Pre-built homemakers extraordinaire, Marmol Radziner Prefab were in the news this week once again introducing their newest custom prefab home. High up in the hills above Los Angeles sits the new Hollywood Hybrid, a 2576 sq. ft. sustainable, modern prefab home with killer views and a minimal carbon footprint. Inhabitat went up to the site where the home was being built for a peek.
Today all that nomadic telecommuters need is internet access, a phone, and some strong coffee. Waskman Design Studio’s stunning mobile home, designed for Vodafone, has all of those things (except the caffeine). The solar powered trailer was created for Vodafone to show off its fixed phone and wireless internet service, and is currently occupied by blogger Marcos Morales and his family as they travel through Spain on a family vacation!
PREFAB FRIDAY: resPOD from “Down Under”
by Olivia Chen, 05/29/09
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.
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!
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.
TRAVELODGE HOTEL MADE FROM SHIPPING CONTAINERS
Travelodge recently opened a hotel in Uxbridge, England that is constructed entirely from prefabricated shipping containers. The completed design uses eighty-six containers of various sizes that were retrofitted into bedrooms and bolted together onsite. The exterior has been clad and fitted with windows, thus converting the assemblage into a seamless 120-bedroom hotel. Verbus Systems estimates that the structure’s prefab composition saved the hotel chain more than half a million pounds and at least 10 weeks of construction.
HOM LIFESTYLE: The Whole Green Prefab Package
Often overshadowed in the prefab debate by their sexier cousin, the modular home, manufactured homes are not usually synonymous with sustainability or style. Until now, that is. Introducing HOM (pronounced ‘home’ and written with a fancy phonetic symbol), a new line of green manufactured homes, furniture, lighting and accessories for the consumer who cares about living lightly on the land, in style, and with a close connection to nature. Designed by KAA Design Group, a Los Angeles-based architecture, interior design, landscape architecture and branding company, HOM is sold as a lifestyle, not just a house, and proves beyond a doubt that this is not your average double wide.
PREFAB FRIDAY: EcoShack’s Breezy Summer Shelter
This week’s prefab breaks out of the hard-lined modern box with a beautiful soft-shelled structure that finds elegance in its simplicity. That’s right – it’s a Nomad Yurt! SoCal based Ecoshack has updated the ancient shelter with a modern construction that is light, flexible, and composed entirely of eco-friendly materials. The airy shelter is perfect for a summer’s eve spent stargazing, an impromptu backyard gathering, or anyplace that a peaceful private space is desired.
PREFAB FRIDAY: Prefab Takes Up Residence At The MOMA!
Prefab is taking center stage this summer at The Museum of Modern Art in NYC with the Home Delivery: Fabricating the Modern Dwelling exhibit opening on July 20th. As part of the exhibit, five renowned architects will bring a mix of existing and prototype prefabricated designs to full form on a exterior lot adjacent to the museum. The exhibit has been in construction for several months and the full scale prefabs are almost ready to deliver on what is one of the most talked about prefab events of all time.
PREFAB FRIDAY: Joshua Tree by Hangar Design
The Joshua Tree prefab home made quite a splash at Milan’s Zona Tortona exhibit earlier this year, garnering long lines of fairgoers eager to take a look inside. This steel clad prefab is a compact two bedroom “mountain refuge” with a welcoming, and surprisingly roomy, wooden interior. While the exterior finishes might be a bit busy for some tastes, inside are clean, sparse, modern spaces with plenty of natural daylight.
PREFAB FRIDAY: The Evolving Énóvo House
We just caught wind of a beautiful new prefab that takes an innovative approach towards its own structural life-cycle. The Canada based Énóvo House features a sleek modular assembly that’s designed to evolve as the needs of its inhabitants change. Its elegant, angular structure makes excellent use of materials to maximize square footage, and its versatile design is able to adapt to any type of terrain and any climate condition.
