And bill@objetdesign.com is thinking in the right direction. As a former builder, I can tell you that just because you can doesn’t mean you should!

-Bobby

At the end, we all have to consider the ROI. It’s quite easy to find an old crappy house in CA or the Northeast for $500K with little land. If you have to justify the investment, you will have to build a much bigger house, which defeats the purpose of lowering our carbon footprint as many of you are considering. So what is the right thing to do? I personally would love to build one of these green prefabs, but it’s going to be a luxury after adding up everything. Is it even worth it?

The ‘Qunta Monroy’ project in Chile is costing $7,500 per 3 level concrete block unit. See:, and:. Granted… this is connected housing. So what would this design cost as a stand alone dwelling… 3 or 4 times that cost ? Well… that’s still way less than $200 – $250 per square foot. And if these designs were regrouped into a single level dwelling… what could that cost ? (Think 3 levels conjoined into a ‘C’ shape, leaving an interior courtyard.) Still… scandalously less than $250 per sq. ft., I’d imagine ?

I spend half the year on a somewhat poor Carribean Island called Vieques, Puerto Rico. Many locals here build their own houses. Poured concrete slabs, floors and roofs are the norm, with concrete block infill. A fellow New York City / Vieques resident just built a 16′ x 30′ x 18′ foot tall concrete block house here, in the hills of Monte Carmelo, for $12,000 !!!!!!! This price inclues the cost of a half width interior Mezzanine (bedroom area) made out of treated wood. (The Kitchen and Bathroom are under the mezzanine, allowing a 16′ x 15′ by 16′ double height living/dining area.There’s also a cool roof deck above, accessed by steps from the Mezzanine.)

COME ON FOLKS ! This blind belief in house having to cost $200 to $250 per square foot is ridiculous.

And to Jackie… architectural fees are based upon the projected cost of construction, right ? And… many architects charge way more than 5% – 20%. Apparently, only when Architects make more money because they’ve figured out how to make splendid designs cost far less than $200 to $250 per square foot… will architecturally designed houses becomemuch more cost effective. Whatever.

I have another question, if it can be built in a couple of days, how long after the order is placed does it take to get to those final couple of days?

I still love the idea of prefab and modular design. I love it because it potentially improves consistency and real evaluation of the green qualities of the building. I’m betting that the high prices are largely due to using high volume production methods to create only a small volume of houses.

If you think $200-$250/SF is “affordable”, where ever you live (be it LA, NY… wherever), then you’re out of touch with middle-America. Yes, houses in DC, Cali, & NY sell for over $500/SF… But they don’t cost over $175/SF to build (w/ profit margin built in).

In most of the US, the typical factory built home costs on average $55/SF to fabricate.
But unit fabrication is only part of the big picture. Articles like this one make it sound as if you can just buy one of these cookie cutters and plop it down… Walla. Put your furniture in… HOME!

On average, delivery of modules costs about $5/mile per lorry…. Every foot in width over 12’ costs an extra buck a mile. It’s still cheaper to stick-build houses, but prefab & modular have come a long way over the past ten years. For some reason, though, most of the prefab/modular homes are still built with wood, which is the worst material to use for a long list of reasons (including susceptibility to termites & rot). Sustainably harvested, reclaimed… That makes it more “Green”, but its still wood.
The idea of using SIPs sounds cool, but from experience I can tell you, it’s not as affordable as it should be and the limitations in site flexibility frustrate me.

Architects and Architecture: Architects don’t make bank. Architecture is one of the most misunderstood and under appreciated (and underpaid!) professions these days. Everyone likes to say “my architect…”, but when it comes time to pay the fees, the average client shortchanges their architect. I don’t have a peer or colleague that hasn’t been ripped off by 50% of their clients. It’s because we live in a world where everyone wants more than they can afford, and everyone thinks they are due something better. Ok, well… It’s worse in the US. I’m a proud American, and I’ve been abroad in Europe and the UK a good portion of the past year… And I gotta say, it’s us. Everyone likes to blame it on our bonehead president, but once you step outside of our SimCity, you quickly realize that we really are living in a clouded world. Every region has their issues, but when it comes to housing in developed countries, only the British are more backwards. The thing that we have in common with the Brits is a lot of poor and a lot of rich. The poor get cardboard, and the rich get high-design prefab with helicopter pads.

