam Kalkin speaking about containers, and looked back at their enthusiasm of three years ago.

Related Posts:
   1. The Perrinepod: concrete prefab from Australia (Aug 16, 2007)
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miniHome introduces the miniHome DUO SE

Link to miniHome introduces the miniHome DUO SE
sustain.ca

From the info_smallminiHome site:

In order to provide more living space in the miniHome SOLO, we have been asked by many of you to allow for additions. The best way to do this was to work with the exisiting floor levels and roof lines of the SOLO, and find a way to ‘marry’ the two pieces to give the best interior spaces.

The result: the info_smallminiHome DUO SE:

The miniHome DUO is a modified miniHome SOLO with more! Two units ship separately to your site, and then combine at the ‘marriage wall’ - a simple operation that makes the DUO a permanent home1. Both units are classed as trailers (CSA Z220- RV), are on wheels and a steel chassis and both feature detachable hitches. The units can be towed to any site and requires no foundation or infrastructure hook-ups. Designed and built in Canada for year round living, the DUO’s robust construction is super-insulated, making it quick and easy to heat and cool. The DUO also features an optional woodstove, for colder climates.

For the environmentally minded:

The DUO has numerous environmental advantages over conventional housing. A smaller building uses less resources and energy to build, and ultimately much less energy to operate and maintain. The modular design also keeps construction waste, shipping costs and energy to a minimum.

Jetson Green wants one:

Really, anything is possible with this little treasure home. Small. Stylish. Green. Affordable.

model: miniHome DUO SE (pdf)
style: modern
size: 474 sf
price: $149,900 ($316/sf)
bedrooms: sleeps 6
how: trailers

Related Posts:
   1. For Sale: Sustain miniHome prototype (Aug 04, 2009)
   2. The miniHome: ready to roll (Jul 06, 2007)
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iPAD: more from New Zealand

Link to iPAD: more from New Zealand
www.ipad.net.nz

On the heels of the port-a-bach comes news of the iPad, another prefab "bach" (see note below) from New Zealand:

The iPAD is a true kitset bach designed to covers a range of options; it could be a one bedroom holiday home, secondary dwelling, granny flat, office, studio or resort unit to name but a few.

It can be grouped as a series of pavilions to form larger accommodation if required....

Of particular note is that the iPAD can be either manufactured off-site and easily transported to its final destination, or shipped as a kitset and erected on site by a licensed contractor.

TreeHugger has some thoughts and also mentions the earlier Bachkit.

model: iPAD
style: modern
size: 530 sf (~1,100 sf with decks)
price: NZ$125,000 (~$97,000)
bedrooms: 1
how: complete modules or kit

Bach = "small structures like beach huts or small holiday homes" (from Shedworking)

(Hat tip: Materialicio.us)

Related Posts:
   1. This week: nomads, home-in-a-box, RuralZED, and more (Mar 08, 2008)
   2. Port-a-bach: shipping container holiday homes from New Zealand (Dec 26, 2007)
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Enviro Board: fancy straw-bale panels

Here's a unique hybrid wall panel, sort of half SIP, half straw bale:

The Enviro Board panels offer a superior building product that is easy to handle and assemble. Today's Enviro Board Panels are solid "concrete like" fiber panels comprised of highly compressed straw fibers. Through the Enviro Board technology, panels are extruded through the mill in a continual process, covered with a durable waterproof paper membrane, cut to desired lengths and end-capped. Panel density and thickness can also be adjusted.

The Enviro Board panel replaces conventional and traditional building materials, such as drywall, thermal insulation, exterior moisture barrier (typically tar paper) and exterior plywood. In addition, because of its 32" width, using Enviro Board panels requires 50% less studs and eliminates unnecessary expenses in the form of materials and labor needed to assemble the materials.

From YouTube:

(Hat tip: Materialicio.us)

Related Posts:
   1. This week: Zenkaya, straw bales, and more (Dec 15, 2007)
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Red Barn Prefab brings metal barns to the city

Link to Red Barn Prefab brings metal barns to the city
redbarnprefab.com

If you live in the Los Angeles area and are in the market for a prefab home, Red Barn Prefab might have the land and "barn" for you:

...tear-down on spacious lot with panoramic views from the Hollywood Hills to the Pacific. Also available: plans & construction contract to build a ... loft-style custom home by Red Barn Prefab.

Red Barn Prefab builds "red barns" around the Southwest:

Venice based designer, Andres Ariza started his design career as a result of a frustrating housing search for himself and his then 4 year-old son.... Ariza’s concept has now been refined and launched as a turnkey complete home that is available in 9 states under the moniker “Red Barn Prefab.”

Two more projects are planned, Case Study Houses No.5 and No.6. Features include:
• approx. 3,900 sf
• 4 bedrooms, 3 baths
• screening room
• radiant heating

(Hat tip: Curbed LA)

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This week: year in review, Sea Train and more

Link to This week: year in review, Sea Train and more
inhabitat.com

The Good Human's Prefab Wednesday posted a recap of 2007.

Inhabitat's Prefab Friday covered the German 'Option House':

Option is a fully functional, light-filled dwelling that delivers low-impact living in just 70 square meters [753 sf] of elegant and understated space.

Haute*Nature discussed the Sea Train House by info_smallOffice of Mobile Design:

...an amazing example of how you can change the natural environment...

Jetson Green showed a video of a not-yet-built container home:

Looks pretty cool, but let's see if it gets made...

G Living TV says a info_smallMarmol Radziner Prefab is coming to Venice, CA:

Slated to begin production early next year, the exact location of the house is being kept secret. All we have at this stage are some specs: three bedrooms and 2,800 interior square footage with a 750 square foot deck.

Related Posts:
   1. This week: straw bales, green mobile homes, and more (Jan 20, 2008)
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Prefabcosm update: one-click navigation of prefab and modular homes

Link to Prefabcosm update: one-click navigation of prefab and modular homes

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.

Related Posts:
   1. New checkbox search for our database of prefab and modular homes (Mar 07, 2008)
   2. Prefabcosm update: available, prototype, discontinued (Jan 12, 2008)
   3. Our feed URLs are changing! (Oct 29, 2007)
   4. Prefabcosm site changes! (Oct 29, 2007)
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Howstuffworks on prefab

Link to Howstuffworks on prefab
howstuffworks.com

Howstuffworks features a comprehensive article on prefab homes:

But what exactly is a prefab house? How are the pieces constructed and assembled? How much money does it take to get a house on a plot of land? And what kind of instructional manual comes with the ultimate model kit?

In this article, we'll find out what prefabricated houses are all about.

The article is chock-full of information, with subsections including:
• Introduction to How Prefab Houses Work
• History of Prefab Houses
• Modern Prefab Houses
• Types of Prefab Houses
• Prefab Housing Cost
• Prefab House Construction
• Prefab Around the Globe
• Lots More Information

Publication: Howstuffworks
Length: ~4,000 words
Author: Tiffany Connors
Date: December 1, 2007

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Port-a-bach: shipping container holiday homes from New Zealand

Link to Port-a-bach: shipping container holiday homes from New Zealand
port-a-bach.com

Port-a-bach is a product from atelierworkshop, a New Zealand firm:

Our architecture seeks to reveal the landscape and the environment through innovation and common sense.... Without compromising on design, we put priority on finding sustainable solutions.

The holiday home concept is built in a standard shipping container:

- portable,
- secure,
- high-level finish,
- designed to be environmentaly clean
- comparatively inexpensive,
- comfortably sleeps two adults and two children.
- immediate, flexible and long-term solution that enables you to use your land without investing in a permanent property commitment,
- quick and easy transportation (via truck or helicopter) and installation to any orientation with minimal impact on site,
- unfolding to create a living space and refolding to create a secure unit for in situ storage or relocation.

Additional features include:

- fully enclosed exterior steel shell (when folded up).
- appointed with large internal storage cupboards and shelves / stainless steel kitchen and fittings / bathroom with open shower, sink, composting toilet.
- interior fabric screen system gives the versatility of creating rooms within the large open living space :includes bunk beds, double bed room, dressing room, kitchen and bathroom
- exterior canvas screen system allows to shelter the deck area for comfortable indoor/outdoor flow and living.
- 6 concrete footings form a stable, non-invasive 'foundation', allowing you to situate the unit on a wide range of ground conditions.

Be sure to check out the video of the home unfolding on their site.

Materialicio.us likes the home and Shedworking explains the term 'bach.'

style: modern
bedrooms: "sleeps two adults and two children"
how: shipping containers

Related Posts:
   1. iPAD: more from New Zealand  (Jan 03, 2008)
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Videos: Marmol Radziner and SG Blocks

Some new videos of prefab homes have come across my radar in the past few weeks.

info_smallMarmol Radziner released a video of the installation of the Nevada House 1, an 11,000 square foot megahome in the Nevada desert.

SG Blocks has two videos at YouTube, including an interview on the Art Fennel Report:

Another shows the construction of a home with SG Blocks containers:

Related Posts:
   1. Hollywood Hybrid by Marmol Radziner Prefab (Jul 11, 2009)
   2. The Skyline Series by Marmol Radziner Prefab (Jul 02, 2009)
   3. CNN: SG Blocks (Jun 15, 2009)
   4. Sexy Prefab (Mar 29, 2007)
0 comments, 0 trackbacks (URL) , 

This week: weeHouse, Australia and plenty of gingerbread

Link to This week: weeHouse, Australia and plenty of gingerbread

Banks.com loves info_smallweeHouses and the new weeHouse site:

I like weeHouses for three reasons:

  1. They look cool, and what’s not to love about that boxy Frank Lloyd Wright style?

  2. They are eco-friendly....

  3. These houses are smaller and more streamlined, yet still appear functional....

The Good Human's Prefab Wednesday covered an Australian prefab home, called The Mod House from Prebuilt. We'll look at that company in more detail soon.

Inhabitat's Prefab Friday got excited about a gingerbread version of the info_smallmkLotus:

The only thing better than beautifully designed green prefab is edible green prefab! One of our favorite green architects Michelle Kauffman, in honor of the holiday season, has designed a yummy version of her awesome zero energy mkLotus, made entirely from gingerbread cookies...

Treehugger, Curbed San Francisco, and re-nest also enjoyed the holiday version of prefab.

Related Posts:
   1. weeHouse in Continental Airlines magazine (Jun 16, 2009)
   2. weeHouse by Alchemy on display in WI; today and this weekend (May 22, 2009)
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New weeHouse website

Link to New weeHouse website
weehouse.com

From the mailbox:

We like to think of weeHouses as being Good+Cheap+Fast, and, along those lines, we hope you'll find our new Web site Good+Helpful+Fast. After several months of painstaking discussion and analysis, followed by several more of crying, wailing, and gnashing of teeth, we feel like we've come up with a site that successfully conveys massive amounts of information, while showcasing our office's playful, creative nature. We really hope you like it! 
Visit us at www.weehouse.com to check out our new line of standard weeHouses, complete with plans, pricing, and superFancy interactive graphics, or to browse our top-notch custom architectural projects. There's lots of great new stuff to see, do, and learn.

The new site features 360 degree views of all of their prefab models and detailed pricing, based on the region of the country you live in. Coming soon: the ability to build and price your custom info_smallweeHouse.

Jetson Green is a fan:

I love it because you can see houses they've built, projects in planning....If you're looking to get a home, you want to go with a company that's actually built something.

Related Posts:
   1. Pictures of weeHouse settings in Colorado and New York (Aug 26, 2009)
   2. weeHouse for sale in Wisconsin (Aug 04, 2009)
   3. weeHouse for sale in Duluth, MN (Jul 17, 2009)
   4. weeHouse in Continental Airlines magazine (Jun 16, 2009)
   5. weeHouse by Alchemy on display in WI; today and this weekend (May 22, 2009)
   6. weeHouses are now cheaper than ever (and can even power themselves!) (Sep 04, 2008)
   7. Alchemy Architects write a blog (Jun 20, 2008)
   8. New 4x weeHouses join the weeLineup (May 19, 2008)
   9. This week: New Orleans, Austrian prefab, and weeHouses (Apr 28, 2007)
   10. Itsy Bitsy weeHouse (Mar 26, 2007)
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Video interview at OpenHouse NYC

Link to Video interview at OpenHouse NYC
openhousenyc.tv

info_smallResolution: 4 Architecture's modernist prefab appears on video:

On this edition of Floorplan, OpenHouse NYC host George Oliphant talks to a homeowner, a homebuilder and a home seller to get the definitive breakdown on how a modular home is built, designed, sold and used.

The video also includes a tour of a more traditional modular home.

Publication: OpenHouse NYC
Length: 4:04 minutes
Date: December 1, 2007

(Hat tip: banks.com)

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Loblolly designers win Firm of the Year

Link to Loblolly designers win Firm of the Year
kierantimberlake.com

Last week info_smallKieranTimberlake, designers of the info_smallLoblolly House, was awarded the Firm of the Year award by the American Institute of Architects:

KieranTimberlake ... is admired for its sustainable and research-based approach to design that has helped reinvent the nature of componentized construction....

KieranTimberlake’s projects include...many buildings featuring prefabricated components. This approach was also embodied by the Loblolly House, a 2006 residence for Kieran on the shores of Chesapeake Bay in Maryland. Kieran and Timberlake used building information modeling software that modeled the house and each of its parts through the supply chain, into their assemblage as larger modular components, and onto the building site. This method was inspired by the pair’s tour of a Boeing aircraft plant a few years earlier; their book, Refabricating Architecture, about the revelations they had while studying the aircraft, shipbuilding, and automobile industries, is now regarded as a classic....

Congrats!

Here's an Amazon link to the book.

Related Posts:
   1. The Loblolly House: flat-pak with utilities (Jun 28, 2007)
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Historic Prefab: How to identify a Sears Kit Home

Link to Historic Prefab: How to identify a Sears Kit Home
wikihow.com

For any of you Sears Home enthusiasts:

If you think houses built from kits are shoddy, cheap and obvious, think again. Between 1908 and 1940, Sears sold about 70,000 homes in all 48 states through their mail-order Modern Homes program, with 370 designs that you might not readily recognize as a kit home. Sears kit homes were shipped via boxcar and came with a 75-page instruction book. Each kit contained 10,000 - 30,000 pieces and the framing members were marked to facilitate construction. Many decades later, those same markings can help identify a home as a Sears kit home. So if you're wondering if that adorable little bungalow with the big eaves (or even your own house) is a kit home, read on for signs that will help you identify if it is indeed a historically significant Sears kit home.

Read the full how-to at wikiHow.

Publication: wikiHow
Length: 1,100 words (9 steps)

Related Posts:
   1. Historic prefab: pre-assembled wall panels (Jan 28, 2008)
   2. Historic prefab: Venturo and the Futuro House (Jan 22, 2008)
   3. Historic Prefab: Iron prefab for sale (Nov 02, 2007)
   4. Historic Prefab: Sears Homes (Jul 26, 2007)
   5. Prefabs get demolished (May 07, 2007)
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This week: Zenkaya, straw bales, and more

Link to This week: Zenkaya, straw bales, and more
zenkaya.com

The Good Human's Prefab Wednesday discussed the Zenkaya prefab home from South Africa:

the home can be delivered in as little as 5 weeks.... [It comes] completely assembled, and all the owner would have to do is hook up the electric, the water and the sewer, and their home is ready to go.

Inhabitat's Prefab Friday covered the PowerHouse homes:

Our favorite, the “solar butterfly” roof design, collects rainwater, maximizes the use of daylight, and is fitted with solar photovoltaic panels to generate electricity - all for about $100,000!

Materialicio.us found a prefab kit called the casa ti, not yet in production:

The structure is framed in high-recycled-content steel, in SIP form. You can buy casa ti in kit form or buy the plans to build it from scratch. Prices for the kit start at $20,000.

Architecture.MNP showed off the BaleHouse, which uses straw bales for walls.

Treehugger looks back: Three Years Ago In TreeHugger: Prefab Crazy.

Related Posts:
   1. Enviro Board: fancy straw-bale panels (Jan 02, 2008)
   2. CNET and the PowerPod (Oct 16, 2007)
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Open house: weeHouse in Minneapolis on Dec. 14

Link to Open house: weeHouse in Minneapolis on Dec. 14
urbanweehouse.com

From the mailbox:

Alchemy welcomes you to visit the newest not-so-weeHouse during their Holiday Open House. This 4 bedroom, 4 bath, 4-box weeHouse is located in Linden Hills [Minneapolis] on a mature, wooded city lot and contains many standard and custom weeHouse elements.

Materialicio.us says:

A terrific example of green prefab architecture.

What: Urban info_smallweeHouse open house
Where: 4221 Ewing Ave. South, Minneapolis, MN
When: December 14, 2007, from 4-7 PM

Related Posts:
   1. weeHouse in Continental Airlines magazine (Jun 16, 2009)
   2. weeHouse by Alchemy on display in WI; today and this weekend (May 22, 2009)
   3. Itsy Bitsy weeHouse (Mar 26, 2007)
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Tracking the progress of an LVL home

Link to Tracking the progress of an LVL home
secretfortresshideout.blogspot.com/

While visiting the LV Home Fans Yahoo! group the other day, I happened upon a site I hadn't seen before, Secret Fortress Hideout:

This blog documents the progress of our super-cool, pre-fab home "somewhere" in the wilds of Northwest Arkansas. Rocio Romero designed the home, model LVL, and incorporated our custom modifications.

Recent posts have covered insulation, lighting design, and construction delays:

A few critical path items jumped the track and will push us back about a week.

  1. The stainless kitchen cabinets we ordered from Lasertron will be delayed due to an email mixup.

  2. The heat won't be connected for two weeks, which delays the floor installation.

  3. We found out cultured marble won't work for the tub or bathroom sinks and devised a Plan B (Neptune Zen Soaker Tub and custom-fabricated under-mount stainless trough sinks).

  4. And, last, but not least, the company Don scheduled to prime the drywall bumped us a week.

I guess these things happen in building. It's just wild that they all happened in the last two days.

Like A Prefab Project, Secret Fortress Hideout provides a great first-hand look at the construction of a prefab home.

Related Posts:
   1. Tour a Rocio Romero LVL Home on June 14th in Maine (May 27, 2008)
   2. Rocio Romero's National LV Open House Tour (Mar 04, 2008)
   3. Learn from a Prefab Project (Jul 23, 2007)
   4. The LV Series Yahoo! Group runs the numbers (May 16, 2007)
   5. 35 homes and counting (Apr 11, 2007)
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This week: zeroHouse, concepts and reduced prices

Link to This week: zeroHouse, concepts and reduced prices
coroflot.com

The Good Human's Prefab Wednesday discovered the zeroHouse:

Holy Moly Batman…a house that powers itself, composts its own waste, collects its own water, and is completely automatic doing all of these things. When can I get one?

Inhabitat's Prefab Friday wrote about the Linx Shipping Container Shelter, a container concept from Ireland:

Using 20-foot shipping containers, Barnwall’s idea provides functional shelter for workers on a construction site offering all the amenities needed to give workers a comfortable place for pause.

Treehugger covered the Loq•kit prefab concept which we covered last week:

It is an ingenious and very well resolved idea for revolutionizing the way we build houses, breaking it down into components that snap together much like an office system.

Materialicio.us also discussed the home, with commentary by Greg La Vardera:

I think it is tremendously clever, and has the characteristics of a truly disruptive technology. It has the potential to change radically the way we build houses.

Curbed LA released an update on the reduced price of the info_smallResolution: 4 vacant lots in LA:

...now the lots, which come with plans to build, are listed at $295,000 and $275,000
Last month's prices: $349,000 and $337,000.

Related Posts:
   1. This week: containers, concepts, and kitHAUS (Dec 01, 2007)
   2. Zero House on gadget blogs (Nov 19, 2007)
   3. Vacant lots with approved plans from Resolution: 4 (Nov 14, 2007)
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Update: from FEMA trailers to modular homes

More details about the modular homes that are replacing FEMA trailers for Katrina victims:

People will have to apply for the housing and will pay rent in the first year of 20 percent of household income. After that, occupants have the option to buy the homes, and a portion of the rent can be used for a down payment. In addition, the occupants will get help finding mortgages.

Publication: The Press Register (Alabama)
Length: 420 words
Date: November 30, 2007

Related Posts:
   1. From FEMA trailer to modular home (Nov 28, 2007)
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Homeowner shares modular lessons

Link to Homeowner shares modular lessons
modularhomechoice.com

I came across ModularHomeChoice.com while perusing some news the other day:

This website is for those interested in purchasing a modular home or those considering one and wishing to learn more about them.  I will share my experiences and lessons learned while acting as the general contractor on my modular home in the St. Louis, Missouri area.

When researching modular homes, I found a lot of information supplied by builders or sales agents of modular homes.  I am trying to add another perspective to that - that of someone purchasing a modular home as well as being heavily involved in the planning and scheduling of the project.

Sections of the site include:
background information
a list of modular builders by state
financing
lessons learned
pictures of all stages of the process

The site is barebones, but informative.

2 comments, 0 trackbacks (URL) , 

Proposed toll road may raise modular home costs

Toll roads aren't just annoying to commuters; they can raise the cost of doing business:

A Pennsylvania law to toll Interstate 80...will have a devastating effect on Pennsylvania's modular housing industry, states The Modular Building Systems Association....

Pennsylvania is the top producer of modular homes in the Northeastern United States and one of the top three (3) production states within the entire country. Approximately forty (40) percent of all homes produced in Pennsylvania are transported to other states and even if appropriately sized booths are placed at tolling areas, the toll fees and other related costs will add thousands of dollars to every home.

According to Don Shiner, President of DeLuxe Building Systems in Berwick, PA:

"The cost of our homes will increase not only because of the tolls imposed when we transport the finished home to the job site, but also on raw materials being delivered to our factories, employees traveling on company business, the return of empty undercarriages to the factories for reuse in transporting the next home, time delays in transporting our homes that will result from I-80 being a toll road and other, additional factors."

Link: Modular Building Systems Association

Publication: PR Web
Length: 900 words
Date: November 29, 2007

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This week: containers, concepts, and kitHAUS

Link to This week: containers, concepts, and kitHAUS
http://www.lab-zero.com/

Materialicious linked to an interesting post at BLDG BLOG about a prefab concept called lab zero:

In other words, even if these plans serve as nothing but design exercises – studies in volume, combination, and color – then that's fine with me. We can be done with the ongoing arguments and just enjoy looking at cool imagery.

The Good Human's Prefab Wednesday covered the info_smallK3 from info_smallkitHAUS:

Overall, I would say these are pretty cool. Although expensive just for a home office, they do look pretty nice and I would be more than happy to work in one!

Inhabitat's Prefab Friday discussed another concept, the Loq•kit:

Loq•kit is designed to reduce assembly complexity and time while enabling beautiful, unique living space. Standardized components allow for reuse and endless personalized layout possibilities. The modular elements can be reconfigured to accommodate changing needs with ease. Instead of wood, nails, screws, and glue, Loq•kit uses prefabricated plastic and metal parts that offer flexibility and integrated systems.

Related Posts:
   1. LA Times on mini prefabs (Jun 18, 2009)
   2. This week: Loq•kit, Rapson Greenbelt, and more (Feb 23, 2008)
   3. This week: zeroHouse, concepts and reduced prices (Dec 08, 2007)
   4. A house for you and one for your dog too (Mar 28, 2007)
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Modular popularity growing

From The Southern Illinoisan:

Charlie and Ellen Sharpe have seen their business, New Horizons Homes, undergo much change in recent years....

"This new modular home is a nice example of our construction."

Sharpe said the 2,300-square-foot structure features six modules, which were built independently off site in Pinckneyville.

"There's no worry about the weather," he said. "Materials are kept dry and there's less chance of theft. It's basically a safer work environment and much more efficient...."

Ellen said structures vary from one to three stories in height. Basically, no size is too small or large.

"It's just an educational process for the general public," she said. "This is the wave of the future. Instead of waiting months to build a house, it can be done in a matter of days. Our sales are up 15 percent from last year and we project a 40 percent jump next year."

Read the full article for details.

Author: John D. Homan
Publication: The Southern Illinoisan
Length: 420 words
Date: November 24, 2007

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Google and renewable energy: the prefab angle

Link to Google and renewable energy: the prefab angle
esolar.com

From earlier this week:

Google...announced a new strategic initiative to develop electricity from renewable energy sources that will be cheaper than electricity produced from coal. The newly created initiative, known as RE<C, will focus initially on advanced solar thermal power, wind power technologies, enhanced geothermal systems and other potential breakthrough technologies.

Many prefab companies incorporate solar power and other environmentally friendly features into their housing solutions. eSolar (a Google partner) incorporate prefab features into their solar solutions:

By leveraging established commercial suppliers to mass manufacture thousands of small heliostats, eSolar realizes economy-of-scale benefits at much smaller power plant sizes than traditional solar generation techniques. Our heliostats are designed to fit efficiently into shipping containers to keep transportation costs low, and they are pre-assembled at the factory to minimize on-site labor....

By employing a repeating frame structure and a revolutionary calibration system, eSolar has eliminated the need for high-precision surveying, delicate installation, and individual alignment of mirrors. Minimal skilled labor is needed to build the solar field, allowing for mirror deployment efficiencies that scale with project size and deadlines.

Note: emphasis added

Very interesting: prefab meet solar; solar meet prefab.

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From FEMA trailer to modular home

A few weeks back we reported on 40 lucky families moving from their FEMA trailers to new modular homes. The homes are done and families are moving in, according to the Press Register:

A group of community leaders stood in a circle, hands clasped, praying in the shadow of Bonnie and George Sprinkle's new elevated modular home.

The Sprinkles are one of 40 families chosen to receive modular homes funded by a...U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development grant to the city of Bayou La Batre. Seven families have moved into their houses so far....

The Mitchell Co. of Mobile has overseen the installation of the modular homes, which range between 1,100 and 1,400 square feet and cost between $100,000 and $115,000 each, depending on the elevation required.

Author: Katherine Sayre
Publication: Press Register [of Alabama]
Length: 400 words
Date: November 27, 2007

Related Posts:
   1. Update: from FEMA trailers to modular homes (Dec 06, 2007)
   2. Prefabs to replace FEMA trailers (Oct 18, 2007)
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Modular construction makes building affordable

The Virginia Gazette reports:

Ginger Crapse has the answer to affordable housing. 

“Build modular,” she said....

“The perception is that they are glorified trailers,” she continued. “The inspector freaked out. I had to prove it’s modular. He said, ‘It can’t be. It doesn’t look like a modular house.’ People think modulars have to be perfectly rectangular. They see the porch and think that it can’t be modular....”

The ongoing affordable housing debate drives her nuts. 

“Every time I read this in the paper, I go epileptic,” she said. “They whine, ‘There’s no way to build a house for $110,000.’ There’s no reason we can’t get young families in affordable housing in Williamsburg. We are going to have problems getting teachers, firefighters, police and county employees....

“You can build and at a reasonable price.” 


Author: Cortney Langley
Publication: The Virginia Gazette
Length: 750 words
Date: November 10, 2007

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mkLoft development in Denver

Link to mkLoft development in Denver
mkd-arc.com

Michelle Kaufmann's info_smallmkLoft will be used in a new development in Denver. From the Rocky Mountain News:

Denver developers Susan Powers and Chuck Perry are teaming with Kaufmann to put 40 factory-built town houses on 21 acres near Regis University at West 52nd Avenue and Federal Boulevard. The 1,100- to 1,500-square-foot town houses will be built at the All American Homes factory in Milliken, in Weld County, and trucked 60 miles, in sections, to the Denver site for assembly.

That they're modular won't be apparent, as factory-built houses don't necessarily have the mass- produced, cookie-cutter look they did 30 years ago.

Read more about the plans in the full article.

Author: Mary Winter
Publication: Rocky Mountain News
Length: 625 words
Date: October 27, 2007

Related Posts:
   1. MKD multifamily in Denver (Apr 08, 2009)
   2. Prefab apartments to make downtown Seattle affordable? (Jun 25, 2008)
   3. Colorado modular on a budget (May 30, 2008)
   4. The mkLoft from Michelle Kaufmann Designs (Nov 13, 2007)
   5. This week: Bombala, weeHouse in LA, and more (Nov 10, 2007)
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This week: Habode, historical prefab and more

Link to This week: Habode, historical prefab and more
habode.com

The G-Living Network wrote about a new prefab concept, the Habode:

Habode homes are environmentally responsible pre-fab buildings that are tailored to your specifications. All of the houses are the same size (80 square meters), but the floor plan, window placement and doors are all up to you.
The company has offices in Australia and New Zealand.

Treehugger covered an historic prefab from 1937:

...integrated furniture and appliances, transformer beds, five hundred bucks (about $15 PSF)- what's not to love?

I discovered a blog that's been around for a bit, but that doesn't get updated often: Modern Modular House. A recent entry has me excited for the release of the book Modular Architecture Manual.

The Good Human's Prefab Wednesday mentioned the info_smallModern Cabana:

The structures are also easily expanded, so you can combine different Cabana’s to make whatever size you need, which is pretty cool.

Inhabitat's Prefab Friday discussed French prefab La Maison de Demain.

Related Posts:
   1. LA Times on mini prefabs (Jun 18, 2009)
   2. This week: French prefab, school, and more (Nov 17, 2007)
   3. Modern sheds, cabanas, and studios (Apr 16, 2007)
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Modular construction helps make homes affordable

From the Pensacola News Journal:

Dan Gilmore, a Pensacola developer...has teamed up with Mississippi modular home builder Buddy Jenkins to develop a market for affordable homes in the $150,000 range and below.

Jenkins said Safeway Homes are not only affordable, but built to strict storm codes, and can withstand winds of 150 mph....

"We go several steps further, and have 14 stations within our factory where we check for quality control. Every piece of wood in our homes is glued and fastened with screws. We not only offer an affordable home, but a safe home."

Read the full article for details.

Author: Carlton Proctor
Publication: Pensacola News Jorunal
Length: 1,250 words
Date: November 11, 2007

Related Posts:
   1. Modular construction can help homes to resist hurricanes (Jun 24, 2008)
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OMD's Swellhouse in the LA Times

Link to OMD's Swellhouse in the LA Times
latimes.com

info_smallOffice of Mobile Design's info_smallSwellhouse appeared last week in the LA Times:

If Jennifer Siegal has her way, new homes won't be constructed anymore. They'll be installed.

That's the philosophy behind her recently completed Venice SwellHouse, a 3,130-square-foot, two-story residence assembled out of prefabricated structural insulated panels, or SIPs. The panels forming the walls, floors and ceilings were trucked in pre-cut, cored for wiring or plumbing, and numbered -- ready to be snapped together and attached to the steel frame.

Read the full article for details.

Author: Jeff Spurrier
Publication: Los Angeles Times
Length: 750 words
Date: November 15, 2007

Related Posts:
   1. Take a portable swell house home (Mar 29, 2007)
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Zero House on gadget blogs

Link to Zero House on gadget blogs
zerohouse.net

The gadget blogs have taken a liking to the Zero House. From Yanko Design:

ZeroHouse is a great concept and for added enjoyment, can be customized with a variety of color and material combinations.

Gizmodo is a fan:

Not only is this Zero House by architect Scott Specht completely green, automatic and self-sufficient, but it looks so badass it could've come out of the movie Clockwork Orange.

CrunchGear also covered the home.

Related Posts:
   1. This week: kitHAUS, mkSolaire, containers and more (Apr 05, 2008)
   2. This week: zeroHouse, concepts and reduced prices (Dec 08, 2007)
   3. This week: French prefab, school, and more (Nov 17, 2007)
   4. This week: ASAP, Texas, and a zero-energy concept (Nov 03, 2007)
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This week: French prefab, school, and more

Link to This week: French prefab, school, and more
www.avivre.net

Jetson Green reported on La Maison de Demain, a french prefab concept:

The home is built with three prefabricated modules and is meant to show that green design can be affordable and attractive. An important aspect of the house is the open area in the middle, which could be used as a covered patio to extend the footprint of the home into the natural environment.

The Good Human's Prefab Wednesday appears to be on an extended hiatus?

Inhabitat's Prefab Friday covered info_smallOMD's Country School:

The Los Angeles middle school expansion project opens next month to some very lucky kids who will enjoy classrooms filled with light, open learning spaces, and the best and healthiest materials. We’re big fans of Jennifer and her Office of Mobile Design here at Inhabitat, and we’re thrilled that her great prefab designs are being successfully applied to educational contexts- what better way to learn and teach than in a wonderful healthy classroom?

Many blogs reported on the end of DoResearch, a blog that collected information on a couple's favorite prefabs. Materialicio.us said

If it’s any consolation, they’ve found some land and they’re planning to build a FlatPak on it in Spring ‘08.

The Prefab Dweller is enthusiastic about the ZeroHouse:

The Zerohouse sure fits both my dreams...

Related Posts:
   1. UK prefab school (Jul 09, 2008)
   2. This week: London, Resolution: 4, OMD and more (May 24, 2008)
   3. This week: Habode, historical prefab and more (Nov 24, 2007)
   4. Zero House on gadget blogs (Nov 19, 2007)
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Empyrean's Acorn and Deck House

Link to Empyrean's Acorn and Deck House

We've previously discussed info_smallEmpyrean International in relation to the modernist info_smallNextHouse. Empyrean also offers two other styles:

Deck House and Acorn both feature open plans, walls of glass, and soaring volume spaces. Both are custom designed for the customer and the site.

The Deck House product features post and beam construction, with exposed Douglas fir beams, wooden ceilings, mahogany windows and trim work....The gently sloping roofs of Deck House feature large overhangs that often give the house a very Prairie or Craftsman style appearance.

Acorns are modified post and beam houses, but most of the structure is not exposed. Featuring expansive walls of Pella windows, steep roofs, and traditional interior trim themes; the interior surfaces in an Acorn are more often painted for a sparkling interior. Acorn exteriors draw on the best of American architectural traditions, updated with superb contemporary detailing.....

The typical price range of both brands is $200 - $250 per square foot.

Empyrean designs each house individually; homeowners can choose to modify an existing floorplan or start from scratch.

The company has been building prefabs since the 1960's. From the Empyrean site:

Deck House, Inc., was founded in 1959 by William Berkes, a graduate of Harvard University School of Design. Having pioneered other building systems, he founded Deck House, Inc. in order to provide top quality post and beam houses to upscale professional families...

Acorn Structures was founded in 1947 by MIT architect, John Bemis, another pioneer in the science of pre-engineering technology and custom design. As a renowned leader in energy conservation and active solar designs, the Acorn product become widely recognized in the 1980's as a "thinking person's" custom home, with the company's architecture relating to several traditional American architectural idioms, while still being devoted to energy efficient design...

In 1995, Deck House, Inc. acquired Acorn, and the two companies consolidated their manufacturing and corporate facilities into a combined 150,000 square foot facility.

model: Deck House
style: traditional, post and beam

model: Acorn
style: traditional

Related Posts:
   1. Empyrean International launches new website (Apr 07, 2008)
   2. Empyrean and the NextHouse (Apr 20, 2007)
2 comments, 0 trackbacks (URL) , 

Modular in Long Island

Link to Modular in Long Island
newsday.com

From Newsday:

Working with East Norwich-based Ballymore Homes, one of the few modular builders on Long Island, the Hoyt family had a custom-built, 3,500-square-foot home designed, created in a factory and delivered to their lot within seven months in April 2005. The home cost them in the low- to mid-$500,000s. It would have cost 20 percent more if it had been traditionally constructed....

"Friends of ours who had houses built the standard way had to wait twice as long as we did."

The full article discusses modular construction and prefabs in more depth.

Author: Laura Koss-Feder
Publication: Newsday.com
Length: 1300 words
Date: November 2, 2007

0 comments, 0 trackbacks (URL) , 

Vacant lots with approved plans from Resolution: 4

Link to Vacant lots with approved plans from Resolution: 4
losangeles.tvoa.net

From Curbed LA:

Dubbed the Silver Lake Twins, the two homes, both of which are three-bedrooms, three-baths, are located at 3422 Fernwood Avenue (2,600 square feet) and 426 Fernwood Avenue ( 2,200 square feet) and priced at $349,000 and $337,000, respectively, although a disclaimer: price includes land only, with rights to contract with prefab companies Empyrean and Res:4 to finish the design/construct a Dwell home.

The real estate listings at the Value of Architecture have a little more info:

Perched on a rocky promontory with panoramic views of the Hollywood Hills, from Griffith Observatory to Century City, the side-by-side Silver Lake Twins fit well within the modernist architectural tradition of the neighborhood and point to the future of prefabrication in home design.

Curbed readers had mixed feelings:

Those retaining walls are $150-$200k alone. That's a pretty gnarly grade.

Also, seems chances are slim that it will be 'twins' given the effort it's going to take. Anybody really believe two seperate parties are going to end up creating identical properties.

Related Posts:
   1. This week: zeroHouse, concepts and reduced prices (Dec 08, 2007)
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The mkLoft from Michelle Kaufmann Designs

Link to The mkLoft from Michelle Kaufmann Designs
mkd-arc.com

info_smallMichelle Kaufmann Designs is one of the hottest companies in the modernist prefab world today. Right on the heels of the info_smallmkLotus comes the announcement of the info_smallmkLoft:

This spacious 2-story, 2-bedroom + loft features a double-high ceiling in the living room, creating an open, harmonious environment for reflection and creativity.

mkLoft™ is the perfect design for urban dwelling, whether you are looking to build your primary residence or live/work solution, a duplex, or a healthy community, this home can be designed in 2- or 3-story configurations to suit your needs....

mkLoft™ is also ideal in a multifamily development layout.

The Good Human was impressed:

She has done it again - come out with another stunning example of what a modern prefab can be.

