Amy Gahran's Library tagged prefab →  View Popular

* Steel is a "Green Construction" Choice with its high recycle content

Predominant mass-market housing programs such as project homes or tract housing largely fail to meet the desires of people who appreciate a modernist design aesthetic. Custom-designed modernist architecture is beyond the financial reach of many people and so prefab is viewed as a design and production ideology that has the potential to deliver affordable modernism. While kit or prefab homes have been available in a range of either "traditional" or "alternative" forms for many years, surprisingly few prefab homes exist that truly embrace modernist ideals.

My name is Jay Shafer and since 1997 I have been living in a house smaller than some people's closets. I call the first of my little hand built houses Tumbleweed (pictured right). My decision to inhabit just 100 square feet arose from some concerns I had about the impact a larger house would have on the environment, and because I do not want to maintain a lot of unused or unusable space. My houses have met all of my domestic needs without demanding much in return. The simple, slower lifestyle my homes have afforded is a luxury for which I am continually grateful.

How low impact is a $4 million house?

he Building Systems Councils (BSC) of NAHB is an association of concrete, log, modular, and panel manufacturers, builders, and suppliers whose focus is to address today's housing needs and to educate and promote the benefits of the building systems process.



In conjunction with legislative, regulatory and affiliated associations, the Building Systems Councils strive to improve the environment for building systems products, while supporting the goals of NAHB.

Welcome to my website. Here you will find information about my books "From Sand Castles to Dream Houses", "House About It", "Modular Mansions", as well as information about myself and my newest book "Prefabulous" which is now available.

Dovetailing with a surge in consumer interest in green building and energy-saving technologies, a 9,200-square-foot dream house built by two airline pilots on a stunning site in Prairie Grove, Ill. illustrates how prefabrication is becoming an increasingly popular and effective choice for boosting the performance of residential structures.

In her new book, "Prefabulous - the House of Your Dreams Delivered Fresh From the Factory," author Sheri Koones, describes how Steve and Jackie Smith's home used a concrete system called Solarcrete to provide a sustainable method of construction that at the same time allowed for modern interior design with a strong connection to the outdoors.

The national prototype for “green” modular affordable housing will be unveiled at a special open house from 2 to 5 p.m. Saturday, Jan. 27, at 8208 Ohio Street in North Gulfport, Mississippi.

Unity Homes, a project of the Healthy Building Network, has partnered with the non-profit North Gulfport Community Land Trust (NGCLT) and the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights to build the first environmentally-friendly prototype modular home on Ohio Street near Martin Luther King Blvd in Gulfport, MS.

Unity Homes builds and installs affordably priced, high-quality houses that are healthier for homeowners, communities and the environment. The project will provide factory-built homes for the affordable housing market that cost less than conventional models, with the added benefit of energy efficiency and healthy building materials.

The devastation of Hurricane Katrina ironically offered an amazing opportunity to put our ideas to the test under the most difficult conditions. Frustrated that the rebuilding in New Orleans was taking so long and had gotten so embroiled in red tape, the Healthy Building Network moved forward to construct the first Unity Homes prototype, a modular prefab house built to green building specifications.

The Virginia Center for Architecture examines the current trend toward contemporary prefabricated and modular housing with its latest exhibit entitled "Some Assembly Required," which is on view and free to the public until Sept. 30.

San Francisco-based fabMODERN is offering a deal called freeHOUSE where it is giving away a kit for users to build their own green home, free. The catch is participants must contract to provide a certain number of hours of service each day, and accept certain marketing obligations from a sponsor pool, to live in their sponsored home.

Once the home is completed, new prefab owners must participate in showcase events for the first two weeks.

We often hear complaints from you guys that good green prefab architecture is a bit out of reach for the average homeowner, so it’s great to see a small, family-oriented project that shows how you can do it yourself with a little ingenuity. The DIY Zigloo Domestique integrates shipping containers, personal and sustainable touches, and lots of hard work. Keith Dewey, an architect based in British Columbia, designed, built, and documented the construction of his Zigloo Domestique home that epitomizes accessible, green, reclaimed, yet comfortable contemporary prefab architecture.

Steve Glenn, CEO of LivingHomes, is teaming up with Wired magazine to bring cutting-edge green building design and modern technology under one roof. Glenn is pursuing a Gold Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design for Homes (LEED-H) rating from the U.S. Green Building Council for the Wired LivingHome.

The first LivingHome, which received the first LEED-H Platinum certification from USGBC [see “LivingHomes takes prefab to next level,” Oct. 2006], is designed to achieve 80 percent energy savings over a conventional residence of similar size. The Wired LivingHome, which has added features such as air-conditioning, a home theater and an iris-recognition security system, is expected to achieve 36 percent energy savings.

Construction of the pre-fabricated house is scheduled for August 2007 in Los Angeles. The site’s original house was deconstructed and donated to Habitat for Humanity. Glenn estimates just 2 percent of materials used to build a LivingHome end up in the landfill.

Michelle Kaufmann, a Princeton-educated former apprentice to Los Angeles architect Frank Gehry, who built the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, Spain, is on a mission: to make green architecture accessible and affordable to the masses.

Kaufmann, who founded the environmentally friendly home design company Michelle Kaufmann Designs in 2002, practices what she preaches. She and her husband, eco-builder Kevin Cullen, constructed their own Glidehouse -- an allusion to the home's many sliding doors and sunshades that regulate light and temperature -- on a small lot in the bucolic town of Novato, Calif. The Glidehouse is now one of five sustainable, highly efficient modular home models the company sells.

Not to be confused with the poorly built, trailer-style homes usually associated with the term "prefab," Kaufmann's designs are quality creations, incorporating eco-conscious offerings such as solar power, bamboo flooring and recycled-glass tiles. The houses can be customized to buyers' preferences, taking into account desired amenities and square footage. (Kaufmann's houses cost between $185 and $250 per square foot, depending on the model and location.)

The size of green second homes can be a hot-button issue. Buyers often want to build big, preferring more spacious retreats, but those passionate about environmental protection say smaller houses are more environmentally responsible. Larger homes require more building materials, occupy more space, and use more energy.

This disaster-proof prefab is not only durable, but green in its material, systems, and long life-span. Designed by architect Jean-mic Perrine, Perrinepod merges modern luxury and green living in a compact, modern home. Green features include a Solar Edwards Heat Pump hot water system that uses refrigeration technology in reverse to heat the water. Additionally, Perrinepods can be stacked on top of each other (up to 30 units tall!) to create larger complexes.

The street cred of the guys behind this is good, too: Andy Thomson covers the Green stuff for architectsAlliance, one of Canada's best architectural firms, and spent quite a few years living in an RV in Vancouver. Dan Hall ran a carpentry and millwork business before becoming an architect, so he knows how to put something together. They have been very careful and quiet while they developed this- it isn't vaporware.