While not totally prefabricated, the Manifesto House by Infiniski utilizes pre-made materials like shipping containers and wooden pallets to create a totally rad modern house. Infiniski’s mission is to build homes cheaply and quickly using sustainable materials while incorporating renewable energy systems. They have many designs already available, which can be interchanged and easily modified.

Read the rest of Modern Manifesto House Made From Wood Pallets and Shipping Containers

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Post tags: Chile, Infiniski, James&Mau, Manifesto House, Prefab, Prefab friday, prefab house, Recycled Materials, shipping container, shipping container architecture

LivingHomes had the honor of building the first LEED Platinum certified home in the US, and now they’re on schedule to deliver the first LEED Platinum certified home in Orange County. The new KieranTimberlake LivingHome 1.5 (KTLH1.5) was erected earlier this month in a single day. Located in the city of Newport Beach, we carry no doubts that the home will be LEED Platinum certified given LivingHomes‘ track record.

Read the rest of LivingHomes Delivers KieranTimberlake Prefab in Orange County

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Post tags: "sustainable architecture", Green Building, green design, kieran timberlake prefab, KieranTimberlake, KieranTimberlake Associates, LEED Home, LEED platinum, living homes, livinghomes

Hive Modular recently unveiled a brand new pre-fabulous house chock full of eco-friendly materials and lots of high-tech home system controls. Situated in Vadnais Heights, Minnesota, the new X-Line 003 is a 4 bedroom, 3 bath home that boasts clean lines and a sleek interior. There are a lot of prefab companies out there serving up brilliant concepts, but not all of them have actually built a house. Hive Modular has — quite a few actually — and they’ve got the project gallery to show for it.

Read the rest of PREFAB FRIDAY: Hive Modular Unveils New X-Line 003 Home

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Post tags: Architecture, Green Building, green design, hive modular, Prefab, prefab home, prefab residence, sustainable design, x-line 003

If pop art were to cross paths with prefab housing, the result would likely look this Warhol-worthy prefab home. Designed by Austin + Mergold, A-House-In-A-Can is a single-family residence built in the round interior of a grain silo. Constructed with off-the-shelf components and clad with a prefabricated steel facade, this innovative prefab home design could be the perfect solution for your Warhol-loving, farm-living dreams.

Read the rest of Creating Cylindrical Prefab Homes From Renovated Grain Silos

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Post tags: eco friendly residence, grain dryer, grain silo, green home, green residence, prefab house, Prefab Housing, prefabicated construction

Mark Twain had a garden shed; he called it “the loveliest study you ever saw…octagonal with a peaked roof, each face filled with a spacious window…perched in complete isolation on the top of an elevation that commands leagues of valley and city and retreating ranges of distant blue hills. It is a cozy nest and just room in it for a sofa, table, and three or four chairs, and when the storms sweep down the remote valley and the lighting flashes behind the hills beyond and the rain beats upon the roof over my head—imagine the luxury of it.”

But in recent times, the humble garden shed has become an outlet for designers to experiment in small spaces that often slide under the radar of zoning bylaws, providing extra room for study, relaxation or just getting away from everyone else.

Read the rest of Garden Sheds Are an Explosion of Architectural Experimentation

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Post tags: Architecture, building, garden sheds, green design, green roof, Prefab, prefab architecture, sustainable design

Shipping containers are known for their inherent strength, wide availability and relatively low cost — making them a practical and sustainable option for affordable housing. Last year, South Florida-based design, manufacturing and retail company, Envision Prefab set out to create a eco-conscious home, the “E-House,” constructed of sturdy cargo containers. They also wanted to educate homeowners about sustainability, so they recorded all the steps involved in retro-fitting shipping containers to construct the home and shared it with Jetson Green.

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Post tags: container architecture, E-House, Prefab, Recycled Materials, shipping containers, sustainable affordable housing

As the winter winds begin to blow, we’d thought we say one last goodbye to the things of summer by featuring Icelandic architectural firm Glama-Kim Architects’ modern, modular, eco-friendly summerhouses situated in the Western part of Iceland, in the town of Stykkishólmur. Project architect Olafur Mathiesen led the design, which boasts spectacular views of the surrounding landscape, as well as the use of readily available materials combined with the ease of construction and simplicity of design.

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Post tags: Glama-Kim Architects, Iceland, Prefab, Summerhouses, Sustainable Building, sustainable design, Sustainable Materials

This prefab concept house, Mini40, comes out of Austria and has a slant towards the increasingly popular Passiv-Haus design method, which promotes a very tight and low-energy design. Hailing from Innsbruck, architect Mario Handle designed this passive home so that it doesn’t require any conventional heating. In fact, in good solar locations, it could be completely off-grid, powered by photovoltaics. The Mini40 was also designed to be constructed with modular parts, and reminds us a little bit of Werner Sobek’s modular homes, although the Mini40 has a slightly warmer aesthetic. And with just as many variations as Sobek’s homes, including the Mini60, Mini80 and Mini120, the concept can be expanded to become a larger-sized home or even multi-family housing.

