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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
The final results just rolled in from this year’s Solar Decathlon, and team Germany’s sleek surPLUShome finished first in an incredible upset victory! The German team took top honors in the Net Metering and Engineering categories this morning, steamrolling the competition to secure their second Decathlon win. This year’s home features a sleek, dark facade that is almost completely covered in photovoltaic panels and can provide more than twice the amount of energy it needs. Check out our cool video from America.gov about the house after the jump!
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.
Pod living is becoming a new trend in prefab design — small houses carefully designed to contain everything you need to sustain yourself in a small space. Broisson Architects of Naucalpan, Mexico has a new design for a prefab and modular pod house – Shelter No 2. This three-story home is designed for any socio-economic level, and contains enough room sleeping space for 3, a kitchen, reading and living area and hydroponia area. Able to be constructed at a speedy pace and built from recycled materials, the architects think this home could be a model for affordable housing.
Canadian architect Moshe Safdie designed and built this extraordinary experimental housing complex made up of modular concrete units for the 1967 World Expo in Montreal. Named Habitat 67, the apartment complex was Safdie’s attempt to redesign urban living, provide affordable housing and create a community complete with shops and a school. All of the units were prefabricated on-site, and each has its own rooftop garden space located on the roof of the neighbor below.
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.
Wannabe Eskimos looking for an updated version of the familiar ice dome will feel at home in the Igloo Satellite Cabin, a pre-fabricated remote shelter designed to withstand sub-zero temperatures, high winds, ice and snow. Icewall One, the Australia-based manufacturer designed these shelters to offer transport-able accommodations for remote areas, from the poles to the tropics. Originally designed for exploration and research stations, the Igloo Satellite Cabin has also become an attractive alternative for eco-tourism.
ADEX is a system for building self-sufficient prefabricated pod houses that are capable of adapting to different sites while meeting the changing needs of their inhabitants. The modular eco houses are constructed from an interlocking system of prefabricated pieces, are capable of gathering renewable resources from their surroundings, and can be installed anywhere with no site-specific requirements.
Camouflaged in recycled artificial Christmas trees and powered by solar panels, the Porta Hedge is a lean, green dystopian machine. Conceived by Justin Shull, the mobile unit is a playful and portable shelter decked out with swings and chalkboards, but most importantly peepholes for observing life outside — unnoticed. So spy on your neighbors, observe their use of pesticides, toxic cleaners, and ugly hemp fashions. Report domestic terrorists, or at least make fun of hippies — all from the comfort of your own shrub-like surveillance unit, the fabulous Porta Hedge.
Located on a site with some bumpy topography, the Bridge House floats on steel trusses that literally bridge the gap between two sloping hillsides. The owners of this home saw opportunity when they discovered a creek running through their lot and rather than build somewhere else, they wanted to take advantage of the views offered by a location near the creek bed. The finished home, which resides about an hour outside of Adelaide, Australia, not only retains the surrounding environment’s rustic charm, but is sustainably built, makes use of many local materials and relies on the sun for its heating needs.
The fabulous Dwell on Design Show in LA last weekend showcased some amazing new products and home designs, like the organic ‘Solar Ivy‘, and the Mormal Radziner Skyline Prefab Series. Even more exciting though was the little prefab that could by Reclaimed Space, which sold on Ebay for $75,000, with a portion going to Habitat For Humanity. Reclaimed Space designed and built a 400 square foot prefab cabin, trucked it to LA for the event. The home has a contemporary mix of wood and metal in its exterior, and a beautiful interior decorated by our friends at Ecofabulous, with the help of Jeffers Design Group. We’re in love with the design, space and interior — so we weren’t surprised that it was a smash hit at the show.
The world of shipping container architecture just got a little bit more exciting. We recently heard about Froebe, a gold-plated shipping container bar from Linz, Austria which is the latest addition to the world of hip, mobile food establishments. Designed by artist Andreas Strauss, the Froebe is an upcycled, blinged-out container equipped with hydraulics and a ‘rich’ paint job — making for an eye-catching and unusual hangout spot to have a beer.
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.
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.
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.
Not everyone wants to live in a shipping container for the sake of eco-efficiency. That’s why homes such as this half-prefab, half-custom — or prefab hybrid, if you will — might just be the solution for those still on the fence about prefab and modular architecture. This home, entitled The Wedge, was designed by Studio B Architecture and constructed by BuildSense for North Carolina couple, Scott and Vikki Metheny, and their two boys. Composed of three modular parts that were fabricated off-site in a factory and a main two-story living area that was built on-site, the home is a total of 1,829 square feet.
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.
This stunning home in Kirkland, Wash. is one in a series of prefabricated homes called PLACE Houses designed by architect Heather Johnston. The home’s diverse use of sustainably-sourced materials and low-impact energy harvesting — in addition to its fresh, contemporary look — won the series a spot as one of the Top 6 Prefab Designs in the April 2006 issue of Wallpaper magazine. Built with SIP panels, this 2,800 square-foot model home was constructed on-site and has almost every green amenity you can imagine. This PLACE House has the look of a custom-built home, but can be ordered and built as though it were part of a “ready-to-wear” line — making for an easy, streamlined package.