Inhabitat noted the low price of the homes:

Depending on volume and finishes, the typical mkLoft ranges from $130 to $140/sf. This does not include the cost of land nor the permit approval process.

model: info_smallmkLoft
style: modern
price: ~$500,000 (~$135/sf)
size: ~4,000sf
bedrooms: 2 - 3
bathrooms: 2 - 3
how: modules

Related Posts:
   1. Michelle Kaufmann Designs closing (May 27, 2009)
   2. The mkHearth (Oct 27, 2008)
   3. mkLoft development in Denver (Nov 26, 2007)
   4. West Coast Green: the mkLotus show house (Sep 25, 2007)
   5. Michelle Kaufmann Designs (Apr 27, 2007)
0 comments, 0 trackbacks (URL) , 

This week: Bombala, weeHouse in LA, and more

Link to This week: Bombala, weeHouse in LA, and more
modern-modular.com

CubeMe discussed the Bombala house, an offering from Modern Modular.

Curbed LA wrote about the first info_smallweeHouse in Los Angeles:

...a three-unit weeHouse (yes, that's how it's spelled) development for Valevista Trail. A family is planning to build the development, which is currently in the permit phase, and sell the homes...

Spanish-language blog Cien Ladrillos wrote a long post about prefabs in Spain.

Inhabitat's Prefab Friday and The Good Human's Prefab Wednesday both covered the info_smallmkLoft from info_smallMichelle Kaufmann Designs. We'll discuss that in more detail soon.

Jetson Green looked at a new container project in Panama City, Panama.

I happened upon a new blog called Prefab Dweller, which looks to cover "modern prefab housing, modern architecture, and green housing." Recent posts include one about info_smallAlchemy Architects' info_smallweeHouse.

Related Posts:
   1. weeHouse in Continental Airlines magazine (Jun 16, 2009)
   2. weeHouse by Alchemy on display in WI; today and this weekend (May 22, 2009)
   3. mkLoft development in Denver (Nov 26, 2007)
   4. Itsy Bitsy weeHouse (Mar 26, 2007)
0 comments, 0 trackbacks (URL) , 

Shipping container homes in Edmonton

The Edmonton Sun reports:

In an effort to combat Edmonton's housing problem, a housing corporation is proposing that metal shipping containers - like you might see on trains or ships - be converted into low-cost living units.

The full article includes further details. Look for a mention of the Zigloo Domestique.

interviewer: Kevin Crush and Renato Gandia
length: 500 words
date: October 28, 2007
publication: Edmonton Sun

Related Posts:
   1. This week: Zigloo, A Prefab Project, mkLotus, and more (Aug 04, 2007)
0 comments, 0 trackbacks (URL) , 

Modular homes on Cool Stuff Being Made (with video)

The National Association of Manufacturers has a pretty nifty series of blog posts and accompanying videos of "stuff being made". This week, they focus on Excel Modular Homes of Liverpool Pennsylvania:

Ed Langley, the company's president and CEO, gives us a tour of the operations starting with sales and moving through design and construction....

Lots of construction techniques and philosophies that were new to us. And, it really is a good website with very detailed information -- videos of a modular home being "set," i.e., put in place, here, for example. The home goes up in hours!

Visit the original post for the link to the video. It's long, but shows many details of the modular home manufacturing process.

length: >15 mins
publication: Pennsylvania Cable Network via National Association of Manufacturers

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WIRED LivingHome open for tours!

Link to WIRED LivingHome open for tours!
wired.com

We first announced the WIRED LivingHome back in July. The modules were installed in September.

And now: tours! From the WIRED blog:

Want to visit? The  Wired LivingHome is open to the public Thursday through Sunday until Nov. 19.

For ticket purchasing info and additional tour details, visit the WIRED LivingHome site.

when: November 1 - 18, 2007
where: Los Angeles

Related Posts:
   1. In the news: WIRED LivingHome (Sep 02, 2009)
   2. New LivingHomes video and photos (Aug 03, 2009)
   3. WIRED LivingHome still for sale; price reduced (Jun 30, 2008)
   4. Take a (long!) tour of the WIRED LivingHome (Jan 15, 2008)
   5. WIRED webcam (Sep 10, 2007)
   6. LivingHomes gets WIRED ... for $4 million (Jul 02, 2007)
   7. LivingHomes (Mar 28, 2007)
0 comments, 0 trackbacks (URL) , 

This week: ASAP, Texas, and a zero-energy concept

Link to This week: ASAP, Texas, and a zero-energy concept
Paul Bardagjy

The Good Human's Prefab Wednesday took a break this week.

Inhabitat wrote about the ASAP House, which we will cover in more depth soon.

Bannaga covered a boathouse with a prefab steel structure that recently won an architecture award in Texas.

The blog also previewed a prefab concept called the Zero House:

ZeroHouse is a 650-square-foot prefabricated house designed to operate autonomously, with no need for utilities or waste connections. It generates its own electrical power, collects and stores rainwater, and processes all waste. Shipped to a site on two flatbed trailers, it can be field-erected in less than a day.

Related Posts:
   1. Zero House on gadget blogs (Nov 19, 2007)
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Historic Prefab: Iron prefab for sale

Link to Historic Prefab: Iron prefab for sale
www.struttandparker.co.uk

Sears Roebuck & Co. weren't the only ones selling packaged home kits way back when. In England, corrugated iron prefabs were being sold in the 19th century. 

From the UK Independent:

Cheaply erected, flat-pack corrugated iron homes and farm buildings were once common in the Highlands but most have been torn down. The three-bedroom Ballintomb Cottage is one of the last still standing. In Edwardian times, a local farmer ordered it from the catalogue of a London company and had it delivered by steam train, then horse and cart, to a site near the village of Dulnain Bridge in Strathspey. He assembled it by hand, so he could move his family in during the summer while he rented out his farmhouse to wealthy holidaymakers. It cost just £425. Now, offers of more than £175,000 are being invited but the selling price could reach as much as £250,000.

These days, most of us associate corrugated iron with those cheap, crudely assembled homes packed together in slums across the developing world but, in the 19th century, it was one of the inventions in which Britain took pride. It was exported all over the world to make buildings of every size.

Here's more from the home's real estate listing:

The construction of these iron buildings was fully detailed in the catalogues. They quote that "sheets of standard Birmingham grade galvanised iron are used, truly and evenly corrugated, thickly coated with pure Silesian spelter, true and even in temper, and free from flaws and cracks." Floorboards were supplied of thoroughly seasoned deal in 1" thicknesses and lining boards in 1/2" tongue and grooved. The walls were insulated by a liberal use of felt....

These buildings were sent to every corner of the Empire and Ballintomb Cottage is an excellent example of the quality of these buildings

author: Andy McSmith
length:  570 words
date:  September 6, 2007
publication:  The Independent (UK)

(Hat tip: Treehugger)

Related Posts:
   1. Historic prefab: pre-assembled wall panels (Jan 28, 2008)
   2. Historic prefab: Venturo and the Futuro House (Jan 22, 2008)
   3. Historic Prefab: How to identify a Sears Kit Home (Dec 17, 2007)
   4. Historic Prefab: Sears Homes (Jul 26, 2007)
   5. Prefabs get demolished (May 07, 2007)
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NPR interviews Slate's prefab skeptic

In August, Witold Rybczynski's skeptical take on prefab appeared in the form of a slideshow on Slate. We covered it, and disagreed. One thing we missed: he also made NPR.

The four minute interview reiterates much of the essay, but is worth a listen.

interviewer: Madeleine Brand
length: 4:06
date: August 9, 2007
publication: NPR's Day to Day

Related Posts:
   1. Witold Rybczynski goes to MoMA (Aug 19, 2008)
   2. Prefab is not a fad (Aug 28, 2007)
   3. Slate: The Prefab Fad (Aug 27, 2007)
2 comments, 0 trackbacks (URL) , 

Our feed URLs are changing!

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!

Related Posts:
   1. Prefabcosm update: available, prototype, discontinued (Jan 12, 2008)
   2. Prefabcosm update: one-click navigation of prefab and modular homes (Dec 27, 2007)
   3. Prefabcosm site changes! (Oct 29, 2007)
0 comments, 0 trackbacks (URL) , 

Prefabcosm site changes!

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.

Related Posts:
   1. Prefabcosm update: available, prototype, discontinued (Jan 12, 2008)
   2. Prefabcosm update: one-click navigation of prefab and modular homes (Dec 27, 2007)
   3. Our feed URLs are changing! (Oct 29, 2007)
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This week: IKEA, pieceHomes

Link to This week: IKEA, pieceHomes
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

Related Posts:
   1. West Coast Green: pieceHomes (Oct 01, 2007)
   2. This week: IKEA, Quik House, and anticipating West Coast Green (Sep 16, 2007)
   3. This week: IKEA goes prefab, mountain retreats, and a prefab high-rise (Apr 21, 2007)
0 comments, 0 trackbacks (URL) , 

EcoUrban modulars in St. Louis Business Journal

The St. Louis Business Journal discusses EcoUrban:

"EcoUrban Homes is building houses where traditional contractors often choose not to venture.

The newly formed company, headquartered in downtown St. Louis, has embarked on an ambitious plan to eventually put 30 to 40 new "green" modular homes per year into neighborhoods that could use a bit of revitalization...."

Read the full excerpt for more details. The entire article is only accessible with a subscription.

Author: Julia M. Johnson
Publication: St. Louis Business Journal
Length: 206 words (excerpt; subscription required for the entire article)
Date: October 29, 2007

Related Posts:
   1. EcoUrban: update (Jul 03, 2007)
   2. EcoUrban: green prefab in St. Louis (Jun 25, 2007)
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All about containers

Making Light has a link-filled post about shipping container architecture.

The post sparked some good comments. Randolph Fritz:

"Um, folks, don't let the coolness factor blind you to some real design problems.

  1. Unless some serious tying-down and welding is done, these things aren't remotely earthquake safe.

  2. They conduct heat (and cold).

  3. Water accumulates on flat roofs. Steel rusts. Water will also accumulate between the levels of stacked containers and on the floor kitchens and bathrooms. Ventilation and control of water is a big deal with unprotected metal structures, just as it it with wood.

  4. Hmmmm, wonder what the neighbors are doing up there? Pounding on steel drums?

  5. The wall is the structure; you have to be careful when making holes.

Which doesn't mean this is a Bad Idea. It means you've still got to do design, if you want a liveable result."

Liz D:
"I lived in a converted shipping container in 1982-1984, in California. It had some upsides (cheap) and some downsides. The biggest downside was the width -- a standard container's interior dimension is 7'8". My living quarters had interior drywall added, leaving an interior width of 88 inches.

Given the configuration of my space, I had to put the bed on the long wall, instead of across the short wall. I had a queen bed (75 inches wide) -- leaving only 15 inches of space between bed and wall.

The next episode of shipping-container architecture was at a friend's, who arrange 3 in a u-shape, with a covered patio between them. Much more satisfactory."

(Hat tip: Boing Boing)

Related Posts:
   1. Container Cities (Jun 13, 2007)
0 comments, 0 trackbacks (URL) , 

Clever no-nails framing system (video)

This video has been getting a lot of attention; it has 739 Diggs and counting.

The company is known as MasterFit in the US and MetalFit in Japan. However, the only website we can find for the company is the Japanese site. (Google translation)

Treehugger saw the system a couple years back:

"The components of the house are actually numbered, and are constructed as you would a piece of kit furniture. Materials cost 10-20% more than those for conventional framing, but the cost is offset by reduced labor expense..."

The "no tools" approach is similar to the info_smallkitHAUS system, except with wood members. Both systems enable relatively unskilled laborers to frame an entire home.

Related Posts:
   1. A house for you and one for your dog too (Mar 28, 2007)
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Prefab penthouse

Link to Prefab penthouse
telegraph.co.uk

I was drawn to this article because the above picture is awesome. From the UK Telegraph:

"Some homeowners are turning [modular] for one-off projects such as extending their traditionally built existing houses. Fed up with slapdash builders who stretch out their "workmanship" over the best part of a year only to disappear at the first mention of snagging, more homeowners are opting for the peace of mind of factory-made components. And they are by no means sacrificing the style factor to do so.

Richard and Claire Gregory, barristers from Nottingham, already lived in a smart contemporary house that had been hailed in 1995, when it was built, as one of the 100 most architecturally interesting in Britain.

The imminent arrival of a second child made more space a necessity — but how to avoid a year of builder intrusion, and the constant stress and hassle of dust and noise?

'The time saved by modular construction was the determining factor. It took just 10 weeks on site, rather than the more typical nine months or so,' says Richard....

'Modular building is much more acceptable than it was 10 years ago,' says First Penthouse co-founder Hakan Olsson.

'Planning for roof extensions can be a bit of a problem, but the neighbours are usually happy as they don't tend even to notice the preparation work. And speed is a great benefit for the client. We can crane in whole kitchens down to the cutlery in the drawer.'"

The full article ends with a great rundown of pros and cons, comparing kit extensions to traditional built additions.

Publication: UK Telegraph
Length: 1,000 words
Date: September 30, 2007

Glossary: Snagging is a term used in the construction industry in the United Kingdom and Ireland. Snagging is the production of a list of quality defects at the end of a build process/phase/stage (a "Snag List" or "Snagging List"; aka "Punch List" in the US). (per Wikipedia)

Related Posts:
   1. Wanted: a Prefab Kitchen (Apr 30, 2007)
0 comments, 0 trackbacks (URL) , 

Not just a two-box ranch

CBS 21, of Harrisburg, Pennsylvania reports:

"Emily Vance loves her new home, but there was a time when she wanted nothing to do with it.

'When Matt first came to me with the idea, he said the word modular, and I said, no that's not going to happen. I'm not going to live in a modular home.' Like a lot of folks, Emily's image of a modular home was a two-box ranch with wheels....

Emily and her husband Matt say they were surprised to find a lot of the things they wanted in traditional home, also called a stick-built home, could also be found in a modular home....

And it appears more and more people feel the same way. While the entire housing industry is down 26%, modular homes are only down about 19%. Experts say lower cost and less time to build are some of the main reasons why...."

Read the full article and watch the accompanying video (~1:30) to learn more.

Publication: CBS 21, of Harrisburg, PA
Length: 400 words
Date: October 14, 2007

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This week: Modern Shed and the Marmol factory

Link to This week: Modern Shed and the Marmol factory
modern-shed.com

Materialicio.us posted about the large Dwelling Sheds offered by info_smallModern Shed.

The Good Human's Prefab Wednesday included a YouTube video (3:38) of the info_smallMarmol Radziner factory in Los Angeles. (That video and others also appears on the Marmol Radziner site, as we discovered in August.)

Inhabitat's Prefab Friday took a break this week.

Related Posts:
   1. The Skyline Series by Marmol Radziner Prefab (Jul 02, 2009)
   2. LA Times on mini prefabs (Jun 18, 2009)
   3. Marmol Radziner videos (Aug 17, 2007)
   4. Modern sheds, cabanas, and studios (Apr 16, 2007)
0 comments, 0 trackbacks (URL) , 

New York Post on modular

Link to New York Post on modular
re4a.com

The New York Post recently wrote about prefab and modular companies, focusing on one couple's info_smallResolution: 4-designed home in NY:

"From start to finish, it'll take only a year to design and build Philip and Ganade's modular home. The couple had their first meeting [with Res: 4] in April....

In January, construction will start at a factory in Scranton, Pa. It'll take just two weeks to build their home, which will be delivered via two trucks to the couple's land in Palenville, N.Y., by February. Putting up the home will take two to three months, so Philip and Ganade should be spending weekends in the country by May.

Specializing in modular and panelized architecture, Resolution: 4 has two N.Y.C. prefab homes planned, which is notable given the delivery and design limitations of erecting an urban home."

The article went on to discuss other prefab designers, including info_smallMarmol Radziner:
"All of the company's homes are built in a 65,000-square-foot factory near downtown Los Angeles, in a space big enough for three assembly lines of mods. When NYP Home recently stopped by, different mods of an 8,500-square-foot home for a Las Vegas client were being worked on in various sections of the factory. In one area, workers installed windows; in another area, cabinets were being added...."

And info_smallRocio Romero:

"....a local contractor can finish the home, with costs averaging about $120 to $195 a square foot. But some customers go the ultimate DIY route: According to Romero, a couple from Virginia built the entire home themselves, except for the foundation and roof. The total amount spent: $85 a square foot, plus the cost of the kit...."

The article ended with a comment on the resale value of prefabs:

"One New York-based hedge fund manager told NYP Home that he's "100 percent sure" he could re-sell his Hamptons prefab home for the same price a neighboring home might sell for - and make a substantial profit."

Read the full article for more details on Resolution: 4 and these other prefab designers.

Subtitle: Modular homes are stylish and affordable
Author: Dakota Smith
Publication: New York Post
Length: 1,000 words
Date: October 4, 2007

Related Posts:
   1. Resolution: 4 in East Hampton (Sep 17, 2007)
   2. Sexy Prefab (Mar 29, 2007)
0 comments, 0 trackbacks (URL) , 

Prefabs to replace FEMA trailers

Just catching up on some news from last month. The Press Register of Alabama reported that 42 families inhabiting FEMA trailers after Hurricane Katrina are getting brand new modular homes:

"A team of workers soon put together the two halves, bolted and lashed them down, then fitted the halves together with fraction-of-an-inch precision. It was the fourth of 42 homes the city plans to deliver in the coming months, at a federally funded $98,000 to $112,000 apiece, for storm victims.

The construction and installation of the modular homes is being overseen by the modular division of Mobile's The Mitchell Company. After months of planning and waiting, the first homes were put in place this week. The company plans to install six homes per week, weather permitting, until up to 45 homes are in place.

All of the houses are free to the owners, who lost their homes to Hurricane Katrina's floodwaters in 2005. The city selected 42 applicants who met qualifications..."

Author: Russ Henderson
Publication: Press Register [of Alabama]
Length: 400 words
Date: September 19, 2007

Related Posts:
   1. From FEMA trailer to modular home (Nov 28, 2007)
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CNET and the PowerPod

Link to CNET and the PowerPod
cnet.com

CNET News features a video tour (5:44) of the PowerPod, by Powerhouse Enterprises.

The video includes a thorough look at the home and an interview with A. Quincy Vale, President of Powerhouse Enterprises. Sounds like the company is taking orders for the home now.

Jetson Green likes the home:

"I really like the PowerPod. It's modular, green, and very simple in design. The PowerPod could be used as a home for a bachelor or intimate duo, but it's more likely going to be used as an office, vacation abode, lake cabin, or something like that."

Author: Martin LaMonica
Publication: CNET News
Length: 5:44
Date: September 18, 2007

Related Posts:
   1. Boston area home goes prefab and green (Feb 26, 2008)
   2. This week: Zenkaya, straw bales, and more (Dec 15, 2007)
   3. PowerHouse: emphasizing solar (Aug 14, 2007)
0 comments, 0 trackbacks (URL) , 

West Coast Green: other prefab

At the building conference last month, I spoke with a rep at ParcoHomes, a prefab start-up out of San Francisco. From what I gathered, the company plans to employ mass production techniques currently used for commercial buildings. Parts would be manufactured offshore, packaged, and shipped by sea and truck to your homesite. From the ParcoHomes website:

"We are designing, manufacturing and distributing resource efficient, modern, prefabricated homes employing a 'flat-pack' delivery approach. Our kit of parts is made up of metal-framed floor, roof and wall panels supported on a structural frame. The entire kit of parts is based on a four-foot planning module to allow for an ideal balance between constructability and flexibility."

EcoInfill is currently building the prototype of their Ei1 concept. The concept home's flexibility allows it to "be installed as a single family home, addition, or entire townhome project." I spoke with someone from Sexton + Lawton Architecture, the designers of the homes. He said that the homes will cost them ~$95/sf coming out of the factory; this translates to ~$175/sf installed. While the model home is not yet complete, they are hoping for a 3 month timeline from foundation work to move-in.

SG Blocks repurposes shipping containers for architectural purposes. Many companies building from recycled shipping containers are sourcing their product from SG Blocks. I spoke with a rep who explained that the $200/sf+ cost of building with recycled shipping containers is justified by the added strength and durability.

In addition to these prefab builders, there were a number of SIP manufacturers present. These include Alternative Building Concepts, Shimotsu Architecture and Distribution, and SIP Home Systems. I saw some interesting features, like pre-drilled mechanical chases for electrical connections.

Related Posts:
   1. West Coast Green: pieceHomes (Oct 01, 2007)
   2. West Coast Green: Altamont Homes and understanding the process (Sep 27, 2007)
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This week: Jeriko House, Drop House, and more

Link to This week: Jeriko House, Drop House, and more
thegoodhuman.com

The Good Human's Prefab Wednesday discovered new designs from Gregory La Vardera, many of which are offered by info_smallEcoSteel:

"I would love to have one of these as a year-round home! A true prefab it is not, because the houses are built on-site, but I still love the idea of a ready-made 'custom designed' home plan..."

Last week, The Good Human covered the Jeriko House.

Inhabitat's Prefab Friday filed a video report about the info_smallmkLotus.

Last week, Inhabitat discussed the Drop House prototype.

A handful of blogs wrote about the Napa Rocio Romero Prefab, including architecture.MNP and Jetson Green.

Related Posts:
   1. From New Orleans: the Jeriko House (Feb 18, 2008)
   2. West Coast Green: the mkLotus show house (Sep 25, 2007)
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CNET visits the mkLotus

Link to CNET visits the mkLotus
cnet.com

Last week CNET released a video report from the mkLotus (3:13). This follows last month's visit to the XtremeHomes factory.

The video features some interior views of the house and an interview with Rebecca Woelke, who's in charge of PR for info_smallMichelle Kaufmann Designs.

Author: Michael Kanellos
Publication: CNET News
Length: 3:13
Date: October 2, 2007

Related Posts:
   1. West Coast Green: the mkLotus show house (Sep 25, 2007)
   2. Heading to West Coast Green Conference this weekend (Sep 19, 2007)
   3. CNET visits the XtremeHomes factory (Sep 07, 2007)
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Modern Modular videos on BobVila.com

Link to Modern Modular videos on BobVila.com
bobvila.com

TV meets the Web. Bob Vila's website includes a library of short video clips from the show's Modern Modular series.

Modular Home Construction and Site Preparation
Building a Modular Home
A Visit to the Berkshires
Site and Foundation Preparation
Modular Construction Details and Foundation Work
Precast Concrete Foundation Installation
Modular Home Construction Basics
Factory-Cast Foundation Details
Modular Construction, Wiring, and Drywall
Simplex Modular Home Factory Tour
High-Speed Drywall Finishing
Custom Modular Staircase Construction
Interior and Exterior Finishes on a Modular Home
Kitchen Cabinet Styling and Installation
Prefinished Wood Floors in Modular Home
Windows and Board-and-Batten Engineered Siding
Quartz Countertops
Assembling a Modular Home
Modular Home Delivery
Tying Together a Modular Home
Second Floor Module Installation
Preparing the Site for a Modular Home Delivery
Delivery Day Overview
Shake Roof and Stone Facade for Modular Home
Backfilling the Foundation and Deck Supports
Composite Shake Shingles
Titanium UDL Roof Underlayment
Cultured Stone Facade
Securing the Modular Marriage Walls
Master Bedroom for Modular Home
Panelized Cedar Shingles, a Metal Roof, and The Mount
Cedar Shake and Clapboard Siding
Metal Roofing
Edith Wharton'™s "The Mount"
Metal Roof Crimping
Direct Vent Heat and Composite Deck Materials
Crown Molding Installation
Direct-Vent Fireplace Installation
Composite Deck Installation
Composite Deck Railing Installation
Energy Efficient Heat, Column Deck Supports, and The Mount
Exterior Elements on Modular Home
Modular Home Front Porch
Cultured Stone Rear Facade on Modular Home
Exterior Columns for Support and Decoration
Gardens at The Mount
Multi-Zone HVAC System
Tankless Hot Water Heater
Berkshires Architecture, Shakespeare & Co, and Structured Wiring
Interior Tour of Modular Home
Structured Wiring Explained
The Gilded Cottages of the Berkshire Hills
Shakespeare & Company Tour
Elm Court's Shingle-Style Architecture

Show: Home Again: Modern Modular (at BobVila.com)
Network: DIY Network
Length: 58 clips (from 13 episodes)

Also worth a mention: Bob Vila has his own blog, On The Level. Check it out!

Related Posts:
   1. More modular on Home Again (Oct 03, 2007)
   2. Bob Vila's Home Again goes modular (Sep 26, 2007)
0 comments, 0 trackbacks (URL) , 

Bring the factory to the site

Link to Bring the factory to the site
theglobeandmail.com

A while back, a commenter on Inhabitat posed what seemed like a radical idea:

"It occurs to me that the factory could be brought to the jobsite with a modification of this method of construction. Perhaps we need to borrow the best method from factory and on-the-job techniques, instead of thinking either-or. For example, why not bring a semi truck that opens out into an on-the-job manufacturing construction unit."

According to the Globe and Mail, a developer in Ontario apparently had the same thought:

"Megabuilder Mattamy Homes is constructing a subdivision of houses in Milton, Ont., that are, for the most part, assembled on the factory floor and then transported by truck.

'The chandeliers are hanging, the tiles are grouted, the hardwood is shined up,' says Ron Cauchi, president of Mattamy's Stelumar operation....

Anybody who purchases a new house from a builder wants two things: a sturdy structure and a predictable closing date. Legions of buyers have suffered through problems with both.

For years, Mattamy has been looking for a way to improve the quality of the houses it builds and the reliability of move-in dates by transferring some parts of the construction process to the factory floor....

The longest distance any house will travel is about one kilometre, Mr. Cauchi says.

He expects the project to be complete in about four years, at which point the factory will be taken apart and re-erected somewhere else."

Read the full article for details on this revolutionary process.

Seems like the best of both worlds: factory-built on site!

Title: A new address, fresh off the line
Author: Carolyn Leitch
Publication: The Globe and Mail
Length: 775 words
Date: September 7, 2007

(Hat tip: Treehugger)

3 comments, 0 trackbacks (URL) , 

New York Times: prefabs as second homes

The New York Times offers recommendations on prefab home-buying:

"Makers and designers of prefab houses promote the magic combination of less construction time and, often, lower building costs, because most of the work is done in a factory. They also appeal to second-home owners who want to avoid constant visits to the construction site. But as the prefab field grows, you need to do your legwork....

With any designer, ask how many homes the firm has built and how many are in the pipeline, and arrange to visit a finished house. The growing prefab field has led many designers to jump in, but not all them actually have designs that have been built....

Finding the right design is about not just visual appeal, but also such practical issues as finding one that can actually be built on the site. After all, the house has to be delivered on a flatbed truck. And it can be nearly impossible to deliver a modular house to a site that is off a windy, narrow road or one off a route with low overpasses."

Read the full article for further details.

Title: Before Buying a Prefab
Author: Amy Gunderson
Publication: The New York Times
Length: 700 words
Date: September 21, 2007

(Hat tip: A Prefab Project)

0 comments, 0 trackbacks (URL) , 

More modular on Home Again

Apparently the Modern Modular project wasn't the only time modular has appeared on the DIY Network's Home Again:

"Host Danny Forster began the one-hour show with a visit to Safeway Homes in Lexington to see production process that creates a home that can be shipped in pieces to the property of the homeowner. Then he works with the construction crew to assemble the components into a completed home that is ready for occupancy within a matter of days. Rose Brown and her home in Pass Christian are used as a case study for modular housing and hurricane rebuilding solutions."

Read the full article for details.

Title: Safeway Homes of Lexington featured on Home Again
Publication: Holmes Country Herald, of Lexington Mississippi
Length: 330 words
Date: August 30, 2007

Related Posts:
   1. Modern Modular videos on BobVila.com (Oct 09, 2007)
   2. Bob Vila's Home Again goes modular (Sep 26, 2007)
0 comments, 0 trackbacks (URL) , 

West Coast Green round-up

Other coverage of West Coast Green around the web:

The Contra Costa Times filed a report about the show.

The Las Vegas Wash gave an overview of coverage.

EcoGeek discussed the features of the info_smallmkLotus.

Home by sunset shared more photos of the mkLotus.

The Marin Independent Journal wrote about info_smallMichelle Kaufmann.

Related Posts:
   1. West Coast Green in San Francisco: October 1-3, 2009 (Sep 25, 2009)
   2. West Coast Green 2008 coming September 25-27 (Aug 14, 2008)
   3. West Coast Green: pieceHomes (Oct 01, 2007)
   4. West Coast Green: Sheri Koones (Sep 28, 2007)
   5. West Coast Green: Altamont Homes and understanding the process (Sep 27, 2007)
   6. West Coast Green: the mkLotus show house (Sep 25, 2007)
0 comments, 0 trackbacks (URL) , 

West Coast Green: pieceHomes

Link to West Coast Green: pieceHomes
piecehomes.com

While info_smallMKD 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..."

company: pieceHomes
style: modern
size: 320sf - 2,600sf
bedrooms: 1-3
how: modules
manufacturer: info_smallXtremeHomes

Related Posts:
   1. pieceHomes introduces extraPieces, modular additions for existing homes (Jun 17, 2008)
   2. This week: pieceHomes, Res: 4, Magic and more (Mar 02, 2008)
   3. This week: IKEA, pieceHomes (Oct 28, 2007)
   4. West Coast Green: other prefab (Oct 15, 2007)
   5. West Coast Green round-up (Oct 02, 2007)
   6. XtremeHomes: modular building the green way (Aug 10, 2007)
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This week: UK prefab, Res: 4, and reminiscences

Link to This week: UK prefab, Res: 4, and reminiscences
m-house.org

The Good Human's Prefab Wednesday discussed the m-house:

"Based in the UK, it is not available here in the United States, but I sure wish it was. The house is over 1000 square feet and is delivered to your site in 2 pieces and then assembled. Costing ~£147,500 (about $297,000) the house is not cheap, but at the same time is pretty reasonable considering what you get for the price."

Inhabitat's Prefab Friday showed off more photos of the Resolution: 4 house in East Hampton that we discussed earlier this month.

Treehugger reminisced on prefabs announced two years ago.

Related Posts:
   1. Resolution: 4 in East Hampton (Sep 17, 2007)
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West Coast Green: Sheri Koones

Link to West Coast Green: Sheri Koones
amazon.com

Sheri Koones spoke at West Coast Green on Thursday. I didn't get there in time to listen, but I wish I had. I tracked her down later in the day and chatted briefly about prefab and what she's working on. It sounds like another prefab book, a follow-up to Prefabulous, may be in the works. She's a wealth of information and I hope to speak with her more soon.

The Pardon Our Dust blog at the LA Times sat in on the talk:

"...I kind of cringe at the idea of building prefabricated homes and additions in factories....

But after listening to a talk today by Sheri Koones...I'm really warming to the idea....

And modular or prefabricated houses need not be boring, off-the-shelf boxes. Nearly all the homes in Koones' book were custom-designed by architects."

Related Posts:
   1. West Coast Green round-up (Oct 02, 2007)
   2. Sheri Koones is on a mission (Sep 06, 2007)
   3. New prefab book: Prefabulous (Jun 08, 2007)
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West Coast Green: Altamont Homes and understanding the process

Link to West Coast Green: Altamont Homes and understanding the process
altamonthomes.com

I learn new things about the prefab business every day. Altamont Homes is a builder of modular homes throughout the West. The company had representatives at West Coast Green. Also at their booth was a representative from Details, a manufacturer of modular homes.

In the time I've been reading and writing about prefab housing, I haven't fully understood the relationship between those two entities until the relationship was explained to me by Craig Rosenberg of Details.

Basically it works like this: the homeowner goes to a "builder" (in this case, Altamont) and wants to build a house. Altamont shares a number of design options with the homeowner, ranging from small, inexpensive homes, to larger and more finely detailed homes. The home designs they are sharing are sourced from a number of "manufacturers" around the country (in this case Details is one of many that Altamont buys from).

Altamont is responsible for interacting with you, completing site work, securing permits (sometimes that falls to the homeowner), setting the home and completing site work. Details is responsible for the modules that are shipped to your site. The way that Craig Rosenberg from Details explained it to me:

"Some manufacturers supply products like doors or faucets; it just happens in our case that the product we supply is the entire home."

Details designs the homes that they offer to different builders, whether Altamont or another builder. The arrangement allows Altamont to offer a wide range of product choices to their customers. For instance, the Details models are all LEED-certified and highly energy-efficient; they generally end up costing ~$275/sf installed. Altamont offers other, non-LEED options from other manufacturers for less than half that cost.

The key point is that the builder and manufacturer are two different entities, with two different specialities:
Builders: expertise in site work, permit process, setting and finishing home
Manufacturers: expertise in designing and manufacturing the home modules

Related Posts:
   1. West Coast Green: other prefab (Oct 15, 2007)
   2. West Coast Green round-up (Oct 02, 2007)
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Bob Vila's Home Again goes modular

Link to Bob Vila's <i>Home Again</i> goes modular
diynet.com

Bob Vila's Home Again on the DIY Network just finished a run of shows about a modular home under construction. I haven't seen the show, but it sounds like there were some good views into the factory and site process.

From the episode descriptions: Modern Modular:

"Bob Vila travels to western Massachusetts for a brand new project; the construction of a modular home in the Berkshire Hills. He goes to the Simplex Industries factory in Scranton, Pa., to see how the process starts. We talk with owner Pat Fricchione, Jr. about the history of the company, and how the image of modular construction has changed over the years."
Wall Panels:
"Today, we learn about the manufacturing process for the precast panels for the walls. Next, we travel back to the Simplex plant in Scranton Pa., where Bob Vila explains how each module is framed. Back in the Berkshires, the assembly process is explained once the panels have been lowered into place by crane."
Assembly:
"At the Simplex plant, several crews work as if on an assembly line to make fast work of each module. There's a lot happening, from spackle and sand, to insulation, wall and roof sheathing, house wrap, and interior trim. Bob Vila learns about the state-of-the-art wire boxes that are being installed, and we'll look at the staircase that's being built for the front hall from the stair shop."

Simplex is also the manufacturer of the info_smallResolution: 4 Architecture models, like the home featured on the A Prefab Project blog.

A small picture of the home coming together can be seen on the Bob Vila web site.

Show: Home Again: Modern Modular
Network: DIY Network
Length: 13 episodes

Related Posts:
   1. Modern Modular videos on BobVila.com (Oct 09, 2007)
   2. More modular on Home Again (Oct 03, 2007)
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West Coast Green: the mkLotus show house

Link to West Coast Green: the mkLotus show house
© copyright 2007 Peter Bernheim

By far the most popular and exciting prefab presence at West Coast Green was info_smallMichelle Kaufmann and the info_smallmkLotus showhouse.

The show house was set right in front of San Francisco City Hall, out in the open for all to see. And see it people did. Visitors lined up to tour the home and looked to be waiting upwards of half an hour on Saturday's Homeowner Day (due to the home's size, the show staff were limiting the number of people in at any one time).

While the home was small, around 700 sf, it felt plenty roomy. The home featured a window wall system from NanaWall that opens accordion-style to create a near seamless indoor/outdoor room. The bathroom was luxurious for such a small home. And the ample outdoor living space (decks, patios, courtyards) was a welcome addition.

Some of the features and details that I saw as I toured the house:
• angled walls to make spaces feel larger
• translucent doors to divide spaces but not block all light
• high ceilings
• tons of glass
• control system for house lighting and temperature
• plants on the roof (a "living roof") help to limit rain runoff and provide natural insulation
• quality materials
• built in iPod audio system

All of these add-ons and options push the home out of many folks' price range though. For instance, the NanaWall system runs ~$1,500 per single panel (the mkLotus had xx). My understanding is that the home starts around $150,000, but can venture past $225k with all of the add-ons featured on the show home.

A note worth mentioning, and one repeated throughout the conference: these homes may seem expensive, but much of that is due to their "green" features, from rainwater catchment systems, to solar panels galore.

Jill and Emily at Inhabitat loved the house:

"Above and beyond all the green, however, the house is just a testament to thoughtful, smart design. Every material, system and design choice in the house seems to be thought out, and have purpose. The high ceilings, skylights, gently angled walls, floor to ceiling glass and copious daylight all work to make the 700 sf house feel a lot bigger and more spacious than it actually is."
They also uploaded a bunch of photos of the house to Flickr.

CBS 5 San Francisco offered a video report from the home.

With the mkLotus as the star attraction of the show, Michelle Kaufmann had a sort of celebrity aura to her. She spoke a number of times, on topics ranging from the show house to "Women in Green." She shows great enthusiasm for her work (and the work is prolific). The talks focused on the green aspects of the different MK products. Their work is separated into three categories:
• pre-configured options: pre-designed with finish and fixture options available
• custom designs: feature the MKD aesthetic but fully flexible in design configurations
• modern green communities: multi-family housing (which helps reduce costs significantly)

I'll share further info on a number of developments and new products from MKD in the coming weeks.

More West Coast Green coverage in the coming days.

Related Posts:
   1. West Coast Green 2008 coming September 25-27 (Aug 14, 2008)
   2. The mkLoft from Michelle Kaufmann Designs (Nov 13, 2007)
   3. This week: Jeriko House, Drop House, and more (Oct 13, 2007)
   4. CNET visits the mkLotus (Oct 12, 2007)
   5. West Coast Green round-up (Oct 02, 2007)
   6. The mkLotus show house (Jul 19, 2007)
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Dwell on Design recap

We weren't at Dwell on Design last weekend, but a lot of others were.

BLDGBLOG covered a talk by info_smallMichelle Kaufmann and fellow architect Michael McDonough:

"Michelle Kaufmann, meanwhile, still speaking as I type this, is introducing everyone to green roofs, rainwater catchment, passive/active solar energy systems, and the relatively streamlined construction process involved in assembling one of her projects. She even, briefly, touched on issues of affordability (or the lack thereof)."