Read the rest of Modular Passiv-Haus Concept Offers Customizable, Net-Zero Home

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Post tags: cellulose insulation, mario handle, net zero home, passiv-haus, passive design, passive solar design, Prefab, prefab concept, Prefab friday, prefab home, werner sobek

We’re excited to report that as of today Team California is in 1st place at the Solar Decathlon competition going on right now in Washington DC with their stunning Refract House! Just moments ago, they emerged victorious from the Communications portion of the scoring and as of yesterday they received an almost perfect score of 98 out of a 100 for Architecture and a 92 out of a 100 for Market Viability – combined with their other scores, this puts them in 1st place as of now. Close on their tails are Team Germany and Team Ontario/BC, and all the teams are anticipating the remaining scores which will be rolling in throughtout the rest of the week culminating in the score for Net Metering, which garners the hugest chunk of points. Stay with us on Inhabitat for news and updates on the winning teams. We can’t wait to see who the winner is on Friday!

Read the rest of Team California’s Refract House Currently Leading Solar Decathlon!

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Post tags: Architecture, net metering, Refract House, scoring, Solar Decathlon, solar decathlon 2009, Sustainable Materials, team california, Washington DC

Each year, West Coast Green brings together the largest conference on green innovation for the built environment with leading sustainable businesses and an eclectic group of green technology and exciting design exhibitors. This year’s batch of booths focused mainly on natural building materials and alternative energy, with a few futuristic electric vehicles thrown in. Many of the products are already available, but some, including Armageddon Energy’s solar panels and the Stak Block, are still in the testing stages. Check out all of our fantastic finds after the jump.

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Post tags: corniche carpet, fort mason, green ray, imiev, liveroof, raintube, San Francisco, wcg, west coast green

There’s a tiny shed subculture growing, and you may find one sprouting in your own backyard. This prototype from Modern Cabana showed up recently at a San Francisco garden store, which also hosted a Tiny Shed Challenge as part of the month-long AIA SF Architecture and the City Festival.

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Post tags: architect, cabana, hut, Office, room, shack, shed, small space living, yard

Today is the first day of West Coast Green, and this year’s showhouse is a stunner! Designed by San Francisco-based Green Horizon, the self-sustaining prefab home is an immediately deployable emergency shelter that can be configured to adapt to a remarkable range of situations. By focusing upon simple sturdy construction, prefabricated modular parts, and a bevy of green building strategies, Green Horizon has created a home that can sustain a family of four with a week’s worth of food, electricity, and water without external support. I met with CEO James Pope to take a tour of the modular wonder before the show – read on for the full scoop!

Read the rest of Ultra Adaptable Green Horizon Prefab Debuts at West Coast Green!

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Post tags: design for disaster, emergency relief, green design, green horizon, modular housing, prefabricated building, sustainable design

After finding an affordable and convenient warehouse space in the industrial section of Santa Ana, Orange County, local printing company MVP decided to turn part of their premises into an office space. The warehouse wasn’t equipped to accommodate private offices, and the company felt that keeping the whole space climate-controlled would be wasteful, so they decided to group 10 20-foot shipping containers inside the warehouse to act as offices. The warehouse’s new industrial-chic workspaces proved to be an affordable option that continues to save the company on energy bills.

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Post tags: Office, orange countey, Recycled Materials, reuse, shipping container, shipping container office

An exciting new development in the world of prefab designs happened today, when Blu Homes, an East coast prefab home designer, announced that they had acquired the assets of mkDesigns, Michelle Kaufman’s prefab home design company. Back in May we were so saddened to hear that Michelle was closing the doors of her firm due to the crash in the housing market. This new development is huge and combines the manufacturing capabilities of Blu Homes with Michelle’s amazing talent, letting her continue doing what she does best – design fabulous green homes.

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Post tags: Bill Haney, blu homes, michelle kaufman, MKDesigns, Prefab, Prefab Homes, Prefab Housing

As more people filter into the city, open land to build on will become more and more scarce, and we may have to use every available bit of space we can, including empty bare walls, bridge pylons, and retaining walls. The Prefab Parasite, designed by Australia-based Lara Calder Architects, is such a structure — aiming to turn previously empty vertical surfaces into livable and attractive private space. Mimicking parasitic qualities, the home is designed for durability and adaptability, evident in its construction out of prefabricated panels so that the home can be affixed onto any wall or pylon large and strong enough to hold it.

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Post tags: city living, dense housing, furturistic architecture, parasite, parasite prefab, Prefab friday, prefab home, Prefab Housing, Urban design, urban housing, urban living