We’re big fans of architect Adam Kalkin for his quirky and fun home designs, such as the rapidly deploying Push-Button Home and the prefab Quick House. Now we’ve just spotted another fun Adam Kalkin masterpiece called Bunny Lane. A house within another, bigger house, this design is located on 3 acres of property in Kalkin’s home state of New Jersey. The outer shell is a modern, industrial shed with unusual shaped, custom roll-up doors and 3 stories of rooms on one end. The inner home is a traditional two-story New Jersey home, white-washed and pristine, sitting on display almost as if it were being preserved in a museum.
Part of living lightly on the planet is reducing the square footage of your home and living space. We applaud home designers like Minneapolis-based Hive Modular for presenting a very practical and stylish 2-bedroom home that is only 1,410 square feet. This new home was completed on an urban infill lot and is part of Hive’s popular B-Line series. Optimally situated, this home is a great example of a solar passive home and features many green design elements that help make its environmental impact minimal.
Riken Yamamoto’s Ecoms House exemplifies a new kind of home economics. Constructed out of aluminum panels, this diminutive 24-foot by 24-foot box demonstrates how economy in size and fabrication can lead to surplus in style and coolness. A prototype residence for SUS Corporation, a manufacturer of aluminum precision machine parts and furniture, this home was initially an experiment to create something out of aluminum that could not be expressed with steel. The exterior is inspired by the traditional use of tatami mats in Japanese homes — each of the four sides featuring transparent, opaque, and glass-covered aluminum lattice panels.
Building Magazine, a leading resource for home building, joined up with LivingHomes to produce a modern prefab home designed by Kieran Timberlake, the 2008 AIA Firm of the Year. The result of this collaboration, called the KT 1.5, was recently debuted at the International Builders Show in Las Vegas, where the home was installed on the showroom floor in 3 days. Including many sustainable design elements, the home has been designed to meet the LEED Platinum rating.
With a name like Cottage in a Day, it is easy to imagine relaxing in a serene, forested setting. And these factory-built homes designed by architect Michael Fitzhugh certainly seem to fit that role. With a rustic look that is characterized by structural insulated panels and natural wood finishes both on the interior and exterior, the home’s materials conserve resources while also being energy-efficient. Each structure is based on 14-square-foot-modules that can be arranged in various set-ups, making it possible to use this prefab system to create a shelter suitable for a weekend in the woods or as a more permanent home in a rural landscape.
Australian prefab manufacturer, Modscape, creates contemporary, functional homes out of modular designs that can be arranged in countless configurations, balancing beautiful architecture with sustainable elements. Their mission is to design, construct and install a complete home that is comfortable, economical, and efficient. The homes are fabricated off-site in a warehouse in Brooklyn, Australia, transported to the desired location, and installed in less than 12 weeks.
Imagine if your house came delivered to you in over a 1,000 precisely-cut jigsaw-like pieces. This is the idea that New York-based, Jeremey Edmiston of System Architects and Douglas Gauthier of Gauthier Architect had for NYC Museum of Modern Art’s Home Delivery: Fabricating the Modern Dwelling exhibition, when they created BURST*008. Combining architecture and technology, the home was computer-designed and its pieces milled to the exact dimensions to fit together like a 3-D puzzle. The pieces were then flat-packed onto a truck and shipped to MoMA’s West Lot, where it was assembled on site, held together by an insulated skin.
For those of us not fortunate enough to attend the MOMA’s recent Home Delivery exhibition, Scribe Media has assembled an excellent video that takes an in-depth look at five of today’s cutting-edge prefabs. Chock full of interviews with architects and led by Chief Curator of Architecture & Design Barry Bergdoll, it’s a must-see for anyone interested in a current survey of the potential of prefabricated housing.
As spring pushes forward and lazy, summer nights begin to envelop us, many people will daydream of the great outdoors and when they will be able to camp in tents and hike again. For those who prefer a little more accommodations and accoutrements, the Clara Cabin from hiveMODULAR is a perfect solution. You get all the comforts of cabin life – a bed, reprieve from the bugs, and weather – while still being able to connect to the surrounding nature. Designed and built by hiveMODULAR partner Bryan Meyer and his wife, Anne Ryan, this little woodland getaway is a great example of how versatility makes small spaces livable.
We’ve featured a variety of different shipping container homes, from a quick emergency shelter, to LOT-EK’s container home kit, student housing , and even an entire container city in London. One thing’s for sure, there isn’t a shortage of uses for containers as shelter, especially for those who like that super industrial architecture aesthetic. Leger Wanaselja Architecture finished their Container House at the close of last year, bringing a more traditional look to the container composed residence, located on top of a hill in an East Bay suburb overlooking San Francisco, Calif.
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.
The winners for the Lifecycle Building Challenge were just announced last week with Seattle’s ‘Pavilion in the Park’ building taking top honors, and for good reason. The building, designed by Miller|Hull, is green in purpose and material, but sets itself apart in its cradle-to-cradle nature- it can be completely disassembled and transported to a whole new location! The system exemplifies the issues of construction and deconstruction with minimal waste that the Lifecycle Building Challenge hoped to address.
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