The Christian Science Monitor took a look at modular homes last week, focusing on the green qualities:

This summer, two exhibitions of modular houses – at Chicago’s Museum of Science and Industry (MSI) and New York’s Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) – are putting a spotlight on how off-site building techniques can shrink the carbon footprint of a new house.

The article cites a number of reasons why building in the factory is a good idea:

• finish construction usually takes a few weeks, not months, saving energy by requiring fewer trips to the job site by construction workers
• by building indoors, workers can also more easily make sure that energy-saving features like insulation are carefully and properly installed for maximum effectiveness
• individual home-building companies may not have the resources to keep current on the latest "high-performance building" techniques ... but modular homes can have state-of-the-art environmental design built into them at the factory

The companies mentioned in the article:

• KieranTimberlake Associates
• Michelle Kaufmann Designs
• HOM Escape in Style
• Envision Prefab
• Cardinal Homes

Read the complete article for details.

The Seattle Times reported a few weeks back on an attempt by Unico Properties to bring affordable housing to Seattle:

Several years ago, Unico lost some good downtown office tenants to outlying locations. Sperling says that when he asked the companies why they were moving, they told him most of their employees spent too much time commuting and couldn't afford to live in Seattle.

So, Unico turned to modular construction:

The company retained architectural firms Mithun and HyBrid to explore whether units could be built economically that might appeal to the design, environmental and technological tastes of young urbanites.

The result: the two Inhabit prototypes. The wood-frame units were built in a factory in Burlington, Skagit County, trucked to Seattle, and lifted by crane onto the plaza at the base of Unico's Rainier Tower.

For reference: Mithun, HyBrid Architecture.

The savings?

[The Inhabit units cost] 15 percent less than a conventional project.... [and] the prototypes were built in just three weeks. Units could be put together while other work is going on at the site, and neighbors wouldn't experience as much disruption.

Features of the units include:

• 480 - 675 sf
• studio - 1 bedroom
• 62 units total
• floor-to-ceiling windows, a "green" roof to reduce stormwater runoff

Our previous coverage of prefabs being used for similar high-density developments:

• the KT2 from the new partnership between KieranTimberlake and LivingHomes
• an mkLoft development in Denver
• a prefab hotel in London

(Hattip: Jetson Green)

We've previously mentioned Mississippi's Safeway Homes in regards to their strength and affordability. The Sun Herald ("Southern Mississippi's Newspaper") explains further:

Modular homes built in north Mississippi are the first in this state to receive a Fortified Home designation that qualifies the owner for...insurance discounts once the home is properly installed.

"The desire was to build a home that was very strong, but also very low-cost to maintain," said Dan Hobbs, CEO of Safeway Homes in Lexington, Miss. "The whole purpose was to build excellent quality work-force housing. It's cost-efficient housing."

Some specifics about how the Fortified Home program works:

Safeway Homes are designed to withstand 150-mph winds. While the design has received Fortified Home approval, the designation is awarded only after certified personnel have completed foundation and final inspections to ensure each home is properly and permanently anchored, and meets elevation requirements.

To learn more about the "Fortified...for safer living®" program, visit the Institute for Business & Home Safety site. Read the full Sun Herald article for more details on Safeway Home's designation.

Because we couldn't be at Dwell on Design, we sent out some emails to see what attendees had to say. From Jonathan Davis at pieceHomes:

Dwell was a fantastic event, the pieceHomes booth was constantly busy with a stream of very interested, knowledgeable attendees. We launched two new homes along with our new line, extraPieces: modern, green, modular additions for existing homes.

A bit more about the two new homes:

...the Flat Wrap, another in the Wrap series, is a 1,765sf 3 bedroom one story home with expansive glazed walls allow for true indoor/outdoor living. The 1,900sf three story loft Cube House can be used for urban-infill where smaller footprints and higher density are appropriate.

