The Good Human » prefab

Sustainable And Modular Small Homes

david — Sun, 21 Nov 2010 16:00:25 +0000

Dear EarthTalk: I am looking for a small, modular home to put on a piece of vacation property. What’s available that could meet my needs and be easier on the environment than building a traditional house from scratch?

First utilized by relief and aid missions around the world to house workers or refugees, self-contained modular homes that can be partially or even fully fabricated in advance are now all the rage among green architects and those committed to more sustainable living and they’re beginning to pop all across North America and beyond, mostly for use as guest houses and vacation cabins. The benefits of such homes versus their larger traditional counterparts are many. In theory, prefabrication generates less waste, uses less energy, and provides more opportunities for the incorporation of greener construction methods and technologies. Most such buildings are also less demanding on the home site of choice.

One of the leaders in this fast-growing sector of residential construction is Toronto’s Sustain Design Studio, which has been building on its miniHome concept for almost a decade. The firm’s miniHomes range from single- to double-wide sizes and can fit into trailer parks or small urban lots accordingly, but are also optimized for off-grid self-sufficiency in wide open or wilderness areas. The buildings, which are mostly prefabricated at Sustain’s Toronto build facility, combine energy efficient systems with beautiful finishes that make owners feel like they are indulging yet remaining true to their green ideals.

Sustain’s California miniHome, for example, comes complete with all millwork, cabinets, plumbing fixtures and appliances, as well as high efficiency lighting circuits, plug-and-play connections to renewable power sources, sustainably sourced woods, and a built-in HVAC/water system that generates 20 times fewer greenhouse gas emissions than a conventional home – all for under $150,000.

Another player is the Latvian firm Esclice, whose buildings can be installed on-site by two workers in two hours once foundation posts, water and wastewater hook-ups and electricity are in place. Other design studios building similar homes include Quikhouse, Zerocabin, Method Homes and Stem Design Works.

Of course, potential buyers should keep in mind that a home’ construction is just a fraction of its life-cycle carbon footprint – small pre-fab houses are built by people who also drive to work, watch TV and sometimes take long showers – plus, producing and shipping steel, concrete and other building materials are the major drivers behind any building’ carbon and energy footprint, wherever it’s manufactured.

Bearing that in mind, Seattle-based HyBrid Architecture has come up with an interesting slice on the sustainable small home idea: acrgotecture,which describes the buildings it creates out of empty ISO shipping containers (those large boxes used for long-distance international shipping that one sees stacked atop giant cargo ships). Since many of these containers make just one-way trips from China, HyBrid has a lot of raw material to choose from. A single 8 x 20 container yields 160 square feet of living space, and the structures can be placed side-by-side or stacked up to eight high for more interior square footage. And while no one wants to live in a shipping container, HyBrid cuts doors and windows out of them and finishes them outside so that they look like modern yet nevertheless somewhat traditional buildings.

CONTACTS: Sustain, www.sustain.ca; Esclice, www.esclice.eu/houses/en; Quikhouse, www.quik-build.com; Stem Design Works, www.stemcreativespace.com; Zerocabin, www.zerocabin.com; Method Homes, www.methodhomes.net; HyBrid Architecture, www.hybridseattle.com/cargotecture.html.

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Prefab Wednesday – The FlatPak House.

david — Wed, 06 Aug 2008 13:00:29 +0000

December 2007 was the last time I wrote about prefab houses that I really liked, so I figured I would bring Prefab Wednesday back for at least today to cover the FlatPak House, which I really like.

The FlatPak house is what they call a system of prefabricated components that seem to be fully interchangeable to match what you want to get out of your house. The house is based on 8 foot wide wall sections, and the owner can decide where they want the windows, doors, etc.. Even the shelving inside the house is in sections, and you just tell them where you want the storage! Pretty cool…

The houses arrive at your site already configured with: kitchen cabinets, appliances, fixtures, storage units, interior and exterior lighting, in-floor heating and air system, and the patio. As with most prefab homes, the price you pay for the house does not include site work, permits, septic, and utility lines. And also like other good prefab homes, the FlatPak houses are not cheap – $200-$300 per square foot. So for a 1,500 square foot house you are looking at a minimum of $300,000 just for the house, and not including any of the stuff I listed above. Way above my price range for what I feel comfortable paying for a house, but I am sure there are many people out there that would consider that a bargain, seeing as how nice looking and integrated the house is. If the FlatPak people ever want to build one in Taos, NM as a demo, I will surely go pick up some land!

If you want a FlatPak house, it will take anywhere from 3 weeks to 3 months for them to design it for you, depending on your specifications. Add on another 6 months for construction of your actual home, plus delivery and set-up time. So it looks like from start to finish, with you residing in your new house, would take about a year or so.

I really dig these houses for several reasons – they are prefab, so they waste less resources. They look to be incredibly energy efficient, are very configurable to match your land/views, and they don’t look like your run-of-the-mill houses inside what I call “house farms” sprouting up all over the country. If you want to check out more about them, you can visit FlatPak.com, or check out their Flickr page. Hope to see more of these houses popping up guys, they look pretty good!

For The Readers: Free Exhibit Passes And Conference Discounts To Dwell On Design In Los Angeles.

david — Mon, 02 Jun 2008 13:59:18 +0000

The 3rd Annual Dwell on Design Event is coming up in June at the Los Angeles Convention Center, and the magazine has been kind enough to offer free Exhibition tickets and $50 off coupons for the Conference, as well as a free 1 month digital issue to Dwell Magazine to the readers of The Good Human!

The Dwell on Design Event runs June 5-8 at the LA Convention Center, and includes an Exhibition of 200 exhibitors, a Speakers Conference of 50 speakers, and full size Sustainable Pre-Fab Neighborhood built on site, as well as 16 Home Tours of private green residences and evening parties at the Dwell Ford Brady and the Museum of Contemporary Art. Also, my favorite prefab designer is going to be there, Michelle Kaufman of Breezehouse fame. Very cool.

Here are the codes and links you need to get the free passes and the discounted Conference tickets, as well as the free digital issue of Dwell:

Registration Link
Free Ticket To the Dwell on Design Exhibition Code: BDODEC
Discounted Conference Ticket ($50 Off) Code: GRP22SP
Digital Issue of Dwell Magazine Link

I have been a reader of Dwell Magazine since it debuted, and I have not missed a single issue yet. If you are planning on attending Dwell on Design, let me know as I will be there as well one of the days!

The Oxley Woods Prefab Housing Development In London.

david — Thu, 03 Jan 2008 18:00:48 +0000

Well, that sure didn’t last long. Just 8 days after talking about not being able to find worthwhile prefab houses to cover, the new issue of Dwell shows up in the mailbox with a little story about “EcoHats” and a prefab development in London called Oxley Woods. This is a pretty big community made up of panelized structures that are built off-site, transported, filled with recycled-paper insulation, and put together in about seven days. Not bad, huh? Especially not for about $121,000 U.S. dollars!

The buildings vary in size from 700 to 1,615 square feet and can have as many as 5 bedrooms. To minimize expenses and to help the homes run more efficiently, all service areas (kitchen, bath, etc) are standard and centrally located in each model. The picture above is of the entire development.

The best part of these homes is the EcoHat that each one has, which is a solar array that is hidden in a box atop each home. The solar panels in the boxes heats air and sends it into the house for heating the home, or it can be used to heat hot water. That surely solves the “I think solar is ugly” argument.

Check out the Oxley Woods development for more info on the houses.