PrairieMod produced some rambling podcasts from the show. Day 1 featured a review of the opening day speakers and show setup. Day 2 shared some photos from the show and more reviews of speakers.

Inhabitat posted details each day. Day 1: the speakers and some photos. Day 2: the outdoor area and info_smallkitHAUS.

Related Posts:
   1. Dwell on Design 2009 at the end of June (Jun 19, 2009)
   2. Dwell on Design 2008 recap (Jun 11, 2008)
   3. Dwell on Design bringing an entire neighborhood of prefab homes to LA June 5-8; get in FREE (May 23, 2008)
   4. Dwell on Design preview (Sep 12, 2007)
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This week: prototypes, why prefab and OMD

Link to This week: prototypes, why prefab and OMD
cubeme.com

CubeMe wrote about the Drop House, a prefab prototype:

"Here is a Prototype of a really cool-looking portable house."
Several of the rooms pop out from the main house volume.

The Good Human's Prefab Wednesday explained why they write about prefab.

Curbed LA wrote about an info_smallOMD prefab in Santa Monica:

"Green and tidy!"

We'll discuss Inhabitat's Prefab Friday post about the info_smallmkLotus in a separate post.

Jetson Green discussed another prefab prototype, the Tread Lightly House.

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A little more Green

Link to A little more Green
abc7news.com

I'm at West Coast Green, and just wanted to link to a couple more pieces of coverage of the event and the info_smallmkLotus.

From ABC 7 News in San Francisco: a live report earlier this week showed the near-complete house.

"This is a green house which aims to teach you how to be environmentally friendly in your home. Who knew that it could be so stylish? This is a modular home.

It has to be the most stylish one on the planet. It's only 725 square feet -- that's part of the message -- to be green, you don't need to build so big. Since it's modular, you can buy other pieces and add on to it."

The San Francisco Bay Guardian offered up a quirky article about the home and the show:
"Builders plopped down the 800-square-foot structure in just a day....the one-bedroom house costs a mere $199 per square foot, and that's with all the fancy fixings like a stereo system and rosewood floors.

The home was dubbed the mkLotus house by its designer, Michelle Kaufman Designs. The exterior is smart and sleek, with double-paned, floor-to-ceiling windows surrounding the living room and sustainably grown red balau wood and slabs of fly-ash concrete siding the back half....

According to XtremeHome CEO Tim Schmidt, without all the extras, an mkLotus could cost as little as $64,000, and he can have one good to go in less than six months."

The San Jose Mercury News wrote:
"If building an eco-friendly house is a stretch, how about a green in-law cottage?

[The] house...'was designed as an oasis,' Kaufmann says. 'It can be perfect for a vacation home, or a home where you feel like you're on vacation.'

The popularity of the two- to four-bedroom Glidehouse brought countless inquiries for in-law units and cottages, said Rebecca Woelke, spokeswoman for Michelle Kaufmann Designs.

'We wanted to give clients a different type of design in a one-bedroom layout,' Woelke said, something that 'opens entire living spaces to the outdoors and brings the outdoors in.' To do that, mkLotus' signature feature is its NanaWalls, floor-to-ceiling glass doors in the living room that fold up like an accordion to welcome nature into the home. 'This house blurs the boundary between the interior and exterior.'"

More reports about the show in the coming days.

Related Posts:
   1. Heading to West Coast Green Conference this weekend (Sep 19, 2007)
   2. The mkLotus show house (Jul 19, 2007)
   3. West Coast Green Conference (Jul 18, 2007)
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FlatPak near completion

Link to FlatPak near completion
amygoodwin.typepad.com/

Like the Flickr photo set we wrote about, Amy Goodwin's blog shows off some photos of her info_smallFlatPak House in Massachusetts.

MocoLoco fills in the blanks:

"Amy's is the first production model, which took almost two years since kinks had to be worked out as the manufacturing process went along. Despite being the guinea pigs for the Flatpak experience, the final product is all that Goodwin hoped for and more."

Jetson Green took a look:

"I really like how the house is tucked into the enveloping landscape, almost camouflaged from the entry way."

company: info_smallLazor Office
style: modern
how: pre-cut frame, infill panels

Related Posts:
   1. Sausalito, CA FlatPak for sale (Jun 26, 2009)
   2. Lazor Office's FlatPak House (Apr 19, 2007)
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Heading to West Coast Green Conference this weekend

Link to Heading to West Coast Green Conference this weekend
westcoastgreen.com

The West Coast Green residential building conference and expo starts this Thursday in San Francisco. I will be attending and am looking forward to seeing the info_smallmkLotus in person.

West Coast Green is "America's largest residential green building conference". September 20-21 are limited to building professionals, but the general public is invited for September 22s "Homeowner Day":

"West Coast Green will host community leaders and visionaries, such as San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom, Hollywood actor Ed Begly Jr., environmental/civil rights leader Van Jones and many others. Homeowners looking to design and build a new, energy-efficient green home, or those looking to upgrade the efficiency of their existing homes, will benefit from walking the tradeshow floor, abounding with hundreds of products and services to build, remodel, power, insulate, clean, furnish and finance their green homes."

where: Bill Graham Civic Auditorium, San Francisco, CA
when: September 20-22, 2007
registration: $25 ($35 at the door) for Homeowner Day, September 22. $325/day for full conference access.
features: mkLotus show home; speakers Allison Arieff (former editor of Dwell magazine), Steve Glenn, Sheri Koones, and Michelle Kaufmann; over 100 green construction product vendors

Related Posts:
   1. West Coast Green in San Francisco: October 1-3, 2009 (Sep 25, 2009)
   2. CNET visits the mkLotus (Oct 12, 2007)
   3. A little more Green (Sep 21, 2007)
   4. The mkLotus show house (Jul 19, 2007)
   5. West Coast Green Conference (Jul 18, 2007)
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Ask men about prefab

AskMen.com recently featured an article on prefab homes:

"Broadly defined, a prefab home is a home composed of various parts, almost like Lego blocks, which are prefabricated or premade in a factory and then assembled on-site... 

Although such homes have long enjoyed popularity in countries like Sweden and Japan, only recently have they started to catch on in the U.S. thanks in part to a redefinition of the term 'prefab home'....

At the outset, the cost of a prefab home is fairly similar to the cost of any other custom home: Per square foot, prices generally range from $100 USD to $150 USD. The notable difference in cost is in the time required for construction... 

In fact, one of the most remarkable aspects of these homes is the drastic disparity in building time compared to a custom home. On-site construction of a custom home can easily take a year or even longer depending on a variety of factors -- like weather, for example.

Prefabs, on the other hand, can go up remarkably quick: Installation and the move can happen in a week's time. The numerous benefits to this are obvious, but consider this: If you own land in a desirable area -- i.e., Vale or Cabo -- you can start the process to have a sensational second home there in one season and enjoy it the next."

Read the full article for more reasons to go prefab.

Title: Fine Living: Prefab Homes
Author: Ross Bonander
Publication: AskMen.com
Length: 900 words
Date: May 13, 2007

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Resolution: 4 in East Hampton

Link to Resolution: 4 in East Hampton
re4a.com

From our mailbox:

"A recently completed RES4 PREFAB, the RES4 ZIMWEX (aka swingline), is located on a wooded three-acre site in East Hampton, New York, and serves as a 4200 sf year-round haven for two women and their four kids who split time between Manhattan and the Hamptons."

Additional images can be seen on Resolution: 4 Architecture's website.

I sent an e-mail off to Resolution: 4 on September 2 seeking further details but received no response.

style: modern, wood finish
size: 4,200 sf
bedrooms: 6
how: modules
more info: project page

Related Posts:
   1. New York Post on modular (Oct 19, 2007)
   2. This week: UK prefab, Res: 4, and reminiscences (Sep 29, 2007)
   3. Wall Street Journal: modern modular (Aug 09, 2007)
   4. The Dwell Home by Resolution 4: Architecture (Apr 18, 2007)
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This week: IKEA, Quik House, and anticipating West Coast Green

Link to This week: IKEA, Quik House, and anticipating West Coast Green
boklok.com

CubeMe covered the IKEA BoKlok housing system we've discussed.

The Good Human's Prefab Wednesday discussed the info_smallQuik House from Adam Kalkin:

"Although there is currently a 6 month waiting list, this looks like a very nice alternative to some of the more expensive prefab homes on the market."

Builder Online anticipates the West Coast Green Building Conference and the arrival of the info_smallmkLotus.

Inhabitat does too.

Jetson Green gave a sneak preview of a new prefab concept, the Nodul(ar) House, which is being announced this weekend at the Dwell on Design conference.

Related Posts:
   1. This week: IKEA, pieceHomes (Oct 28, 2007)
   2. West Coast Green Conference (Jul 18, 2007)
   3. Kalkin Quik House (May 15, 2007)
   4. This week: IKEA goes prefab, mountain retreats, and a prefab high-rise (Apr 21, 2007)
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Modular in Mississippi

Link to Modular in Mississippi
newgulfhomes.com

From WLOX, in Southern Mississippi:

"Many South Mississippi homeowners who lost their homes to Hurricane Katrina are rebuilding, but they are choosing a different option.

Modular home buying is becoming a popular trend on the coast.

'From start to finish, it's a quicker process than site building a house,' says Ryan Nance....Nance is the president of New Gulf Homes.

The homes sit on concrete barriers and can withstand wind speeds up to 160 miles an hour. That's reason enough for homeowner Mary Bailey to buy a modular home. She lost her first home to Hurricane Camille, rebuilt, but lost it again to Katrina. Now Bailey is back in the same spot for a third time, but she's doing things a little differently.

'I decided at my age, I didn't have time to fool with an architect for a year and trying to find a contractor and all that,' says Bailey."

Author: Elise Roberts
Publication: WLOX, The News for South Mississippi
Length: 320 words
Date: August 29, 2007

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Dwell on Design preview

Link to Dwell on Design preview
dwell.com

The Dwell on Design conference is this weekend in San Francisco.

We won't be there, but here's who will:
info_smallAlchemy Architects
info_smallEcoSteel, aka EcoContempo
info_smallEmpyrean International
info_smallH-Haus
info_smallHive Modular
info_smallMichelle Kaufmann
info_smallkitHAUS
info_smallLivingHomes
info_smallModern Cabana
info_smallRocio Romero Homes

We heard from Alchemy Architects:

"Alchemy Architects will be at Dwell on Design 2007 with a weeHouse to 'tour'. Amazing, but we had a CA client who's weeHouse is just being finished...so it'll stop in San Fran on its way to San Diego. It's a very exciting opportunity for people who are interested in a weeHouse to see a weeHouse. We'll be in the outdoor, prefab section."

We know these vendors won't be attending:
info_smallCleverHomes
info_smallv2world

Some prefab-specific events that will be worth checking out:
• September 15 and 16, 2:45 - 3:15: "Prefab Discussion Panel" hosted by Michael Sylvester of fabprefab.com
• September 15, 2:00 - 2:30: "The Process Behind Prefab:The Design and Production of Green Modular Homes" with Jared Levy and Jason Davis of info_smallMarmol Radziner Prefab
• September 15, 3:30 - 4:00: "Creating the First LEED Platinum Home" with Steve Glenn of info_smallLivingHomes

what: Dwell on Design conference
where: Concourse Exhibition Center, San Francisco, CA
when: September 14-16, 2007
registration: $20 for Exhibition Only pass, September 15-16. $895 for full conference and exhibition passport.
features: over 80 exhibitors and vendors

Related Posts:
   1. Dwell on Design 2009 at the end of June (Jun 19, 2009)
   2. Dwell on Design 2008 recap (Jun 11, 2008)
   3. Dwell on Design recap (Sep 24, 2007)
   4. Dwell on Design Conference (Aug 15, 2007)
   5. Dwell Magazine, Dwell Homes (Apr 17, 2007)
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Lake Tahoe modulars

Link to Lake Tahoe modulars
nevadaappeal.com

A trailer park near Lake Tahoe, in CA has ditched the trailers and replaced them with new modular homes:

"Instead of building new structures on the site of the old Denny's Trailer Park on Trout Street, developer John Anderson shipped in seven pre-fabricated homes from Oregon for the Kings Beach redevelopment project....

'Everything has to be trucked in anyway,' Anderson said Tuesday afternoon on the construction site. Modular construction lowers the number of required trips, he said....

'This morning there were no houses here,' said inspector Jim Rogers of Marlette Homes, the modular home manufacturer. 'Tonight, there will be five of them set up.' Modular construction costs 20 percent less than standard frame homes, Anderson said...

But the real savings is in building time, Anderson said. Modular construction allows builders to start and finish in one season, before the snow flies."

Read more details in the full article.

Title: Oregon prefab homes a fit for Kings Beach
Author: Julie Brown
Publication: Nevada Appeal
Length: 450 words
Date: August 29, 2007

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WIRED webcam

Link to WIRED webcam
wired.com

The WIRED LivingHome we've covered before was first announced back in June. Two months later, the house modules are being installed and you can watch via webcam.

One gripe: I wish the webcam shots were all from a wider angle to show the big picture.

Treehugger's been watching:

"...sometimes watching paint dry is more exciting but then some big module flies in front of the camera."

Jetson Green also tuned in:

"All the main parts are supposed to be complete by September 7, and we'll be able to get a pretty good picture of what the final home will look like."

Curbed LA mentioned the home last Tuesday.

Related Posts:
   1. In the news: WIRED LivingHome (Sep 02, 2009)
   2. WIRED LivingHome still for sale; price reduced (Jun 30, 2008)
   3. Take a (long!) tour of the WIRED LivingHome (Jan 15, 2008)
   4. WIRED LivingHome open for tours! (Nov 06, 2007)
   5. LivingHomes gets WIRED ... for $4 million (Jul 02, 2007)
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This week: looking for affordable prefab and volunteers

Link to This week: looking for affordable prefab and volunteers
re4a.com

CubeMe showed off a design from info_smallResolution: 4 Architecture:

"It has three sides of glass and wrap-around decks with a loft-like communal space upstairs that contains the kitchen, dining room, and living room.

The home cost $173 a square foot. Total construction cost was $400,000 including site work, decks, septic and well."

The Good Human's Prefab Wednesday shared the designs of JASONOAH Design Build a company building custom-designed homes:
"They are currently building a prototype home and hope to have the kits available very soon. I am excited to see the completed house and hope these kits come on the market priced as stated, as I think it will open up a great option for those not able to spend $400,000 on a prefab house."

Treehugger says that the West Coast Green building conference needs some volunteers.

Speaking of the conference, Inhabitat's Prefab Friday previewed their talk with a look at the Mcube system:

"MDesign's patented Mcube modular prefab system is a gorgeous, flexible, solar-powered, and stunningly affordable housing option that exemplifies the benefits of prefabricated building. The system is based on a translucent 10'-cube module which can be stacked in multiple floors and units for residential and commercial purposes. Made from concrete, steel, and luminous fiberglass daylighting wall panels, the system can be fully erected in 90 days at a cost starting at $100 per square foot! (Yes $100 a foot!). Considering how expensive most sleek SoCal prefab systems seem to be - this is a price tag that really got our attention."

Related Posts:
   1. West Coast Green Conference (Jul 18, 2007)
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CNET visits the XtremeHomes factory

Link to CNET visits the XtremeHomes factory
cnet.com

CNET has released a video (3:14) showing the info_smallmkLotus being built in the info_smallXtremeHomes factory. CEO Tim Schmidt mentions a key advantage of factory-built homes: reduced construction time with employees rather than contractors. info_smallMichelle Kaufmann discusses the green features and demonstrates the NanaWall.

(Scott adds two gripes: CNET's video player is flaky, and the pre-roll ad is annoying.)

Author: Michael Kanellos
Publication: CNET News
Length: 3:14
Date: August 30, 2007

Related Posts:
   1. CNET visits the mkLotus (Oct 12, 2007)
   2. XtremeHomes: modular building the green way (Aug 10, 2007)
   3. The mkLotus show house (Jul 19, 2007)
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Sheri Koones is on a mission

Link to Sheri Koones is on a mission
allproducts.com

Last month The Morning Call featured an article on Sheri Koones, author of Prefabulous. She's out to spread the word about modular construction:

"'It's not only my message, it's my mission,' she says in a telephone interview from her home in Greenwich, Conn. 'The benefits are enormous in every area from cost to the environment. My goal is to change the way people look at modular homes, and I think we're moving in that direction.'

Her view is supported by statistics supplied by the National Association of Home Builders, which notes that modular housing production increased 48 percent from 1992-2002 (the most recent statistics available), and that one of every 10 homes in the Northeast is modular....

She can quickly tick off a list of their assets: energy efficiency, durability, reduced construction costs, reduction of construction waste, and superior construction conditions that aren't subject to the ravages of Mother Nature....

For those who might question the wisdom of constructing a home off-site and dropping it into place atop a prepared foundation, Koones asks: 'Would anyone think it's a good idea for Ford to drop off parts to a car in your driveway and expect someone to put it together? That's the same principle.'"

Read the full article for other ways that Koones is trying to change the perception of modular homes.

Title: Prefab grows up
Subtitle: Writer is on a mission to publicize modular homes
Author: Linda Harbrecht
Publication: The Morning Call, the leading news and information website in The Lehigh Valley (Pennsylvania)
Words: 1,100
Date: August 19, 2007

(Although the site says that articles should be available for 30 days, that link seems to be broken. Try the mobile version or see if Google or Archive.org has a cached copy.)

Related Posts:
   1. West Coast Green: Sheri Koones (Sep 28, 2007)
   2. New prefab book: Prefabulous (Jun 08, 2007)
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6,000 square foot modular

Link to 6,000 square foot modular
sfgate.com

Modular construction can benefit any size home.

From the San Francisco Chronicle:

"Rachel Purcell's....[house] came rolling in from a factory in Nebraska on seven convoys of trucks. In less than three days, her new 6,000-square-foot house was stacked and bolted together. Within three months, the final work was completed - adding porches and other finish work.

Perhaps capitalizing on Bay Area residents' desire for high-end design on a budget, prefabricated home companies are springing up around the Bay Area....

'In California, people are attracted to prefabricated homes because of the cost efficiency,' said Eric Peterson, president of Altamont Homes. 'Since we're a relatively small industry, we tend to work together to promote the product.'"

Toby Long of info_smallCleverHomes was quoted:
"A new modular home is still a very expensive new home in the Bay Area," he said. "To go into this with the assumption that these construction methods reduce cost is flawed. I do think it's appropriate to go into it knowing that you'll get a higher quality product for the same money."

The full article features additional photos and details.

Worth noting: Rachel Purcell formed a company, Purcell Custom Modular, to help others build modular homes.

Title: Modular Homes - How They Stack Up
Author: Heather Boerner
Publication: The San Francisco Chronicle
Words: 1,425
Date: August 5, 2007

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Modular fits in (and goes up quickly)

News from Georgia:

"In a historic neighborhood of homes built in the 1800s, Roy Hill's new house went up in a single day after trucks hauled it to Savannah in pieces built inside a North Carolina factory.

Two trucks carried the downstairs level, split into halves, of the home's 2,200 square feet. A couple more brought the upstairs, also in two parts. A fifth truck carried the attic window dormers and parts of the roof..."

From Beth Reiter, the city's historic preservation officer:
"'It doesn't matter what the construction technique is,' Reiter said. 'It's what the product looks like in the end.'"

Read the full article for details on Hill's plan to build an entire development of modular homes.

Title: Prefab home goes up in a day in historic Savannah neighborhood
Author: Associated Press
Publication: Access North Georgia
Words: 475

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This week: XtremeHomes visit, JoT, Lot-ek, and more

Link to This week: XtremeHomes visit, JoT, Lot-ek, and more
homebysunset.com

Home by sunset visited the info_smallXtremeHomes factory and reported back:

"We saw the fully installed folding glass panels, which are called Nanawalls...three sides of the living-dining room. They silently glide away to unite inside and outside: this is how to live large in a small space."

The Good Human's Prefab Wednesday covered the JoT House:

"I love this house. [Its] sleek modern lines, affordability and 'green-ness' make it a good option for those looking for a modern prefab house."

Inhabitat's Prefab Friday featured a video of design firm info_smallLOT-EK speaking about their shipping container architecture.

The LA Investor's Real Estate Blog discussed two prefab projects, the WIRED LivingHome and info_smallMarmol Radziner Prefab.

Architecture.mnp loves A Prefab Project too.

Related Posts:
   1. A Prefab Project budget (Aug 20, 2007)
   2. XtremeHomes: modular building the green way (Aug 10, 2007)
   3. The mkLotus show house (Jul 19, 2007)
   4. LivingHomes gets WIRED ... for $4 million (Jul 02, 2007)
   5. This week: Japanese prefab, SIPs, and the greenness of big homes (Apr 14, 2007)
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Million dollar modular

The [Southwest Florida] Herald Tribune published an article this month on the pairing of a high-end developer and a modular builder.

"At first glance, new partners Stephen Weeks and Howard Rooks seem to be working opposite ends of the real estate street.

Rooks builds 'spec' custom waterfront mansions costing $5 million to $10 million each.

Weeks is the former Florida Budget Realty Realtor who specialized in selling much more modest modular or prefabricated houses made by Palm Harbor Homes.

Weeks made news last April by assembling a $400,000 prefabricated Palm Harbor home on Sarasota's Bahia Vista Street in a day.

At that time it may have been the most expensive modular home offered in the county, but a mere four months later, that record has been almost tripled by a pair of Palm Harbor homes on Siesta Key, which are both being offered for $1 million or more, although they are not being offered by either Weeks or Rooks.

The new partners agree that the current era of high-end real estate must include offerings of prefabricated houses, some of which which have gotten so elaborate they can easily top $1 million in price, as the two Palm Harbor homes for sale on Siesta Key have demonstrated."

Read the full article for details on these high end modular homes.

Title: Odd realty couple become partners
Subtitle: Howard Rooks builds custom waterfront mansions, while Stephen Weeks sells more modest prefab homes
Author: Stephen Frater
Publication: The Herald Tribune
Words: 950
Date: August 13, 2007

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Spend a night in a restored Wright prefab

Link to Spend a night in a restored Wright prefab
www.polymathpark.com

One of only 11 Frank Lloyd Wright prefab homes has been dismantled, moved and reconstructed as a guest house in Pennsylvania.

From an article in the Cincinnati Post:

"Duncan House had been built in the Chicago suburb of Lisle in 1957 for Donald and Elizabeth Duncan. It's been moved to the rolling hills in the Laurel Highlands of west Pennsylvania, near a town with the unlikely name of Acme...It's only 15 miles from Wright's most famous house named Fallingwater....

Duncan House is now owned by Tom Papinchak, who has said he's had guests nearly every night since the June opening....

Duncan House has some Wright trademarks: a low ceiling in the entrance hall, a three-step drop into a large living room, a kitchen entrance from the carport.

The story is told that the modern little ranch of 2,200 square feet was discovered by the Duncans in a store about prefabs in the December, 1956, issue of House and Home Magazine. Duncan was an electrical engineer who thought Wright designed for wealthy people, but the architect wished to design middle-class housing toward the end of his career. The Duncans ordered the No. 1 prefab house, which Wright had manufactured by the Erdman Co. in Madison, Wisc. Factory-assembled windows, cut lumber, cabinetry and partial walls were delivered on flatbed trucks. There's no evidence that Wright personally visited the Duncans while their prefab was put up."

what: Frank Lloyd Wright prefab guest house
where: Acme, PA
price: $385 per night

(Hat tip: Not PC via PrairieMod)

Related Posts:
   1. The Duncan House in the New York Times (Mar 06, 2008)
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MicroSystem homes: small but feature-packed

Link to MicroSystem homes: small but feature-packed
m-finity.com

Mfinity offers the MicroSystem series of prefab structures, with options ranging from a small microSHED to the larger microHome.

From the Mfinity press release:

"The average American home is roughly 2,200 square feet yet the microHOME is less than a 100 square feet. A mix between a small house, a ship's cabin, and a travel trailer, it comes standard with a kitchenette, including a sink, stove, refrigerator and storage, as well as a private bathroom with a pass-thru shower and composting toilet. There are also a multitude of interior options and porch styles to choose from allowing the homeowner to personalize their own dwelling. With just a single 8 foot by 12 foot unit the microHOME can provide all the daily needs of three occupants."

Worth noting:

"Leading the prefab industry, our free delivery and set up service is a critical aspect of the microSYSTEM philosophy. No matter where you live within the contiguous United States you pay the same low price for your microSYSTEM."

Inhabitat's Prefab Friday offered some skepticism:

"It's hard to imagine how in the world a person (let alone a family!) could live sanely in just 100 square feet. Perhaps as a temporary shelter it would provide welcome relief, but in the long term we suspect anyone would crave some elbow room."

Michael Cannell weighed in on the Dwell blog:

"It feels like a cross between a backwoods cabin and a trailer - prefab with an ironical folksy edge....it hardly seems like a bargain, though delivery and installation are included."

Ecofriend covered the home. As did Land + Living.

model: microSHED
style: single room, detached storage shed
size: 96sf - 192sf
bedrooms: 0
bathrooms: 0
price: $15,995 - $33,995 (~$175/sf)
more info: microSHED brochure (pdf)

model: microSTUDIO
style: single room, detached structure(s)
size: 96sf - 192sf
bedrooms: 0
bathrooms: 0
price: $26,995 - $52,995 (~$275/sf)
more info: microSTUDIO brochure (pdf)

model: microCABANA
style: single room, detached structure(s)
size: 96sf - 192sf
bedrooms: 1
bathrooms: 1
price: $37,995 - $63,995 ($333/sf - $400/sf)
more info: microCABANA brochure (pdf)

model: microHOME
style: single room, detached structure(s) with kitchenette
size: 96sf - 192sf
bedrooms: 1
bathrooms: 1
price: $39,995 - $65,995 ($340/sf - $415/sf)
more info: microHOME brochure (pdf)

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Prefab is not a fad

Link to Prefab is not a fad
slate.com

Yesterday we covered a slideshow essay at Slate that criticized the current "prefab fad." Rybczynski has a 3 part indictment:

"unpopular, expensive and divorced from industrial production".
We're not sure whether he's paying attention.

As for "unpopular", Modernist homes (prefab or otherwise) are aimed at a specific audience:

"Where are all these people who live in cool lofts and spaces in the city supposed to go when they move to the country? They certainly don't want to go live in a colonial-style house." (Robert Luntz of Resolution: 4, quoted in Builder Online)

It's unlikely that modernist prefab will sweep away the dominant preference for traditional homes. But it could easily become a profitable (self-sustaining) niche. Our favorite example is the one that we (Peter and Scott) are using to create and edit this post: the Macintosh still has less than 10% overall market share but represents a thriving business that continues to dominate several niche markets.

Prefab doesn't just mean modernist, e.g. info_smallHive Modular offers a (mostly) traditional facade, info_smallEmpyrean's Deck House and Acorn are classic "post and beam", and the "traditional" modular housing industry is growing.

The current crop of prefab architects want to make "good design" more affordable.

"Most architects working in prefab are trying to create standard designs, to reduce the cost and risk to the client, and bring the services of talented architects to smaller houses." (Lloyd Alter on Treehugger, quoted in May)
"While her first customers tended to fit the stereotype of the Prius-driving, NPR-listening eco-consumer, Kaufmann is increasingly fielding inquiries from people who just want an attractive, affordable house." (From an article on Michelle Kaufmann in July.)

Last point: prefab is not "divorced from industrial production". Many of the companies we cover have built their own factories and most others are working closely with existing factories

Has the prefab industry achieved its goals? No. Is it headed in the right direction? We think so.

Related Posts:
   1. NPR interviews Slate's prefab skeptic (Nov 01, 2007)
   2. Slate: The Prefab Fad (Aug 27, 2007)
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Slate: The Prefab Fad

Link to Slate: The Prefab Fad
slate.com

Earlier this month, Slate posted a slide show essay by Witold Rybczynski on "The Prefab Fad." The essay and slide show cover a number of modernist prefabs, arguing that "the current vogue for prefabs is more about industrial chic than affordability."

Rybczynski's says that "modern architecture is unpopular, expensive and divorced from industrial production. That is why whenever it has tried to extend its field to include the territory of the prefabricated house it has failed and been forced to retreat." He predicts that "the current generation of Modernist prefabs is unlikely to fare any better."

Lloyd Alter of Treehugger says "I hope he is wrong."

We think he is. For details, please tune in tomorrow!

Title: The Prefab Fad
Subtitle: Prefabrication is everywhere in American home-building. But that doesn't mean your next house is going to be a stylish, modernist box.
Author: Witold Rybczynski
Publication: Slate
Photos: 8
Words: 1,200
Date: August 8, 2007

Related Posts:
   1. Witold Rybczynski goes to MoMA (Aug 19, 2008)
   2. NPR interviews Slate's prefab skeptic (Nov 01, 2007)
   3. Prefab is not a fad (Aug 28, 2007)
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This week: prefab concepts, debate, and more

Link to This week: prefab concepts, debate, and more

Equity Green discussed Hybrid Seattle, a prefab company building homes from shipping containers. They also showed off the ATC cabin, a prefab concept from Canada.

A blog simply called "House" covered the Empyrean info_smallNextHouse blog, we've talked about before.

Preston at Jetson Green showed off the Ideabox Prefab:

"Ideabox offers a pretty cool product in the modern, prefabricated housing industry. Ideabox emphasizes good design, not square footage, and they make it easy to do."
He also wrote about the JoT House.

The author at ColumbusING tried to spark debate about prefab:

"Can it be a viable solution? Over the past 10 years the country and for that matter Columbus has been inundated with the "cookie cutter" type of residential building, which has paved the way for convenient and affordable living for some and in the mind of others, has created a perception of architectural character digust. So where does that put Prefab houses?"

A New Zealand blog, Sneak, discovered the WIRED Living Home.

PrairieMod mentioned the blog at A Prefab Project:

"It's an interesting mix of photos, thoughts and information that anyone who dreams of going prefab will find very enlightening."

The Good Human's Prefab Wednesday wrote about the PLACE Houses, a new prefab concept. We'll cover those in more depth soon.

Inhabitat's Prefab Friday examined a student housing project made from containers.

Related Posts:
   1. This week: Ideabox, Method Homes, and unconventional (Jul 26, 2008)
   2. Empyrean and the NextHouse (Apr 20, 2007)
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Prefab hotel rooms in Amsterdam

Link to Prefab hotel rooms in Amsterdam
www.qbichotels.com

As we've reported before, prefab is not just for homes. Business Week recently covered an interesting new hotel in Amsterdam:

"In order to create a hotel in big cities where real estate is often costly and space at a premium, Qbic's founders came up with a novel idea: Create a prefab, plug-and-play module called a Cubi that can be outfitted inside existing space. 'There are more than 1 million square meters of empty office buildings in Holland,' says Maxine Hofman, Qbic's sales and marketing manager....

The Cubi, a pre-assembled, 74-square-foot cube-shaped living area, is the focal point of each room. Despite the seemingly cramped quarters, each Cubi is both self-contained and luxuriously appointed with Swedish Hästens beds, flat-screen TVs, high-speed Internet access, and a small work station. The bathrooms boast a rain shower and Philippe Starck fixtures....

The Cubi can be placed and hooked up within a few hours. Which means Qbic is a near-instant hotel."

Read the full article for details on the concept.

Title: A Hotel in a Box
Author: Stacy Perman
Publication: Business Week
Words: 950
Date: August 15, 2007

Related Posts:
   1. Pop-up hotel technology from Abilmo (Jul 16, 2008)
   2. Prefab hotel in London (Mar 03, 2008)
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The top modular builders

Link to The top modular builders

Last year, Builder Magazine released a list of the top 31 modular builders (pdf) in the United States.

I've put the data in the top chart above. As can be seen, a few large companies build the majority of modular homes. In case you don't recognize the shape of the curve: it's a classic "powerlaw" distribution known as Zipf's Law and discussed in the business bestseller The Long Tail. All sorts of data show the same shape, including book sales, blog traffic, and word usage in any language.

The second chart shows revenue per home for each company. There is lots of variation in this chart. It might be interesting to research this variation at some point. One likely factor: companies that sell direct vs. wholesale. Any other thoughts?

Fleetwood Enterprises builds a number of products, including recreational vehicles, so their revenues reflect revenue sources other than the modular homes shipped, accounting for the large discrepancies in the data.

Below, you can see a table that shows all of the data charted above for each company.

Company (rank)HomesRevenue ($m)Revenue per home
Champion Enterprises (1)46531365$293,359
CMH Manufacturing (2)31661328$419,457
Palm Harbor Homes (3)1614711$440,520
Muncy Homes (4)134685$63,150
Excel Homes (5)1200111$92,500
Ritz-Craft Corp. (6)84991$107,185
Professional Building Systems (7)78158$74,264
Royal Concrete Concepts (8)60068$113,333
Liberty Homes (9)55297$175,725
Pleasan Street Homes (10)52657$108,365
Patriot Homes (11)490151$308,163
Crestline Homes (12)48036$75,000
Simplex Industries (13)45245$99,558
R-Anell Housing Group (14)40842$102,941
Stratford Homes (15)37535$93,333
New England Homes (16)35027$77,143
American Homestar Corp. (17)341111$325,513
Four Seasons Housing (18)32084$262,500
Handcrafted Homes (19)30728$91,205
Westchester Modular Homes (20)30530$98,361
Fleetwood Enterprises (21)2612145$8,218,391
Unibilt Industries (22)25322$86,957
Integrity Building Systems (23)24722$89,069
Penn Lyon Homes Corp. (24)23032$139,130
Oxford Homes (25)22015$68,182
Deluxe Building Systems (26)16533$200,000
Barvista Homes (27)12515$120,000
Custom Building Systems (28)12111$90,909
Heritage Homes of Nebraska (29)12114$115,702
Manufactured Housing Enterprises (30)10610$94,340
Epoch Homes (31)10014$140,000

Related Posts:
   1. Epoch Homes nominated for SBANE award (May 26, 2009)
   2. Epoch Homes factory tours this weekend in NH (May 15, 2009)
   3. The NAHB on Systems-Built Housing (Jul 27, 2007)
   4. NAHB Modular Home Manufacturer Directory (Jul 20, 2007)
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JoT House update and pricing

Link to JoT House update and pricing
jothouse.com

A couple weeks back, I reported on the JoT House. I've received a few more details about the JoT line of products from Jim Vinson.

The reported "as low as $100/sf" price was for a spartan artists loft. Their PDF states "the average cost is $180 per square foot" excluding design fees, site prep, and materials shipping.

model: JoT House
style: modern
size: 1,344 sf
bedrooms: 1 - 3
price: starts at $210,000 + $35,000 design fee (~$180/sf)
how: SIPs

model: JoT L
style: modern
size: 1,370 sf
bedrooms: 1 - 3
price: starts at $260,000 + $35,000 design fee (~$215/sf)
how: SIPs

model: Mini-JoT
style: single room, detached structure
size: 128 sf
price: $45,000 - $75,000 plus $2,000 design fee ($350/sf - $600/sf)
notes: no plumbing, "trailer delivery option reclassifies the structure as a temporary building or vehicle, eliminating many permit issues"

Related Posts:
   1. The JoT House: cheap and flexible (Jul 31, 2007)
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A Prefab Project budget

Link to A Prefab Project budget

One of the great features of A Prefab Project is the detailed budget homeowner Chris keeps updating. As the project nears completion, it offers an accurate estimation of how much a prefab project from Res4 might cost you. Granted, your site work and other specifics might differ, but it's a good bunch of numbers to study.

I've pulled together the spreadsheet above showing the initial estimation of how much each piece of work would cost. I've then inputted numbers for the actual costs, based on what Chris has reported. They are doing an impressive job of sticking to their budget!

My only question: why does a prefab house have a 15% design fee? I emailed Resolution 4 on Aug. 7th and Aug. 11, but haven't heard back.

Related Posts:
   1. Lost River Modern by Resolution 4 (Aug 13, 2009)
   2. A Prefab Project you can rent (Jul 10, 2008)
   3. This week: XtremeHomes visit, JoT, Lot-ek, and more (Sep 01, 2007)
   4. Learn from a Prefab Project (Jul 23, 2007)
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This week: weeHouses and more Dwell on Design

Link to This week: weeHouses and more Dwell on Design
weehouses.com

The Good Human's Prefab Wednesday covered the info_smallweeHouse from Alchemy Architects:

"A two bedroom prefab for $109,000? Sounds interesting. Except for the foundation, fitting and seaming of the house after arrival, and utility hookups, these weeHouses from Alchemy Architects come ready to live in. Very cool!"

Luba's San Francisco Real Estate Blog is looking forward to for the upcoming Dwell on Design show:

"Woo Hoo! This is the first year that I'll be attending the Dwell on Design Conference and Exhibition! And I can't even begin to tell you how excited I am!"

Inhabitat also shared their thoughts on the show and recapped their coverage from last year.

Inhabitat's Prefab Friday discussed the microSYSTEM homes this week; we'll take a closer look at those soon.

Related Posts:
   1. Dwell on Design 2009 at the end of June (Jun 19, 2009)
   2. weeHouse in Continental Airlines magazine (Jun 16, 2009)
   3. weeHouse by Alchemy on display in WI; today and this weekend (May 22, 2009)
   4. Dwell on Design Conference (Aug 15, 2007)
   5. Itsy Bitsy weeHouse (Mar 26, 2007)
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Marmol Radziner videos

Link to Marmol Radziner videos
marmolradzinerprefab.com

info_smallMarmol Radziner Prefab has added a videos page to their website. The videos feature some quirky footage of their factory and process set to music, and speaking engagements by Leo Marmol.

Marmol Radziner will be displaying at this year's Dwell on Design conference.

