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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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San Francisco’s Bay Bridge is currently undergoing a massive renovation as an aging section of the East Bay span is replaced with a new one, and the old conduit has fired up architects’ imaginations for new ways to use the soon-to-be abandoned space. Inspired by the success of New York’s recently opened High Line Park, Rael San Fratello Architects haver proposed a hanging neighborhood and sky park complete with 1.92 miles of bicycle paths, climbing walls, gardens, and meadows.
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It must be eco-stadium madness here at Inhabitat, because here’s yet another stadium design, this time as part of Tokyo’s bid proposal for the 2016 Summer Olympics. Tomorrow is the big day for the International Olympic Committee, who will be deciding the host city for the 2016 games. Tokyo is hoping to entice the IOC with their sustainably oriented plan, use of solar power, renovation of existing facilities and compact layout of the Olympic Village. Tokyo is up against some very strong competitors though and will have shine brightly to win the bid over Chicago, Madrid and Rio de Janeiro.
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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!
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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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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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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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Harnessing daylight in the busy and narrow streets of London is a remarkable challenge for any architect. Recently ALA met that challenge in their remarkable renovation of the 10 Hills Place office. Using a bit of ingenuity and a bit of shipmaking technology, the architects created a sculptural facade that is as beautiful as it is effective. It’s been said that you can’t judge a building by it’s facade, but for this building, that is precisely what we are going to do.
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Shipping container homes just keep on getting cooler. Developers Katie Nichols and John Walker along with architect Christopher Robertson wanted to create affordable and sustainable homes for the emerging hipster crowd – modern, colorful and creative. This single-story home, located on the outskirts of downtown Houston in a “transitional neighborhood,” is made from 4 shipping containers sourced from nearby ports. The house is constructed using some fairly advanced building techniques that make it an extremely sturdy and well insulated structure, not to mention incredibly cool.
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Sitting among the canopy of a jungle forest near Yelapa, Mexico, these V-Houses by Heinz Legler are quite possibly an eco-adventurer’s paradise. The treehouse-like structures are lofted 16 feet above the ground and open on all sides to offer panoramic views of the tropical surroundings. Although the rooms measure only 16 feet by 16 feet, a slanted ceiling and open walls make the treehouse seem larger — blurring the lines between indoors and outdoors. And to top off this eco-dream of a jungle retreat, the V-Houses were designed with modular components, made with sustainable materials, and have incorporated solar panels, composting toilets, and a greywater system.
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Committed to opening up NYC’s waterfront to the public, the Hudson River Park Trust transforms the West side’s old shipping docks — once used to bring in cargo into the city — into elongated recreational spaces, connected by a green promenade. With several piers already completed, the park board recently chose Inhabitat-fav LOT-EK’s design for Pier 57, located outside Chelsea. The architecture firm proposed a waterfront attraction to be constructed of refurbished shipping containers, and decked out with a rooftop for watching films, flexible green space, open-air public market, and underwater educational and exhibition space.
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If you’re tired of boring ho-hum hotels and looking for a new sort of vacation experience, look into these cute little prefabs accommodations by Carre d’Etoiles, based in France. The cube-shaped mini prefab is designed to be a new way to ‘get away from it all,’ and each comes complete with a transparent dome and a telescope to take advantage of a starry night sky. Inside, the compact accommodation includes sleeping for 4 and all the amenities you might need for your vacation. The environmentally-sensitive cabin is easily transported and can be dropped anywhere to maximize views and night-time star viewing sessions.
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This curvaceous modular home by Palo Alto architect, Joseph Bellomo, is joining the ranks of affordable, modular housing. Dubbed the House Arc, Bellomo was inspired to create the home after the success of his modular bicycle rack design, the Bike Arc — designed to provide efficient storage space for bicycles. The House Arc prototype will make its debut sometime this year on the big island of Hawaii.
