Inhabitat


Garden Sheds Are an Explosion of Architectural Experimentation

by Lloyd Alter, 11/04/09

sustainable design, green design, architecture, building, prefab architecture, garden sheds

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.

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Baumraum’s Froschköenig Treehouse

by Olivia Chen, 08/28/09

Baumraum Froschköenig Treehouse, prefab treehouse, sustainable building, treehouse, eco treehouse

Sitting atop thin steel stilts, the Froschköenig Treehouse conjures up ideas of a space pod just landed among a canopy of trees. Designed by well-known treehouse designer and manufacturer, Baumraum, the prefabricated treehouse features a futuristic, curved zinc roof enveloping a more rustic-feeling tatajuba wood foundation to create a whimsical hideaway for kids and adults.

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Daniel Libeskind’s ‘Sustainable’ Prefab

by Bridgette Meinhold, 06/19/09

prefab, daniel libeskind, villa, prefab housing, prefab residence, prefab architecture, sustainable building, greenwashing architecture, greenwashing design

Daniel Libeskind’s latest creation, The Villa, is a step back from his usual large-scale designs, and an attempt to get his foot into the prefab and sustainability design world. An impressive contemporary home, the home is touted as sustainable and energy-efficient. Unlike most humble and affordable prefabricated design, the 3-story home includes a shiny zinc facade and impressive angles — a far cry from the traditional boxy prefab we have grown so accustomed to seeing. And while Libeskind included several eco-friendly building techniques, some seem to be mighty skeptical.

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Sustain miniHome debuts the new 12 x 36 California Edition

by Haily Zaki, 06/12/09

sustain minihomes, prefab architecture, prefab housing, green building, sustainable building, affordable housing, dwell on design 2009, eco home, eco residence, green home, green residence, prefab design

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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Müvbox Fast Food Shipping Container Restaurant

Müvbox Fast Food Shipping Container Restaurant

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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PREFAB FRIDAY: “Box Office” Shipping Container Office

PREFAB FRIDAY: “Box Office” Shipping Container Office

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.

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PREFAB FRIDAY: Modularean Eco Prefab Dollhouse!

PREFAB FRIDAY: Modularean Eco Prefab Dollhouse!

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 …

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PREFAB FRIDAY: resPOD from “Down Under”

PREFAB FRIDAY: resPOD from “Down Under”

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.

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PREFAB FRIDAY: $75,000 Clayton “I-house”

PREFAB FRIDAY: $75,000 Clayton “I-house”

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.

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MODULAR ARCHITECTURE: Pratt Artists-in-Residence

MODULAR ARCHITECTURE: Pratt Artists-in-Residence

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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PREFAB: Playful Office Building Planned for Amsterdam

PREFAB: Playful Office Building Planned for Amsterdam

A new project in the city of Amsterdam recently received approval: a 22-unit office building designed by Allard Architecture that will use prefabricated concrete “matchboxes.” The office building is fittingly dubbed the Matchbox building, given the segmented quality of the stacked and angled boxes that lend themselves to a facade characterized by large picture windows and units that cantilever out over the sidewalk. The finished look appears playful, modern and creative — perfect for the artistic neighborhood in Amsterdam North.

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PREFAB FRIDAY: European Influenced Hangar Prefabs

PREFAB FRIDAY: European Influenced Hangar Prefabs

We love covering prefab homes here on Inhabitat because we think prefab is an amazingly efficient, promising and innovative way of building houses, and we find this especially true with these Hangar Prefabs from Hangar Design Group. The streamlined and contemporary design makes us believe that our lives could be just that simple and organized, if only we lived in one of these prefabs. Designed by Juan and Sara Matiz, who now live in New York City, but are Colombian and Italian respectively, these three stylish prefab homes can fit just about anyone’s tastes.

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PREFAB FRIDAY: Container Homes for the Tropics

PREFAB FRIDAY: Container Homes for the Tropics

Inhabitat’s Prefab Friday column has seen its fair share of shipping container homes, but we’ve never seen shipping containers paired with bamboo as a construction material before. But now, Bamboo Groves, a design and construction firm in Costa Rica, has developed some great designs for homes made from insulated shipping containers and bamboo. Developed for the tropical climate, these prefab homes are different from the designs we are accustomed to — those designed for temperate or cooler climates.  Many of these prefab and shipping container homes focus on passive heating and cooling. But in warmer climates, such as Central America, construction requires a different tactic – insulating from the heat and providing lots of natural ventilation to help cool.

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PREFAB FRIDAY: The Annie Residence

PREFAB FRIDAY: The Annie Residence

This modern and warm prefab home is a stunning example of the beauty and quality you can achieve through the efficiency of prefab construction.. Inspired by multiple cultures, this eye-catching design by Austin-based Bercy Chen Studio features outdoor living space, water features and lots of windows to create a comfortable and attractive home. The home is constructed with a modular steel frame and thermasteel panels for an efficient and waste-minimizing design. With two families living in this home, the architects divided the house, providing separate, but inter-connected living areas for each family.