Related Posts:
   1. Podcast features Marmol Radziner and Blu Homes (Aug 14, 2009)
   2. Hollywood Hybrid by Marmol Radziner Prefab (Jul 11, 2009)
   3. The Skyline Series by Marmol Radziner Prefab (Jul 02, 2009)
   4. Marmol Radziner Prefab writes a blog (Feb 20, 2008)
   5. This week: Modern Shed and the Marmol factory (Oct 20, 2007)
   6. Some Assembly Required at LAMOCA (May 03, 2007)
   7. Sexy Prefab (Mar 29, 2007)
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The Perrinepod: concrete prefab from Australia

Link to The Perrinepod: concrete prefab from Australia
pod.perrine.com.au/

The info_smallperrinepod is a prefab product out of Australia made from a precast concrete shell. While the pods are heavy, assembly takes just three days and the pods are engineered to stack up to 30 units high.

PerthNow reported on the house last week:

"Here's something for the 'I want it now' generation - a house that can be erected in three days. But this is no flimsy, mail order, do-it-yourself number, the Perrinepod is made from pre-cast, pre-stressed and tensioned concrete and is cyclone and earthquake proof."
Worth noting:
"With more than 100 orders on his books already, including some from resorts, developers and other corporate groups, Perrine is quite confident the pod will take off."

Inhabitat was impressed.

Materialicio.us was too.

style: modern
size: 515sf - 1,030sf
bedrooms: 1 - 2
price: $125,000 - $250,000
how: precast concrete
finish level: complete, inside and out, including mechanical systems
available: Australia
more info: brochure (pdf)

Related Posts:
   1. Casa Grossi and prefabricated concrete wall panels (Nov 03, 2008)
   2. This week: trailers, perrinepod, and more (Jan 05, 2008)
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Dwell on Design Conference

Link to Dwell on Design Conference
dwell.com

The Dwell on Design Conference will hit San Francisco in September, right before the West Coast Green building conference. Dwell on Design "is an idea-driven, hands-on experience designed to ignite a creative spark within anyone who is passionate about modern design, sustainability, and smart growth."

"This year's Dwell on Design Conference will highlight the ingenuity and commitment of people who are building community on a number of fronts, each with an emphasis on modern design, sustainability and smart growth. Speakers and panelists will offer their stories and in-depth knowledge of projects that range from single-family dwellings to multi-family, multi-generational housing to large-scale initiatives in urban planning and community development."

No official schedule has yet been released for the event, but we've heard from a few prefab vendors that they will be on hand showcasing their products.

where: Concourse Exhibition Center, San Francisco, CA
when: September 14-16, 2007
registration: $20 for Exhibition Only pass, September 15-16. $275 before August 21 for a Basic pass, $895 for full conference and exhibition passport.
features: over 80 exhibitors and vendors

Related Posts:
   1. Dwell on Design 2009 at the end of June (Jun 19, 2009)
   2. Dwell on Design bringing an entire neighborhood of prefab homes to LA June 5-8; get in FREE (May 23, 2008)
   3. Dwell on Design preview (Sep 12, 2007)
   4. This week: weeHouses and more Dwell on Design (Aug 18, 2007)
   5. Dwell Magazine, Dwell Homes (Apr 17, 2007)
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PowerHouse: emphasizing solar

Link to PowerHouse: emphasizing solar
cnet.com

Last week, CNET posted a photo gallery of a modular home with solar electric, solar hot water and other green features:

"PowerHouse Enterprises has designed a house--which could attain official green-building certification--that is delivered by flat-bed truck and crane. In June, the Lawrence, Mass.-based company shipped a two-unit model home to a site in Cambridge, Mass...

A key design element of this green building is its metal roof, which on first thought may not seem energy-efficient. After all, metal absorbs heat, and air conditioners consume a lot of electricity.

But PowerHouse's metal roof serves two specific purposes: heating the house in the cold season and generating electricity. Builders run plastic water tubes under the roof. The water is heated by the sun and distributed through the house to supply hot water and warm the house. The house also has solar electric panels to generate electricity during the day....

The company expects the two-unit project, begun in late June, to be done by the end of August."

Jetson Green was impressed:
"Power Pod Can Reduce Energy Costs Up to 80%. And that's pretty incredible"

Treehugger is a fan:

"The modular green prefab biz is full of difficult choices and tradeoffs. The Powerhouse people appear to have thought about them carefully here. Small, green, just drop it in place, what could be better?"

Title: A modular solar home takes root
Publication: CNET
Photos: 8
Date: August 7, 2007

Related Posts:
   1. Boston area home goes prefab and green (Feb 26, 2008)
   2. CNET and the PowerPod (Oct 16, 2007)
0 comments, 0 trackbacks (URL) , 

Apartment Therapy and Lindal Homes

Link to Apartment Therapy and Lindal Homes

'Prefab' can mean more than the modernist prefabs featured in Dwell and other design magazines, as Grace at Apartment Therapy LA found out:

"When friends of mine told me that they were building a prefab house on their lot on the outskirts of San Diego, I was expecting an offshoot of the Glide House. Imagine my surprise when they sent me a photo of their rustic cedar mansion courtesy of Lindal..."

According to the Lindal Cedar Homes FAQ:

"Q: Are your homes prefab (prefabricated) kit homes? A: Our homes are custom designed and crafted around a building system incorporating post and beam construction technology. We further detail the plans and high quality materials with a part numbering system, where every piece of lumber has a place. So, our system differs from true prefab. But our system provides a flexible and accurate approach to building a custom home not found at your local custom builder or in the prefab market."

0 comments, 0 trackbacks (URL) , 

This week: Marmol Radziner, prefab love, and Sundance

Link to This week: Marmol Radziner, prefab love, and Sundance
marmolradzinerprefab.com

The Good Human's Prefab Wednesday enjoys the designs from info_smallMarmol Radziner Prefab, but wants something affordable:

"I would really like to see an affordable, attractive and modern prefab house come on to the market. As much as I love all these designs, the price just puts it outside the realm of possibility for us and most other people."

A blog called cobalt_blue praises prefab and the info_smallLV Series from info_smallRocio Romero:

"Years ago, I had no concept of the words 'prefab housing' meant. I thought that it was a fancy euphemism for what we call a trailer home, or doublewide. This is until I had heard the words 'Rocio Romero' and the 'LV Home' mentioned in an article."
Read the whole thing (875 words).

Collin Dunn unleashes the snark (and wild exaggeration, e.g. "99.99%") on Treehugger's blog at the Sundance Channel, with several links to prefab coverage on Treehugger.com.

Inhabitat's Prefab Friday covers the info_smallperrinepod, which we'll look at in more detail shortly.

Related Posts:
   1. The Skyline Series by Marmol Radziner Prefab (Jul 02, 2009)
   2. 35 homes and counting (Apr 11, 2007)
   3. Sexy Prefab (Mar 29, 2007)
0 comments, 0 trackbacks (URL) , 

XtremeHomes: modular building the green way

Link to XtremeHomes: modular building the green way
xhllc.com

We recently reported on the info_smallmkLotus show house from info_smallMichelle Kaufmann Designs. Modular builder info_smallXtremeHomes will be fabricating the mkLotus at their factory in Oroville, CA.

"XtremeHomes provides a diverse array of architectural styles from ultra-modern to highly detailed alpine homes. Our product offerings address a variety of consumers with our entry level Neighborhood Series™, to an XtremeCustom™ home or a house from one of our Signature Series™ architects. Through its ongoing research and development, XtremeHomes focuses on ways to produce homes with less environmental impact, that are more energy efficient, are healthier and of higher quality. XtremeHomes, an Energy Star® partner, endeavors to build all of its houses to Energy Star®, LEED® and Build It Green® standards."

XtremeHomes will be a part of the West Coast Green building conference in September.

As an aside, are we the first to link to their (new?) Web site? link:xhllc.com. This post should help get them into the Google results:
xhllc.com
xtremehomes

Related Posts:
   1. Live Xtremely Green: the XtremeHomes blog (Jan 17, 2008)
   2. West Coast Green: pieceHomes (Oct 01, 2007)
   3. CNET visits the XtremeHomes factory (Sep 07, 2007)
   4. This week: XtremeHomes visit, JoT, Lot-ek, and more (Sep 01, 2007)
   5. The mkLotus show house (Jul 19, 2007)
   6. West Coast Green Conference (Jul 18, 2007)
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Kiplinger's on prefab

Link to Kiplinger's on prefab

One year ago, Kiplinger's Personal Finance featured an article on Fabulous Prefabs.

The article details homeowners Scott and Lisa McGlasson's decision to purchase an info_smallAlchemy Architects' info_smallweeHouse as a summer home for a lot they own in Minnesota:

"The couple wanted to keep a lid on building costs, but they did not want to sacrifice great design and solid construction. They met both goals with a two-story modern built by Alchemy Architects, in St. Paul. 'During the day we have a lake view from 8-foot windows,' says Scott. 'But when we close the curtains at night, the living room is chic enough to feel like a New York City apartment.'

The McGlassons' hideaway -- with two bedrooms, one bathroom and tons of personality -- is a prefabricated home. The components were assembled in a factory, trucked to their lot and put together....

Scott and Lisa paid $95,000 for their second home. They chose the layout of the first story from a half-dozen of Alchemy Architects' plans and added a second story to the blueprints, expanding the size to 780 square feet. The firm hired a Wisconsin factory to manufacture the house's components, a process that took about six weeks. The components were trucked from the factory on a flatbed, and a crane helped assemble them (delivery and crane costs ran $6,000). The McGlassons hired contractors to connect the house's wiring to the electrical grid, dig a well and do other finishing work. The final tally was about $160,000, including fixtures and appliances."

The article also outlines some key differences between panelized and modular construction:
"Panelized houses are made of sections stuffed with wiring and insulation. The panels are trucked to your lot, where contractors hired by you (or less commonly, by the prefab firm) join them together. Panelized houses tend to cost more than modular ones. But because the panels can be arranged in different ways, panelized houses can have custom options....

The flexibility of a panelized house makes it superior for building on mountain, beach and lakefront locations, which tend to have more quirks than the typical suburban lot....

The major limitation of modular houses is size: Modular units must be able to travel down highways. 'We have to do a lot of thinking within the box,' jokes Joseph Tanney, a partner at Resolution: 4 Architecture, a New York firm that builds prefab homes using modular and other methods. What's more, modular houses often need thicker-than-usual interior walls to ensure that they will withstand the stress of being lifted onto your lot by a crane. (Panelized homes don't face this problem.) These thicker walls reduce the number of floor plans because there are only so many ways the fatter walls can be disguised."

Kiplinger's included a slideshow that covers several companies we've covered here:
info_smallEmpyrean
info_smallAlchemy Architects
info_smallOMD
info_smallCleverHomes
info_smallLazor Office
info_smallEcoSteel (aka EcoContempo)
info_smallTaalman Koch
info_smallResolution: 4 Architecture
info_smallMKD
info_smallRocio Romero.

Title: Fabulous Prefabs
Author: Sean O-Neill
Publication: Kiplinger's Personal Finance
Length: 1,500 words
Date: July, 2006

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Wall Street Journal: modern modular

Back in 2003, the Wall Street Journal ran an article on the partnership of Joseph Tanney and Robert Luntz, of info_smallResolution: 4 Architecture. The two had just won the Dwell Home competition:

"Despite a thriving New York practice whose clients include trendy ad agencies and rich people with gaping lofts...Resolution: 4 Architecture has poured itself into a series of designs for manufactured modules that can be combined into three- or four-dozen modern homes. All are striking departures from the choices available to most home buyers today, and all, at least theoretically, are buildable in a factory for something like the price of the banal tract homes gobbling up farmland across America....

Nobody sneers at a Lexus because it came off an assembly line. But for some reason modular houses still carry a stigma, which may be why 97% of new American homes are built on site by hand when almost everything else -- cars, clothing, even many foods -- comes from a factory. Yet the quality of modular houses has improved dramatically in recent years even as the quality of traditionally built homes remains mired in mediocrity. When it comes to housing, low construction standards, haste and ever-more-scarce skilled labor have given new meaning to the axiom 'they don't make them like they used to.'"

Read the full article for details on Resolution 4: Architecture and their dreams for prefab.

Title: The Very Model of a Modern Modular House
Author: Daniel Akst
Publication: The Wall Street Journal
Length: 1,030 words
Date: May 29, 2003

Related Posts:
   1. Resolution: 4 in East Hampton (Sep 17, 2007)
   2. The Dwell Home by Resolution 4: Architecture (Apr 18, 2007)
   3. Dwell Magazine, Dwell Homes (Apr 17, 2007)
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Not so trailer-like trailer

Link to Not so trailer-like trailer
retreathomes.co.uk

This 'caravan' (UK English for trailer), from Retreat Homes can be parked almost anywhere, thanks to its wheels, but it's far from a trailer:

"Classified as a transportable building, it is ready to move into within days and can be situated in places that a conventional home cannot..."

Shedworking loved the idea:

"Although it's aimed at a holiday home market, there is a garden office option....with floor to ceiling windows, oak floors and kitchen or bathroom options, plus furniture suggestions."

company: Retreat Homes
style: modern trailer
size: 480 sf - 1,000 sf
bedrooms: 2 - 3
price: $103,000 - $200,000
finish level: complete, inside and out, including mechanical systems
features/finishes: wood floors, hardwood windows, steel tile roof, Bosch appliances
available: UK/Ireland
more info: brochure (pdf)

Related Posts:
   1. The miniHome: ready to roll (Jul 06, 2007)
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Prefab goes to the mall: kitHAUS in San Diego

Link to Prefab goes to the mall: kitHAUS in San Diego

Here's an unexpected use of prefab. The folks at info_smallkitHAUS have completed a display pavilion at the Westfield UTC Mall in San Diego. Tom Sandonato, of kitHAUS, gave us the details:

"Westfield design department contacted us after picking up a postcard from the hospitality show in Las Vegas. The design firm RTKL came up with the initial concept and a company in Canada was originally hired to do the work, but was not able to perform due to the tight time frame and costs. With some minor design modifications our K2 modules were utilized and adapted...

We modified two K2 modules: one of the K2's as an open gazebo, the second as an all glass Gallery space.

Total time to install was two weeks with four weeks worth of design and shop fabrication...

In terms of promoting kitHAUS, we have a product display on site there inside the Gallery module, as well as vinyl art stating 'modules constructed by KitHAUS'."

Tom's partner Martin Wehmann added:
"Much of the fervor in the marketplace for prefab is directed towards residential uses, but this shows how the kitHAUS modular structures can be used very successfully in commercial applications as well — achieving the design aspects of the project with a very short installation timeline.

These are the very same components we use to create the K3 units that are available for residential accessory structures. The K3 is large enough to be used as an outdoor studio, an office, a kids play room, etc — its uses are limitless, and with its size, it fits below the permitting requirements of most municipalities.

The kitHAUS K3 unit will be on display at the upcoming Dwell on Design show in San Francisco September 14-16."

We really like the kitHAUS's aluminum extrusion and clamping system, and look forward to seeing their display next time we're in San Diego.

Related Posts:
   1. LA Times on mini prefabs (Jun 18, 2009)
   2. Prefab goes retail: buy a kitHAUS at Design Within Reach (Feb 14, 2008)
   3. The Modular Housing System (May 10, 2007)
   4. A house for you and one for your dog too (Mar 28, 2007)
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This week: Zigloo, A Prefab Project, mkLotus, and more

Link to This week: Zigloo, A Prefab Project, mkLotus, and more
zigloo.ca

Inhabitat's Prefab Friday covers the Zigloo Domestique, a container-based project in British Columbia:

"The DIY Zigloo Domestique integrates shipping containers, personal and sustainable touches, and lots of hard work. Keith Dewey...designed, built, and documented the construction of his Zigloo Domestique home that epitomizes accessible, green, reclaimed, yet comfortable contemporary prefab architecture....

The home is located in Fernwood, one of Victoria's oldest and funkiest areas, and proves that shipping containers are more than just modules for cargo transport or emergency housing. The designer has done a wonderful job of documenting the entire design process, from initial plans to delivery of the containers and final construction and furnishing. The project spans almost two years, and the final residence consists of 8 containers, 1800 square feet, and 3 stories of homey prefab space. Keith's family home design is a great example of shipping containers and prefab techniques as a viable and accessible building approach for just about anyone."

The Good Human's Prefab Wednesday discovered A Prefab Project and likes it as much as we do:
"The blog was started back in December of 2006 with discussions about design and construction, and if you go back and read through the entire thing it is quite a journey....

I for one cannot wait to see what it looks like all complete and ready to go!"

Greenerati anticipates the arrival of the info_smallmkLotus at the West Coast Green building conference:
"It won't solve the housing problem here in the City but when West Coast Green occurs next month attendees will get a chance to tour a 'zero energy' Green home right smack in the Civic Center across from City Hall. Yes, it's a prefabricated house but not that nasty 'Prefab' often associated with temporary replacement for housing during and after WWII."

Green Options posted on the eco-friendliness of modular and prefab construction:

"Prefabrication and Modularity are new eco buzzwords on the menu this year. From homes to furniture, designers are beginning to employ new methods of construction and transportation to cut waste and energy consumption, ensure safety, and achieve greater overall methods of sustainability."

Related Posts:
   1. Shipping container homes in Edmonton (Nov 08, 2007)
   2. The mkLotus show house (Jul 19, 2007)
   3. A Prefab Project delivery and set! (Jul 05, 2007)
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Modular homes in Alabama: quality, price and quick turnaround

Many homeowners rebuilding after Hurricane Katrina are turning to modular construction:

"Cindy Armour's house on Dauphin Island was destroyed by Hurricane Ivan in 2004, and while crews were framing a new home, Katrina wiped it out in August 2005. For her third try, she's gone modular.

'The labor is all done in a factory, and this house is really well built,' she said. 'The whole roof is bolted down. And I've got the fattest pilings I could find. If it doesn't hold up in the next hurricane, I'm moving back to Texas....'"

Terry Stewart, owner of Visionary Home Builders:
"Modular or system-built homes are constructed in a factory and shipped by truck in sections called modules or boxes. There can be two, four, six or more modules, depending on the size of the house, Stewart said. The modules are lifted by crane and placed on the pilings or foundation -- and that takes a day. The modules are about 90 percent complete when shipped and include all the walls, flooring, ceilings, stairs, carpet, and wall finishes...."

Walt Bolton, an engineer at B.E.S. Construction:

"The quality, the price and the quick turnaround drew Bolton to modular building. 'We have great local subcontractors, but when you build a product in a plant, the consistency is much greater and you don't have to worry about the temperature, wind or rain.'"

Read the whole article for more details about why people are choosing modular.

Title: Modular doesn't have to mean less quality
Subtitle: Demand is up locally for factory-built homes with amenities
Author: Kathy Jumper
Publication: The Press Register (Alabama)
Length: 860 words
Date: July 22, 2007

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MiSo House: modular efficiency

Link to MiSo House: modular efficiency

Like the Prefabrication Laboratory and Studio 804, the MiSo* House is a university-based prefab project. Michigan Solar House (MiSo*) "is an interdisciplinary endeavor at the University of Michigan incorporating students, faculty and staff from" a number of the different departments.

"The architecture of MiSo* reinterprets the single family dwelling to reflect a changing balance of ecological and technological choices that strive to integrate sustainable design within a contemporary lifestyle. The entry to the 2005 Solar Energy Decathlon functions as a working prototype of a portable, modular, and sustainable, solar powered dwelling and its design and construction are considered with future mass production in mind....

The MiSo product line can cater towards any size family. Therefore, reproducible parts are essential to the success of MiSo. The house on the mall will be built of five modules, three interior and two end, all pre-assembled and simply connected on site.

The modular design of the house components within the MiSo* system provide a vast set of combinations that can effectively assemble a house of any size from 400 sq ft upwards."

The University of Michigan page for the house features additional photos of the construction.

(Hat tip: Green Options)

Related Posts:
   1. Prefabrication Laboratory  (Jul 23, 2007)
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The JoT House: cheap and flexible

Link to The JoT House: cheap and flexible
jothouse.com

The California desert seems to draw a lot of prefab prototypes. The JoT House from Yeh+Jerrard LLC is actually named after its prototype location, Joshua Tree, CA. Two original prototypes were built in 2004 in the city and a third was built near Los Angeles.

"Rooms are separated by movable partitions making it easy to convert the house from a one-bedroom loft to a three-bedroom home. The house is planned around a central utility core that houses the bathrooms, kitchen, and laundry facilities; this 'box-within-a-box' design centralizes the major mechanical systems, allows for a variety of room configurations and keeps the costs down."

The JoT House website features some cool materials, including a step-by-step depiction (pdf) of the construction process.

I emailed the company on July 18 to request pricing info; no reply. Documentation claims that the price can be "as low as $100 /sf", but that's basically useless information.

model: JoT House
style: modern
size: 1,344 sf
bedrooms: 1 - 3
how: SIPs

model: JoT L
style: modern
size: 1,370 sf
bedrooms: 1 - 3
how: SIPs

model: Mini-JoT
style: single room, detached structure
size: 128 sf
notes: no plumbing

(Hat tip: Materialicio.us)

Related Posts:
   1. JoT House update and pricing (Aug 21, 2007)
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Cool Flickr set of a Flatpak house going up

Link to Cool Flickr set of a Flatpak house going up
flickr.com/photos/rwtb/

Check out these cool photos of a info_smallFlatpak House being built.

(I'm assuming it's a info_smallLazor Office FlatPak though I've not been able to verify.)

Related Posts:
   1. Sausalito, CA FlatPak for sale (Jun 26, 2009)
   2. Lazor Office's FlatPak House (Apr 19, 2007)
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This week: Micro Compact village, WIRED, iT House, and mkLotus

Link to This week: Micro Compact village, WIRED, iT House, and mkLotus

Inhabitat's Prefab Friday showed off a cool village of info_smallmicro compact homes:

"We often get comments about how difficult it would be to live in some of the Prefab Friday homes that we have featured, and none have received more criticism than the Micro Compact Home (m-ch)...But the proof is in the pudding, and in 2006, the Technical University of Munich in Germany installed a small village of seven of these homes for six students and a professor to live in for a full year."

The WIRED LivingHome buzz has made its way to Australian blog GreenFoot:

"It's the sort of house that both myself and my husband would love - me the green aspects and him the techy-gadgets. Although we wouldn't need as much room or as many bathrooms.

The Wired Home is described as a modernist home in an exclusive enclave of Los Angeles that allows luxury and the environment to live together in harmony.

Sounds pretty cool huh?"

The Good Human's Prefab Wednesday covered the iT House from info_smallTaalman Koch:
"...it sure is a gorgeous example of what can be done with metal and glass."

Home by Sunset is a fan of Michelle Kaufmann's info_smallmkLotus:

"Now she's designed a prefab that's as green as possible. I think it's terrific. Note the sod roof, the way accordion doors open entire walls to expand the living space, the sunshades, and the photovoltaic panels."
The post also confirms that the house will be showcased outside San Francisco City Hall during the West Coast Green building conference.

Related Posts:
   1. The mkLotus show house (Jul 19, 2007)
   2. West Coast Green Conference (Jul 18, 2007)
   3. LivingHomes gets WIRED ... for $4 million (Jul 02, 2007)
   4. Michelle Kaufmann Designs (Apr 27, 2007)
   5. The iT House does some soul-searching (Apr 06, 2007)
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The NAHB on Systems-Built Housing

Link to The NAHB on Systems-Built Housing
nahb.org

The NAHB (National Association of Home Builders) site includes a few resources on systems-built housing (yet another term for prefab, modular, or factory-built):

Fast Facts
Panelized Homes (5/24/2007)
Log Homes (1/11/2007)
Modular Homes (1/11/2007)

Misc.
Panelized Homes: What's Your Type? (10/6/2006)
The Benefits of Panelization (10/6/2006)

Modular Home Photo Gallery
Factory
Set
Exteriors
Interiors

Related Posts:
   1. The top modular builders (Aug 23, 2007)
   2. NAHB Modular Home Manufacturer Directory (Jul 20, 2007)
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Historic Prefab: Sears Homes

Link to Historic Prefab: Sears Homes
searsarchive.com

(One of the ongoing features that we're adding to the blog: a look back at prefab coverage over the past few years. These historic homes seemed like a great place to start.)

Last May the Wall Street Journal featured an interesting article on the Sears homes and the people who are working to find and catalogue them. The homes are some of the country's very first prefabs:

"About 70,000 to 100,000 of them were sold through Sears catalogs from 1908 to 1940. Distressed that the houses are falling victim to the recent boom in teardowns and renovations, their fans are scouring neighborhoods across the country....

Precut houses ordered from a Sears catalog were shipped by boxcar in 30,000 pieces -- including shingles, nails and paint -- and assembled by a local carpenter or by the buyers themselves. Styles ranged from the elaborate, nearly $6,000 Magnolia, to the three-room, no-bath Goldenrod, sold in 1925 for $445. (Outhouses sold separately.)....

Sears also encouraged sales to families with steady wages but little in savings by financing up to 100% of some of the homes. But many homeowners were forced to default during the Depression, and sales came to an end in 1940.

The mail-order houses, many of which had big porches and were made from high-quality materials like early-growth cypress, were less expensive than architect-designed houses at the time, and were often all working-class people could afford. Because they were typically a family's first home -- and because they were often a do-it-yourself project for buyers -- the houses, enthusiasts say, are emblematic of the American dream.

It's difficult to know how many Sears homes are left. Sears doesn't have sales records, and while interest in catalog homes is growing, many people still don't know they are living in one...."

So, how can you tell? Read the article for details!

And check out the Sears Archives for more information on the Sears Homes.

Title: Historians and Fans Are Racing to Catalog Homes Sold by Sears
Author: Sara Schaefer Muñoz
Publication: Wall Street Journal
Length: 1200 words
Issue: May 15, 2006

Related Posts:
   1. Zamore Homes (Aug 01, 2008)
   2. Historic prefab: pre-assembled wall panels (Jan 28, 2008)
   3. Historic prefab: Venturo and the Futuro House (Jan 22, 2008)
   4. Historic Prefab: How to identify a Sears Kit Home (Dec 17, 2007)
   5. Historic Prefab: Iron prefab for sale (Nov 02, 2007)
   6. 1960s prefab: the Industrialized House (Jun 29, 2007)
   7. Prefabs get demolished (May 07, 2007)
2 comments, 0 trackbacks (URL) , 

Detroit Modular Development

Link to Detroit Modular Development
freep.com

Developers are building a smaller development of three homes in Detroit:

"Shipped in modular sections from a factory in Indiana, the ranch-style home of Tamika and Andrauyl Hines was assembled piece by piece Thursday within a few hours on Delmar Street in Detroit's NorthEnd Village....

The Hines family will be able to move into their new home within 30 to 45 days, once additions such as the front porch and garage are built. The Delmar Street homes are manufactured by Auburn Hills-based Champion Enterprises and cost from $170,000 to $210,000. They are between 1,700 square feet and 2,000 square feet.

The two homes assembled Thursday, and a third to be built later, are sold and include a full basement, two-car attached garages, three to four bedrooms, multiple baths and kitchen appliances."

Title: Modular Homes give area a boost
Author: Darrell Hughes
Publication: Detroit Free Press
Length: 210 words
Issue: July 13, 2007

Related Posts:
   1. Bignell Ridge Modular Development (Jul 24, 2007)
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Bignell Ridge Modular Development

A 23-unit modular development is rising in Grand Haven Township, Michigan:

"23 "luxury" pre-manufactured condominiums, known as Bignell Ridge....

The 11 duplex-style condo buildings will include composite fieldstone on the building's exterior....

They will be assembled on the site, along with garages and sunrooms. Each condo will have an inspection sheet when they're built in Indiana that will be completed by Michigan inspectors."

Title: First Modular Home Development Approved
Author: Kyle Moroney
Publication: Grand Haven Tribune
Length: 570 words
Issue: July 10, 2007

Related Posts:
   1. Detroit Modular Development (Jul 25, 2007)
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Prefabrication Laboratory

Link to Prefabrication Laboratory
studentorgs.utexas.edu/prefablab/

The Prefabrication Laboratory at the University of Texas at Austin has been investigating prefab methods since 2002:

"The Prefabrication Laboratory is a research group...focused on integration of factory production techniques and architecture. Offsite fabrication offers many benefits for building: higher quality, economies of scale, and more efficient use of resources. Prefabrication takes many forms and is evolving rapidly: modularization, pre-assembly, 'off-the-shelf' components....Our research investigates these changing processes looking for points of entry for architects....We look at fabrication in the larger context, how it has been used in the past, successfully or not, and how it affects local environments, cultures, economies."

The lab is similar to Studio 804 at the University of Kansas School of Architecture.

Related Posts:
   1. MiSo House: modular efficiency (Aug 01, 2007)
2 comments, 0 trackbacks (URL) , 

Learn from a Prefab Project

Link to Learn from a Prefab Project
aprefabproject.blogspot.com

I know I have blogged a lot about A Prefab Project, but homeowner Chris has a lot of great advice. He does a great job of documenting and reflecting on the home-building experience. His most recent post chronicles the difficulties of the house delivery and set. I would not want to have been there for the house's trip up the steep driveway to the site:

"So while I watched the house bend (and wondered if it might actually just collapse), I really wanted to scream STOP and make everybody back up and start over, doing all the things we'd talked about doing. But that's a hard thing to know when to do, and an even harder thing to actually do."

Chris offers some advice for any homeowner setting out on a large scale project:

"The one lesson I keep coming back to in my mind from these episodes is the importance of the people you have working for you."

Related Posts:
   1. Lost River Modern by Resolution 4 (Aug 13, 2009)
   2. A Prefab Project you can rent (Jul 10, 2008)
   3. Tracking the progress of an LVL home (Dec 11, 2007)
   4. A Prefab Project budget (Aug 20, 2007)
   5. A Prefab Project delivery and set! (Jul 05, 2007)
0 comments, 0 trackbacks (URL) , 

What is the difference?

In today's issue of the Newark (Ohio) Advocate, a mortgage broker discusses the financing of mobile homes vs. manufactured homes vs. modular homes.

Title: What's the difference between mobile, manufactured, and modular homes?
Author: Brett Richards
Publication: Newark Advocate
Length: 430 words
Issue: July 21, 2007

Related Posts:
   1. Clayton Homes Showcase of Homes this weekend in Greensboro, NC (Oct 09, 2008)
0 comments, 0 trackbacks (URL) , 

This week: mkLotus and Hive video

Link to This week: mkLotus and Hive video
mkd-arc.com

Inhabitat's Prefab Friday added thoughts on the info_smallmkLotus show house from info_smallMichelle Kaufmann Designs:

"Michelle Kauffman is known for her modern, livable, green, air and light-filled prefab designs, and the mkLotus is no exception. The modular construction allows for customization and flexibility, while sliding doors allow residents to open up their house to the elements....We can't wait to see the real thing this fall at West Coast Green!"
(We covered this Building Conference a few days ago.)

The Good Human's Prefab Wednesday enjoys the video of a Hive Modular home that we posted on a while back.

Related Posts:
   1. The mkLotus show house (Jul 19, 2007)
   2. West Coast Green Conference (Jul 18, 2007)
   3. Hive Modular on YouTube (Jun 07, 2007)
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NAHB Modular Home Manufacturer Directory

Link to NAHB Modular Home Manufacturer Directory
nahb.org

Find a modular home manufacturer near you:

"Use this directory to locate modular manufacturers across the country that can deliver your new home! Most modular manufacturers have local or regional representation or a network of builders to put the finishing touches on your dream home."

(NAHB = National Association of Home Builders)

Related Posts:
   1. The top modular builders (Aug 23, 2007)
   2. The NAHB on Systems-Built Housing (Jul 27, 2007)
0 comments, 0 trackbacks (URL) , 

The mkLotus show house

Link to The mkLotus show house
westcoastgreen.com

mkLotus is a new prefab concept from info_smallMichelle Kaufmann Designs that will debut at the West Coast Green home show. The mkLotus™ modular home is built by XtremeHomes™. "The house features: a living roof, LED lighting, innovative green building materials, indoor & outdoor living." Further details can be found on the mkLotus showhouse page.

Jetson Green is excited about seeing the mkLotus:

"I'm wanting to visit the conference just to see this home and participate in what's going to be the future of residential real estate."

model: info_smallmkLotus
size: 672sf - 1,400sf
br: 1 - 2
manufacturer: XtremeHomes

Related Posts:
   1. West Coast Green: the mkLotus show house (Sep 25, 2007)
   2. A little more Green (Sep 21, 2007)
   3. Heading to West Coast Green Conference this weekend (Sep 19, 2007)
   4. CNET visits the XtremeHomes factory (Sep 07, 2007)
   5. This week: XtremeHomes visit, JoT, Lot-ek, and more (Sep 01, 2007)
   6. XtremeHomes: modular building the green way (Aug 10, 2007)
   7. This week: Zigloo, A Prefab Project, mkLotus, and more (Aug 04, 2007)
   8. This week: Micro Compact village, WIRED, iT House, and mkLotus (Jul 28, 2007)
   9. This week: mkLotus and Hive video (Jul 21, 2007)
   10. West Coast Green Conference (Jul 18, 2007)
   11. Michelle Kaufmann Designs (Apr 27, 2007)
2 comments, 0 trackbacks (URL) , 

West Coast Green Conference

Link to West Coast Green Conference
westcoastgreen.com

West Coast Green: Residential Building Conference + Expo "is a feast of innovations, ideas and opportunities designed to expand your business, widen your vision, and stimulate your thinking with the latest, best practices and key players in green building."

On the prefab front:
• Sheri Koones, author of Prefabulous, Sept. 22 at 2pm in room 304.
• Allison Arieff, former editor of Dwell Magazine, Sept. 20 at 11am in room 415.
• Steve Glenn, CEO of info_smallLivingHomes, Sept. 20 at 11am in room 407 about "Building the First LEED Platinum Home"
• Michelle Kaufmann, Principal, info_smallMichelle Kaufmann Designs, Sept. 20 at 2pm in room 415 about "Show house Case Study"
• Michelle Kaufmann, Sept. 22 at 3pm in Larkin Hall discussing "Making it Easy for People to Go Green"

where: Bill Graham Civic Auditorium, San Francisco, CA
when: September 20-22, 2007
registration: $25 ($35 at the door) for Homeowner Day, September 22. $245/day before July 31, $325/day after July 31 for full conference access.
features: mkLotus show home; speakers Allison Arieff (former editor of Dwell magazine), Steve Glenn, Sheri Koones, and Michelle Kaufmann; over 100 green construction product vendors

Related Posts:
   1. West Coast Green in San Francisco: October 1-3, 2009 (Sep 25, 2009)
   2. A little more Green (Sep 21, 2007)
   3. Heading to West Coast Green Conference this weekend (Sep 19, 2007)
   4. This week: IKEA, Quik House, and anticipating West Coast Green (Sep 16, 2007)
   5. This week: looking for affordable prefab and volunteers (Sep 08, 2007)
   6. XtremeHomes: modular building the green way (Aug 10, 2007)
   7. This week: Micro Compact village, WIRED, iT House, and mkLotus (Jul 28, 2007)
   8. This week: mkLotus and Hive video (Jul 21, 2007)
   9. The mkLotus show house (Jul 19, 2007)
   10. Michelle Kaufmann Designs (Apr 27, 2007)
   11. Dwell Magazine, Dwell Homes (Apr 17, 2007)
   12. LivingHomes (Mar 28, 2007)
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Loblolly in the Washington Post and Philadelphia Inquirer

Link to Loblolly in the Washington Post and Philadelphia Inquirer
archrecord.construction.com/

The Philadelphia Inquirer's article on the Loblolly House adds some historical context:

"Ever since Sears, Roebuck shipped its first house kits across the country 100 years ago, architects have dreamed of perfecting an affordable, prefab house that can be mass-produced. Frank Lloyd Wright, Richard Buckminster Fuller, Walter Gropius and Jean Prouve all tried their hands at factory-made houses -- and failed.

'It's the holy grail of modern architecture,' Kieran said. He said he has the problems licked, though."

(The article was also reprinted in the Washington Post: Custom Prefab Home Is at One With Nature and Technology.)

Title: Changing Skyline | Green, clean, and pretty prefab
Author: Inga Saffron
Publication: Philadelphia Inquirer
Length: 1325 words
Issue: June 15, 2007

Related Posts:
   1. The Loblolly House: flat-pak with utilities (Jun 28, 2007)
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Michelle Kaufmann in Sierra Magazine

Link to Michelle Kaufmann in Sierra Magazine
www.sierraclub.org/

The Sierra Club's Sierra Magazine covers a familiar architect:

"Michelle Kaufmann believes that buying an environmentally friendly home should be as simple as ordering a pair of sneakers. Sitting at her laptop in her Oakland, California, office, the architect goes to the Nike Web site, chooses a shoe, and clicks a few buttons. Moments later her customized sneakers are ready for review: white with orange laces and an orange swoosh, the initials "MK" stitched on the tongue..."

Read the full article to see how info_smallMichelle Kaufmann Designs is working to achieve this goal. Don't miss this bit of good news:

"While her first customers tended to fit the stereotype of the Prius-driving, NPR-listening eco-consumer, Kaufmann is increasingly fielding inquiries from people who just want an attractive, affordable house."

Title: Innovators: The Henry Ford of Green Homes
Author: Dashka Slater
Publication: Sierra Magazine
Length: 850 words
Issue: July/August 2007

Related Posts:
   1. Michelle Kaufmann Designs closing (May 27, 2009)
   2. Michelle Kaufmann Designs (Apr 27, 2007)
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This week: Seattle, and a new prefab concept

Link to This week: Seattle, and a new prefab concept
seattleprefab.blogspot.com/

Seattle PI discovered the blog at Seattle Prefab:

"I'm always looking for news on the prefab front in Seattle because, while the movement has great momentum, we haven't really seen a solid application in the local residential sector. Well today I came across a mini gold mine called Seattle Prefab."