With these two additional models, pieceHomes offers nine standard models, ranging in size from the one bedroom, 320 sf Container House to the 1,900sf Cube House. All of the pieceHomes models, including three custom projects, can be seen in their online brochure (pdf).

The extraPieces concept sounds intriguing:

extraPieces™ provide the extra space needed without having to build a whole new home. Add a family room or a master suite to an existing home, or build a new garage and studio in the backyard. Exterior materials can be customized to complement the finish of the existing home. Interiors can also be customized to meet particular needs and conditions, such as adding a kitchen and full bath to turn eP: studio into a guesthouse. Each of the extraPieces™ uses the same palate of green materials, energy efficient technologies and sustainable construction practices as the new homes by pieceHomes®.

The extraPieces range includes studio, master suite, and extension modules. This product is the first I've seen that offers such prefab solutions specifically for adding a room to your existing home. If they can match a traditional look, perhaps it could be Scott's prefab kitchen?

model: extraPieces from pieceHomes

Back in March, Maryland's Gazette.net reported:

Amid today’s gloom and doom in the housing industry, Vince and Stephanie Scuderi are happy — finally — to talk about building their dream home.

They chose a modular home design, an alternative construction method that can save time and money....

The house was together within hours, with all the major workings in place, including framing, drywall, roofing, plumbing, electrical wiring, cabinetry and trim.

‘‘The only problem sometimes raised by the homeowner is that they see it assembled in one or two days, then wonder why it takes another 90 to 120 days to finish,” Dean said. After assembly, much work remains, including well, septic and other utility hookups, porches and decks, driveways and landscaping.

Manufacturer: North American Housing Corp.

The full article has more details and images.

This is a great video from New England's NECN:

A little context:

One year ago, the Lee family was unhappy with their home.... They decided to take their old house down to the ground and build a modular home on the land....

The Lees ordered their modular home from a Pennsylvania company. They went modular not because of money, but because of time. The house was assembled like a puzzle - piece by piece.

Each box was about 85% complete on the inside when it was put together....

Modular was clearly the way to go.

Also featured: Sean Sweeney of Heritage Modular.

The Marmol Radziner Prefab blog wrote about the installation of a new home in California. Check out the post for pictures, including the vibrant blue denim insulation seen above.

greenbuildingsNYC discussed Modular Homes, Inc.:

...an Edison, New Jersey-based custom modular home builder that will break ground in April on what it hopes will be a LEED-certified model home in Robbinsville, New Jersey....

Inhabitat's Prefab Friday covered the ABŌD affordable prefab we saw last week.

Low Impact Living interviewed the folks at pieceHomes:

affordability is key. A lot of companies are selling their factory-built work at $400-500/square foot—and they are gorgeous, but very expensive. Our goal is to produce some homes at the $200/sq foot level….we’d prefer to sell more smaller, affordable homes to more clients than a big, expensive home to a really wealthy client...

We are working on several homes now….the first one is a custom design. It’s called Rindge. It started off as a conventionally built house. But we realized we could build it in modules with some minor changes to the structural engineering. We realized we could save money and time going that way.

CubeMe covered Camp Smull by Resolution: 4 Architecture.

Materialicio.us discussed the pinc house sport, from Pinc House, a company involved in the Some Assembly Required exhibition we've mentioned previously.

Jetson Green loves the Rapson Greenbelt, mentioned last week.

Inhabitat's Prefab Friday featured the Magic Box.

Treehugger looked at a unique prefab:

When your hard drive is full you can plug in another, because they are all designed to be modular and interchangeable. Why shouldn't houses work that way?

architecture.MNP found a cool Danish design:

Designed by Danish firm ONV Architects, the home is a modular [really?] prefab that is both customizable and [supposedly] affordable.

Personally, I’m a huge fan of the overall form...

Royal Homes is a major manufacturer of modular homes in Canada. Back in 2005, the company commissioned Kohn Shnier Architects to design the Royal Q modular:

...six hundred and twenty square feet of efficient, modern design with two bedrooms, tons of storage, all of the necessities and a few of the niceties of life...