But for every misunderstood architect that gets ripped off by an unrealistic client, there are two architects whose clients rip them off because the architect did not listen or relate to the client’s needs. I’ve been there and am guilty myself. We’re designers… Just as a soldier is programmed to kill before he is killed, us designers and architects are trained to make our mark wherever we are given an inkling of a chance. The idea in our mind is that clients hire architects and designers for their vision, and thus it is our job to educate them with our vision. Only problem is that they didn’t make us take economics back in design school! And visions can get out of hand! I was lucky, my mother came out of the last bit of the depression era, and to this day if I spend more than three bucks on a meal she labels me frivolous and wasteful (it’s amazing the great meal you can still get at a Cuban cantina in Miami for $2.95).

I recently closed my Washington, DC studio in order to step away from my life-passion of architecture and focus on design of what I call AASDAwannabe (Accessible, Affordable, & Sustainably Designed Architecture that aspires to Be).

For the past six years my client work has focused on the category known as “Champagne wishes in a Styrofoam cup”… basically high-design want on a shoestring budget. (I prefer a china cup that can be rinsed and reused, but more on that could take this already lengthy commentary into a whole ‘nuther discussion.) My clients came because they heard that I was bent on providing affordable and sustainable high-design to the average you or me. Washington, DC is one of the most expensive cities in the US, and everything we’ve designed has been built between $100-$150/SF (for any of ya that think it should easily happen for under $125/SF in a city like DC or LA… uhmm time to wake up). How and why? Because we stopped thinking like architects, and befriended every engineer and tradesman that we could. We were on site in the mornings and in the studio in the afternoons. Ahhh… So, THAT’s how a door is actually set… and Ahhhh… So, THAT’s why it’s better to undersize an HVAC unit, than oversize it!

Architects these days are paper-architects, and THAT is why everything you see on Inhabitat looks like a glossy rendered shoebox. I was visiting Columbia’s School of Architecture recently (one of the top in the world), and asked a few students – about to graduate – how many of their classmates could actually build their designs, or draw a CD set that their design could be built from. I was expecting them to say 30-40%. The answer was unanimous… 3-5%! After walking through the studios, I understood. Beautiful renderings. Spotted three physical study models in the whole school, and their model shop was a crying shame. Paper architecture.

Architecture came from the Architecton. When a mason derived a new construction detail, he wanted to document it… So he drew it. But we do it the other way around these days. We draw it and expect the builder to build it. Many times our designs don’t reference the proportion of that masonry unit, or it asks masonry to hang in mid air, instead of acting in compression, as it would like to be.

The designers don’t know enough about their materials and their details. THIS is why the mod trailers costs so much to build. I know a builder, building butt ugly (no designer) trailer looking panelized homes for the needy – for $18,000 – $23,000 a pop.
I’m currently challenging myself to design him a two bedroom, one bath AASDAwannabe prototype that he can build for 25 – 30,000 USD. In California terms, I guess that’s less than Less Than Zero.

If there are any architects, designers, engineers, or builders out there that are interested in joining my rebellious brainstorm, drop me a note >>> bill@objetdesign.com.
And stay tuned to see if we meet our goal*

If you think $200-$250/SF is “affordable”, where ever you live (be it LA, NY… wherever), then you’re out of touch with middle-America. Yes, houses in DC, Cali, & NY sell for over $500/SF… But they don’t cost over $175/SF to build (w/ profit margin built in).

In most of the US, the typical factory built home costs on average $55/SF to fabricate.
But unit fabrication is only part of the big picture. Articles like this one make it sound as if you can just buy one of these cookie cutters and plop it down… Walla. Put your furniture in… HOME!

On average, delivery of modules costs about $5/mile per lorry…. Every foot in width over 12’ costs an extra buck a mile. It’s still cheaper to stick-build houses, but prefab & modular have come a long way over the past ten years. For some reason, though, most of the prefab/modular homes are still built with wood, which is the worst material to use for a long list of reasons (including susceptibility to termites & rot). Sustainably harvested, reclaimed… That makes it more “Green”, but its still wood.
The idea of using SIPs sounds cool, but from experience I can tell you, it’s not as affordable as it should be and the limitations in site flexibility frustrate me.