Inhabitat's Prefab Friday discussed a new concept project:

"The Clean Hub, 'a new prototype for sustainable infrastructure'....the freestanding module delivers completely off-the-grid infrastructure, from clean water and sanitation to renewable power to disaster areas or rural locations without access to such resources."

Related Posts:
   1. This week: Seattle, modular home history, tiny footprints and more (May 12, 2007)
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Rocio Romero article

Link to Rocio Romero article
dwell.com

At Home St. Louis features an article on info_smallRocio Romero and her info_smallLV Series this month:

"Now in her fourth year in business, she has sold more than 100 homes.

One thing that should kick up the ticker is the fact that LV buyers are now buying more than one unit and putting them together. Ms. Romero and staff customize the design for every house — doing site plans, moving walls, enlarging baths and closets, converting bedrooms into exercise rooms, home theaters, offices — whatever the owner wants....And for those who find one LV a bit too confining, she has a two-story version on her drafting board."

Read the full article for details on Rocio Romero, LLC and how the LV Series got its start.

Author: Christy Marshall
Publication: St. Louis Magazine
Length: 1300 words
Issue: July/August 2007

(Hat tip: Jetson Green)

Related Posts:
   1. Sunset Magazine features LVM by Rocio Romero (Jul 22, 2009)
   2. 35 homes and counting (Apr 11, 2007)
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Tours of an LV Series home in the Napa Valley

Link to Tours of an LV Series home in the Napa Valley
www.napaprefab.com

The owners of an LV Series home built in Napa Valley, California are offering tours. And, for those of you who might be seriously considering an LV Series home, you can even rent out the place for a weekend.

model: info_smallLV Series
designer: info_smallRocio Romero
where: Pope Valley, CA (about two hours north of San Francisco)
when: weekends (see website for details and available dates)
includes: audio tour, Q+A with homeowners, resource lists for LV Series homes, wine tasting

Related Posts:
   1. Tour a Rocio Romero LVL Home on June 14th in Maine (May 27, 2008)
   2. This week: kitHAUS, mkSolaire, containers and more (Apr 05, 2008)
   3. Tour (virtually) an LV home in Maine (Mar 11, 2008)
   4. Rocio Romero's National LV Open House Tour (Mar 04, 2008)
   5. 35 homes and counting (Apr 11, 2007)
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Quon Modular: a room at a time

Link to Quon Modular: a room at a time
prefabhouse.com.au

info_smallQuon Modular is a semi-custom prefab system from Australia. Each room is a (mostly) self-contained module, measuring 5 m x 3.1 m (16 ft x 10 ft). Buy exactly what you need placed side-by-side, stacked, or each by itself.

Room options and prices:
info_smallBedroom, ~$31,000
info_smallKitchen, ~$48,000
info_smallBathroom, ~$40,000
info_smallMaster Bedroom, ~$32,000
info_smallMulti-purpose, ~$28,000

Materialicio.us loves the concept:

"For me, this is the simplest, most efficient system yet devised for a customized, prefabricated house. Design your house using their standard components, place the order, and ten weeks later it's delivered."

Few prefabs offer such a flexible approach. The info_smallweeHouse series from info_smallAlchemy Architects allows for the addition of specialized modules, such as the sleepTight, but their modules vary in size. info_smallv2world was offering a similar product in their info_smallv2shell, but last we heard, they were reworking their product line.

company: info_smallQuon Modular
style: modern
size: each module is ~140 sf
price: starts at ~$150,000 for 4 modules (br, bath, kitchen, multi-purpose)
how: modules
finish level: complete, inside and out, including light fixtures, utilities, and finish

(More coverage: Treehugger)

Exchange rate used: $A1.168 = US$1.00

Related Posts:
   1. CA Boom roundup 1: confusion and flux (Apr 02, 2007)
   2. Itsy Bitsy weeHouse (Mar 26, 2007)
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Hive Modular blog

Link to Hive Modular blog
hivemodular.terapad.com

info_smallHive Modular has launched a blog to track important news and events.

One post links to a cool Google map locating all of the Hive Modular models in Minnesota.

Another notes that the set process we reported on "only took 2 hours to set the three boxes of the house and the client had a new home by lunchtime."

(Hat tip: Future House Now via Materialicio.us)

Related Posts:
   1. Hive Modular in historic Minnesota neighborhood (Sep 14, 2009)
   2. This week: Hive Modular, OMD, WIRED, and more miniHome (Jul 07, 2007)
   3. Hive Modular home-raising (Jun 18, 2007)
   4. Hive Modular on YouTube (Jun 07, 2007)
   5. Hives for humans (Mar 27, 2007)
1 comment, 0 trackbacks (URL) , 

RAL kit homes

Link to RAL kit homes
www.ralhomes.com.au/

info_smallRAL Homes is a company in Victoria, Australia producing home kits that resemble Quonset Huts. The info_smallRAL Home kits can be combined in a number of formations, and even added on to your existing home. The kits consist of a series of pre-framed panels which join together to form an arch.

"The components arrive on site, complete with hardware and including an illustrated Assembly Manual. Two workers with a basic knowledge of Carpentry skills and standard tools simply bolt panels together. The external Colorbond corrugated steel roofing and leaf-free guttering system make RAL Homes virtually maintenance free."

company: info_smallRAL Homes
style: like Quonset Hut
how: stud-framed panels bolted together to form arches
features: large open spaces, exterior metal cladding, large wood-framed window walls
available: Australia
finishes: corrugated metal cladding (exterior); interior your responsibility, but comes with rough sanded waterproof plywood
not included: exterior steps/rails, on-site labor, onsite mechanical systems, transportation

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This week: Hive Modular, OMD, WIRED, and more miniHome

Link to This week: Hive Modular, OMD, WIRED, and more miniHome
hivemodular.com

Equity Green took a look at the info_smallX-Line homes from info_smallHive Modular:

"...$200 per sq/ft still isn't that bad considering the quality that you are receiving. Hive Modular is one of the best prefab, modular companies out there...especially for the price."

The Good Human's Prefab Wednesday explored the designs of Jennifer Siegel's info_smallOMD:

"...Turns out it is the model of the Show House by Jennifer Siegal's Office of Mobile Design. It was open so we went in and took a look around and it was absolutely beautiful. Jennifer was there as well to answer any questions so we chatted for a few minutes....Although a little small for a family of 4, this example of what can be built off-site just proves that anything is possible."

Inhabitat's Prefab Friday added thoughts on the WIRED LivingHome and noted that the official site now features some cool videos:

"...Combine all that with some cutting-edge technologies, like automated theatre, temperature, and lighting, and you've got yourself a 4,000 square foot masterpiece of green design."

Jetson Green's Flickr Friday showed off the info_smallSustain miniHome:

"When you see this, you won't believe how much functionality and comfort can go into a mere 325 sf."
He also pointed out this video, from HGTV, about the home:

Related Posts:
   1. Hive Modular blog (Jul 10, 2007)
   2. LivingHomes gets WIRED ... for $4 million (Jul 02, 2007)
   3. OMD update (May 29, 2007)
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The miniHome: ready to roll

Link to The miniHome: ready to roll
sustain.ca

info_smallSustain Design Studio has designed a pretty cool product: the info_smallminiHome. Part trailer, part house, the miniHome is ultra-portable, but also ultra-stylish and as prefab as you can get:

"Recipe for a good idea:

  1. Take the familiar - The lowly Travel Trailer
  2. Build it to last, and be easy to maintain
  3. Make 350 sf feel like 600 sf
  4. Use only Green materials
  5. Add Off-Grid, Solar and Wind systems
  6. Let it run on biodiesel
  7. Keyword: Multi-functional
  8. Keep it extremely light on the land
  9. Make it beautiful

Combine all of the above into a package easily deliverable by truck anywhere in North America, that can set up on arrival in less than an hour."

Also worth checking out: the miniHome blog, miniHomage.

model: info_smallminiHomeSOLO
style: modern/trailer
size: 350 sf
bedrooms: sleeps 5
price: starts at $107,460 ($307/sf ++)
how: SIPs, steel frame undercarriage
finish level: complete, inside and out, including mechanical systems
features/finishes: adjustable roof canopy, commercial grade rubber flooring, stainless steel kitchen, fabric blinds, sleeping loft
available: Canada, U.S.
options/extras: wind turbine, solar panels, composting toilet, wood flooring, carpet tile, custom sofa, dressers, television
warranty: 1 year
more info: brochure (pdf)

Related Posts:
   1. For Sale: Sustain miniHome prototype (Aug 04, 2009)
   2. miniHome introduces the miniHome DUO SE (Jan 04, 2008)
   3. Not so trailer-like trailer (Aug 08, 2007)
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A Prefab Project delivery and set!

Link to A Prefab Project delivery and set!
aprefabproject.blogspot.com

The folks over at A Prefab Project are having an exciting time, with the delivery and set of their prefab home.

A post on Friday announced the successful arrival of the module on site:

"After many hours on the road and seven flat tires, our house arrived at the site in WV a little after 6:30 Wednesday evening."

Luckily the module arrived in good condition with little damage:

"Well, good news is the house made it fine. No real issues - some minor drywall cracking, a couple of window locks popped during travel that will need to be replaced (not sure exactly what will need to be replaced - Simplex will let me know). Structurally, the house came through great. Window panes are all intact, the loose materials that shipped inside the box didn't do any damage, and no water got in."

On Monday, the house was finally set:

"No attempt at a witty title - I'm too tired. But everything went great. The set was a breeze. Only really took about fifteen minutes to actually lift, move and set the box (and about six hours to set up and break down the crane)."

Homeowner Chris also gave a detailed and useful look at the foundation work that occurred prior to the module's arrival.

Related Posts:
   1. Lost River Modern by Resolution 4 (Aug 13, 2009)
   2. A Prefab Project you can rent (Jul 10, 2008)
   3. This week: Zigloo, A Prefab Project, mkLotus, and more (Aug 04, 2007)
   4. Learn from a Prefab Project (Jul 23, 2007)
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EcoUrban: update

Link to EcoUrban: update
ecourbanhomes.com

I sent an email off to Jay Swoboda of EcoUrban in St. Louis asking about a discrepancy between the home listed for sale on their site and the standard specifications of the model. He says:

"The standard 1,600 square foot home has just 2 bedrooms. However, in our display home, we finished out 250 square feet in the basement and with a closet and egress, this can be considered a 3rd bedroom. Also, $279,900 is the price for our LEED-registered home at 3140 Pennsylvania (we will soon receive our Platinum designation) - we offer homes starting at $200k that are still LEED-silver certified...Another item that we are particularly proud of is our $100 per month utility bill (electric, gas, water and sewer), of which only $60 is gas & electric."

standard model:
name: EcoUrban
style: modern/traditional
size: 1,600 sf
br: 2
bath: 2.5
price: ~$200,000
method: modules
features: 8'/9' ceilings, Low-E windows, LEED Silver certified

upgraded display model:
name: 3140 Pennsylvania Ave.
style: modern/traditional
size: 1,850 sf
br: 3
bath: 2.5
price: ~$279,900
method: modules
features: 8'/9' ceilings, Low-E windows, LEED Platinum certified, $60/mo for gas & electric

Related Posts:
   1. EcoUrban modulars in St. Louis Business Journal (Oct 26, 2007)
   2. EcoUrban: green prefab in St. Louis (Jun 25, 2007)
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LivingHomes gets WIRED ... for $4 million

Link to LivingHomes gets WIRED ... for $4 million
wired.com

WIRED and info_smallLivingHomes have collaborated on the green prefab dream home that "will serve as an example of how people can effectively balance green living with high technology and high design."

"Consistent with its focus on sustainable design, LivingHomes and WIRED are deconstructing rather than demolishing the property's existing house, reducing the amount of building materials sent to landfill. Working with The Reuse People, a nonprofit corporation dedicated to keeping usable building materials out of landfills, interior materials will be sent to the Habitat for Humanity Store for re-use, while the framing is being transported to Mexico where it will be used for low-income construction....Deconstruction is currently underway. Installation is slated for August 2007 and only takes one day."

Jetson Green is enthusiastic:

"At a price of $300 /sf, the WIRED LivingHome is going to be an incredible residence with the best in green + modern + technology. I can't wait to visit."

Treehugger calls it "a catalog of the best green eye candy that money can buy."

Future House Now adds:

"I tend to advocate smaller homes and affordability for regular families, but I'm not about to fire any criticism at the project, because it is meant to be a showcase house, and all showcase houses are top end....I think we'll see a lot of neat stuff come out of this project."

name:  WIRED LivingHome by Ray Kappe
style: modern
size: 4,057 sf
br: 5
bath: 4.5
price: $4 million ($300/sf)
method: full modules
assembly on-site: 1 day
features: LEED certified, "tricked out" game room, 4 kW solar system
for sale: late 2007/early 2008
more info: press release (PDF)

Related Posts:
   1. In the news: WIRED LivingHome (Sep 02, 2009)
   2. New LivingHomes video and photos (Aug 03, 2009)
   3. Ray Kappe multifamily by LivingHomes (Jul 09, 2009)
   4. WIRED LivingHome still for sale; price reduced (Jun 30, 2008)
   5. Take a (long!) tour of the WIRED LivingHome (Jan 15, 2008)
   6. WIRED LivingHome open for tours! (Nov 06, 2007)
   7. WIRED webcam (Sep 10, 2007)
   8. This week: XtremeHomes visit, JoT, Lot-ek, and more (Sep 01, 2007)
   9. This week: Micro Compact village, WIRED, iT House, and mkLotus (Jul 28, 2007)
   10. This week: Hive Modular, OMD, WIRED, and more miniHome (Jul 07, 2007)
   11. LivingHomes (Mar 28, 2007)
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This week: LV Series, refrigerator panels, and Michelle Kaufmann

Link to This week: LV Series, refrigerator panels, and Michelle Kaufmann
syndesisinc.com

The Good Human's Prefab Wednesday covered Rocio Romero's info_smallLV Series:

"Affordable? Check. Cool? Check. Approved by the wife? Not so much, at least not yet. But Rocio Romero is on to something here with the LV series of prefab homes..."

Inhabitat's Prefab Friday showed off more photos of the Espace Mobile that popped up last week.

Jetson Green's Flickr Friday introduced us to David Hertz's Panel House:

"This home is a three-story modern home in LA designed by David Hertz for Thomas Ennis. In the place of walls, Hertz's design called for industrial refrigerator panels--it keeps cool when it's warm outside and keeps warm when it's cool outside."

New York television station WSTM profiled a home designed by info_smallMichelle Kaufmann Designs:

"It's a strange thing that in 15 years of building homes the house that Paul Melish is most proud of is one he didn't build at all..."

Related Posts:
   1. Michelle Kaufmann Designs closing (May 27, 2009)
   2. This week: Austrian prefab, zero-emissions, and more tiny prefab (Jun 23, 2007)
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1960s prefab: the Industrialized House

Link to 1960s prefab: the Industrialized House

Back in 1960, designers George Nelson & Co. "threw out the old-fashioned and inefficient ideas inherent in many of [the day's] conventional houses." The design took advantage of the growing modern movement. One can easily see parallels with today's prefab ideals:

"They concentrated their thinking on greatly improved performance, mass production materials, extreme flexibility and a minimum of building parts..."

The Industrialized House featured:
• small modular cubes, combined with "extender units"
• "assembly-line built and put together quickly on site"
• lightweight anodized aluminum
• a screwjack leveling system for uneven ground
• easily disassembled and moved to another site
• translucent plastic tops

Large homes would be formed by assembling a number of the cubes in large groupings, with air space between:

"... to provide the utmost in privacy and quiet ... Nelson's solution was to separate the rooms and join them by corridors made of the smaller extender units. Since the cube house offers complete design freedom, it can be perfectly adjusted to the building site to provide the desired seclusion and quiet."

While the Industrialized House never caught on, similar structural systems shows up in more recent prefabs, like the info_smallkitHAUS or the steel-framed modules of info_smallMarmol Radziner.

(Hat tip: Science and Mechanics Magazine (out-of-print) via Modern Mechanix via Materialicio.us)

Related Posts:
   1. Historic Prefab: Sears Homes (Jul 26, 2007)
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The Loblolly House: flat-pak with utilities

Link to The Loblolly House: flat-pak with utilities
© peter aaron

Steve Kieran's info_smallLoblolly House takes flat-pak prefab to a whole new level. Kieran's firm info_smallKieranTimberlake created a series of panels and structure that integrate all of the home's mechanical systems:

"The house is composed entirely of off-site fabricated elements and ready-made components, assembled from the platform up in less than six weeks....The aluminum scaffold system, coupled with an array of connectors, provide both the structural frame and the means to connect cartridges, blocks and equipment to that frame with only the aid of a wrench.

The assembly process begins with off-site fabricated floor and ceiling panels, termed 'smart cartridges.' They distribute radiant heating, hot and cold water, waste water, ventilation, and electricity through the house. Fully integrated bathroom and mechanical room modules are lifted into position. Exterior wall panels containing structure, insulation, windows, interior finishes and the exterior wood rain screen complete the cladding."

Integration of utilities into the home's "smart cartridges" sets the Loblolly apart. The full-module builders, like info_smallHive Modular, info_smallMarmol Radziner, and info_smallAlchemy Architects, integrate utilities into multi-room modules that are shipped to the site near-complete. But the companies delivering flat-packed products, like the info_smallLV Series homes from info_smallRocio Romero, require on-site work to incorporate utilities and finishes. The SIPs or stud-framed panels they ship generally incorporate little more than structure and insulation.

For the Loblolly House, this complete prefabrication was necessary to avoid large amounts of work on the sensitive site. The process even works in reverse:

"Just as the components may be assembled at the site swiftly with a wrench, so may they be disassembled swiftly, and most importantly, whole....It is a vision in which our architecture, even as it is disassembled at some unknown moment, can be relocated and reassembled in new ways from reclaimed parts."

Complementing the designs of Ray Kappe and David Hertz, info_smallLivingHomes plans to sell homes based on the system used in the Loblolly House. Also worth noting: Bosch produces the structural frame used for the Loblolly House and the TK iT House.

name: Loblolly House
style: modern
size: 2,200 sf
price: not yet for sale
method: flat-pak, with utilities incorporated into panels

(Hat tip: Philly.com)

Earlier coverage: Wired article on Plug and Play Construction (January); Architectural Record (April).

Related Posts:
   1. Loblolly designers win Firm of the Year (Dec 18, 2007)
   2. Loblolly in the Washington Post and Philadelphia Inquirer (Jul 17, 2007)
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Jenesys Building System's E Cube

Link to Jenesys Building System's E Cube
courtesy Jenesys Building Systems

I recently had the opportunity to ask a few questions about the new product line from info_smallJenesys Building Systems. Here's what I learned:

Have you constructed any prefab structures?

Yes. Two. Our first was a small one-off cabin, the precursor to our current line of prefab buildings that we are developing. The second is the prototype of our E Cube line.

Are any models available for sale with timely delivery?

All the models on our website are currently available for sale. Time of delivery depends on the specific options and degree of customization that a customer opts for, but we do have a chain of supply in place and are ready to take orders.

You mention the prototype; do you have any photos, imagery or other documentation of the process/final prototype?

We have some information on this page: http://jenesysbuildings.ca/products-ecube.html

Our prototype E Cube is now at "lock up", structurally complete with doors and windows. [We anticipate] completion of the finishing of the building and landscaping this summer.

Standard features of the info_smallE Cube include:
• 8 inch thick SIP walls (R 40)
• 6 inch thick SIP roof with 10-12 inches batt insulation (R 60)
• exterior sun screens
• energy-efficient dual-glazed windows

Optional features include:
• solar panels
• triple-glazed windows

name: info_smallE Cube
style: modern
size: 1,398sf - 2,244sf
br: 2-3
method: SIPs
price: $91,000 - $172,000

Additional coverage at EcogeekTreehugger , and Moco Loco.

Related Posts:
   1. This week: Milan, German prefab, Marmol Radziner and more (May 03, 2008)
   2. So, what are SIPs anyway? (Mar 27, 2007)
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Modern Marine Homes

Link to Modern Marine Homes
mmh.se

If your goal is to reduce the amount of on-site work to an absolute minimum, a houseboat delivers the ultimate in pre-fabricated housing. No earth movers or cement trucks required. Bonus points if the factory is on the water: the width of the flatbed truck no longer matters. Case in point: Modern Marine Homes in Sweden.

"Modern Marine Homes was established in 2002 from a vision of waterside living without compromising the demands expected from a modern villa. The result was [Villa Näckros], a new concept within marine living. A home with modern design characteristics and carefully considered construction."

Architecture firm Strindberg Arkitektur designed the original Villa Näckros, one of two models now available, and formed Modern Marine Homes to sell and produce the product:

"A residence for a client grew to an industrial project, with leading words as: sustainability, low maintenance, development of materials and building, care for the environment, low energy costs, identity....A comfortable living and a lay-out that gives you the optimal feeling of the closeness to the water."

Kalmar, Sweden has even developed a pilot program with Modern Marine Homes for living on the water:

"This unique work has led to the development of properties for living on the water — a floating residential project in the centre of town with the opportunity to leasehold or freehold [own]. The project will be a guide for the future design and construction of floating living in Sweden."

The house was awarded "Building of the Year 2003" by the Swiss Construction Industry. The homes are not available in the U.S.

name: Villa Näckros and Villa Näckros Alba
style: modern houseboat
size: ~1,200sf - 1,600sf
br: both models have 3 bedrooms
features: roof terrace and waterside terrace

(Hat tips: CubeMe, Treehugger, Materialicio.us, cool boom, and Arkinetia have all shared their thoughts.)

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EcoUrban: green prefab in St. Louis

Link to EcoUrban: green prefab in St. Louis
ecourban.blogspot.com

EcoUrban is a new prefab home builder based in St. Louis. Owner Jay Swoboda keeps track of the company's home projects in a blog.

For EcoUrban's first project, 3140 Pennsylvania Avenue in St. Louis, EcoUrban partnered with modular builder Contempri Homes:

"After what felt like decades of anticipation and wait, it took just six days after the first pieces of wood were nailed together in the factory for the units to be delivered. Our units arrived at 10 AM this morning and the 60 Ton crane that lifted them into place was packed up and gone by 2 PM. We had a nice crowd gather to watch the four "boxes" come together and by the end of the day we were weather tight and secure."

Other posts cover the foundation work and visiting the modular factory.

Currently, the company offers a single 1,600sf floorplan, but "if you are passionate about an EcoUrban Home and not crazy about our floor plan then we will passionately find a floor plan to match you and your lifestyle."

With a focus on green, it's no surprise that EcoUrban "is aiming for LEED Silver certification, at the very least, for all future homes."

name: EcoUrban
style: modern/traditional
size: 1,600-1,850 sf
br: 2-3
bath: 2.5
price: $200,000 - $279,900
method: modules
features: 8'/9' ceilings, Low-E windows, LEED certified

(Hat tip: Jetson Green.)

Related Posts:
   1. EcoUrban modulars in St. Louis Business Journal (Oct 26, 2007)
   2. EcoUrban: update (Jul 03, 2007)
0 comments, 0 trackbacks (URL) , 

This week: Austrian prefab, zero-emissions, and more tiny prefab

Link to This week: Austrian prefab, zero-emissions, and more tiny prefab
www.espace-mobile.at

Jetson Green showed off photos of the info_smallEspace mobile, a prefab from Austria.

Inhabitat reported on the Lighthouse, the UK's first zero-emission home, which is built from SIPs:

"The Lighthouse is a two bedroom, two and a half storey house, with a floor area of about 100m2 [~ 1,076sf]. It does some things just a bit differently from the standard housing model such as locating all the sleeping areas at ground level. This allows the living areas to be located at the top, where they can make use of most of the natural light coming in through the windows and skylights. The curved roof sweeps down providing the living areas with a double height ceiling, making the occupant feel as though they are in a generous open-plan house, and concealing the rather tight and compact geometry of the house."

Inhabitat's Prefab Friday reported on the "Top 5 Tiniest Prefabs," a subject we've been talking a lot about recently.

Haute*Nature reported on the info_smallH-Haus models and their green options.

The Good Human has a new series called "Prefab Wednesday" and covered the Ray Kappe LivingHome this week:

"Ever since we saw that this house was being built just a short ways from here, we have driven by it a bunch of times to marvel at it. This house is beautiful if nothing else..."

(Yes, we cheated. We posted this on Monday but set the date to Saturday consistent with our "this week" series.)

Related Posts:
   1. This week: LV Series, refrigerator panels, and Michelle Kaufmann (Jun 30, 2007)
   2. Modern sheds, cabanas, and studios (Apr 16, 2007)
   3. LivingHomes (Mar 28, 2007)
   4. The H-Haus Cubes (Mar 28, 2007)
1 comment, 0 trackbacks (URL) , 

Shedworking: a new blog

Link to Shedworking: a new blog
shedworking.co.uk

It amazes me how many companies offer some sort of modern shed. We've covered prefab sheds and other small houses in the past. Now there's a blog to satisfy your every prefab-shed desire!

Alex Johnsons's Shedworking is "the only daily-updated guide to the lifestyles of homeworkers in sheds and shedlike atmospheres around the world." Not all of the sheds featured are prefab, but the UK site is still worth a look.

The TS1 got an enthusiastic recommendation from Shedworker:

"The building is everything you'd expect from a timber flatpack (modular, customisable, portable, flat packed, renewable, recyclable, and with low emission materials) except it's built around a lightweight Smorgon stainless steel framework and PIR panels made from a fire-resistant urethane foam. It is, give or take a few cms, a 3m cube with adjustable legs and you can add modules together to make it bigger. A solar power system is optional."

Links: Smorgon stainless steel; PIR (Polyisocyanurate) by Stancold

By coincidence, I received an email from Alex while working on this post.  I'll give him the last word:

"I also produce a bimonthly pdf magazine called The Shed for people who work in sheds and shedlike atmospheres. At the moment I am organising the first National Shed Week in the UK in collaboration with www.readersheds.co.uk."

(Hat tip: Future House Now featured a few models in a recent post.)

Related Posts:
   1. More small prefab: Metroshed (Jun 19, 2007)
   2. Modern sheds, cabanas, and studios (Apr 16, 2007)
0 comments, 0 trackbacks (URL) , 

A New Twist on Adobe

Link to A New Twist on Adobe
calearth.org

We've reported on disaster relief housing before. Prefab methods are ideally suited for quick, cheap housing in far flung, resource-starved areas. An organization named CalEarth (California Institute of Earth Art and Architecture) has developed a method of home building that requires little more than the earth present at a homesite. 

CalEarth's designs are based on a proprietary product called Superadobe Earthbags. The bags come in widths ranging from 12" to 26" and can be ordered up to a mile long. Combined with barbed-wire and earth from the site, the bags create super-strong structures:

"To build simple emergency and safe structures in our backyards, to give us maximum safety with minimum environmental impact, we must choose natural materials and, like nature itself, build with minimum materials to create maximum space, like a beehive or a sea shell. The strongest structures in nature which work in tune with gravity, friction, minimum exposure and maximum compression, are arches, domes and vault forms. And they can be easily learned and utilize the most available material on earth: Earth."

CalEarth has experimented with a number of designs and implementations using Superadobe, ranging from the Eco-Dome house, aka the "Moon Cocoon", to emergency shelters. Features of the Eco-Dome include:
• Built from local earth-filled Superadobe coils (soil-cement or lime-stabilized earth).
• Tree free.
• Can be repeated and joined together to form larger homes and courtyard houses.
• Can be built by a team of 3-5 persons.
• Designed with the sun, shade and wind in mind for passive cooling and heating.
• Solar energy and radiant heating may be incorporated.

(Hat tip: Inhabitat shared a bunch of photos and thoughts on the design last week.)

Related Posts:
   1. Global Village Shelters (May 09, 2007)
1 comment, 0 trackbacks (URL) , 

Reducing waste

Link to Reducing waste
shelterarchitecture.blogspot.com

We previously covered some controversy over whether prefab homes have less material waste than conventional construction. For the 5IVE home, the answer is a resounding yes:

"What you see is the sum total of all waste produced so far. In case you didn't know, this is about a 75% reduction in waste from the typical home."

Impressive!

Related Posts:
   1. Thermomass walls and 5IVE (Jun 15, 2007)
0 comments, 0 trackbacks (URL) , 

More small prefab: Metroshed

Link to More small prefab: Metroshed
metroshed.com

CubeMe found another company, producing small prefab outbuildings. We've covered info_smallModern Shed, info_smallModern Cabana and info_smallEcospace, and now there is the info_smallMetroCabin from info_smallMetroShed:

"The simple and sophisticated design allows it to exist easily in an urban setting, while the quiet strength and sturdy attitude are comfortable in a more rugged environment."

name: MetroCabin by MetroShed
where: Orlando, FL
size: 104sf
cost: $29,500 to $34,950
construction type: pre-assembled conventional stud-framed panels
standard materials: wood doors and windows
options: window screens, wall finishes, door and trim color, exterior color, porch, electrical

Update: fixed the picture (thanks to a commenter for pointing out the mistake)

Related Posts:
   1. Small homes from Sweden (Oct 17, 2008)
   2. MetroShed introduces smaller MetroCabin (Jan 24, 2008)
   3. Shedworking: a new blog (Jun 22, 2007)
   4. Modern sheds, cabanas, and studios (Apr 16, 2007)
4 comments, 0 trackbacks (URL) , 

Hive Modular home-raising

Link to Hive Modular home-raising
hivemodular.com

info_smallHive Modular invites the public to "experience the set process" of one of their info_smallB-Line homes in St. Paul, Minnesota later this week. Details below.

what: B-Line set process
model: Hive Modular B-Line
where: 766 Capitol Heights, St. Paul, Minnesota 55103
when: June 21, 2007, 8:30am

Related Posts:
   1. Hive Modular in historic Minnesota neighborhood (Sep 14, 2009)
   2. Hive Modular blog (Jul 10, 2007)
   3. Hive Modular on Minneapolis Home Tour (Apr 26, 2007)
   4. Hives for humans (Mar 27, 2007)
0 comments, 0 trackbacks (URL) , 

This week: British SIPs and Maison in the rain

Link to This week: British SIPs and Maison in the rain
www.bre.co.uk

The BRE Group is a British "research, consultancy, training, testing and certification organisation delivering sustainability and innovation across the built environment and beyond." They reported this week on the Osbourne demonstration house, built from SIPs:

"The Osborne demonstration house pushes the boundaries of sustainable affordable housing and supply chain integration. It was constructed in one and a half days using the Jabhouse Structural Insulated Panel System (SIPs)...

The house needs two thirds less energy for heating and cooling than a house constructed to 2006 Building Regulations."

The house uses the latest in modern methods of construction with:
• a zinc and slate clad cassette roof that requires no trusses or rafters
• off-site manufactured bathroom pod and door sets
• a plug-together wiring system
• timber I-beam floor joists.

Architecture.mnp posted some unique views of the Maison Tropicale in the rain, plus a nice interior shot.

Related Posts:
   1. So, what are SIPs anyway? (Mar 27, 2007)
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Thermomass walls and 5IVE

Link to Thermomass walls and 5IVE
thermomass.com

Similar to SIPs, the Thermomass Building Insulation System consists of two layers of modified concrete with styrofoam between. The system is flexible enough to be "used in site-cast tilt-up, plant precast, modular precast, tunnel form and poured-in-place concrete panels and walls." The site-cast tilt-up method moves the process out of the factory, allowing rapid construction on site.

Architects John Dwyer & Jeff Gallo selected the energy-efficient Thermomass walls to help their 5IVE house achieve LEED Platinum certification:

"Using a technology developed by DOW, the walls will act as a thermal mass giving them a rating of R-30. By employing prefabrication, we were also able to control the quality of the finish on the concrete."

The walls for the 5IVE home are being produced by a company called Forecast Concrete. The benefits of factory precast concrete walls include:
• added precision
• controlled environment
• no form lines
• high strength concrete The company says that the process is adaptable for any style and size of home.

(Hat tips: Future House made a quick post on June 2, Lloyd Alter of TreeHugger added some detail on June 6, Preston Koerner waxed enthusiastic at Jetson Green on June 7.)

Related Posts:
   1. Reducing waste (Jun 20, 2007)
0 comments, 0 trackbacks (URL) , 

Resolution: 4 videos on YouTube

info_smallResolution: 4 has posted three videos of the company's houses on YouTube, including the following video of the factory process (3:40):

Another clip allows you to experience the Dwell Home open house. The third clip flies you through a 3D rendering of the home.

(Hat tip: architecture.mnp via Jetson Green)

Related Posts:
   1. The Dwell Home by Resolution 4: Architecture (Apr 18, 2007)
0 comments, 0 trackbacks (URL) , 

Container Cities

Link to Container Cities
containercity.com

Last week's Prefab Friday on Inhabitat covered an interesting project in the UK:

"Container City™ is an innovative and highly versatile system that provides stylish and affordable accommodation for a range of uses.

The Container City™ system uses shipping containers linked together to provide high strength, prefabricated steel modules that can be combined to create a wide variety of building shapes and adapted to suit most planning or end user needs.

This modular technology enables construction times and cost to be reduced by up to half that of traditional building techniques while remaining significantly more environmentally friendly."

Developer Urban Space Management installed the original Container City I in an amazingly short 4 days. Construction time start-to-finish came to an admirable 5 months. The project utilized 20 shipping containers to build 15 individual housing units.

Since then, the system has been used for residential, commercial and educational buildings. Projects range from the 7 container Music Studio to the 73 container Riverside Building.

Brand Avenue covered the system a while back:

"I appreciate how they acknowledge temporality: implicit in their no-nonsense construction, and the light ways they touch the ground, is the idea that the site can and will be cleared someday, and something else will take their place. In this way, they interact rather respectfully with context..."

YouTube has a clip from the History Channel's Modern Marvels about the home:

Related Posts:
   1. All about containers (Oct 25, 2007)
2 comments, 0 trackbacks (URL) , 

LiveModern forum and blogs

Link to LiveModern forum and blogs
livemodern.com

LiveModern is a website for "anyone interested in modern and sustainable design for housing products and services." info_smallEcoSteel, aka EcoContempo, contributes content to the site. Especially worth a look is the construction blog by architect info_smallGreg La Vardera:

"Our blog is for tracking the development of new Modern House designs which are available at our catalog house plan site lamidesign.com/plans. We also cover the prefab house products we work on such as EcoContempo, EcoSteel, custom modular, and IBU container based housing."

The blog covers the variety of projects, detailing developments in the ongoing planning and construction of each. A recent post focused on a project in New Mexico, including photos of the site and renderings of the structures:

"The project consists of a trio of buildings - a residence, a garage/shop, and an observatory structure. Yes! That's right. More detail about that later. The three structures are located in proximity to each other at one corner of the site."

At the Vermont Plat House, interior finishes are going in:

"The owner moves in to the house in a matter of days. No doubt there will be more loose ends, but we will see it almost done very soon."
An earlier post on the same house had some great exterior shots.

Other projects, like the Virginia Plat House, or the Colorado Plat House just have photos of the site.

Greg also covers other projects his firm, info_smallLaMi Design, is working on. He recently wrote about a competition entry for a multi-unit building composed of a number of single bedroom container homes:

"The proposal was for a student housing village composed of a series of these [stacked] IBU structures. As the competition was being held in concert with a conference on green building, the student housing was proposed as a test bed for new sustainable energy and building systems. It was proposed that the units serve the Engineering school allowing for the students to live in and work at innovating and optimizing the new systems being designed at the school."

Glossary: IBU (Inter-modal Building Units) - Greg La Vardera's name for container housing

Related Posts:
   1. EcoSteel Plat House (Jun 05, 2009)
0 comments, 0 trackbacks (URL) , 

And more yurts....

Link to And more yurts....
wikipedia.org

I've been reading more about Yurts, and I'm beginning to be won over.

The Yurt Foundation lays out the key advantages:

"The roof structure, with its compression ring and tension band, is an amazing architectural design requiring no internal support system, thereby leaving the yurt open and spacious inside....

Yurts are special because they are portable. Central Asian nomads put their gers up in an hour or less. Modern canvas yurts can be set up in a day. To have a shelter that can be put up quickly and then taken down and moved as one's situation changes is a distinct advantage in our transient culture."

Want to look inside? Pacific Yurts, Inc. features a virtual tour. (Quicktime required: drag your mouse left or right to swivel the camera around in a circle. If you zoom in, you can also move up and down a bit.)

Wikipedia includes some great photos of traditional Mongolian yurts. This French company has even more photos showing the traditional process for making yurts by hand.

Related Posts:
   1. Yurts! (May 28, 2007)
0 comments, 0 trackbacks (URL) , 

This week: micro compact video, budgets and v2world

Link to This week: micro compact video, budgets and v2world
news.bbc.co.uk

Treehugger reported on a BBC story about the info_smallmicro compact home we've mentioned a couple times before. The BBC report includes a video, and some insight into the home's design:

"It's a very tranquil place but at the same time it's a bit of an adventure - there's always something to slide out or under, pull down, tuck away, generally fiddle with, if only out of the need for space. To live here you have to be ordered: to do one thing, you have to finish another first and put it away. And that may be my and other compact-livers' downfall."

The Maison Tropicale sale made a couple more headlines. An AP story about the sale showed up on quite a few sites, like ABC Money UK:

"Its last owner, Eric Touchaleaume, a French antiques dealer, has said he plans to use the sale proceeds to finance a Prouve museum that will travel inside another Maison Tropicale."
NY Arts Magazine explained the original use for the prefab homes:
"Prouve's aluminum and steel home was designed for French colonists living in Brazzaville, now the capital of the Republic of the Congo."

