Despite flying the flags of accessibility, affordability and globalization, pre-fab homes have always been a local concept with a client range of only a couple of hundred miles. Where's the revolution in that? That was precisely what moved Jared Levy and Gordon Stott of Connect Homes to rethink the parameters of pre-fab housing. In fact, they — literally — busted them open.
With a prefab pedigree that was honed at prestigious architectural firm Marmol Radziner, they've not only got the concept of sleek and modern down, they've also been schooled in the luxuriously green concept. From cool roof and rain catchment systems to the use of recycled and sustainable materials inside and out, these are homes that are both efficient and beautiful. But that's only the icing on the cake.
As Jared and Gordon explained, they discarded the old notions of pre-fab and started from scratch. Instead of building a basic module that conforms to the size of a shipping container (the usual route, which makes shipping cost-prohibitve to anyone who lives far from where the basic components are manufactured), or building a home from a shipping container (the usual alternative, which, since shipping containers are not designed as homes, is neither "green" nor, once windows and doors are cut to make the container livable, structurally sound — without a lot of support), they thought outside the shipping container box, designing a prefab that was both both home and container in one.
The smaller size of the basic module, engineered to fit where most prefabs modules can't, opens up the global reach of prefab, which was the whole point of prefab: homes that were as easy and affordable as any other manufactured product. A Connect Home can be shipped via truck but also via rail and ship. Once at the site, remove the temporary protective metal outer layer (which shields vulnerable finishes) and voila! Your new house. (Or nearly voila — at 95% factory complete, with only module-line seaming and basic hook-up to be completed on-site, a new home can be move-in ready in two months). And shipping costs to your doorstep (or what will be your doorstep when it's put together!)? About the rent of a very generously sized apartment in a big city (and considerably less than the tens of thousands of dollars it costs to ship a container).
Which means that someone in New York and someone in Australia and someone in Switzerland can all purchase the home. After all, wasn't that the original point of prefab? To engineer a home that would be both time and cost-senstive in comparison to having a home built from scratch? A home that would be nearly as easy to buy as a car? Then Connect Homes has achieved their goal.
More Info: Connect Homes
Note: Connect Homes will be sharing a prototype of their smallest home, composed of two modules and furnished by interior designer Kishani Perera (with help from West Elm), at Dwell on Design, which takes place in LA this weekend. Go, and see for yourself that prefab can be...well...pretty fabulous.
(Images: Connect Homes)
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$280,000 as a base price for a 3BR house still isn't affordable for many, no matter how many times you use the word.
The site quotes $255/sf as "actual final cost" for the units (of course, that's without green features, and a whole list of other features that will be add-ons per-foot), but $175/ sf as a basic "contractor quote" for building a home from scratch (no note about what actual final cost would be, but all contractors come up with add-on charges). Where I live, that base contractor quote would be $225/sf. To build a custom home with top-grade finishes and green features, you are talking $400/ sf or more, in my area of the US (west coast).
These units are attractive, and they may be a green alternative (not sure I agree with that, with the shipping by truck), but I don't consider them a good buy. Perhaps they would be in another country, where costs are higher. They might be a good choice if you wanted a slick looking, mod house in a remote area where local contractors don't have the skill...but why would you?
As nicely designed as these are, and as much as I love most pre-fab modern homes, these seem pricey to me @$175 per sq ft installed. Maybe that's reasonable - I looked at the avg new home construction cost, but it seems on the high end. For some areas it might be more reasonable than others.
I also think it's a little disingenuous to call shipping container homes "not green" nor "structurally sound" since the shipping container structures I've looked at have been very well built, and of course because there is a glut of them they are really 100% recycled products so they're very "green" in that sense. Finally I don't see how they can say that container shipping prices are "cost-prohibitve" while theirs are not despite the fact that their homes come packaged in a shipping container. Completely absurd reasoning. Nicely designed homes though.
This doesn't factor in the cost of a lot as well I imagine. Being from Texas $128,000 is extreme for 640 sf, plus an added 50k for a good lot in Austin or Dallas. When is a good designer going to team up with a mobile home manufacturer? The mobile home industry is pretty much the only successful truly prefabricated market that delivers the same kind of product at a fifth of the cost. All it would take is some good design, and thoughtful finish out to revamp the plain style of most of these "traditional style" boxes.
Very nice designs. The costs don't seem much different that a custom build though, and it's my understanding that many local building laws prohibit prefab buildings (they don't want "trailer homes" built because it lowers property values and these homes fall in that same category).
I have yet to see any of these concept pre-fab businesses actually go into business. It seems like they do a prototype for a trade show (like this one for Dwell), then they sort of disappear.
In my neighborhood there are a couple houses called "Moduflex" homes designed by a local architect and built in the 50s with the same prefab mass production concept. They didn't take off either, and they are actually really nice.
How green can you really say this is when the rendering shows it's installation in the middle of nowhere. So many of these glass box pre-fab homes look great when they're rendered on the great american landscapes, but would be much "greener" if they could fit into a community with existing infrastructure, transit, density, etc. It's not just about creating the object, it has to work within an urban context.
Why is globalisation seen as the answer? I think it would be much more 'green' and in line with sustainable practices to have local people make homes for local families, rather than spend lots of money shipping them off all over the place...localisation is a much more positive for local communities.
YES to JRBinDFW!!! I have been wondering for years why the mobile home industry and the "modern" prefab market don't team up to provide truly affordable modern prefab for the masses? The manufacturing infrastructure is already there... just update the designs, please!
About 2 years ago we went to D.C. to go to the solar Decathlon and were amazed with the prefab houses that were on display. My wife and i are thinking of having a prefab house for our next house but i dont see anywhere here in jersey where we can have one. We need more info in how to purchase pre fab houses.
Pipe Creek, I think they are. I was at Dwell on Design this weekend, and went to some talks on Prefab. At least one of the major companies uses various existing prefab (mobile home) manufacturers to make their designs. That reduces shipping costs immensely.