Architects and Architecture: Architects don’t make bank. Architecture is one of the most misunderstood and under appreciated (and underpaid!) professions these days. Everyone likes to say “my architect…”, but when it comes time to pay the fees, the average client shortchanges their architect. I don’t have a peer or colleague that hasn’t been ripped off by 50% of their clients. It’s because we live in a world where everyone wants more than they can afford, and everyone thinks they are due something better. Ok, well… It’s worse in the US. I’m a proud American, and I’ve been abroad in Europe and the UK a good portion of the past year… And I gotta say, it’s us. Everyone likes to blame it on our bonehead president, but once you step outside of our SimCity, you quickly realize that we really are living in a clouded world. Every region has their issues, but when it comes to housing in developed countries, only the British are more backwards. The thing that we have in common with the Brits is a lot of poor and a lot of rich. The poor get cardboard, and the rich get high-design prefab with helicopter pads.

But for every misunderstood architect that gets ripped off by an unrealistic client, there are two architects whose clients rip them off because the architect did not listen or relate to the client’s needs. I’ve been there and am guilty myself. We’re designers… Just as a soldier is programmed to kill before he is killed, us designers and architects are trained to make our mark wherever we are given an inkling of a chance. The idea in our mind is that clients hire architects and designers for their vision, and thus it is our job to educate them with our vision. Only problem is that they didn’t make us take economics back in design school! And visions can get out of hand! I was lucky, my mother came out of the last bit of the depression era, and to this day if I spend more than three bucks on a meal she labels me frivolous and wasteful (it’s amazing the great meal you can still get at a Cuban cantina in Miami for $2.95).

I recently closed my Washington, DC studio in order to step away from my life-passion of architecture and focus on design of what I call AASDAwannabe (Accessible, Affordable, & Sustainably Designed Architecture that aspires to Be).

For the past six years my client work has focused on the category known as “Champagne wishes in a Styrofoam cup”… basically high-design want on a shoestring budget. (I prefer a china cup that can be rinsed and reused, but more on that could take this already lengthy commentary into a whole ‘nuther discussion.) My clients came because they heard that I was bent on providing affordable and sustainable high-design to the average you or me. Washington, DC is one of the most expensive cities in the US, and everything we’ve designed has been built between $100-$150/SF (for any of ya that think it should easily happen for under $125/SF in a city like DC or LA… uhmm time to wake up). How and why? Because we stopped thinking like architects, and befriended every engineer and tradesman that we could. We were on site in the mornings and in the studio in the afternoons. Ahhh… So, THAT’s how a door is actually set… and Ahhhh… So, THAT’s why it’s better to undersize an HVAC unit, than oversize it!

Architects these days are paper-architects, and THAT is why everything you see on Inhabitat looks like a glossy rendered shoebox. I was visiting Columbia’s School of Architecture recently (one of the top in the world), and asked a few students – about to graduate – how many of their classmates could actually build their designs, or draw a CD set that their design could be built from. I was expecting them to say 30-40%. The answer was unanimous… 3-5%! After walking through the studios, I understood. Beautiful renderings. Spotted three physical study models in the whole school, and their model shop was a crying shame. Paper architecture.

Architecture came from the Architecton. When a mason derived a new construction detail, he wanted to document it… So he drew it. But we do it the other way around these days. We draw it and expect the builder to build it. Many times our designs don’t reference the proportion of that masonry unit, or it asks masonry to hang in mid air, instead of acting in compression, as it would like to be.

The designers don’t know enough about their materials and their details. THIS is why the mod trailers costs so much to build. I know a builder, building butt ugly (no designer) trailer looking panelized homes for the needy – for $18,000 – $23,000 a pop.
I’m currently challenging myself to design him a two bedroom, one bath AASDAwannabe prototype that he can build for 25 – 30,000 USD. In California terms, I guess that’s Less Than Zero.

If there are any architects, designers, engineers, or builders out there that are interested in joining my rebellious brainstorm, drop me a note >>> bill@objetdesign.com.
And stay tuned to see if we meet our goal*

Only if you include the land. Housing in LA starts around 500k but that is for a house AND land. In california you’re paying for the land your house is on first, and the house is secondary.

Loyd said ‘Bring it to LA or New York and the price will double.’

See my above comment. The entire point of pre-fab housing is to make housing cost-effective. Why would you want to live in a cookie cutter house and still pay 3 to 4 times more than if you built it from the ground up?
Sure you can say “when you build walls to R30 you pay twice what an R12 wall is.” but we don’t know how these houses are built so there’s really no way to apples to apples this comparison.