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

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

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

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!

Read the rest of Germany’s Solar Coated surPLUShome Wins Solar Decathlon!

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Post tags: 2009 solar decathlon, Competition, germany, net metering, net zero home, Prefab, Prefab Housing, Solar Decathlon, team germany, Washington DC, winner, winners

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.

Read the rest of BREAKING NEWS: Blu Homes Acquires Michelle Kaufman Prefab Designs

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

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.

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Post tags: affordable housing, broissin, modular, pod, Prefab, Prefab Housing, Recycled Materials, shelter no 2, small house, small spaces

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.

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Post tags: 1967 world expo, affordable housing, canada, experimental architecture, green architecture, habitat 67, low income, modular housing, Moshe Safdie, Prefab, prefab construction, world expo

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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Post tags: Cabin Prefab, carre d'etoiles, cube, france, modular architecture, Prefab, Prefab friday, sustainable tourism, telescope

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.

Read the rest of Prefabricated Igloo Satellite Cabin Withstands Extreme Weather

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Post tags: eco-tourism, emergency shelter, extreme weather architecture, icewall one, igloo, igloo satellite cabin, Prefab, prefab shelter, remote shelter

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.

Read the rest of ADEX: Futuristic PreFab for Modular Off-Grid Living

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Post tags: ADEX, Alberto Lara, Future, green architecture, Green Building, housing, Paula Nogueron, Prefab, prefabricated architecture, sustainable design

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.

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Post tags: eco-art, environmental art, landscape unit, landscape urbanism, porta hedge, Prefab, smudge studio

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.

Read the rest of Prefabricated Bridge House Crosses Creek Sustainably

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Post tags: Architecture, australia design, australia residence, australian architecture, bridge house, Prefab, Prefab Housing, solar passive, solar passive house, solar thermal