The Good Human » prefab

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!

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Prefab Wednesday – The FlatPak House.

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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!

Post from: The Good Human

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

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.

Post from: The Good Human

The Oxley Woods Prefab Housing Development In London.

Prefab Wednesday – The 2007 Year In Review.

david — Wed, 26 Dec 2007 15:00:33 +0000

This year, I have written about 26 different prefab and/or pre-designed “green” housing options. They range from the small home office/one room house to the multimillion dollar home in the middle of the desert. Because this is the last Prefab Wednesday of 2007, I wanted to take a look back through the houses covered this year and let you all know that I will probably not be doing this every Wednesday anymore because I am running out of worthwhile homes to cover each week. When I do come across a worthwhile addition to the list, I will surely write about it, but for now, this is the final Prefab Wednesday post. Enjoy.

The Breezehouse by MKD

6040 House By Gregory La Vardera

The Living Home by Ray Kappe.

The LV Series by Rocio Romero.

The Office of Mobile Design.

The Cube 5 from h-Haus.

The mkLotus by MKD.

The IT house from Taalman-Koch.

Construction of a Res4 Prefab.

Marmol Radziner.

The Weehouse by Alchemy Architects.

The Place House by Heather Johnston.