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PREFAB FRIDAY: Stillwater Dwellings

PREFAB FRIDAY: Stillwater Dwellings

We all love the idea of prefab homes – the simplicity of ready-made, to-go houses, and yet most of the time when we sit down to really study the plans with respect to our own lives and dreams, there’s just something lacking. We want prefab-style homes, but designed exactly to our lives and needs. If you’re like us, then you might enjoy checking out a new prefab designer:  Stillwater Dwellings, based out of Seattle, WA. This new firm has many traditional prefab homes ready to go, but also allows you to design your own from their pre-designed modules.

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PREFAB FRIDAY: CitizenM Hotels

PREFAB FRIDAY: CitizenM Hotels

Prefabricated design welcomes the weary traveler at CitizenM Hotels, where luxury accommodations are available at economical prices thanks to the streamlined production of the modular units that make up the buildings. The Amsterdam-based company is able to offer affordable prices by keeping their construction costs low through a process called “Industrial Flexible Demountable,” which means modular units or “luxury pods” are fabricated off-site and then stacked together to construct a building. With an ultra sleek look, the hotel offers a hip, youthful vibe that helps keep anyone’s pocketbook full.

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PREFAB FRIDAY: Greentainer Eco-fied Container Architecture!

PREFAB FRIDAY: Greentainer Eco-fied Container Architecture!

Re-using existing resources and a fabulous design sense combine to create this versatile and easily adaptable piece of container architecture, the Greentainer Project in Gandino, Italy. The Greentainer is a shipping container that has been gutted to provide flexible public space, perfect for a number of uses. And the best bit, as it is a container, one can simply pick it up, and haul it away to another location.

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New Green Prefab from LivingHomes & KieranTimberlake!

New Green Prefab from LivingHomes & KieranTimberlake!

LivingHome’s KT1.1 Expandable Single Family Residence

The environmentally conscious, award winning architects KieranTimberlake always manages to amaze us with stunning residential designs that define the true synthesis of green building and architectural excellence. We’ve also been equally enthralled by the business vision of Steve Glenn’s LivingHomes, a development company which has been extremely successful in commissioning and building architecturally-stunning green prefabs. Until now, KieranTimberlake and Living Homes were connected only by their shared drives to bring the best green residential designs to market, but this week the firms announced a partnership to design an exciting new line of versatile, sustainable, and modern prefabs that will make green living affordable and stylish.

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PREFAB FRIDAY: The Rapson Greenbelt

PREFAB FRIDAY: The Rapson Greenbelt

Modernist architect Ralph Rapson has managed this to reinterpret a 60-year old design with the green panache of a 21st century prefab. The Rapson Greenbelt, an articulate series of prefab dwellings, is derived from a 1945 design called Case Study #4, which debuted back then as part of Arts & Architecture’s Case Study House Program. Today, the Rapson Greenbelt is part of the modern home portfolio from WIELER, the award-winning providers of custom prefab homes.

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PREFAB FRIDAY: Straw Bale Meets Factory Built in Switzerland

PREFAB FRIDAY: Straw Bale Meets Factory Built in Switzerland

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. Jerusalem exploits the strawboard with translucent siding giving the structure a clean, modern aesthetic that showcases the material.

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PREFAB FRIDAY: Single Hauz Elevated Domain

PREFAB FRIDAY: Single Hauz Elevated Domain

Living lightly takes on new meaning with the Single Hauz from Poland-based front architects. Inspired by billboards, intended for single lifestyles and propped on a central pole, this prefab looks to the spaces otherwise overlooked. Small, sustainable and high-tech, the Single Hauz can live almost anywhere.

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PREFAB FRIDAY: ‘Option’ Modular House by WeberHaus

PREFAB FRIDAY: ‘Option’ Modular House by WeberHaus

German prefab firm WeberHaus and architect Peter C. Jakob of Bauart have made a stylish case for sustainable living with the modular concept ‘Option House’. Driven by a modern aesthetic and energy-efficient elements, Option is a fully functional, light-filled dwelling that delivers low-impact living in just 70 square meters of elegant and understated space.

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KEETWONEN RECYCLED CONTAINER STUDENT HOUSING

KEETWONEN RECYCLED CONTAINER STUDENT HOUSING

While the words “back to school” may conjure up images of new backpacks and pencil boxes, for a very lucky few Dutch students it means moving into some very hip and well-designed dorm accommodations. Keetwonen, a student housing project in Amsterdam, turns shipping containers into 1000 units and provides all the amenities a student could ever want. And aside from the obvious green usage of surplus shipping containers, Keetwonen has integrated a rooftop to accommodate efficient rainwater drainage while providing heat dispersal and insulation for the containers beneath. Designed by TempoHousing and completed last year, this is a great example of large-scale shipping containers serving as functional and comfortable space.

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PREFAB FRIDAY: Mfinity Releases microSYSTEM

PREFAB FRIDAY: Mfinity Releases microSYSTEM

About a year after Hurricane Katrina, we featured architect Carib Daniel Martin’s H.E.L.P. emergency shelter, a modular concept he developed to solve the challenges of widespread and sudden homelessness in the Gulf region. Almost two years later, having shopped the prototype around to manufacturers and found no takers, Martin is producing his prefab shelter himself in a manufacturing facility he built in Illinois. Now dubbed the microHOME (not to be confused with this micro home), Martin’s product has become commercially available for both emergency and non-emergency purposes.

