Comments on: PREFAB FRIDAY: DESIGNhabitat 2 House

By: Richie

Richie — Wed, 19 Sep 2007 18:24:54 +0000

Hi Walter,

Congrats to the Aubrurn-U team for some nice designs. Hoe cost effective were they ? I personally woul dhave picked the 2 story design as the finalist. Whatever.

When I visited the Wired Magazine ‘NextFest’ in NYC in 2006, architect William McDonnough (spelling ?) was displaying some remarkable housing designs that were exclusively fabricated from 8″ thick SIPs . This included the floors and roofs, as well as the walls. The key was structurally supporting the diagonal and horirzontal spans (floors, roofs) with bamboo beams inset between the SIPS, like ’splines’.

So I’m surprised to see low cost housing is still using what appears to be stick-frame construction… which then requires spraying in foam insulation, etc… when SIP’s are already are foam insulated ?

What were the considrations that led the design team away from SIP’s towards the seemingly ’same old’ Stick – Frame construction methods ?

By: Gill Burns

Gill Burns — Mon, 16 Apr 2007 01:02:04 +0000

Thanks for this Walter. Much appreciated

By: Walter

Walter — Wed, 04 Apr 2007 21:50:58 +0000

I am one of the Auburn students who helped design and build this house. Thank you for showing interest in the house we designed. For those of you are interested in floor plans, elevations, and sections you can go to this link to check it out.

http://www.cadc.auburn.edu/soa/design-habitat/index.php/main/studios/studio-2/5proposals/breeze/

We also had a few other designs that we proposed to habitat and palm harbor, who was the modular builder we used. Here is the page to go to to view those if you are interested.

http://www.cadc.auburn.edu/soa/design-habitat/index.php/main/studios/studio-2/5proposals/

By: Gill Burns

Gill Burns — Tue, 03 Apr 2007 22:45:12 +0000

Hi. Our Habitat affiliate is exploring how to build good-looking, low energy affordable houses, and we’re very interested by your design. Really eye-catching! We’d love to see plans and other construction information too.Thanks. Gill Burns

By: Ron Seko

Ron Seko — Sun, 01 Apr 2007 22:53:18 +0000

The house looked great in the first couple of photos, but most of the pictures displayed a house under construction, on a dirty lot. This may appeal to the Do-it yourself crews, but I’m a clumsy old fool! A General Contractor is going to build my prefab! General construction, plumbing, photo-voltaic systems, etc. should be performed by skilled & experienced workers.///Prefabs For All, (not just Do-it Yourselfers).

By: Kate

Kate — Mon, 26 Mar 2007 15:42:50 +0000

What an adorable design!!! Are Plans for this house available???