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Does it drive you crazy when people stand in front of the fridge with the door wide open, letting all the cold air escape while they decide whether they want soda, oj, purple stuff or Sunny D? If so, these neat and stackable Flatshare Fridges designed by Stefan Buchberger, a student at the University of Applied Arts in Vienna could provide you with some solace. Colorful and customizable in many configurations, each fridge brick is much smaller than a traditional fridge meaning that it takes less energy to cool and less cold air escapes each time you open the door. We love the lego-like look and there many other “cool” reasons that these funky appliances are smarter than the average icebox.
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A striking example of shipping container architecture, Platoon Kunsthalle serves as an exciting and inspiring new exhibit hall and art center in Seoul, Korea. Built from standard shipping containers by Graft Lab Architects, the Kunsthalle, provides a gorgeous modern space where new ideas thrive and creativity is let loose. The building opened last April and houses art studio space, exhibit areas, a restaurant and bar, as well as lots of open space to gather.
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Inhabitat favorites Marmol Radziner Prefab and Dwell have teamed together in a joint effort to bring “good design to everyone” with their recently debuted Skyline series of prefabs! Unveiled just this past Friday at the Dwell on Design Conference, the Skyline series comprises four interchangeable floor plans available in six modern configurations that make extensive use of recycled materials, high efficiency insulation, and offer the optional installation of solar panels. Available in sizes ranging from 1 story (1755 sq ft) to two stories (3180 sq ft), the series has been designed for installation in urban spaces and offers the privacy of a residential retreat while bringing the outdoors in through a series of floor to ceiling windows and patio spaces.
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The Netherlands being the tiny country that it is, it’s no surprise that we tend to look to them for innovative design for dense urban spaces. RAU Architects developed their Green Office 2015 concept for a multi-functional office building that combines a spacious interior for comfortable working and ample green space for recreation. Designed for a site with existing infrastructure, this green office integrates sustainable transportation and is outfitted with photovoltaic cells and wind turbines to keep the office’s carbon footprint low.
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Inhabitat loves shipping containers, whether from down under or the Great North. These self-contained quadrilateral wonders are the perfect modular building unit; easily transported, super durable, and, with over 700,000 containers being abandoned per year in U.S. ports, in need dire need of being re-purposed. That’s why we are happy to see IC Green, another innovator in the field of shipping container architecture. Check out their line of modest but sustainable and stylish container dwellings as they sprout up all over Southern California, including this weekend at Dwell on Design!
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Small houses are the new black right now, and this practical little living space couldn’t be more in vogue. The “Shed,” designed by Manchester-based FKDA Architects, provides all the necessary amenities for living in a compact unit. Designed for those in need of affordable and practical space, the Shed is sustainably built from FSC certified wood, with a healthy interior, efficient use of interior space, and it can run off renewable energy.
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It’s no secret that we dig Sustain miniHomes. Inhabitat has always appreciated their sustainable spin on the mobile home and have eaten up their eye candy since the beginning. But on this fabulous prefab Friday, we have some even more exciting news to report! The Toronto-based builders are coming to Los Angeles to debut their California edition — the first of the 12 WIDE series designed with special consideration for passive cooling and ventilation in a range of California climates.
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Fast Food Nation meets Shipping Container Nation in a brilliant concept that not only looks amazing, but probably tastes just as good. The Müvbox is a new concept, which recently emerged from Montreal, Canada and is a shipping container that opens up into a full-fledged mobile, outdoor fast food restaurant. Think Adam Kalkin’s Push Button House with a gourmet kitchen inside and a fabulous graphic paint job. Oh, and they serve local lobster from the Magdalen Islands.
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Known for showcasing the latest innovations in architecture, construction, design, and green-building practices on the West Coast, Sunset magazine’s Idea House program recently debuted its latest project, the Modern Cottage, this past weekend at the magazine’s annual Celebration Weekend. Created and designed by Norwegian architect Casper Mork-Ulnes, Co-Founder and Director of Design of the San Francisco-based pre-fab building company Modern Cabana and Co-Founder and Director of Building, Nick Damner, the house incorporates green design with affordable living spaces.