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PREFAB FRIDAY: Perrinepod

PREFAB FRIDAY: Perrinepod

If you need a cute prefab home that can be built in 3 days and withstand everything from earthquakes to cyclones, than the sleek and chic Perrinepod is your answer. This disaster-proof prefab is not only durable, but green in its material, systems, and long life-span. Designed by architect Jean-mic Perrine, Perrinepod merges modern luxury and green living in a compact, modern home. Green features include a Solar Edwards Heat Pump hot water system that uses refrigeration technology in reverse to heat the water. Additionally, Perrinepods can be stacked on top of each other (up to 30 units tall!) to create larger complexes.

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PREFAB-IN-PROGRESS: OMD’s Country School Expansion

PREFAB-IN-PROGRESS: OMD’s Country School Expansion

The latest cutting-edge prefab design from Jennifer Siegal’s Office of Mobile Design is the expansion of Valley Village, California’s Country School, adding a middle school campus to the existing preschool and elementary school. (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. Check out the renderings and installation photos, courtesy of the Office of Mobile Design, and we’ll be sure to be give you a full report upon completion!

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PREFAB FRIDAY: LOT-EK Container Home Kit (CHK)

PREFAB FRIDAY: LOT-EK Container Home Kit (CHK)

We’ve raved about Lot-Ek before for their ingenious conversions of industrial shipping containers into inhabitable modern spaces. And with their Container Home Kit (CHK) project, they’re bringing shipping containers to the masses with a clever and easily-adaptable system for virtually every residential context. Lot-ek’s scalable system can accommodate anywhere from 640-2560 square feet, and comes fully equipped and ready to plop on-site with built-in electrical, plumbing, HVAC, and fully insulated AND furnished. It’s fully-equipped conceptually as well, making practical use of the world’s surplus of ISO cargo containers while exploiting the inherent structural qualities of the containers themselves.

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PREFAB FRIDAY: Triumph SmartSpace

PREFAB FRIDAY: Triumph SmartSpace

As you may have noticed, many of our recent prefab posts have been non-residential, from ProjectFrog’s modular classrooms, to Hotel Everland and Toby Long’s interview regarding the possibilities for prefab to expand into more commercial markets. We’re constantly impressed by the modern prefab houses being built, but also love to see prefab being applied to more public structures. New England-based modular building company Triumph’s SmartSpace design serves as a great example- and last December they successfully installed and opened their first prefab classroom in Lincoln, Massachusetts. The highly-innovative building system epitomizes prefab “speed, style, and sustainability,” can be adapted to virtually any site, and ready to inhabit in as little as 60 days. And if there was any question as to the green-ness of the structures, the SmartSpace website proudly lists their Top 10 Reasons SmartSpace is Green, which include everything from recycled carpet tiles and steel to daylighting and efficient HVAC systems.

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PREFAB FRIDAY: Jeriko House

PREFAB FRIDAY: Jeriko House

Prefab is notorious for being a whole lot of concept and not much follow-through. So it’s no wonder that the early buzz about the new Jeriko House rings with skepticism. Lloyd Alter’s review at Treehugger pointed out that this thing sounds almost too good to be true. But since we don’t know yet whether it is, might as well ooh and aah at just how good it does sound…

Jeriko claims to bring the best of all worlds together. They eliminate the waste of material, energy, and money that conventional construction incurs, while bringing the homeowner a simple, ideal combination of flexibility, sustainability, and affordability.

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PREFAB FRIDAY: New LivingHome by David Hertz

PREFAB FRIDAY: New LivingHome by David Hertz

David Hertz, the always-crafty architect and principal of Syndesis, has impressed us before with his homes constructed from everything from dismantled airplanes to refrigeration panels. And now, thanks to a partnership with Steve Glenn, he’s the designer of LivingHomes’ newest prefab design, aptly named the LivingHome by David Hertz. Between CEO Steve Glenn’s commitment to the highest green standards and David Hertz’s forward-thinking design concepts, it’s no surprise that the newest LivingHomes design is at the vanguard of environmentally-friendly, livable, modern architecture. Built using a panelized aluminum system, the home measures a spacious 2,650 square feet with four bedrooms, four bathrooms, a green roof, and a slew of other green materials.

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PREFAB FRIDAY: Charles Lazor Flatpak House

PREFAB FRIDAY: Charles Lazor Flatpak House

Here’s an example of the IKEA trend of mass-customization taken to its logical conclusion. With the Flatpak house, you pre-fab architecture fans no longer need to be bound by the constraints of a one-size fits all approach (or the dimensions of a flatbed truck). Architect Charles Lazor, of Blu Dot fame, has designed a system of modernist house components that can be custom ordered to anyone’s specifications, and then packed flat for shipping.

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LOTS MORE GREAT GREEN DESIGN STORIES HERE... KEEP READING!