PREFAB FRIDAY: Focus House in London by BERE Architects
Added to an end-of-terrace house in North London, Focus House is a delightful prefabricated eco-home for a family of five. Bere Architects, the firm behind the design, used PassivHaus principles to inform their process. The world’s leading energy efficiency standard, Passivhaus recognizes buildings that are so energy efficient all they need is a small electric heater. Focus House is a unique design that embodies the prefab principles of waste reduction and efficiency, and raises the bar on energy-efficient building design.
PREFAB FRIDAY: PLUS HOUSE in Sweden
Tending away from the industrious (and eponymous) prefabricated square, the Plus House embraces its Nordic roots and rural setting as a thoroughly modern take on the Swedish barn house. The two-story prefab is situated in Tyresö and was designed by the award winning Claesson, Koivisto, and Rune architects for Arkitekthus. We love how their distinctive design melds a classic wood-paneled profile with ethereal day-lit interiors, synthesizing traditional structure with the best in ultra-efficient modern construction.
Rocio Romero LV Prefab Home Opens in Napa, California!
Up until fairly recently, Rocio Romero fans could only visit a fully realized public version of her enormously successful LV prefab in Missouri. Then, last month, a privately-owned and newly completed
PREFAB FRIDAY: ZeroHouse Shows Nothing is Everything
Ever dreamed of owning a completely self-sufficient home that produces its own energy, water, and is completely customizable? New York architect Scott Specht has the answer to all of our zero-energy prefab dreams with the new ZeroHouse™. This completely self-sustaining prefabricated house generates its own power, collects its own water, processes its own waste and is 100% automatic. Versatile, durable and site-sensitive, ZeroHouse can be erected in almost any location in one day with steel frame components and a helical-anchor foundation system that requires no excavation.
Daekwon Park’s Superstructure for Sustainable Skyscrapers
Now in its fourth year running, the eVolo Skyscraper Competition takes future-forward architecture to its breaking point, unveiling a stunning array of new structural concepts by architects, engineers, and designers. The latest crop of entries is up, and Daekwon Park’s Symbiotic Interlock goes far beyond the standard skyscraper to envision a total renovation of inner-city infrastructure. The pitch: it’s modular, prefabricated, and completely symbiotic on the existing vertical infrastructure of the city.
FLATPAK COMES TO LIFE: The Goodwin-Wise Flatpak House
Two years of development have found the world’s first production FlatPak house well on track to becoming a real home for the Goodwin-Wise family. Artist and owner Amy Goodwin recently posted a stunning set of photos on her website to document the construction progress of her Flatpak home, showcasing the modern design marvel in fine form. Nestled amid verdant greenery in Massachusetts, the Goodwin-Wise house has weathered some kinks in the woodwork (i.e. a two year assembly period), but by the looks of things the streamlined process and final product have been well worth the wait.
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.
PREFAB FRIDAY: Linx Shipping Container Shelter
Dublin-based industrial designer Richard Barnwall has mastered the concept of temporary container shelter in Linx – an integrated, two-story structure that maximizes use of small spaces. Using 20-foot shipping containers, Barnwall’s idea provides functional shelter for workers on a construction site offering all the amenities needed to give workers a comfortable place for pause.
PREFAB FRIDAY: Loq Kit Sustainable Housing System
Modular design shines in Loq•kit – an innovative, interchangeable idea of home from architect Patrick Freet. This proposed building system utilizes snap-lock components to create walls, infill, and envelope that are adaptable and affordable. Intended for easy assembly that can be customized and changed, Loq•kit technology makes building and remodeling a snap, literally!
PREFAB FRIDAY: Construisons Demain Green Prefab
French designers continue to put the “fab” in prefab: Construisons Demain, a brilliant design from architect Eric Wuilmot, premiered at Batimat in Paris earlier this month. The system showcases low-energy living with three prefabricated wooden modules, resource and energy efficient systems, healthy finish materials, and inviting living spaces.
LOTS MORE GREAT GREEN DESIGN STORIES HERE... KEEP READING!