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Dwell on Design is back in Los Angeles this month, showcasing an incredible array of modern design from June 26-28. Now in its sophomore year at the Los Angeles Convention Center, the three-day design festival brings together the best and brightest from the design industry to offer visitors “real live modern design” in the form of an expansive exhibition, design conference, home tours and special events. For fans of all things sustainable, we’ve scoured the schedule to find the show’s green highlights. It looks like there will be a lot to check out, and there are of course a few familiar Inhabitat faces in the line up.
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Designing and building a LEED Platinum house is reason enough for us to take notice. When the house is also the work of graduate students at the University of Kansas and it is designed to function off-grid, you can bet that we will anxiously follow its development. Studio 804’s 3716 Springfield House is a two-story residence that is exactly these things, and with the school year just wrapped up, so has the construction of this eco-friendly house in Kansas City.
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Thinking inside of the box may become the newest trend for creative thinkers thanks to this new 12-unit office and studio building called the “Box Office.” Constructed of 32 shipping containers, the building is meant to be a working haven for companies and individuals looking for a cheerful, comfortable, and eco-friendly place to think. Joe Haskett, the principal at Distill Studio, designed the building to ensure that it would provide a well-insulated and environmentally sensitive environment for its future occupants, which among other features includes high-performing windows and doors and an efficient HVAC system. The project is developed by Truth Box Inc. and recently broke ground this week in Providence, R.I.
Every week on Inhabitat, we feature the best and the brightest in green prefab-ulous designs– so when we saw David Baker’s stunning, tiny Modularean House, we were excited to see that the joy of prefab architecture can now be appreciated even by the littlest connoisseurs. This miniature bamboo version of an …
It’s wonderful to see the popularity of prefabricated architecture spreading everywhere, from urban metropolises to pastoral rural settings. resPOD, a conceptual prefab design by Matthew Grace Architecture who is based in Australia, is a flexible form of housing with several different eco-friendly features including passive solar design and a greywater system. Constructed from shipping containers, the homes would be retro-fitted in a factory for quick and energy-efficient production, offering prospective homeowners a greener option when it comes to purchasing a home.
For the past 171 years the Benedictine nuns of Conventus of Our Lady of Consolation in the UK have lived in an aging monastery afflicted with high maintenance costs and an inefficient heating system, however they recently made the move to a new environmentally friendly eco-convent. Designed by Feilden Clegg Bradley Studios, the nuns’ new home in North York Moors National Park is constructed from locally sourced materials and boasts a variety of eco-friendly features including solar hot water heating and a rainwater recycling system.
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It is with great sadness that we recently learned of the closing of Michelle Kaufmann Designs, one of our favorite green architecture practices and close friends to Inhabitat. The groundbreaking studio blazed the path for green building and was in large part responsible for linking modern, modular prefabricated housing with sustainability. Having interviewed Michelle and followed her growing practice over the past five years the news comes as a great blow and we’re really sorry to see them go!
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We love this prefab home because it’s extremely energy efficient and affordable coming in at under $75,000 for the smaller model and under $94,000 for the larger model. Clayton Homes, the largest manufacturers of mobile homes in the U.S., recently released this high tech green home that is far removed from your standard trailer park dwelling.
If you live in a city where plastic takeout containers are not recyclable, you may be feeling the same frustrations that we are. Those of us who can’t bear the thought of simply tossing the receptacles that hold our beloved chinese food, sushi, and wraps try to reuse them as many times as possible. But what could make people who don’t really care about the environment want to hold on to their food containers instead of trashing them? That is the question that designer Takeshi Miyakawa set out to answer. His solution? Shaping the containers to look like a childhood favorite that most adults find difficult to resist–legos!
Modular and prefabricated building techniques conserve many resources and have a much lighter impact on the environment than traditional construction practices, but we often see that they are still single-family homes. So when we came across Garrison Architects‘ modular Artists-in-Residence, we were excited to see that the designers used modular architecture to accomodate living in a dense urban environment. The student dormitory, developed for Pratt Institute, is modeled on the community lifestyle characteristic of student life. A model of environmental sensitivity, the building is host to a slew of eco-friendly features, such as passive ventiliation, but also offers the students plenty of flexible, open space to encourage creativity.
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