Future House Now likes A Prefab Project as much as I do, especially the site's detailed budget page:

"It's been recently updated, and gives a lot of detail, the kind of detail you don't get from glossy magazine articles."

Apartment Therapy eyes info_smallV2world's info_smallV2flat:

"They say it has no geographic limitations. So, we say set it up for semi-outdoor summer living anywhere."

0 comments, 0 trackbacks (URL) , 

New prefab book: Prefabulous

Link to New prefab book: Prefabulous
amazon.com

AOL Money & Finance has posted a slide show highlighting a new book called Prefabulous. Author Sheri Koones explores a number of prefab building methods, from steel frames to large modules. The slideshow includes a variety of in-progress shots of large, custom-designed prefabs from:

Hearthstone, Inc.
• American Timbercraft
Sterling Building Systems
Excalibur Steel Structures

The book was published in March 2007 by Taunton Press, which some describe as the "the leading publisher in the house and home category". In addition to magazines such as Fine Homebuilding and Fine Woodworking, they offer a whole series of books on home building and design.

Sheri Koones' previous books include Modular Mansions, House About It?, and From Sand Castles to Dream Houses.

Other coverage of Prefabulous around the blogosphere:
• Avenue A comments on prefab entering the mainstream.
• Momoy mentions the book in a discussion of "kit homes" escaping negative preconceived notions.

Elsewhere on the web:
• The Reno Gazette Journal's Robert Bruss explains that the book changed his mind about prefab homes.
• Realty Times columnist Blanche Evans provides excerpts froman interview with the author and some additional modular/prefab links.

The publisher's site includes an overview and a minimal Table of Contents.

Related Posts:
   1. West Coast Green: Sheri Koones (Sep 28, 2007)
   2. Sheri Koones is on a mission (Sep 06, 2007)
0 comments, 0 trackbacks (URL) , 

Hive Modular on YouTube

The original info_smallHive Modular prototype in Minneapolis is the subject of a couple different videos on YouTube. Each runs a little long, but you get a good sense for the home's details and layout from the two. Some interesting facts gleaned from the videos:

• prototype composed of three modules
• the three modules set in 3.5 hours
• cost to ship the modules to site was $3,000

This video is excerpted from the HGTV show What's with That House? and features an off-the-wall host and some neighborhood commentary (6:51):

The landscape architect who worked with the Hive Modular folks on the home uploaded this video (4:33):

Related Posts:
   1. Hive Modular in historic Minnesota neighborhood (Sep 14, 2009)
   2. This week: mkLotus and Hive video (Jul 21, 2007)
   3. Hive Modular blog (Jul 10, 2007)
   4. Hives for humans (Mar 27, 2007)
0 comments, 0 trackbacks (URL) , 

A Prefab Project

Link to A Prefab Project
aprefabproject.blogspot.com

I've really been enjoying the posts on A Prefab Project. Homeowners Chris and Sarah track the construction of their prefab home, designed by info_smallResolution: 4 Architecture.

One of the downsides of the modular building method is that modules are limited to a size that fits on a flatbed truck. Chris offers some perspective after a visit to the factory:

"When we were first looking around at the different prefab options, we had no real perspective on what 14' wide or 16' wide would be like for the whole length of a house - those are both obviously fine dimensions for a single room, but how does it feel to have a whole house fit into that width?...yesterday it was reassuring to actually stand in ours and feel how open and comfortable the space is..."

Resolution 4's 16' module width is fairly typical, e.g.
info_smallHive Modular: 16'
info_smallAlchemy Architects: 14'
info_smallOMD: 12' - 14'
info_smallMarmol Radziner: 12'

Chris answered some user comments and questions by listing some of the finish and fixtures they chose. Their goal: "modest and genuinely cost effective (and of course largely unspectacular)".

Another post compares photos of the actual modules in the factory and the renderings that Resolution 4 had provided to the homeowners in the design process.

Last Monday, Chris relayed a funny story about his Grandpa's take on modernist design.

Related Posts:
   1. Lost River Modern by Resolution 4 (Aug 13, 2009)
   2. A Prefab Project you can rent (Jul 10, 2008)
2 comments, 0 trackbacks (URL) , 

Maison Tropicale sold for $4.97m

Link to Maison Tropicale sold for $4.97m

Jean Prouve's classic Maison Tropicale was sold last night at auction for $4.97 million, according to Bloomberg.com:

"'I just love Prouve,' said tanned hotelier Andre Balazs who bought the house and said he hasn't decided what he will do with it. Of one thing was he certain: 'It belongs back in the tropics.'"

The article added details on the house's history:

"About eight years ago, Touchaleaume traveled to the Republic of the Congo and bought three prototype tropical houses that Prouve had shipped to the French colony. They were in dismal condition, rusting, inhabited by squatters and riddled with bullet holes from civil wars.

He sold one to American collector and former commodities trader Robert Rubin, who restored and donated his house to the Centre Pompidou in Paris. 'This price validates the other one,' said Rubin after the sale, speaking of the house he donated."

Related Posts:
   1. MoMA's Home Delivery gets a glowing review from the NY Times (Jul 18, 2008)
   2. Historic prefab: Marcel Breuer's Plas-2-Point house (Feb 12, 2008)
   3. Maison Tropicale to be displayed in London (Jan 25, 2008)
   4. More pictures of the Maison Tropicale (May 22, 2007)
   5. $6 million prefab up for sale (May 18, 2007)
0 comments, 0 trackbacks (URL) , 

Nashville Modern Prefab

Link to Nashville Modern Prefab
tandemracer.blogspot.com

A blog called Nashville Modern Prefab covers the process of building a modern prefab by info_smallHive Modular. The project is nearing the end of the design/approval stage; recent posts have dealt mainly with permit and zoning approvals and provide a good first-hand look at how some municipalities make building a unique home difficult.

A post back in December laid out the different approvals they would have to receive for the design:

"Metro Development and Housing Agency ....Metro Planning Commission ....The Metropolitan Historical Zoning Commission....The Nashville Civic Design Center...

The upshot of all this seems to be that even with a house that meets zoning (MUN - Multi-Use Neighborhood) and fits the Neighborhood Design Plan for our lot (Neighborhood Urban) we will still need to jump through many hoops to satisfy all of these people just for the sake of making these petty bureaucrats feel powerful."

That post followed a meeting with the Historic Commission that expressed concerns over the home's modern design:
"Initial unofficial feedback from members of the Historic Commission and the Design Review Board mentioned major concerns with: 1 - The lack of a front-facing entrance. 2 - The lack of a front porch. 3 - The materials in general and the metal siding in particular. 4 - The flat roof."

A post in February provided a view of the home's final design. The following is the animated fly-by video of the home's exterior (1:09, no sound):

In April, the home received approval from the Design Review Board:

"...They asked a lot of questions and I answered a few of [them]. Luckily some of the people on the board were able to answer some of the questions for me just be looking at their copies of the plans. The only changes that they require to the design are on the windows for the North side of the house - a larger window in the front upstairs bedroom and one more small window near the base of the stairs. Could have been worse. They approved with conditions so we are ready to actually get started for real."

(Hat tip: Jetson Green covered the site last week)

Related Posts:
   1. Hives for humans (Mar 27, 2007)
0 comments, 0 trackbacks (URL) , 

MKD Google mash-up

Link to MKD Google mash-up
sketchup.google.com/3dwarehouse

Jetson Green discovered a unique combo of free internet technologies that helps you to display a home by info_smallMKD on your plot of land. Some of the applications involved, primarily Google SketchUp, require a bit of know-how.

Preston's post inspired a couple others. Materialicious explained why architects should love the "mash-up":

"What a great idea! Rather than bother the architect with endless queries like 'Can we change this?' or 'Can I have that?' or 'I don't like this, take it out', you can save time and money doing it yourself, tweaking the design (within certain limits, to be sure) and then presenting the desired customization to the architect. Makes sense to me."

Treehugger offers additional details:

"Google also offers Google Earth and mashed it and Sketchup so that you can put your Kaufmann design on your own property, play with the shadows and orientation, get comfortable with the plans and elevations before you even send her an email."

See also:
MKD in the Google 3D Warehouse
Other prefab options in the Google 3D Warehouse
Google SketchUp
Google Earth

Related Posts:
   1. Michelle Kaufmann Designs closing (May 27, 2009)
   2. Michelle Kaufmann Designs (Apr 27, 2007)
0 comments, 0 trackbacks (URL) , 

This week: more Maison and more treehouses

Link to This week: more Maison and more treehouses
urbanity.com

Jean Prouve's Maison Tropicale doesn't go on the auction block until next week. The vintage prefab stirred up a little more press this week. Luxist covered the home and linked an article in the Queens Tribune.

Treehugger brought a couple other treehouse companies to the table:

"If you want to live out your childhood fantasy of moving into your treehouse (and preferably seceding from the family), but a couple of planks slapped together with some rusty nails isn't going to cut it, you'll want to give the able carpenters of TreeHouse Workshop a ring."

Inhabitat's Prefab Friday shared thoughts and more good photos of Richard Rogers' Oxley Park Houses that Treehugger mentioned last week:

"The homes' most innovative feature is the 'EcoHat,' a roofing system that allows hot air to rise and consequently be reused to provide passive solar water heating, thereby mitigating the energy consumption of the house. Clever floorplans optimize natural lighting schemes, while prefab modules and flat-pack components reduce waste and energy..."

Related Posts:
   1. Prefab for the kids (May 31, 2007)
   2. More pictures of the Maison Tropicale (May 22, 2007)
   3. $6 million prefab up for sale (May 18, 2007)
0 comments, 0 trackbacks (URL) , 

Some Assembly Required in Virginia

Link to Some Assembly Required in Virginia
walkerart.org

The Some Assembly Required exhibit by the Walker Art Center will be opening at the Virginia Center for Architecture on June 15. (Hat tip: a post on Richmond Magazine's blog).

Tour locations to date:
  Walker Art Center
  Minneapolis, Minnesota
  December 8, 2005-March 26, 2006

  Vancouver Art Gallery
  Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
  April 29- September 4, 2006

  Yale School of Architecture
  New Haven, Connecticut
  October 27, 2006- February 2, 2007

  The Museum of Contemporary Art, Pacific Design Center
  Los Angeles, California
  February 28- May 20, 2007
  (our coverage links to a video report)

what: Some Assembly Required Exhibit
when: June 15 - September 30, 2007
who: Black Barn by Pinc House, Desert House by info_smallMarmol Radziner, FlatPak by info_smallLazor Office, info_smallLV Series Homes by info_smallRocio Romero, Mountain Retreat by info_smallResolution 4: Architecture, info_smallSunset Breezehouse by info_smallMichelle Kaufmann Designs, Turbulence House by Stephen Holl, and the info_smallweeHouse by info_smallAlchemy Architects

Related Posts:
   1. Some Assembly Required at LAMOCA (May 03, 2007)
0 comments, 0 trackbacks (URL) , 

Prefab for the kids

Link to Prefab for the kids
danielswoodland.com/

While you are planning your prefab dream house, your kids might get a little jealous. All the Best Bits, a blog about "everything", wrote a post on wild treehouses on Monday. If you buy your kids one of these treehouses, they'll probably love you for life (or at least until they are too old to fit through the front door of their Scallywag Sloop).

Prices aren't listed on the site, but one can only guess that these treehouses cost a pretty penny.

On a similar note, the New York Times ran a lengthy article (subscription required) on treehouses a few weeks back. The article discussed how treehouses aren't just for kids anymore:

"...an engineering breakthrough developed by conference participants, the so-called Garnier Limb, allowed treehouses greater stability and longer life, and before a spate of how-to and coffee-table books helped popularize them. Within a few years, elaborate treehouses, many costing upwards of $100,000, were becoming almost faddish....

As souped-up treehouses have proliferated -- there are now at least several hundred of them in the United States, according to Mr. Garnier -- their designs and functions have become more diverse...[some treehouses] are used for weddings, tai chi and Alcoholics Anonymous meetings."

Related Posts:
   1. This week: more Maison and more treehouses (Jun 03, 2007)
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ICF buildings systems

Link to ICF buildings systems
Michael van Meter

I received an email from my friend/colleague Michael van Meter the other day. He and other volunteers are building homes in Armenia for charity using a unique pseudo-prefab building process:

"The goal of the people I am working with is basically to revolutionize the affordable housing market in the 3rd world. We are here in Armenia to build 2 houses on a site administered by a group called ARDA (Armenian Relief and Development Agency). This is an NGO started by an LA businessman by the name of Steve Lazarian. He has spent 17 years and millions of his own dollars here trying to help the Armenian people progress from the conditions that prevail here after the demise of the Soviet Union...

One of the things that is desperately needed here is some type of affordable (and quickly constructed) quality housing. Enter my pal George who has many years of building expertise and has a heart for the poor of the world....George has been studying a product called Kiva Block for a couple of years now and has come up with a design that makes this product potentially viable. Kiva is made of Styrofoam of all things and goes together rather like Lego blocks. Think of a concrete block (CMU) that is 12 in high, 8 in thick and 48 in long....It is inexpensive, strong and quick. We have been working here 9 days now and are putting the roof on the first building and are going to start the roof on the 2nd tomorrow...pretty fast for a 2 bedroom 650 sf dwelling eh?

So anyway here we are setting a land speed record at building houses and perhaps there is a market for this thing in the world..."

I've seen products like the Kiva Block before, so I did some research. The generic term for such products is Insulating Concrete Forms. Builders assemble the (usually) styrofoam forms into walls on site; concrete is then poured into the forms, which are left in place. The form acts as a quick and precise way to form a wall, AND as the wall's insulation. A durable exterior finish is required; ICF homes "will accept any traditional exterior finish including vinyl or wood siding, stucco and brick." Interior finishes match those of typical construction. This page has countless photos of different ICF products and processes.

Thanks Michael!

Update: By coincidence, ICF receives good coverage in the June issue of Residential Design & Build Magazine (hat tip: Materialicious).

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"Prefab homes" on Google Hot Trends

Link to
google.com/trends/

On May 24th, the search "prefab homes" ranked 100 on Google Hot Trends, "a list of the current top 100 fastest-rising Google search queries in the U.S." That's A LOT of searches...

Update: After some research, it seems that much of what shows up on google hot trends comes from daily crossword puzzles (that's why the entries seem so strange sometimes). But, a quick search didn't turn up the clue "prefab homes" on any crossword puzzles for the date.

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OMD update

Link to OMD update
designmobile.com

When we first covered Jennifer Siegel's info_smallOMD, their website barely worked. I'm happy to report that it's much improved.

The site is definitely worth a visit. It includes details on prefab homes that are completed or in progress. For example, here's a video (4:11 minutes, no audio) of the Pacific Palisades Prefab.

Related Posts:
   1. This week: Hive Modular, OMD, WIRED, and more miniHome (Jul 07, 2007)
   2. Take a portable swell house home (Mar 29, 2007)
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Yurts!

Link to Yurts!
yurtco.com

I don't know what it is with yurts right now, but apparently, they are "in". Two different companies building yurts came across my prefab feeds. Then, a day later, Core77, a design blog, covered a third company producing a prefab yurt product:

"The Mongols once had the largest contiguous empire in history, with their conquests covering 12 million square miles. While little is left of that legacy, their contribution to design remains in the form of yurts....

Modern yurts now exist in the form of The Nomad, an eco-friendly yurt kit designed by Stephanie Smith and sold by Ecoshack. You can put one up yourself in about an hour, and you don't need to conquer anybody to call them home."

The products vary from company to company; so, if you want a prefab yurt, at least you've got options.

name: The Nomad
style: tent-like
price: $6,800
size: ~150 sf
br: "sleeps 3-4"

name: Yurtco
style: secondary dwelling
price: $4,879 - $15,597 (excludes finishes + options)
size: 113 sf - 805 sf
br: varies

style: house
price: $12,536 - $85,366 (excludes finishes)
size: 291 sf - 2836 sf
br: varies

Related Posts:
   1. This week: Lifepod and weeHouses in the UK (Sep 06, 2008)
   2. This week: Ideabox, Method Homes, and unconventional (Jul 26, 2008)
   3. And more yurts.... (Jun 11, 2007)
   4. Tiny Houses (May 23, 2007)
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This week: prefab school, CA prefab and SIPs

Link to This week: prefab school, CA prefab and SIPs
treehugger.com

Inhabitat's Prefab Friday covered a prefab school project in progress by Jennifer Siegel's OMD:

"...We're thrilled to see prefab systems being applied to more public and educational contexts!) While the construction isn't quite finished, we think this is a great opportunity to show the process and progress of an exceptional prefab project- and one of the best (and first) prefab schools we've seen integrate so many green technologies...

We find this project particularly interesting as it is an addition to an existing structure, which provides not only site-specific but aesthetic and programmatic context."

Treehugger covers a prefab concept in the UK by architect Richard Rogers. The post includes over a dozen photos, and quotes a recent Financial Times article (subscription required) with a hat tip to Urbanity.

The San Jose Mercury News ran an article about prefab and price:

"Manufactured homes are no longer the boxy firetraps owned by the poor and elderly. Instead they are increasingly becoming the smartly-designed homes of the young, wealthy and educated.

About 1.4 million people in California live in manufactured homes, and the typical profile of an owner has become younger, more educated and more affluent...

...standard site-built homes cost about $250 a square foot whereas manufactured housing can be as low as $120 a square foot, a big savings for people used to paying top dollar in the Bay Area."

Materialicious (a blog all about building materials) points out that the Structural Insulated Panel Association offers useful information, "including a Green Building section".

Related Posts:
   1. UK prefab school (Jul 09, 2008)
   2. This week: London, Resolution: 4, OMD and more (May 24, 2008)
   3. Take a portable swell house home (Mar 29, 2007)
   4. So, what are SIPs anyway? (Mar 27, 2007)
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Tiny Houses

Link to Tiny Houses
weehouses.com/

Back in February, the New York Times published "Think Small", a story all about small second homes:

"A wave of interest in such small dwellings — some to serve, like the Shepherds' home, as temporary housing, others to become space-saving dwellings of a more permanent nature — has prompted designers and manufacturers to offer building plans, kits and factory-built houses to the growing number of small-thinking second-home shoppers. Seldom measuring much more than 500 square feet, the buildings offer sharp contrasts to the rambling houses that are commonplace as second homes."

The article featured a number of prefab models, including the info_smallweeHouse by info_smallAlchemy Architects:

"For $90,000...Scott McGlasson...and his wife, Lisa...bought a 700-square-foot weeHouse....It has plumbing, tall glass doors, Andersen windows, laminate flooring, recessed lighting and Ikea cabinets. It is comfortable and attractive. 'But people confuse prefab with inexpensive,' Mr. McGlasson said. 'On a middle-class budget, this was doable, but not easy.' They bought the land — a small lot on Lake Pequaywan in northern Minnesota — in 2002 for $80,000. It already had a septic system, a well and access to utilities.

One rectangular module serves as the main floor; above it is an additional square module that serves as a second bedroom, which must be entered from outdoors via a ship's ladder. Guests love it because it's separate from the rest of the house. 'And because they can lock out our three kids,' Mr. McGlasson said."

There have been a number of blog posts about, or inspired by, the article since then. Trend Agitator added some commentary:
"Luxurious small dwellings are the next wave. Defined as less than 700 sq ft, these dwellings are increasingly more aesthetic and available thru prefab manufacturers. As consumers rethink their priorities, these abbreviated structures motivate occupants to edit precisely and define themselves against the open space of the land rather than the footprint of the shelter."

Treehugger criticized the fact that most of the homes discussed in the article are used as second, or vacation, homes:

"Unfortunately, many of the homes profiled in the article are second or vacation homes, further stigmatizing the small footprint prefab as something that can only be used for a period of weeks, not the whole year."

Inhabitat shared similar thoughts:

"Some of those who have found themselves comfortable in these tiny houses have purchased them as second homes, which we find a bit ironic. The romantic notion of a large vacation plot of land, barely flecked with a 10' x 8' footprint is nice, but probably not exactly what Small House Society represents. Do you really get credit for adjusting your lifestyle for the sake of a small house — if you own two?"

Blogs were covering the article as late as last week. Alt^House, a blog covering "news and information on non-traditional home options", covered a guy who lives in a tiny house:

"Most of us think of a 500 square foot apartment as pretty darned small, but what would you say to living a house where the entire area measures only 96 square feet?"

Related Posts:
   1. The New York Times looks at small prefab and more small prefab (Sep 11, 2008)
   2. Yurts! (May 28, 2007)
   3. Itsy Bitsy weeHouse (Mar 26, 2007)
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More pictures of the Maison Tropicale

Link to More pictures of the Maison Tropicale
© Flickr user phcatfish

I didn't think the NY Times slideshow did justice to the 6 million dollar house we mentioned last week. Prompted by a picture that came across my flickr widget this morning, here are better pictures of the Maison Tropicale, courtesy of Flickr users.

Related Posts:
   1. Maison Tropicale to be displayed in London (Jan 25, 2008)
   2. Maison Tropicale sold for $4.97m (Jun 06, 2007)
   3. This week: more Maison and more treehouses (Jun 03, 2007)
   4. $6 million prefab up for sale (May 18, 2007)
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This week: doing research, tracking progress, and more

Link to This week: doing research, tracking progress, and more
doresearch.blogspot.com

A blog named DO Research showed up in a few places around the blogosphere. The blog is an "online note-to-self occasionally posted up on the internets for the unbuilt prefab home of Nicole Dotin and Eric Olson." They've been writing for a while; their coverage of the info_smallAperture House, mentioned here last week, got attention. Treehugger enjoyed the photos:

"We love showing pictures of modern prefab, hoping that someday it will make good green design accessible and affordable. Nichole Dotin and Eric Olson plan to build a prefab and are clipping their own pictures of favourites. Where others might stick them in a file folder, they store them online as they move around the world from Minneapolis to Reading, UK."

I happened upon a blog that "tracks the building of our house, the first info_smallNextHouse by info_smallEmpyrean." The house is almost complete, and this week, the authors discussed the last-minute craziness of the project:

"As move-in date draws nearer, all the things that need to be handled seem to be converging and conspiring to eat up all of our free time on weekends, and a bunch of time on weekdays as well."

Prefab Update discusses the efficiency of the 7.83 Hz House:

"It only requires two truck loads of materials to assemble, is built with sustainable materials, and is extremely energy efficient. The home is reconfigurable and low cost."

The info_smallSander Architects info_smallHybrid House showed up on Treehugger. Lloyd Alter wondered about the prefab-ness of the home:

"I have never been certain what to make of Whitney Sander's Hybrid House...

Most architects working in prefab are trying to create standard designs, to reduce the cost and risk to the client, and bring the services of talented architects to smaller houses. Sander thinks otherwise and says that 'What we love about the part prefab, all custom™ approach to prefab is that this will be YOUR house, designed exclusively for you...' He then follows an absolutely standard process of client engagement, design, design development and construction documents....

However I think it is a stretch to call it prefab."

(A quick note based on our earlier coverage: every Hybrid House comes with a prefab structural steel frame; some incorporate prefab wall and roof panels.)

Treehugger also showed off a new green home built with shipping containers:

"The R4House prototype consists of two bioclimatic homes (one of 150 m2 and a mini-flat of 30m2) made from materials that close the loop. The energy consumption of both is zero due to its bioclimatic design, the solar panels and the geothermal energy source. The waste production during construction is also zero. Both homes are modular and built from six recycled shipping containers; low-cost and allowing flexibility."

The University of Kansas School of Architecture and Urban Design runs a website/blog tracking their projects. They've been posting weekly on the construction of a new prefab in Kansas City. This week (week 19 of the project), they're nearing completion:

"Our goal was to be finished this week and have all of next week to tidy up and prepare for the open house on the 19th. With the exception of minute detail work, we have reached our goal. All of the siding is finished, the south deck is completed, and the ramp is being clad with Cumaru today. We can now finish our site work by bringing in sod in once high-trafficked areas to the south and between the house and garage."

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$6 million prefab up for sale

Link to $6 million prefab up for sale
www.nytimes.com

On Wednesday the New York Times published an article about the classic prefab Maison Tropicale up for auction:

"Tomorrow, the Maison Tropicale, a small aluminum-paneled house built in 1951 by Jean Prouvé, a French designer and the current court favorite of well-heeled contemporary art and design collectors internationally, is being opened to the public for preview in Long Island City. Christie's, the auction house, will offer it for sale on June 5. The presale estimate is $4 million to $6 million."

That article touched off a flurry of posts around the blogosphere about the house and its sale. Treehugger's Lloyd Alter shared his thoughts and linked to an earlier article all about the home:

"One of the most remarkable experiments in prefabrication was Jean Prouve's Tropical House, designed and built in France and airlifted in 1951 to be assembled in Brazzaville, now the middle of a war zone....Treehugger...learned from him that the process [of] assembly and dissassembly is hard on the house and its fittings, so this may be one of the very few chances to see this masterpiece. Prouve is under-appreciated, his work in building and furniture design is brilliant."

Tropolism tried to visit the house and reported back:

"The house...is located in Long Island City, on a plot just south of the Queensboro Bridge. Update: After running over there today, I can report that the dates the house is open are May 17-June 5, 2007. No hours were posted. It was locked at 11am today."
Inhabitat covered the house today on Prefab Friday:
"The Maison is plug-and-play: there was never any plumbing, and it is wired for electricity. It ships in six containers. Christie's is compiling a short list of potential bidders with substantial properties in Mustique, Antigua, the Hamptons — name your playground — who might like a 59-foot-by-32-foot-by-16-foot-tall folly/outdoor sculpture/guesthouse/vintage metal toy to park on the lawn, with a designer label attached."

Apartment Therapy mentioned the home. Erratica excerpted the NY Times article and some of the NY Times images. Prefab Update posted the same images.

The Christie's auction lot shared some more details on the home:
• all load bearing parts in bent steel sheets, all covering parts in bent aluminum sheets
• the interior steel floor covered with modern iroko and rubber boat decking (not designed by Jean Prouvé) replacing the original linoleum
• with two modern access stairs (not designed by Jean Prouvé) and with original connecting platform

The home's early use of factory-built parts jives with Jean Prouve's character, as discussed in this International Herald Tribune article from last year:

"Prouvé described himself proudly as a 'factory man,' while his friend, Le Corbusier, dubbed him an 'architect-engineer.'...'He considered the availability and economy of materials, he developed tooling for production, and he aimed to optimize efficiency, but this has been forgotten....The young Prouvé longed to become an engineer, but, as his family could not afford the training, at 15 he was apprenticed to a master blacksmith.

He studied under two of France's most gifted blacksmiths, Emile Robert and Szabo, both of whom produced 'art metalwork': wrought-iron grilles and doors in ornate floral shapes....Prouvé followed his father's design principles: 'Learn about the past; never plagiarize; always use the most up-to- date methods.'"

Related Posts:
   1. Maison Tropicale to be displayed in London (Jan 25, 2008)
   2. Maison Tropicale sold for $4.97m (Jun 06, 2007)
   3. This week: more Maison and more treehouses (Jun 03, 2007)
   4. More pictures of the Maison Tropicale (May 22, 2007)
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The LV Series Yahoo! Group runs the numbers

Link to The LV Series Yahoo! Group runs the numbers
© Jennifer Watson

I just found a Yahoo! Group dedicated to sharing the thoughts and experiences of info_smallLV Series homeowners. LV Series homeowner Gregg started the group in July of 2005:

"Hello. My name is Gregg. I am building an LV Home in Sperryville, VA, about 60 miles west of DC in the foothills of the Shenandoah Mountains.

The reason I am starting this group is because I have had a lot of questions during this process to which I could not find answers on the web -- the most notable example being the actual cost....I felt it would be a good idea to have a forum for people interested in the home to be able to ask around."

Some of the very first posts had substantive content:
"When I ask[ed] for bid submissions, I insisted on having the contractors do 2 columns: Perryville [Missouri, where the Romero factory is located] and Sperryville [Virginia]. That way, I could see where they deviated heavily from Rocio's estimates. Here are the deviations:

Foundation: +3300 Framing and roof: +5000 Heat, Plumbing, Elec: +1500 Interior Finish: +400

...It fell very close to Rocio's estimate, and I am in one of the most expensive areas of the country."

There have been countless discussions on construction costs, and others about sourcing windows or other products for LV Series homes.

One user, having just finished his LV Home posted a full recap of construction costs, photos and thoughts on the project:

"Note that we did not encounter any big problems during construction. I will say that we were not pleased at all with the costs and do blame our contractor for a lot of the cost madness. But when we solicited bids more than one builder said, "kit or no kits, the cost per square foot will be the same." And that bore out to be true."
(emphasis added)

If you want to build an LV home, this is definitely a must-visit site.

Related Posts:
   1. Tracking the progress of an LVL home (Dec 11, 2007)
   2. 35 homes and counting (Apr 11, 2007)
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Kalkin Quik House

Link to Kalkin Quik House
www.quik-build.com

Now here's a website that's full of character: Kalkin Quik House. It's a useful site that already answers most of our usual interview questions.

The Quik House "is a prefabricated kit house designed by Adam Kalkin from recycled shipping containers." Most of the info provided on the site is matter-of-fact, but some of the Q and A is more fun. In response to the question "what colors does the Quik House come in?", the answer is: "Orange or natural "Rust Bloom". For an additional cost, we can have your Quik House tagged by local graffiti artists." Check out the site for more details.

style: modern
price: ~$184,000 excluding shipping
shipping cost: $3,000 - $12,000
size: 2,000 square feet (1,000, 3,000 and 5,000 sf models also available)
br: 3
how: recycled shipping containers
waiting list: 6 months
timeline: "no longer than 3 months"

Related Posts:
   1. Adam Kalkin container home from 2003 (Jan 29, 2009)
   2. This week: IKEA, Quik House, and anticipating West Coast Green (Sep 16, 2007)
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This week: Seattle, modular home history, tiny footprints and more

Link to This week: Seattle, modular home history, tiny footprints and more
seattleprefab.blogspot.com

Milwaukee firm info_smallVetter Denk Architects designed the prefab info_smallAperture House back in 2002, and it showed up in a couple blog posts this week. Architechnophilia posted an image. CubeMe posted the same image with some comments:

"Aperture House is a transparent jewel box, rigorously geometric and exquisitely scaled. Peer through the three-story glass curtain walls at either end of the 16-by-52-foot house and you can see the lake shimmering beyond. It is [a] sleek prefab vacation home on Moose Lake which won a top designing award and lots of interest from the public."

A blog named Seattle Prefab has been around since January, but it's just now showing up in blog search engines. "Seattle Prefab is run by two couples who are planning to build a mini-community of prefab homes in the Seattle area." This week, they discussed their construction schedule and the options they are considering for the driveway.

Modular home manufacturer Pac Van runs a blog and has posted a series on the "Evolution of modular buildings." This week, the blog discussed prefab's modest history and the flexibility of modular buildings:

"Architects and designers now create plans and configure modular space with the same freedom as for a bricks-and-mortar building. Today, a modular building might be a bullet-proof security kiosk, a two-story modular in-plant office, or an 11,500 sf sales center.

Gone, too, are the drab exteriors of the early years. Any exterior that stick-built construction uses, modular buildings can replicate."

Kisho Kurokawa's Capsule Tower got a little more attention this week from Core 77:
"The good thing about cities is they re-invent themselves. The bad thing about cities is, they reinvent themselves.

While world capitols like Paris and Rome are pretty careful with what they tear down, New York and Tokyo have always been less hesitant about replacing the old with the new."

Jetson Green posted on the info_smallmicro compact home we saw in Wired last week:
"m-ch was designed to meet the growing demand for short-stay living. I think Horden's on to something. Right now, there's a horde of 7 m-chs that TUM students and staff occasionally stay in."

Inhabitat's Prefab Friday shows a prefab dwelling with a tiny footprint:

"I-RISE is a multi-story prefab residential unit designed to have the smallest possible footprint, both on the site and in an ecological sense. Its intention is to create a modular structure that is simple to build, yet flexible enough to accommodate the changing needs of its occupants."

Related Posts:
   1. This week: Seattle, and a new prefab concept (Jul 14, 2007)
   2. This week: LOT-EK returns, a prefab for Second Lifers, and more (May 05, 2007)
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The Modular Housing System

Link to The Modular Housing System
© 2007 Peter Bernheim

A while back, I wrote about the models from info_smallkitHAUS. The product features an aluminum framing system called info_smallMHS (Modular Housing System) developed by US Systems LLC:

"Our modules are constructed on site in a matter of days, not months, and because of [the framing system's] lightweight properties can get into the hardest [to] reach places, without heavy equipment."

I had the chance to see the system for myself at the CA Boom show, and thought it was quite impressive. Clamps are used to hold the structural members together; bolts are only used to tighten the clamps. The kitHAUS reps did inform me that power tools are necessary to tighten the bolts, as hand tools wouldn't achieve the proper torque.

The system manufacturer's website has images, and even a cool video (MHS.WMV at the bottom of the main page) to show how the system comes together. For those interested, there are detailed reports on the structural testing of the system.

Related Posts:
   1. Prefab goes to the mall: kitHAUS in San Diego (Aug 06, 2007)
   2. A house for you and one for your dog too (Mar 28, 2007)
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Global Village Shelters

Link to Global Village Shelters
www.gvshelters.com

I just came across a product called the Global Village Shelter. These are not high-design, multi-thousand dollar homes; they are prefab disaster relief housing. I thought the product was impressive, especially how easily they come together (stills plus 10-min video). The company explains:

"The Global Village Shelter (herein 'GVS') is an alternative to current solutions for disaster relief housing. The present disaster relief field relies heavily on tent and tarp structures; these structures offer little protection from outdoor elements and no sense of personal space. The GVS is a rigid structure that can be assembled in the field by two people in approximately15 to 20 minutes. The instructions are simple graphics with limited text. The user simply unpacks the base and the roof modules and assembles the GVS on site."

The shelter comes in 67 sf and 225 sf versions. Features worth noting (for the 67sf version):
• the weight of the entire package is 170 lbs.
• cost just $550
• have withstood winds up to 80 mph
• last 18 months or longer

Related Posts:
   1. A New Twist on Adobe (Jun 21, 2007)
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Prefabs get demolished

Link to Prefabs get demolished
www.treehugger.com

A few blog posts popped up last week about a Japanese 'prefab icon', soon to be demolished. At Treehugger, Lloyd Alter described the building:

"Kisho Kurokawa's 1972 Capsule Tower was, along with Moshe Safdie's Habitat in Montreal, the pioneer in modernist multiple unit prefab. 140 capsules were attached by high tension bolts to a central core. Each of the tiny rooms had built in TV's and reel-to-reel tape decks, washrooms and were pre-assembled in a factory then hoisted by crane and fastened to the concrete core shaft."
Inhabitat quickly chimed in (and shows some more photos):
"Two weeks ago, the decision was made to replace the Capsule Tower with a new 14-story tower, despite resistance from Kurokawa, who has been touting the flexibility of the building and even proposed the modernization of the tower by replacing old capsules with more modern units."
The Independet UK has a few more details about the project:
"...the demolition campaigners complain that Mr Kurokawa's units are too difficult to maintain. Drainage and water pipes are damaged, and plans to unclip the capsules and refurbish them have never come to fruition. Residents are also afraid that asbestos used in construction poses a health risk....Its 140 units are so small and functional that they have been disparagingly compared to the interior of a Nasa space shuttle."
And also includes some good reasons as to why the tower shouldn't be demolished:
"...it remains a destination for tourists interested in design, particularly from Europe, where the Nagakin tower's principles are being championed. The British Government has argued that a modified version of this modular housing could help to meet housebuilding targets. Such is the demand to see the tower that a mock-up of one of the capsules is open to visitors."

Some searching around the web returned some recent news about UK prefabs being demolished. Back in January, TreeHugger reported on a similar large prefab building that they said might be torn down:

"...there were a few problems, apparently including putting the stronger, heavier ground floor units on the top and vice versa, described in the Guardian as 'fatal mismatches'....if the cost of repairing the fault is excessive, they will consider demolishing the whole structure."
UK site Building confirmed that the development would be razed:
"Last month, the Joseph Rowntree Foundation announced that it was to demolish the cutting-edge Caspar development in Leeds, which has been standing for less than two years. This type of event — unfortunate but probably quite rare — colours views on modern methods of construction..."

While they aren't modern "prefab", classic post-war modular housing is also being replaced in the UK. News Shopper reports that the residents are protesting the demolition:

"Eighty-three homeowners and tenants have signed an online petition on the Downing Street website, calling for their prefab estate in Catford, built after the Second World War, to be saved....It would cost £8.4m over the next 30 years to deal with repairs and improvements."
And the BBC ran a story discussing the demolition and philosophizing about prefab in general:
"Property prices are sky high in London, and 100,000 new homes are urgently needed in the South-East. So are prefabs the answer - or an ugly blast from the past?...Prefabs are quick to build, environmentally-sound, and an architect's dream. But almost always they cost more to build than traditional homes. And, when damaged, it is often hard to repair them. The original WW2 prefabs were only designed to last 15 years."

Related Posts:
   1. MoMA's Home Delivery gets a glowing review from the NY Times (Jul 18, 2008)
   2. Historic Prefab: How to identify a Sears Kit Home (Dec 17, 2007)
   3. Historic Prefab: Iron prefab for sale (Nov 02, 2007)
   4. Historic Prefab: Sears Homes (Jul 26, 2007)
0 comments, 0 trackbacks (URL) , 

This week: LOT-EK returns, a prefab for Second Lifers, and more

Link to This week: LOT-EK returns, a prefab for Second Lifers, and more
www.wired.com

Inhabitat's Prefab Friday has another prefab product from info_smallLOT-EK:

"In terms of architectural features, Lot-ek has created a system that defies the rigidity of an industrial shipping container, providing surprising flexibility in both size and functions. The CHK system comes in two different series- Compact and Loft, and boasts 8 x 8 floor-to-ceiling windows, built-in closets, and wood floors. The best part is its expansion possibilities- regardless of the configuration, it's easy to add on another container to accommodate a home office (or more family members) down the line."

For those who can't afford a prefab house in real life, apparently prefab homes are now available on Second Life (a 3-D virtual world).

A blog called A PreFab Project is documenting the construction of a prefab home by info_smallResolution: 4 Architecture. The most recent post discussed the "First Glitch" of the project:

"John from Res4 called yesterday to say that the factory got the wrong size floor trusses....The factory had apparently framed all the walls and was ready to begin the floor when [they] realized the webbed trusses were too short; so now they're stuck. If they wait for new trusses to arrive, this spot in the assembly line is stuck - no work for the factory. So Jason called me to basically say please allow us to use 2x12s as trusses so we can keep working as scheduled..."

One of the many LiveModern blogs featured some good photos of a SIP-based project throughout the framing process.

Wired shows off a really cool ultra-compact dwelling, available in Europe.

On This is the Last..., blogger Jilly writes about prefab models, including info_smallMichelle Kaufmann's info_smallBreezehouse:

"I've been doing some house hunting and I came across this modern prefabricated home in Sunset Magazine. I think its really cool how they are making this house using recycled materials, you can add solar panels really easily, the living room has a wall that folds so that your room extends to the patio. Its made to have good ventilation and where they could they used recycled materials.

Then my husband showed me this prefab (in Wired magazine) called the 'Loblolly House' and I thought it was just gorgeous."

The Nashua Telegraph reran an article from the Sacramento Bee about the changing perception of 'prefab':
"Factory-built housing is touting environmental benefits and a fresh look to win a new generation of buyers as the industry continues to fight an image of cheap design and endure the same housing slowdown pummeling conventional home builders."

Jetson Green ran a post about info_smallDavid Hertz's LivingHome making it onto the Met Home Design 100 list:

"To me, this is a no-brainer. If I were out of college and established in business, I'd plop down a million in a heartbeat just to get the DH1 built and use it as a vacation home (at a minimum). I'd buy it for the joy of having one of the greenest prefabs in the country and I'd let all my friends stay in it."
And Inhabitat pointed out that the Ray Kappe LivingHome appeared on the AIA/COTE list of the top ten green buildings.

Related Posts:
   1. This week: Seattle, modular home history, tiny footprints and more (May 12, 2007)
   2. Michelle Kaufmann Designs (Apr 27, 2007)
   3. The Dwell Home by Resolution 4: Architecture (Apr 18, 2007)
   4. This week: Japanese prefab, SIPs, and the greenness of big homes (Apr 14, 2007)
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Some Assembly Required at LAMOCA

Link to Some Assembly Required at LAMOCA
walkerart.org

The Some Assembly Required show organized earlier this year by the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis, is now on display at the Museum of Contemporary Art at the Pacific Design Center in LA:

"...the exhibition features eight modern modular house projects that have recently been realized. The designs address a range of approaches to prefabrication, including off-site construction, customized sections that are assembled on-site, and kits with plans and parts from which a house can be constructed."

Ecorazzi says "...you can see scale models of prefab homes, pictures, and samples of materials. Architects Marmol Radziner Prefab, Lazor, and Alchemy Architects are showcased..."

On Blogcritics, LX.TV files a video report about the show, featuring an interview with Leo Marmol of info_smallMarmol Radziner.

where: MOCA at the Pacific Design Center in Los Angeles
when: February 28 - May 20, 2007

Related Posts:
   1. Marmol Radziner videos (Aug 17, 2007)
   2. Some Assembly Required in Virginia (Jun 01, 2007)
   3. Michelle Kaufmann Designs (Apr 27, 2007)
   4. Lazor Office's FlatPak House (Apr 19, 2007)
   5. Sexy Prefab (Mar 29, 2007)
   6. Itsy Bitsy weeHouse (Mar 26, 2007)
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Big Ideas on the Sundance Channel

Link to Big Ideas on the Sundance Channel
www.sundancechannel.com

I've been seeing posts around the blogosphere (e.g. on Jetson Green) about the Sundance Channel's new TV series Big Ideas for a Small Planet. The series focuses on "the forward-thinking designers, products, and processes that are on the leading edge of a new green world." The second episode, Build, was about different green building techniques and one section, 'prefab', featured info_smallMichelle Kaufmann.

The episodes are available for download from iTunes for $1.99 each. The Build episode is definitely worth a watch, at least for a view inside the Michelle Kaufmann factory.

Related Posts:
   1. Michelle Kaufmann Designs (Apr 27, 2007)
   2. Green homes and LEED certification (Apr 23, 2007)
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The Dwell Home II and the Green Sandwich

Link to The Dwell Home II and the Green Sandwich
www.dwell.com

After the original competition for the info_smallDwell Home was received with so much enthusiasm, Dwell hosted another competition for the Dwell Home II:

"Sustainable building technologies are now part of the design guidelines for everyone from the federal government to private industry. To help push home design in the same direction, Dwell invited five of Los Angeles's top firms to create a sustainable single-family home in Los Angeles."

While the competition didn't require the home to be a prefab design, investigations into green building techniques led the winning architects, Frank Escher and Ravi GuneWardena, to choose a panelized concrete product, similar to a SIP:

"North Hollywood-based Green Sandwich Technologies. Green Sandwich manufactures what they describe as 'completely engineered structural concrete insulating panels (SCIPs).' The company goes on to state that their 'Green Sandwich Building System is the "greenest" structural building product available in the United States,' with every aspect of the system, from panel manufacturing to panel erection, engineered so the products generate the least amount of waste, fuel consumption, and environmental disruption."
The panelized system is much less pre-fab than some of the modular methods out there, but some characteristics are worth noting:
• integrated utility chases
• can be built in approximately half the time of conventional stick-built construction
• an unlimited number of finishes and design configurations
• transfer about 66% less noise than wood-frame or steel-framed walls See the company's website for more detailed information on the system.

The competition took place in 2004; since then, the homeowners and Escher GuneWardena have been finalizing the design and construction methods as well as navigating the complicated permitting process:

"Deciding to build a home is usually just the beginning of a bureaucratic maze of city offices, inspectors, and paperwork. Due to the Dwell Home II's unique location, the land falls under the jurisdiction of the California Coastal Commission, an agency established to 'protect public beach access, wetlands, wildlife on land and in the seas, water quality, scenic vistas, and coastal tourism.'"

Further articles about the house and its progress can be found on Dwell's site.

Related Posts:
   1. Green homes and LEED certification (Apr 23, 2007)
   2. The Dwell Home by Resolution 4: Architecture (Apr 18, 2007)
   3. Dwell Magazine, Dwell Homes (Apr 17, 2007)
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This week: New Orleans, Austrian prefab, and weeHouses

Link to This week: New Orleans, Austrian prefab, and weeHouses
www.sfgate.com

A new blog called BLUEPRINT New Orleans explores the future of the city's design and culture. Here, Brad Brooks, talks about "prefab's promise" and the Dwell conference:

"While putting together an initial package of videos about new architectural trends in New Orleans, one of the more promising topics of interest was prefab..."

The San Francisco Chronicle ran a story on a prefab home in the area being built from parts from Austria:

"...what ultimately led Pierce and his wife, Peggy, to bring the Thoma Holz100 system to Walnut Creek was the environmental sensibility of using sustainable wood -- in this case, fast- and easy-growing European larch -- in a way that requires no glues, finishes or other chemicals. Various sizes of lumber are layered vertically, horizontally and diagonally to form the solid panels. Then dried wooden dowels are strategically pressed through drilled holes...and expand inside the panels to secure the structure."

Inhabitat's Prefab Friday covers David Adjaye's prefab home in the UK.

Cubeme has some thoughts and great pictures of info_smallOMD's Seatrain, a house in LA:

"In keeping with the artistic spirit of the community in which this house is being built, the project has been a collaborative experiment between the client, Richard Carlson, and the fabricators using a design/build approach where creative and structural decisions were made as the house was being constructed."

Treehugger talks about an aluminum framing system mentioned on Mocoloco mid-last year.

Future House Now covers Alchemy Architect's info_smallweeHouse:

"You know, there are some houses that just make you feel good when you see them. I always see fun in the "weeHouse" designs from Alchemy Architects. I can't believe I haven't done a post on them before. [Their] houses have such a cool vibe."

And so does a blog called Design Mind:

"These days the Weehouse is not so wee, but it started out as the little abode you see here. It was in production in the US early in the prefab boom and now has many design options for a full home. But it's this first model that I still love."

Related Posts:
   1. weeHouse in Continental Airlines magazine (Jun 16, 2009)
   2. weeHouse by Alchemy on display in WI; today and this weekend (May 22, 2009)
   3. New weeHouse website (Dec 21, 2007)
   4. This week: IKEA goes prefab, mountain retreats, and a prefab high-rise (Apr 21, 2007)
   5. Itsy Bitsy weeHouse (Mar 26, 2007)
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Michelle Kaufmann Designs

Link to Michelle Kaufmann Designs
John Swain Photography

info_smallMichelle Kaufmann Designs has been one of the stars of the prefab movement since designing the info_smallGlidehouse for Sunset Magazine in 2004. The company emphasizes the greenness of its homes and has even built a green factory, mkConstructs, to produce prefab homes. I got some details from Rebecca Woelke, Director of Media Relations:

Do you have many built homes or homes under construction?

We have 15 completed homes, with 2 scheduled for completion by the end of June, and a multi-unit development (San Leandro) is expected to be completed this fall. We are working on 75+ projects, which include single-family residences and MK Communities.

What is mkConstructs?

mkConstructs is...key to our "prenewable" mission: a modern blending of prefabricated systems and renewable resources. mkConstructs is 100% committed to building thoughtful, sustainable designs.

Why did you open your own factory?

The addition of mkConstructs benefits our clients by further streamlining the construction process while providing more predictability of costs and timeframes for home construction. mkConstructs is located in the state of Washington, offering efficiencies with close proximity to many of our material sources and distribution centers. This factory will build homes for California, Washington, Oregon.

What do your homes cost? What does the price include?

In most areas, construction costs are between $200/sf and $275/sf for MKD pre-designed homes, and $275/sf - $400/sf for Custom Projects (all known costs included after permits are let). This does not include the cost of land. For more complex sites and for sites in high-cost areas such as the greater San Francisco area and Los Angeles, the total construction costs will most likely be higher. The actual project cost will depend on many factors unique to our clients MKD Home and building site.

There are both standard models and the custom option on your website. What have customers been most interested in? Do you have any numbers to show how many customers went custom vs. standard?

Of our current projects, 20% of them are custom. The balance of our current projects are pre-designed MKD Homes, which are to be built in various locations in California, Colorado, Hawaii, Oregon, and Washington.

What are some of the advantages of your prefab system?

  1. MKD builds high-performance homes.
  2. Our homes are stronger than site-built homes.
  3. We build healthy homes.
  4. We use eco-friendly finishes and materials, renewable/recyclable materials.
  5. We offer a predictable timeframe.
  6. Shorter construction timeframe.
  7. Minimal site work needed by the site contractor/less impact on the site.

Are there any common misconceptions about prefab that you'd like to comment on?

One common misconception I have noticed is how people define "prefab." Among the many classifications of prefabricated homes are modular homes, manufactured homes, and mobile homes. Each of these home types is very different. Although they are all built in a factory, they are built to different building codes, with modular construction at the highest construction/quality level. Many city and county zoning ordinances restrict the locating of manufactured/mobile homes to limited areas, whereas modular homes are more widely accepted. Michelle Kaufmann Designed homes are high-quality, high-performance homes that are built in a factory - not to be confused with "manufactured" or "mobile" homes!

(This interview has been edited for space; it's not an exact transcript.)

Related Posts:
   1. AriaDenver pictures from Michelle Kaufmann: modules en route (Jul 31, 2009)
   2. Michelle Kaufmann Designs closing (May 27, 2009)
   3. The mkHearth (Oct 27, 2008)
   4. The mkLoft from Michelle Kaufmann Designs (Nov 13, 2007)
   5. This week: Micro Compact village, WIRED, iT House, and mkLotus (Jul 28, 2007)
   6. The mkLotus show house (Jul 19, 2007)
   7. West Coast Green Conference (Jul 18, 2007)
   8. Michelle Kaufmann in Sierra Magazine (Jul 16, 2007)
   9. MKD Google mash-up (Jun 04, 2007)
   10. This week: LOT-EK returns, a prefab for Second Lifers, and more (May 05, 2007)
   11. Some Assembly Required at LAMOCA (May 03, 2007)
   12. Big Ideas on the Sundance Channel (May 01, 2007)
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Hive Modular on Minneapolis Home Tour

Link to Hive Modular on Minneapolis Home Tour
www.hivemodular.com

If you are in the Minneapolis area (or want to see a info_smallHive Modular home enough to spring for an airplane ticket), a model of the company's info_smallB-Line Medium home will be part of a home tour this weekend.

what: Home Tour
model: Hive Modular B-Line Medium
where: Minneapolis/St. Paul
when: April 28-29, 2007

See also: Our model page for the Hive Modular info_smallB-Line.

Related Posts:
   1. Hive Modular in historic Minnesota neighborhood (Sep 14, 2009)
   2. Hive Modular home-raising (Jun 18, 2007)
   3. Hives for humans (Mar 27, 2007)
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Greenwashing

Link to Greenwashing
www.marmolradzinerprefab.com

Frustrated Inhabitat reader Bob Ellenberg wrote to the site commenting on the "green" qualities of many prefab homes; they decided to post his critique. The essay sparked posts on a number of other blogs, as well as numerous comments to the original post. Some of Bob's original points:

"I don't want to pick on prefab construction, as I do quite a bit of it myself as a design/builder and there are certainly many aspects of it that can be 'green.' But some of the claims I see being made relative to overall sustainability of prefab houses are overstated and might even be considered 'Green-Washing'."
Specifically, he cited three areas where prefab homes might not exactly be 'green':
"Material Waste - Standardized materials are ordered by on-site builders and prefab factories alike. In fact, an on site builder will usually order the different lengths of lumber he needs for one particular job that produce the least amount of waste....On site can be as 'green' in scrapping out material as a factory and a factory can be just as wasteful. The real question is how 'green' the approach is of the people running the show.

"Over-Engineering - Factory produced modular homes often require more material than site-built homes, and this is definitely not green....With a factory built house, you have to lift a large module, load it on a truck, haul it down the road and set it with a crane. Because all of these operations concentrate the load on specific points instead of it being spread as it is over a foundation or a slab, the support system must be considerably overbuilt.

"Carbon Cost of Shipping - Shipping modular homes definitely adds to the carbon footprint as well. Truck loads of materials go to local suppliers, travel short distances to site built homes and stay there. Truck loads of materials go to factories, are built into houses and then travel hundreds of miles on oversized trucks....Then the crane which gets about 2-3 mpg travels to the job site to set the house and unless you are in a major city they could end up coming a long way."

Some of the comments to the Inhabitat post: Lloyd Alter said:
"Studies in the Canadian construction industry have shown that as much as 30% of materials are wasted through theft, water damage, or offcuts being tossed in the dumpster. In a prefab factory, nothing is stolen, nothing is thrown out, even the sawdust is used for heating."
Chuck added:
"Having acted as my own contractor to have a timber frame, enclosed with structural insulated panels, house built, it occurs to me that the factory could be brought to the jobsite with a modification of this method of construction. Perhaps we need to borrow the best method form factory and on-the-job techniques, instead of thinking either-or."
User andrew k compared prefab building techniques to site-built in Arizona:
"Hailing from a city that is completely focused on production housing (Phoenix) I can say that prefab must be very,very bad before it can compare with the sprawl of today's suburbia. Most of the skilled labor in the Phoenix area drive substantial distances to the jobsites, and while there, create substantial dust problems. Even in a subdivision where there are two homes in similar stages of construction directly next to each other, material waste is fairly staggering, it's common to see each structure with its own dumpster. Combine material theft into the mix, and the whole process is very, very unsustainable."

Philip Proefrock added his thoughts on the matter at Green Options:

"In and of itself, pre-fab is not automatically "green." When done well, it can be a method that leads to a better constructed home, including one that uses fewer materials and operates more efficiently (meaning less carbon footprint over the building's lifetime, a much larger chunk of its carbon footprint to consider than its construction). In green building, we try to take a look at the larger picture, rather than only focusing on the final building alone. Life cycle issues, and the methods and processes all contribute to making a building green. It's the execution of the concept, and not the idea itself, that makes or breaks a prefab as a greener building."

And, Lloyd Alter of Treehugger posted his two cents:

"Like any building, prefab is as green as its builders want it to be....Prefab holds the promise of delivering a greener home in less time and perhaps even less money, but it is only as green as the designer and the builder."

Related Posts:
   1. Green homes and LEED certification (Apr 23, 2007)
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Green homes and LEED certification

Link to Green homes and LEED certification
www.livinghomes.net

Many prefab vendors cite the "greenness" of their home models as a selling point. What exactly makes a home "green" and what is LEED certification?

According to the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC):

"...the residential sector accounts for 22% of the total energy consumed in the US and 74% of the water. Indoor air pollutants can often be four to five times higher than outdoor levels. Twenty-one percent of U.S. carbon dioxide emissions are contributed by the residential sector....

Green home building addresses these issues by promoting the design and construction of homes that have much higher performance levels than conventional homes....Generally, green homes are healthier, more comfortable, more durable, and more energy efficient....

Green homes rely upon established and proven design features and technologies that do not have a significantly large cost. Many green measures will reduce long term costs, particularly those features that involve energy and water efficiency. In many cases, these reductions in operating costs will more than offset the additional up-front costs of a green home."

The USGBC has developed an objective rating system which quantifies these "green" characteristics:
"The Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Green Building Rating System is the nationally accepted benchmark for the design, construction, and operation of high performance green buildings. LEED gives building owners and operators the tools they need to have an immediate and measurable impact on their buildings' performance. LEED promotes a whole-building approach to sustainability by recognizing performance in five key areas of human and environmental health: sustainable site development, water savings, energy efficiency, materials selection, and indoor environmental quality."

The LEED rating system scores a home on a 109 point scale and assigns a rating of certified (30 points minimum), silver (50 points minimum), gold (70 points minimum) or platinum (90 points minimum). The USGBC explains that "there are 36 topic areas included in the LEED for Homes Rating System. Each topic area has a unique intent or goal." These goals include:
• Avoid development on environmentally sensitive sites.
• Design landscape features to minimize demand for water and synthetic chemicals.
• Design home features to minimize the need for poisions for insect and disease control.
• Offset central water supply through the capture and controlled reuse of rainwater and/or grey water.
• Reduce energy consumption of lighting and appliances
• Reduce waste generation during construction
• Reduce occupant exposure to indoor pollutants (a full list of the qualities of a green home can be found on the usgbc website)

As of this post, only info_smallLivingHomes' prefab model has achieved LEED certification, with a platinum rating (91 points). LivingHomes' website explains:

"As a company, we're committed to building homes that are as healthy as possible, and that minimize their "ecological footprint" with respect to the resources they use for their construction, operation and eventual decommission. Homes built using traditional stick methods can be very unhealthy and extremely resource intensive. In contrast, our homes use sustainable, healthier building materials, as well as energy-efficient environmental systems and products."
Further explanation of the LEED certification of LivingHomes' models can be found on the company website.

Related Posts:
   1. Big Ideas on the Sundance Channel (May 01, 2007)
   2. The Dwell Home II and the Green Sandwich (Apr 30, 2007)
   3. Greenwashing (Apr 24, 2007)
   4. LivingHomes (Mar 28, 2007)
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This week: IKEA goes prefab, mountain retreats, and a prefab high-rise

Link to This week: IKEA goes prefab, mountain retreats, and a prefab high-rise
www.re4a.com/

Inhabitat's Prefab Friday shows off photos and shares a couple thoughts on a prefab from info_smallResolution: 4 Architecture

"The only thing better than a quaint mountain retreat is a quaint PREFAB mountain retreat....Set on the loveliest of lovely sites in Kerhonkson, New York, the prefab structure integrates what the architects describe as 'lifted bar and 2-story bar' components to create a 2-story indoor/outdoor lofty, loungy space perfectly enhanced by modern furniture and summer dinner party."

A UK site called Building Design highlighted a prefab project in the UK by conceptual architect David Adjaye:

"The timber-frame building, in De Beauvoir Town, Hackney, was largely constructed in just five days last summer by contractor Eurban, which specialises in an 'engineered timber system' that can be speedily erected. But although the unnamed owner is now living in the 150sq m property, not all the rooms are completed and final adjustments are being made."

info_smallLOT-EK, mentioned last week, shows up on TreeHugger this week with a potential prefab high-rise in New York:

"The Lot-ek scheme for 87 Lafayette Street apparently employs stacking the containers with staircases at the north and south ends and also calls for some containers to protrude randomly on the west facade. The building's slant begins at the third floor on White Street and the sixth floor on the north side. The roof of the slanted tower would have an array of solar panels."

Last week it was Japan's Muji; this week Sweden's IKEA showed up in a number of blogs for their prefab housing products (not yet available in the US). Gizmag speaks about a development to be built soon in the UK:

"Built in a quality-controlled factory, delivered and assembled in a day. The BoKlok (pronounced Boo Clook) housing concept, a partnership between property company Live Smart @ Home and Swedish furniture giant IKEA is only months away from bringing the average UK family a stylish, efficient and affordable housing option."
Another UK site, Renovation Central, had a few tidbits to add:
"In Sweden, demand is such that lotteries are held to decide who gets one, and Prole says interest here is already extremely high....They have a flexible open-plan layout, with high ceilings and large windows, giving a light, airy and contemporary feel. They come with a host of additional features as standard, such as extra height rooms to give a feeling of space, wooden flooring throughout and fitted kitchens. And, not surprisingly, they come with free interior design advice from Ikea, as well as an Ikea furniture voucher."

If you're interested in a info_smallLivingHome, you might be interested in Jetson Green's post on Ray Kappe's "Ten Most Important Principles to Success":

"Kappe's first home has been featured all over the place for achieving the highest LEED certification possible, the Platinum rating. I think his work is incredible, so I was studying his stuff when I came across this list...In the interests of learning from those that are remarkable examples of continuing achievement, I thought I would be good to share his list..."

Related Posts:
   1. Bo Klok doors open (Feb 28, 2008)
   2. This week: IKEA, pieceHomes (Oct 28, 2007)
   3. This week: IKEA, Quik House, and anticipating West Coast Green (Sep 16, 2007)
   4. This week: New Orleans, Austrian prefab, and weeHouses (Apr 28, 2007)
   5. The Dwell Home by Resolution 4: Architecture (Apr 18, 2007)
   6. This week: Japanese prefab, SIPs, and the greenness of big homes (Apr 14, 2007)
   7. LivingHomes (Mar 28, 2007)
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Empyrean and the NextHouse

Link to Empyrean and the NextHouse
www.thedwellhomesbyempyrean.com

info_smallEmpyrean designer Joel Turkel has provided his own take on modernist prefab for the Dwell Homes. All three sizes of the info_smallEmpyrean NextHouse feature wood siding and large windows, with somewhat traditional layouts. According to Business Week:

Empyrean's home, dubbed NextHouse and designed by architect Joel Turkel, centers on a core-like space with a stretch of wall and window that extends through both levels of the house, so someone on the first floor can see up to the second. Despite the openness of the plan, private spaces are tucked into the opposite sides of the central living room. The master bedroom includes a roof deck.

size: 2,728sf
additional square footage (decks, basement): 1,372sf
bedrooms: 3
bathrooms: 2.5

size: 3,100sf
additional square footage (decks, basement): 2,070sf
bedrooms: 4
bathrooms: 2.5

size: 3,117sf
additional square footage (decks, basement): 2,109sf
bedrooms: 4
bathrooms: 3

All models feature:
primary materials: wood siding, wood windows, wood decking

In addition to the new Dwell Homes line, Empyrean has more traditional options in their product line. Look for a post on those soon!

Articles and blog posts about the homes from Empyrean: A great site tracking the progress of a model NextHouse. And a similar blog that follows the construction of the first NextHouse.

Related Posts:
   1. Empyrean International launches new website (Apr 07, 2008)
   2. Tour an Empyrean NextHouse in Silicon Valley: March 27, 29-30 (Mar 11, 2008)
   3. Empyrean's Acorn and Deck House (Nov 16, 2007)
   4. This week: prefab concepts, debate, and more (Aug 25, 2007)
   5. Dwell Magazine, Dwell Homes (Apr 17, 2007)
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Lazor Office's FlatPak House

Link to Lazor Office's FlatPak House
www.thedwellhomesbyempyrean.com

info_smallLazor Office had been experimenting with prefabricated housing techniques for a year before the Dwell Homes competition. While the firm didn't participate in the competition, it was building a prototype of the info_smallFlatPak House at the same time. In an exhibit about prefab architecture at the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis, the FlatPak project is explained:

"Charlie Lazor, principal of Minneapolis-based Lazor Office, began his exploration of prefabrication in 2002 through the creation of a home for his family. The resulting prototype — a two-story, three-bedroom, three-bath house with a separate study and guest room — was completed in 2004 and launched the FlatPak series. As the name suggests, the system evokes a do-it-yourself attitude by offering owners a wide range of choices and a hand in the layout of their spaces."

Lazor Office FlatPak also provides three designs for the Dwell Homes. Each sports a stucco/concrete look combined with wood and glass.

size: 3,044sf
additional square footage (decks, basement): 566sf
bedrooms: 3 - 5
bathrooms: 2.5

size: 1,513sf
additional square footage (decks, basement): 610sf
bedrooms: 1 - 2
bathrooms: 2

size: 1,465sf
additional square footage (decks, basement): 1,695sf
bedrooms: 3
bathrooms: 2.5

All models feature:
primary materials: stucco, wood siding, wood windows, wood decking

Articles and blog posts about the homes from Lazor Office: The Walker Art Center's catalogue of their "Some Assembly Required" show shares info on Lazor Office. CubeMe offers some pictures and hints on where to see a FlatPak house. Jetson Green shows off Flickr photos of the FlatPak Houses.

Related Posts:
   1. Sausalito, CA FlatPak for sale (Jun 26, 2009)
   2. Flatpak house in Aspen (Mar 14, 2008)
   3. This week: aluminum from Japan, Sweden, and more (Feb 09, 2008)
   4. FlatPak near completion (Sep 20, 2007)
   5. Cool Flickr set of a Flatpak house going up (Jul 30, 2007)
   6. Some Assembly Required at LAMOCA (May 03, 2007)
   7. The Dwell Home by Resolution 4: Architecture (Apr 18, 2007)
   8. Dwell Magazine, Dwell Homes (Apr 17, 2007)
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The Dwell Home by Resolution 4: Architecture

Link to The Dwell Home by Resolution 4: Architecture
www.thedwellhomesbyempyrean.com

info_smallResolution 4: Architecture won the original Dwell Home competition from a pool of 16 competitors. Joseph Tanney, a partner of the firm, commented on the winning entry in 2003:

"Modern Modular offers an option for a modern, affordable home that could aesthetically transform the American domestic landscape. The challenge that lies ahead is execution and implementation. We believe we have the strategy; now we need to execute it — and the Dwell Home offers the perfect opportunity to show that the system works. — from the Dwell Homes site.

Resolution 4: Architecture contributes three homes to the Dwell Homes line, including the winning info_smallDwell Home. All of the designs feature wood siding and plenty of windows in modern, rectilinear designs.

size: 2,635sf
additional square footage (decks, basement): 3,101sf
bedrooms: 3
bathrooms: 3

size: 1,354sf
additional square footage (decks, basement): 1,356sf
bedrooms: 3
bathrooms: 2

size: 2,044sf
additional square footage (decks, basement): 932sf
bedrooms: 3
bathrooms: 2.5

All models feature:
primary materials: wood siding, metal roof, metal windows, wood decking

Articles and blog posts about the homes from Resolution 4: Architecture: MocoLoco shares some pictures of the winning entry. Treehugger spreads the news that the original Dwell Home was for sale back in 2005.

Related Posts:
   1. Resolution: 4 in East Hampton (Sep 17, 2007)
   2. Wall Street Journal: modern modular (Aug 09, 2007)
   3. Resolution: 4 videos on YouTube (Jun 14, 2007)
   4. This week: LOT-EK returns, a prefab for Second Lifers, and more (May 05, 2007)
   5. The Dwell Home II and the Green Sandwich (Apr 30, 2007)
   6. This week: IKEA goes prefab, mountain retreats, and a prefab high-rise (Apr 21, 2007)
   7. Lazor Office's FlatPak House (Apr 19, 2007)
   8. Dwell Magazine, Dwell Homes (Apr 17, 2007)
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Dwell Magazine, Dwell Homes

Link to Dwell Magazine, Dwell Homes
www.dwell.com

Dwell Magazine deserves much credit for the rise of modernist prefab in the past few years. Many of the designers and homes featured on this site first appeared in its pages.

In the manifesto published in the first issue in October 2000, editor Kerrie Jacobs explained the magazine's vision:

"At Dwell, we're staging a minor revolution. We think that it's possible to live in a house or apartment by a bold modern architect, to own furniture and products that are exceptionally well designed, and still be a regular human being. We think that good design is an integral part of real life. And that real life has been conspicuous by its absence in most design and architecture magazines."

In 2003 "Dwell introduced the Dwell Home Design Invitational, a competition for a modern prefab prototype home designed for mass production." A subsequent competition was held for the more environmentally conscious Dwell Home II, but that home's prototype has yet to clear permitting hurdles.

The winner of the original competition, info_smallResolution 4: Architecture, and a second company, info_smallLazor Office, were chosen to design modernist prefab homes to be built by info_smallEmpyrean. Empyrean has been building homes with prefab methods since 1959; its own designers contributed two designs to the Dwell Homes. 

Dwell's (now former) Editor-in-Chief Allison Arieff explained the advantages of such a partnership between designer and manufacturer:

"One of the major obstacles prefab has faced has been effective collaboration among designers, manufacturers, and clients. This exciting partnership brings together experienced parties across that spectrum, all of whom are passionate about and committed to prefab's potential."

We'll cover the designs of the Dwell Homes, and the progress of the greener Dwell Home II, over the next few days.

Some features common to all of the Dwell Homes:

cost: $175/sf - 250/sf (includes all fees, site work, and finishes)
primary materials: stucco, wood siding, wood windows, wood decking
planning time: "few months"
permitting time: "days to months"
assembly time: "few weeks"
all on-site construction time: 3 - 6 months
construction type: conventional framing, non-modular
funding method: traditional lender
warranty: 10 years on manufactured components
miscellaneous: network of 300 Preferred Builders, customization possible

Related Posts:
   1. The Skyline Series by Marmol Radziner Prefab (Jul 02, 2009)
   2. Dwell on Design bringing an entire neighborhood of prefab homes to LA June 5-8; get in FREE (May 23, 2008)
   3. Dwell on Design preview (Sep 12, 2007)
   4. Dwell on Design Conference (Aug 15, 2007)
   5. Wall Street Journal: modern modular (Aug 09, 2007)
   6. West Coast Green Conference (Jul 18, 2007)
   7. The Dwell Home II and the Green Sandwich (Apr 30, 2007)
   8. Empyrean and the NextHouse (Apr 20, 2007)
   9. Lazor Office's FlatPak House (Apr 19, 2007)
   10. The Dwell Home by Resolution 4: Architecture (Apr 18, 2007)
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Modern sheds, cabanas, and studios

Link to Modern sheds, cabanas, and studios
www.moderncabana.com

I previously mentioned info_smallModern Shed and their prefab info_smallStudio Sheds. Since then, I've come across another domestic company offering similar products: Modern Cabana. I just ran across a UK company doing pretty much the same thing.

The goal of the Modern Sheds is "to be assembled quickly and with few tools. All models are packed flat with all the panels pre-built and finished." Their info_smallStudio Shed "comes with pre-insulated walls and roof panels" for purposes such as an office or art studio. They also have plans to sell larger info_smallDwelling Sheds, ranging from 475sf to 1,260sf. These will feature the same construction and include bathrooms and kiitchens.

where: Seattle, WA
size: 48sf - 120sf
cost: $4,995 (no frills Garden Shed base price) to $11,980 (120sf Studio Shed base price)
construction type: pre-assembled conventional stud-framed panels
standard materials: fiberglass doors, aluminum windows, metal roof, concrete siding, maple plywood
options: insulation($750), exterior color, door and trim color, floor color, sliding glass door ($500), deck($1,025 to $1,375), additional window ($550)


Each info_smallModern Cabana similarly "comes pre-assembled so it can be deployed in a matter of days - without permits or slab foundation in most communities." Multiple units can be connected "to create expanded floor plans ranging from 100 to 1000+ square feet." Installation can be handled by the buyer, a contractor, or the Modern Cabana team.

where: San Francisco, CA
size: 100sf - 160sf
cost: $8,500 (100sf Cabana base price) to $14,500 (160sf Cabana base price)
construction type: pre-assembled conventional stud-framed panels
standard features: OSB floor and walls, aluminum sliding glass door, polycarbonate windows, membrane roof, cedar siding, electrical junction boxes
options: polycarbonate roof($2,500), insulation($250-$1,000), siding wood, interior maple siding($600), fiberglass french door($2,950), bamboo flooring($1,000)


UK-based info_smallEcospace offers similar dwellings, at higher prices. They have four standard sizes ranging from 10' x 9' (~$35,000) to 22' x 9' (~$48,830). Their designs are also a little more interesting, but probably aren't worth the shipping across the ocean.

Related Posts:
   1. LA Times on mini prefabs (Jun 18, 2009)
   2. Sunset Modern Cottage on display June 12 - July 19, 2009 (Jun 10, 2009)
   3. This week: container video, WIELER, sheds and more (Apr 12, 2008)
   4. This week: Habode, historical prefab and more (Nov 24, 2007)
   5. This week: Modern Shed and the Marmol factory (Oct 20, 2007)
   6. This week: Austrian prefab, zero-emissions, and more tiny prefab (Jun 23, 2007)
   7. Shedworking: a new blog (Jun 22, 2007)
   8. More small prefab: Metroshed (Jun 19, 2007)
   9. CA Boom roundup 3: the eccentrics (Apr 03, 2007)
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This week: Japanese prefab, SIPs, and the greenness of big homes

Link to This week: Japanese prefab, SIPs, and the greenness of big homes
www.lot-ek.com

Here's a recap of prefab coverage from blogs and beyond.

Ecogeek shares thoughts on a new SIP-based prefab out of British Columbia:

"Why design with SIPs? First, as an Architect, I like to see my designs carried out as precisely as possible. Many SIP factories have computer aided manufacturing rigs that cut the panels to within a 1/16", which is unheard of in construction. Second, SIPs are energy efficient, they have minimal air leakage and very high R-Values."
Also, check out our post on SIPs.

In March, Treehugger posted some good photos of the home coming together.

Last week, Inhabitat's Prefab Friday took a look at LA-based info_smallMinarc's prefab offering:

"With their new M3 House they will be able to design and deliver an all inclusive package (minus the land and the foundation) that gives their clients a site specific house which also makes the most of the best qualities of factory built prefab...What's more incredible about M3 House is the limited amount of time spent on-site for final assembly. Once the foundation is complete, M3 House can have your 2,500sq foot home ready for furnishing in only 8-10 hours."
This post also has an interesting series of comments about the "affordability" of prefab.

This week, Inhabitat highlighted a new container home from info_smallLOT-EK:

"The idea is simple: transform a single shipping container into a single dwelling unit that is complete in its flexibility, mobility, and scalability. Designed for the modern-day nomad, the MDU can easily be transported from one spot to the next, fully-loaded with all the live/work amenities you could ask for."

Preston Koerner of Jetson Green comments on the "greenness" of large homes, and discusses with others in the comments:

Preston: "two of the homes that were discussed in the article were very green by almost all green measures except that of size: one was 4,700+ sf and the other 6,000+ sf. I readily admit the superior green amenities and features of each home..."
Commenter: "...there will always be people who want to build big ass houses, for one reason or another. Those...houses should be as green as possible..."
Preston: "There's a reason the green world has phrases like 'light footprint,' 'live smaller,' and 'zero impact.' This isn't my perspective on green, I think there's a lot of people out there that feel a 5,000+ sf home for a 2-3 person family is big."
Also on Jetson Green, a post about the prefab home built by Japan's Muji. They aren't available yet in the US, but they are nice to look at:
"My values and beliefs were partially created through my experience living in Japan. I like minimalist. I like clean, sharp lines. I like modern. I like small, but functional. I appreciate that a grain of rice means something, especially when times are tough. And this is why I'm excited to hear the news of Muji coming to America..."

Related Posts:
   1. Minarc's M3house and eBOX series 05 (Feb 07, 2008)
   2. This week: XtremeHomes visit, JoT, Lot-ek, and more (Sep 01, 2007)
   3. This week: LOT-EK returns, a prefab for Second Lifers, and more (May 05, 2007)
   4. This week: IKEA goes prefab, mountain retreats, and a prefab high-rise (Apr 21, 2007)
   5. So, what are SIPs anyway? (Mar 27, 2007)
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35 homes and counting

Link to 35 homes and counting
© Richard Sprengler

info_smallRocio Romero was not present at CA Boom 4, but she and her team run a serious prefab operation. I spoke with Donna Rosanswank, Sales Manager, on the phone last week. 35 info_smallLV Series homes have been completed from the 100 LV Series kits sold since operations began in 2003. Many homes are built from more than one kit, and some projects have been delayed. Sales are doubling every year and they will expand into Canada by early next year.

The LV series includes:

design:
• standard or customized floorplan (extra $ for custom design time)
• full set of construction documents (exceeds UBC and IRC requirements)
• list of materials, product specifications, and a construction schedule to help your local contractor realize your project
• a binder listing all of the suppliers used to build the original show home; this will help homeowners source materials that are not included in the kit

materials shipped with the kit:
• exterior wall panels
• structural components for floor and roof
• exterior siding

materials that are NOT included:
• interior framing materials
• interior finishes
• windows and doors
• fixtures (plumbing and lighting)
• roofing

The home kits include so few finish materials because "Rocio wanted to be able to fit the whole kit in one flatbed delivery," and to allow customers flexibility in the final product.

where: Perryville, Missouri
size: 625sf - 1,435sf
bedrooms: 1 - 2
cost: $120/sf - $195/sf
fabrication time: 28 days, per contract
total construction timeline: 12 - 16 weeks
construction type: conventional stud framing
funding method: traditional lender

Related Posts:
   1. Tracking the progress of an LVL home (Dec 11, 2007)
   2. This week: Marmol Radziner, prefab love, and Sundance (Aug 11, 2007)
   3. Rocio Romero article (Jul 13, 2007)
   4. Tours of an LV Series home in the Napa Valley (Jul 12, 2007)
   5. The LV Series Yahoo! Group runs the numbers (May 16, 2007)
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Emphasizing quality not price

Link to Emphasizing quality not price
www.ecocontempo.com

EcoContempo (a division of Northern Steel International) showed its steel-framed homes at CA Boom 3. I spoke with Chris Graham yesterday to find out why they didn't return.

Did you have a good response from CA Boom last year?

"We ended up with two clients from the show."

So, why didn't you return this year?

"We wanted to get to more specific markets to target architects and contractors. We put a lot of money and time into our website, that we've just launched. And we want to gear our marketing message to specific entities. More people are understanding the process, and we will probably be at CA Boom next year. We just have a limited budget at this point and we decided it was better not to attend this year."

What sort of marketing are you doing to architects and developers?

"We have a partner architect program; they are generally more interested in learning about the product. When [homeowners] come to us with a custom design, a lot of times, they are just pretty pictures and it doesn't take advantage of the efficiencies of our system. If we can get to the architect from the beginning, with our design, they can save on the design and build from the beginning. It's much more efficient."

Do you have many built homes or homes under construction?

"We have five homes completed to date, all around the country. And there are four homes under construction right now. Or rather, four in process: one is under construction, 2 are in engineering, and we have another one for which we are ordering materials; it will be under construction in six weeks."

You offer general models on your website, but it sounds like you offer custom models also?

"We lean more toward custom than standard models. We only have those designs because of Greg La Vardera, one of our partner architects. He understands our systems and can design fairly quickly for it. We aren't a design firm. If you came to me and said 'I want to do a 4,000 sf home,' I would direct you to an architect, like Greg. Currently we are building one modified standard model, completely converted and expanded. The other three projects are all custom."

What are some of the advantages of your prefab system?

"For people that are green conscious, we use about 70% recycled steel in our buildings. And it's a quicker build. We'll probably be able to finish a project in 9 months total, compared to 18 months for many site-built projects. And durability — it's steel. We have steel I-beams and steel insulated panels. And energy efficiency is number one. The original technology has been used for commercial refrigeration products for years, so you're not going to lose energy there. It is more energy efficient than a SIP product, and more structurally sound."

Are there any common misconceptions about prefab that you'd like to comment on?

"'Many people ask 'Is this cheaper than wood build?' We are trying to sell the quality and durability of our product. We aren't necessarily going to be cheaper and we generally don't come in under $200 or $250/sf, but we can."

You say you can — what do you mean? What comes in an EcoContempo package and how is there flexibility?

"The flexibility with our system is that the end user can decide exactly what interior finishes they want. They can take it as far as placing sheet rock on every wall and ceiling or choose minimalist features and keep a lot of the steel exposed. Your insulation value is secure once the panels are in place which allows, among other things, the option of painting the steel and using it as shelves. Our steel system includes your primary and secondary steel frame system, insulated wall and roof panels, windows, doors as well as sub-framing on the interior (i.e. metal studs with pre-punched electrical holes on each stud for ease of wiring, ready for drywall screws). Additionally, we provide all the structural engineering which includes stamped sets of drawings required to submit for necessary building permits."

(This interview has been edited for space and clarity; it's not an exact transcript.)

Related Posts:
   1. Two EcoSteel projects moving along (Jun 23, 2008)
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The iT House does some soul-searching

Link to The iT House does some soul-searching
tkithouse.blogspot.com

Three prefab companies that exhibited at CA Boom in 2006 didn't return this year. Why not? Let's start with info_smallTaalman Koch.

I spoke with Alan Koch yesterday about their aluminum and glass iT House:

Why didn't you return to CA Boom this year?

"It was a lot of work last year and we didn't feel like it was our audience. Our house is a little more fussy than some. It requires a big leap of faith to live in an all glass house. It's not cheaper faster; it's a lifestyle choice. [Our audience is] a very niche market. It's not the general population, not even people interested in modern homes. It's about getting in touch with something - themselves or the landscape. It's a tool for reaching a new state."

I noticed you removed all information about standard models from your website, what is the plan there?

"We're not sure about the models and are reevaluating currently. Because of the way we were trying to offer the building before, we weren't really sure what it was. There was something about the way that it was presented that implied anything was changeable - that someone could build a 5,000sf iT House. It doesn't translate to that scale."

You and your wife have a variety of work in your portfolio, why prefab?

"We explore all kinds of things, stumble upon interesting things and do something with them. It's not exciting to just talk about problems architects are interested in. Prefab is not totally in the realm of the architect. We like and are satisfied by the process of figuring out prefab."

What do you think is one advantage of prefab?

"All the story that's published right now is 'modern and cheaper.' It is cheaper in a way; none of our clients could afford the design time we've poured into the house. Everyone who does buy an iT House gets the benefit of the hours of design time...for a cheaper price."

I understand that you are building an iT House prototype in the California desert. How is that going?

"We are almost finished with the model, and have done a lot of the work ourselves. We can't do everything, like roofing. But we did things like the frame. It was very simple to put together: 4 guys, 1 day, no skills and we had no problem setting up the whole frame. If you show the drawings to a contractor, they get worried because it's not something they know, so they tend to overcharge."

To find out more about the iT House prototype, check out the iT House blog.

Read more about the iT House in the blogs: Treehugger discusses the iTHouse's green properties. Inhabitat shares details about another iT House built in Orange County, CA.

Related Posts:
   1. itHouse exhibit display by Taalman Koch Architecture (Aug 24, 2009)
   2. Three Junipers iT house development (Nov 07, 2008)
   3. This week: container video, WIELER, sheds and more (Apr 12, 2008)
   4. This week: Micro Compact village, WIRED, iT House, and mkLotus (Jul 28, 2007)
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More CA Boom in the blogs

Link to More CA Boom in the blogs
www.caboomshow.com

A few more blog posts about CA Boom and prefab published since the show:

Design Nature shared opinions on several of the prefab models at CA Boom.

Archinect has lots of pictures from the show and post full of personality.

Related Posts:
   1. CA Boom in the blogs this weekend (Apr 02, 2007)
   2. Prefab Zone at CA Boom 4 (Mar 26, 2007)
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CA Boom roundup 3: the eccentrics

Link to CA Boom roundup 3: the eccentrics
© 2007 Peter Bernheim

The info_smallAlchemy Architects were quite zany, with matching blue jumpsuits. A Warholized image of the first info_smallweeHouse graced the Alchemy booth (seen above). They didn't take themselves too seriously, but are showing serious results. A couple dozen projects are complete or under way.

info_smallkitHAUS brought in a full-size info_smallK3 structure and used that as its booth. Visitor's were able to see and touch the product (as opposed to trying to decipher bad photos or floorplans or blocks of wood that were supposed to represent modules). Their structural framing/clamping system (MHS) is really as cool as it sounds.

One satellite prefabber, the man at the helm of info_smallModern Shed, shared details about his hands-on process. His offerings started with a humble shed a couple years back. That shed is now joined by a small studio and, soon, larger prefab dwellings. He and a partner have a number of built studios on the west coast, all of which they have personally delivered and installed. As noted in my earlier post, CA Boom required exhibitors in the Prefab Zone to have built a dwelling. Modern Shed didn't qualify this year (they only have the sheds and simple studios built), but is hoping for next. In any case, I was glad to learn about his refreshing approach and product line among the regular exhibits.

Overall, the vendors had some great information to share, and people were VERY interested. It was difficult to get a word with some of the reps! Topics that came up in discussions with company reps: the regional availability of models and factory locations; permitting issues and process; custom designed models; and site issues. More on those soon!

what: exhibitors at CA Boom
when: last weekend

Related Posts:
   1. CA Boom V coming soon: March 14-16 (Mar 05, 2008)
   2. Modern sheds, cabanas, and studios (Apr 16, 2007)
   3. CA Boom roundup 2: "that one" (Apr 02, 2007)
   4. CA Boom roundup 1: confusion and flux (Apr 02, 2007)
   5. Prefab Zone at CA Boom 4 (Mar 26, 2007)
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CA Boom roundup 2: "that one"

Link to CA Boom roundup 2:
www.hivemodular.com

I spoke briefly with the info_smallOMD/Jennifer Siegal folks. They had some great product literature, offering a little more insight into their product (vs. their lame website). I saw a couple go into the booth ask for "that one" and point to a rendering on the wall. They've got interest, and some quality products to offer.

info_smallLivingHomes and info_smallMarmol Radziner have great (if pricey!) products. Both Steve Glenn (CEO of LivingHomes) and someone from Marmol Radziner (I didn't get there in time to catch his name) were speaking at a prefab forum yesterday. Marmol Radziner hightlights the design aspect of its product, while LivingHomes emphasizes its greenness and LEED certification. The design of each is largely custom and aimed at those where budget is not really a concern, but you do get what you pay for.

The info_smallSander Architects booth was crowded, so I didn't get much facetime there. I heard Whitney Sander talk at the prefab forum. He fielded some strange questions, like one from a potential buyer wondering how the info_smallHybrid House's steel framing would hold up in wildfire-prone areas (answer: steel framing is better than wood framing). He also got in some good points about the resale value of a prefab home, especially one with some inherit design value.

My favorite discussion was with Marc Asmus of info_smallHive Modular. Before the show I wasn't really won over by their "dual style" approach (modern and traditional versions of each floorplan, like the above). After speaking with Marc, I gained a better appreciation for the approach and their reasoning behind it. He was slightly frustrated that they weren't getting more inquiries into their traditional style options. Modernist prefab was definitely the star of the show, but the ability to offer a product in two different styles should win them more consumers.

And one more to come...

what: exhibitors at CA Boom
when: last weekend

Related Posts:
   1. CA Boom V coming soon: March 14-16 (Mar 05, 2008)
   2. CA Boom roundup 3: the eccentrics (Apr 03, 2007)
   3. CA Boom roundup 1: confusion and flux (Apr 02, 2007)
   4. Prefab Zone at CA Boom 4 (Mar 26, 2007)
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CA Boom roundup 1: confusion and flux

Link to CA Boom roundup 1: confusion and flux
© 2007 Peter Bernheim

It was exciting to get over to CA Boom yesterday, meet the vendors and see the Prefab Zone in person. Some initial impressions:

What was the deal with the info_smallH-Haus booth? For all of Sunday, they had some heated window product set up, joined by a representative from the window company, but no h-haus folks (and the window rep was explaining that there was no h-haus literature and she knew nothing about the product!). By about 2 pm (the show didn't end till 5), the entire booth was packed up (see the above picture!) and it was basically deserted.

I always have a little trouble remembering which is which between info_smallLivingHomes and info_smallCleverHomes and they were passing out info in identical folders, which didn't help. CleverHomes' booth never seemed to die down. Folks were pouring in to talk to the reps and learn about the their product (which seems to have the most models currently completed or under construction for any of the vendors at CA Boom.)

Free candy is always a positive, and info_smallV2world was offering up building block-shaped candy. Good stuff. However, their product line sounds like it's in flux, according to ceo Tim Russell. At this point, the info_smallv2shell line, and the info_smallv2flat sound like they been pushed aside for a larger/more custom line of products. Oh, and their steel framing system, which I earlier reported as having the ability to be disassembled and moved...apparently one would need to cut all welded joints to be able to do so.

More soon...

what: exhibitors at CA Boom
when: last weekend

Related Posts:
   1. CA Boom V coming soon: March 14-16 (Mar 05, 2008)
   2. Quon Modular: a room at a time (Jul 11, 2007)
   3. CA Boom roundup 3: the eccentrics (Apr 03, 2007)
   4. CA Boom roundup 2: "that one" (Apr 02, 2007)
   5. CA Boom in the blogs this weekend (Apr 02, 2007)
   6. Simplicity works (Mar 30, 2007)
   7. Prefab Zone at CA Boom 4 (Mar 26, 2007)
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CA Boom in the blogs this weekend

Link to CA Boom in the blogs this weekend
caboomshow.com

There was surprisingly little coverage of CA Boom prefab around the web this weekend. Perhaps all of the bloggers are waiting until they get into the work week to file their thoughts. A couple of posts did show, mostly speaking about green issues:

A report over at Curbed LA about the tour of the Ray Kappe LivingHome model, something I missed.

A few notes and pics of the Prefab Zone over at Curbed LA.

Green LA girl points out that info_smallLivingHomes and info_smallOMD emphasized their green credentials.

Inhabit loves the new location and enjoyed the evening reception. See their pics too.

Related Posts:
   1. More CA Boom in the blogs (Apr 04, 2007)
   2. CA Boom roundup 1: confusion and flux (Apr 02, 2007)
   3. Prefab Zone at CA Boom 4 (Mar 26, 2007)
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Simplicity works

Link to Simplicity works
www.v2world.net

One of the simplest products offered by a vendor at CA Boom 4 comes from info_smallv2world. Their info_smallv2flat and info_smallv2shell product lines provide compact options for stylish prefab living.

Standard 20' or 16' tube steel frames allow the structures to be placed either on a slab foundation or raised on steel legs to float above the terrain. They can even be stacked on top of each other, up to four stories tall.

v2world ships the steel components to your site for assembly, with 6 weeks from delivery to move-in. The v2flats can "be disassembled, transported, and reassembled without damaging any...materials or components."

The v2flats come in two sizes, 448sf ($125k) and 720sf ($150k). Each includes a minimal kitchen/living area and a bedroom area with bathroom. The v2shells come in two sizes, 256sf ($75k) and 400sf ($90k). Models include a sleeping module that comes with a small bathroom, a bathroom module that is half closet, and a den module that includes a half bath and wet bar.

All finishes, mechanical systems and fixtures are part of the package, with simple price breakdowns listed on their website. For the $200-$290/sf that you'll be paying for these models, you get top-of-the-line Hansgrohe and Duravit fixtures and Miele appliances.

name: info_smallv2flat and info_smallv2shell by info_smallv2world
style: modern
price: $75,000 - $150,000
size: 256sf - 720sf
br: 0 - 1
how: steel frame and other components shipped to site for assembly
timeline: unknown

Related Posts:
   1. CA Boom roundup 1: confusion and flux (Apr 02, 2007)
   2. Prefab Zone at CA Boom 4 (Mar 26, 2007)
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Custom homes with prefab bones

Link to Custom homes with prefab bones
www.sander-architects.com

info_smallSander Architect's info_smallHybrid House is more philosophy than product. Coming to CA Boom 4 with what they call "part prefab, all custom™", Sander Architects designs custom homes using prefab techniques and products. Every Hybrid House comes with a prefab structural steel frame; some incorporate prefab wall and roof panels.

Catherine Hollis, wife of principal Whitney Sander, told me that Sander Architects thinks of architecture "as an artform." They use prefab elements to extend clients' budgets, but they see a rigid 100% prefab approach as limiting. Installation of finishes and fixtures takes place on site using traditional construction methods, and therefore with the traditional construction timeline.

Sander Architects has five Hybrid House homes under construction, ranging in size from 3,000 sf to a monstrous 8,000 sf home. Proving the benefits of their "part prefab, all custom" process, a 3,000sf home being built in Culver City, CA should come in at about $150/sf, much lower than some of the 100% prefab outfits at CA Boom.

style: modern
price: from $150/sf
size: custom
br: custom
how: prefab steel frame, some other prefab elements
timeline: similar to site-built

Related Posts:
   1. The LA Times on Sander Architects and steel framing  (Jun 27, 2008)
   2. Prefab Zone at CA Boom 4 (Mar 26, 2007)
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Take a portable swell house home

Link to Take a portable swell house home
www.designmobile.com

Jennifer Siegal's info_smallOffice of Mobile Design (OMD) comes to CA Boom with three distinct home lines.

The info_smallPortable House is a line of homes that can best be described as stylish, updated mobile homes. They are built in the factory and shipped complete (with wheels) to your site. Most models betray that fact, with fairly simple linear or stacked forms as a result.

The flexibility of the info_smallSwellhouse line lends itself to a more varied product. SIPs clad a "signature" S-shaped framing system. The Ecology Sun System (ECOSS) glass panels afford large expanses of uninterrupted glass. Like the portable house, swell houses are custom designed and no standard models are offered.

In the info_smallTake Home, OMD offers four standard configurations: 1, 2, 3, and 4 bedroom versions. The 1 bedroom is a single 14' x 60' linear module, with a roof sloping in toward the center. The 2,880 sf 4 bedroom is basically double width and double height, coming to 24' x 60'. All models cost about $240/sf and are shipped complete to your site.

One gripe: good luck finding the above information on their website. It's all done in Flash -- with no HTML version and it barely works. Sometimes a click leads somewhere, sometimes not. Details are nearly impossible to find, e.g. 36 lines of text that must be viewed 6 lines at a time.

style: modern
price: $200,000 - $691,200
size: 840sf - 2,880sf for the standard models
br: 1 - 4 bedrooms
how: complete modules or SIP
timeline: unknown

Related Posts:
   1. OMD's Swellhouse in the LA Times (Nov 20, 2007)
   2. OMD update (May 29, 2007)
   3. This week: prefab school, CA prefab and SIPs (May 26, 2007)
   4. Prefab Zone at CA Boom 4 (Mar 26, 2007)
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Sexy Prefab

Link to Sexy Prefab
www.marmolradzinerprefab.com

The sprawling prefab prototype that info_smallMarmol Radziner built in the California desert shows the design potential of modernist prefab. It is the sexy rock star of the modernist prefab movement and has been getting its share of attention.

That prototype provided the basis for the info_smallfive models they offer on their website. A simple 1 bedroom, 660 sf model costs $212k, while a 2,650 sf model with 3 bedrooms runs $781k. All models feature floor-to-ceiling windows, a tube steel structure, SIP walls, flat roofs, and wood or metal siding.

Houses are constructed at Marmol Radziner's factory in Vernon, California. Work completed at the factory includes electrical and mechanical systems, cabinets, and all finishes. Standard amenities include Sub-Zero and Bosch appliances, Hansgrohe and Kohler plumbing fixtures, teak or walnut cabinets, and CaesarStone countertops. One would be hard-pressed to find higher quality fixtures in a prefab house.

The models boast several green features: solar panels, tankless water heaters, ample overhangs on windows, and a recycled steel structure. Check out their website to see a full list of amenities and visit their configurator to see how different options affect the price.

The expanses of glass in the desert prototype show that these models do well in open spaces. However, the long list of custom prefabs that are currently in process shows that Marmol Radziner is up for tackling any site.

style: modern
price: $212,000 - $781,000
size: 660sf - 2,650sf for the standard models
br: 1 - 3 bedrooms
how: complete modules delivered to site
timeline: unknown

Related Posts:
   1. Videos: Marmol Radziner and SG Blocks (Dec 24, 2007)
   2. New York Post on modular (Oct 19, 2007)
   3. Marmol Radziner videos (Aug 17, 2007)
   4. This week: Marmol Radziner, prefab love, and Sundance (Aug 11, 2007)
   5. Some Assembly Required at LAMOCA (May 03, 2007)
   6. Prefab Zone at CA Boom 4 (Mar 26, 2007)
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LivingHomes

Link to LivingHomes
www.livinghomes.net

If you like the idea of prefab, but can't forfeit the luxuries of a large private home, a LivingHome is probably for you. Along with info_smallMarmol Radziner, info_smallLivingHomes represents the top-of-the-line prefab present at CA Boom 4. Most standard models cost more than $500k, and some approach $1m.

Rather than using in-house designers, LivingHomes offers models from Ray Kappe and David Hertz, two well-known California architects.

Kappe has two offerings in the LivingHomes product line: the five bedroom, 3,100sf info_smallRK1, and the four bedroom, 2,500 sf info_smallRK2. Both feature extensive outdoor decks of over 1,000sf, multiple levels and open floorplans. info_smallHertz has one LivingHome design, a 2,650 sf, four bedroom, also with ample outdoor living spaces and a modern floorplan.

LivingHomes is building a community of their homes in Joshua Tree, CA, with plans for additional communities in the future. Or you can work with LivingHomes and one of their architects to build the prefab home of your dreams.

All of the LivingHomes designs are green-conscious; the standard models have gained LEED certification. Construction timelines run between 46 and 54 weeks from project conception to move-in. It's a bit of a long wait, but when your house does finally arrive on site, it comes together in a hurry (video: model home installed in 8 hours)!

style: modern
price: $500,000+
size: 2,500sf - 3,100sf for the standard models
br: 4 - 5 bedrooms
how: complete modules delivered to site
timeline: 46 - 54 weeks from project conception to move-in

Related Posts:
   1. Steve Glenn of LivingHomes speaking September 16, 2009 in Seattle (Sep 11, 2009)
   2. Video tour of the first LivingHome (Jul 21, 2009)
   3. Ray Kappe multifamily by LivingHomes (Jul 09, 2009)
   4. KieranTimberlake LivingHomes (Jun 24, 2009)
   5. WIRED LivingHome open for tours! (Nov 06, 2007)
   6. West Coast Green Conference (Jul 18, 2007)
   7. LivingHomes gets WIRED ... for $4 million (Jul 02, 2007)
   8. This week: Austrian prefab, zero-emissions, and more tiny prefab (Jun 23, 2007)
   9. Green homes and LEED certification (Apr 23, 2007)
   10. This week: IKEA goes prefab, mountain retreats, and a prefab high-rise (Apr 21, 2007)
   11. Prefab Zone at CA Boom 4 (Mar 26, 2007)
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A house for you and one for your dog too

Link to A house for you and one for your dog too
www.kithaus.com

info_smallkitHAUS takes a different approach to prefab than the other vendors at CA Boom 4. The info_smallkitHAUS models feature a patented lightweight aluminum framing system with SIPs between the structural members.

The custom clamping technique of the MHS (modular housing system) reduces site construction time to a few days. The lightweight aluminum can be assembled without heavy equipment, is resistant to rust and termites, and never needs to be painted.

Exterior cladding is offered in Zinculume (corrugated metal panels) or Ipe wood, both of which are weather resistant and durable. Interior surfaces come un-finished, requiring you and your local contractor to handle flooring and wall coverings, and all cabinetry, lighting, and other fixtures.

kitHAUS offers four standard modules, as well as 5 example configurations on their website. The standard building blocks are 17' square. info_smallK1 features a loft; info_smallK2 has a flat roof. The info_smallK3 module is smaller, at 9' x 13', and the info_smallK9 module (an actual offering) is a 4' x 4' home for your dog. The configuration examples range from 512 sf to 768 sf, but it is possible to combine more modules to create a dwelling (or doghouse) of any size.

The kitHAUS system offers a flexibility that is unmatched by any other home at the CA Boom show. The lightweight framing system and ease of assembly allow the kitHAUS to go places other prefab can't. For instance, if your homesite is on an island, or up some windy mountains roads, the kitHAUS can make the journey.

name: info_smallkitHAUS by info_smallkitHAUS
style: modern
price: $3,500 - $59,000 for standard modules
size: 16sf - 768sf for the standard configurations
br: varies
how: patented MHS framing system
timeline: delivery in 6 - 12 weeks, finishes applied post-delivery

Related Posts:
   1. This week: containers, concepts, and kitHAUS (Dec 01, 2007)
   2. Clever no-nails framing system (video) (Oct 24, 2007)
   3. Prefab goes to the mall: kitHAUS in San Diego (Aug 06, 2007)
   4. The Modular Housing System (May 10, 2007)
   5. Prefab Zone at CA Boom 4 (Mar 26, 2007)
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The H-Haus Cubes

Link to The H-Haus Cubes
www.h-haus.com

Energy-efficiency and the environment are topics that are mentioned often by the prefab companies at CA Boom. The features of the info_smallH-Haus models don't take these topics lightly. H-Haus describes its services as "home design for a smart energy future."

The H-Haus line consists of 8 standard models, varying in size from a 612sf standalone guest house module, to a 2,100sf home, with garage, terrace, and two bedroom "suites." The models range in overall appearance, from the modern info_smallCube 5 to the traditional/modern hybrid of the info_smallCube 8. LIsted prices are in the $200k - $300k range. Most of the models feature colorful stucco finishes; other exterior finish options include metal siding, Hardiplank®, and Cultured Stone®. Several amenities are worth a mention: a standard 10'-0" height entry door, operable skylights, soaking bathtubs, gas fireplaces, and trellises for outdoors terrace areas, to name a few.

All models strive to combine a well-designed product with eco-friendly features. For example, the standard for Cube walls is an 8" pre-engineered system (compared to a 4" - 6" standard thickness in most homes), allowing for a great r-value (in the range of R-30 to R-50). Other features: energy-efficient windows, solar heating, rainwater catchment and wastewater recycling.

While such inclusions aren't revolutionary, or unique to H-Haus, the H-Haus folks do make a notable effort to incorporate green materials and products into their homes. To stress these features, while also trying to meet a certain aesthetic, IS a challenge. If you are seeking a low-impact prefab product, you should certainly look in the direction of H-Haus.

name: info_smallCube-5 and info_smallCube-8 by info_smallH-Haus
style: modern or modern/traditional hybrid
price: $200,000 - $300,000 for standard models
size: 612sf - 2,100sf for the standard models
br: 1 - 3 bedrooms
how: panelized/SIP
timeline: unknown

Related Posts:
   1. This week: Austrian prefab, zero-emissions, and more tiny prefab (Jun 23, 2007)
   2. Prefab Zone at CA Boom 4 (Mar 26, 2007)
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Hives for humans

Link to Hives for humans
from hivemodular.com

info_smallHive Modular offers a unique contribution to the prefab movement. Unlike most of their counterparts at this year's CA Boom show, they offer many of their designs in both modern and traditional garb. This approach allows them to optimize a floorplan and offer it in a few different exterior looks.

They offer a info_smallB-Line (linear), a info_smallC-Line (square), an info_smallM-Line (multi-family), and an info_smallX-Line (custom). All models are built from a series of modules. They are brought together in different ways (side-by-side, end-to-end, stacked, criss-crossed) to create slightly more complex forms. And smaller modules, called "saddlebags" can be added.

Size options range from the B-Line Small at around 1,000sf to the B-Line Large at around 2,500sf. Prices range from $140/sf to $215/sf and $4,000 and up for the delivery and crane-setting process.

The modules are all shipped near-complete to site, with only a few final touches necessary by the local contractor. All models feature steel and/or cement siding, which appear to come in your choice of colors. They offer a list of high-end and custom lighting and plumbing fixtures, but stick with Ikea cabinets like most of the prefab outfits.

Without "saddlebags", the forms are fairly plain, but window placements help the homes appear a little more dynamic, and break away from the boxiness a bit. Some of the implementations are more immediately pleasing to the eye than others, especially the smaller configurations where the simple shapes make a little more sense.

style: modern or somewhat traditional
price: $140,000 - $550,000 for standard models
size: 990sf - 2500sf for the standard models
br: 1 - 3 bedrooms
how: complete modules shipped to site, placed with crane
timeline: unknown

Related Posts:
   1. Hive Modular blog (Jul 10, 2007)
   2. Hive Modular home-raising (Jun 18, 2007)
   3. Hive Modular on YouTube (Jun 07, 2007)
   4. Nashville Modern Prefab (Jun 05, 2007)
   5. Hive Modular on Minneapolis Home Tour (Apr 26, 2007)
   6. Prefab Zone at CA Boom 4 (Mar 26, 2007)
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So, what are SIPs anyway?

Link to So, what are SIPs anyway?
www.sips.org

Many of the prefab models coming onto the market, like the info_smallCleverHomes, are built with a technology called SIPs. The acronym SIP stands for Structural Insulated Panel; the lowercase "s" is usually added to pluralize.

A SIP contains a 4" - 6" foam layer sandwiched between two layers of rigid material, usually oriented strand board (like plywood, but each layer is made of many small wood chips), plywood, or fiber cement board. This sandwich is the total thickness of your wall, roof or floor, minus the finishes.

The benefits of SIP include the ability to ship a wall panel to your house site that is cut to size and ready to install. Insulation and framing are handled in one step. Compared to standard stud-framing, the SIP is more likely to be the right dimensions, be flatter (compared to the waviness of the studs) and to have a built-in insulation system. The crew on site just fits the panels together.

The general critique of SIP construction in the home-building world is the initial cost, due to most of the labor being offsite in the factory. Considering we are discussing prefab, however, most of the labor for any product will be in the factory. Environmentally conscious folks might take issue with the use of such large quantities of foam in the panels. However, SIPs save construction waste on site, and ensure that your home will have one of the best energy efficiencies possible for the given wall thickness.

If you decide to build a home with SIPs, prefab or not, you need to make sure your contractor has prior experience with this method, as SIP construction is different from traditional construction. And, if the designer doesn't provide oversight, the contractor must make sure that drawings are accurate prior to approving for manufacture. Additionally, installation of electrical, plumbing and mechanical systems will require special techniques.

what: panelized building system, composed of foam and OSB
pros: insulation values good, fairly quick assembly
cons: cost, coordination is key, not as fast as modules

Related Posts:
   1. Slice House by Studio ST Architects (Aug 28, 2009)
   2. Postgreen Homes in Philadelphia (Aug 17, 2009)
   3. Green Cubed House by Nelse Design + Build (Jun 23, 2009)
   4. Cantilever House by Anderson Anderson Architecture (May 20, 2009)
   5. Cascade House by Paul Raff Studio (May 07, 2009)
   6. Two Black Sheds by David Salmela (May 05, 2009)
   7. Old Stone Highway House by Berg Design Architects (Apr 30, 2009)
   8. New River Bank Barn renovation by Blackburn Architects (Apr 22, 2009)
   9. SIPA Annual Conference in Chicago: April 20-23, 2009 (Apr 01, 2009)
   10. Cottage in a Day by Michael Fitzhugh Architecture (Jan 22, 2009)
   11. Agriboard SIPs made from wheat and rice straw (Dec 09, 2008)
   12. Jenesys Building System's E Cube (Jun 27, 2007)
   13. This week: British SIPs and Maison in the rain (Jun 16, 2007)
   14. This week: prefab school, CA prefab and SIPs (May 26, 2007)
   15. This week: Japanese prefab, SIPs, and the greenness of big homes (Apr 14, 2007)
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Kinda Prefab

Link to Kinda Prefab
cleverhomes.net

The next player at the CA Boom 4 show will be info_smallCleverHomes. Their design and process is in contrast to the simplicty afforded by the weeHouse. As a result, more is possible with a CleverHome.

CleverHomes details 8 unique models on their website, along with 7 custom case-studies to show how their system can be tweaked and customized. The sizes run the gamut, from a 480sf one-room wood-sided shack, to a large 3,500+ sf modern estate. Styles range from ultra modern to log-cabin chic. All are rectilinear, and most feature flat roofs.

The design process includes a custom design for your lot and setting, satisfying the unique structural and site constraints of any project.

In contrast to the factory-built, fully finished, units that you get with a product like the weeHouse, CleverHomes are shipped to the site in unfinished pieces. Exterior wall sections, called SIPs, industry shorthand for "structural insulated panels", are shipped to the site and are erected by your choice of contractor, with oversight from the CleverHomes folks.

Finishes and fixtures are shipped separately, but "are delivered ready for on-site assembly". Construction schedules are stated to run in the "4-6 month" range. CleverHomes touts this somewhat-prefab process, saying that they "stop short of pre-fabricating large assemblies" when the factory process becomes limiting architecturally, or if the cost of moving a large prefab module would be too high.

CleverHomes is taking advantage of the prefab process in a way that most likely will become more common in the coming years. They are taking advantage of the quality control and cost-savings of the factory and a few pre-engineered schemes, while still allowing for a near-custom home as a product.

style: modern or traditional
price: prices not provided
size: 480 - 3,500 sf
br: 1 - 4 bedrooms
how: SIP construction
timeline: construction stated as ranging from 4-6 months

Related Posts:
   1. Prefab Zone at CA Boom 4 (Mar 26, 2007)
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Itsy Bitsy weeHouse

Link to Itsy Bitsy weeHouse
from weehouses.com

In the info_smallweeHouse, info_smallAlchemy Architects provide a model to follow for prefab. It seems fitting that it should be the first home we cover from CA Boom 4.

With just a small number of configuration and appearance options, and a fabrication process that includes all finishes, you really are getting a 'prefab' home. It might not be that custom home you've been thinking about since first grade, but a first grader could probably handle the ordering of this puppy.

The weeHouse features studio, one and two bedroom options, with the ability to customize and build a much larger home. The standard options range in price from $70,000 for a 300sf studio to $110,000 for a 650sf two bedroom. These prices don't include bringing the utility hookups to the site or the home's foundation; homeowners and their contractor are responsible for this on-site work. Standard finish and fixture options include Ikea cabinetry and fixtures, and, for a price, the more high-end Duravit sinks, toilets, and tubs.

The 12' modules are built in the factory and trucked to your (future) doorstep. Hire a crane (at ~$250/hr - $500/hr) to position the structure on your foundation, hook up the utilities and you are ready to go! It doesn't get much easier than that. This method is one that other prefabs really should aspire to.

Alchemy Architects offer a number of custom options too, ranging from the ability to design "not too wee" houses or even to site-build a weeHouse.

style: modern
price: $69,500 - $109,500 for standard models
size: 300sf - 700sf for the standard models
br: studio - 2 bedrooms
how: complete modules shipped to site, placed with crane
timeline: construction stated as 4-12 weeks

Related Posts:
   1. Pictures of weeHouse settings in Colorado and New York (Aug 26, 2009)
   2. weeHouse for sale in Wisconsin (Aug 04, 2009)
   3. weeHouse for sale in Duluth, MN (Jul 17, 2009)
   4. weeHouse in Continental Airlines magazine (Jun 16, 2009)
   5. weeHouse by Alchemy on display in WI; today and this weekend (May 22, 2009)
   6. New 4x weeHouses join the weeLineup (May 19, 2008)
   7. New weeHouse website (Dec 21, 2007)
   8. Open house: weeHouse in Minneapolis on Dec. 14 (Dec 12, 2007)
   9. This week: Bombala, weeHouse in LA, and more (Nov 10, 2007)
   10. This week: weeHouses and more Dwell on Design (Aug 18, 2007)
   11. Quon Modular: a room at a time (Jul 11, 2007)
   12. Tiny Houses (May 23, 2007)
   13. Some Assembly Required at LAMOCA (May 03, 2007)
   14. This week: New Orleans, Austrian prefab, and weeHouses (Apr 28, 2007)
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Prefab Zone at CA Boom 4

Link to Prefab Zone at CA Boom 4
from caboomshow.com

Prefab is definitely entering the design mainstream. Case in point: the presence of prefab at the CA Boom 4 show in Santa Monica March 30th through April 1st.

At least twelve prefab vendors will be on hand to showcase and sell their products. In order to be present, vendors had to satisfy the following criteria:

  1. ability to provide actual price quotes
  2. ability to receive and accept orders
  3. have at least one built dwelling under their belt
  4. have a manufacturing process in place (not just a plan)
  5. have knowledge of how to deliver and install the dwelling

These are serious players. They've proven that their products are ready to grow up and enter the real world, not just exist on paper.

All of the vendors present are part of the modernist prefab market. And some established players like Rocio Romero won't even be present. However, just to see the coverage and space being provided to the "Prefab Zone" is exciting, especially for those of us who believe prefab deserves a wider audience.

Between now and the show, I will profile each of the vendors and their products. I'll provide nightly updates of the internet buzz about the show and I will be attending on Sunday, getting a first-hand look at what the companies have to offer. So stay tuned!

what: Independent design show with over 100 exhibitors
when: March 30 - April 1, 2007
where: Santa Monica, CA

Related Posts:
   1. More CA Boom in the blogs (Apr 04, 2007)
   2. CA Boom roundup 3: the eccentrics (Apr 03, 2007)
   3. CA Boom roundup 2: "that one" (Apr 02, 2007)
   4. CA Boom roundup 1: confusion and flux (Apr 02, 2007)
   5. CA Boom in the blogs this weekend (Apr 02, 2007)
   6. Simplicity works (Mar 30, 2007)
   7. Custom homes with prefab bones (Mar 29, 2007)
   8. Take a portable swell house home (Mar 29, 2007)
   9. Sexy Prefab (Mar 29, 2007)
   10. LivingHomes (Mar 28, 2007)
   11. A house for you and one for your dog too (Mar 28, 2007)
   12. The H-Haus Cubes (Mar 28, 2007)
   13. Hives for humans (Mar 27, 2007)
   14. Kinda Prefab (Mar 27, 2007)
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Welcome to the prefabcosm

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.

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Our aim is to create the web's #1 resource for prefab and modular homes. Read our blog for daily news, and browse around to learn more about the emerging world of prefab.