We will deliver and install in most of Ontario and Michigan, as long as there is a road big enough for our trucks and crane....

Royal Homes completed construction on the larger Royal Q Muskoka (pictured above) in July of last year. From Treehugger:

The building is essentially a sixteen foot deep wall; ... the maximum width that can go down the road, and Martin Kohn took advantage of this to create the thin, long structure....

The terrain is rock, and quite steep. It was disturbed as little as possible, and tree removal was minimized. Because of the difference in grade, Kohn placed the living areas upstairs and the bedrooms below; this way one can change after swimming and then go upstairs to the living areas. One enters by crossing a long bridge from the parking area to the house.

model: Royal Q 1

designer: Kohn Shnier Architects

manufacturer: Royal Homes

The m-house is another small prefab home from the UK (we mentioned the home back in September):

...over 1000 sqft of beautifully designed and detailed contemporary house or office. It is entirely manufactured under controlled factory conditions, which guarantees both quality of build and delivery time. m-house arrives in two pieces, each 3m (10' approx) wide, which are then joined together on site, which takes about a day. It comes completely fitted-out and ready for you to move into immediately, and delivery is 12 weeks after order.

Features include:

• under floor heating throughout (electric or gas)

• solid fuel stove for cosy nights in front of the fire

• fitted kitchen with loads of worksurface and storage

• fridge, freezer, hob, oven and dishwasher (all Neff in Europe)

• utility/ drying room with a washing machine with a decent spin speed

• tiled bathroom with nice sanitaryware and a mains pressure shower

• big double-ended steel bath with a view out of the window

• kingsize bed decks with storage below and big shelves for books

• fitted wardrobes with mirrors inside the doors

• nice wool bedroom carpets

For some great images of the m-house, check out Ken Sparkes' flickr photostream. And watch this video of the designer from the BBC.

model: m-house

Zenkaya is a prefab from South Africa:

The Zenkaya is delivered completed, ready to live in, to your site right on the back of a flat bed truck.

Zenkaya is for the discerning people who value things differently. Those who appreciate their time and don’t want to spend that unforeseen time and energy to control and manage the construction and design process, especially when it is a far away place.
....
Zenkaya design was based on core sustainable principles. To start with, well proportioned rooms, efficient use of spaces and standard size materials were identified and drawn....

The wall panels feature Chromadek (coated metal) on the outside and either polystyrene or OSB (oriented strand board) on the inside.

In form, the Zenkaya models remind me of the concrete perrinepod.

Last year, Apartment Therapy New York called the homes "stunning."

materialicio.us said:

I love the fabulous ZENKAYA as much as anyone else.

[SPACEOUTLOUD] shared photos of the homes on display at a show in Cape Town.

designer: Zenkaya

Zenkaya models range from 86 sf to 790 sf:

model: ZENKAYA Original

model: ZENKAYA Mini

model: BushKAYA

model: MiniKAYA

Santa Monica-based Minarc has a (minimal) new website for their M3house.

We first encountered Minarc last April. Treehugger covered them again in July:

We admired the Minarc house by Tryggvi Thorsteinsson and Erla Dögg Ingjaldsdóttir when it was in Dwell; now we learn that they are offering it in a prefab version. The designers...have wanted to design a high-tech modern home that only used materials "in their most organic form and that used recycled materials wherever possible."...They are offering three modular versions built from 2x6 walls, lots of insulation and radiant flooring.

land+living shared several images of a non-prefab prototype from a tour last year. The Minarc brochure (pdf) released at the time explained their eBOX series 05. It looks like the M3house will be quite different.

We look forward to more details on the new home. The image above is the only thing on the new site; what a tease!

model: M3house and eBOX series 05

designer: Minarc

We covered many informative websites on prefab and modular homes last year. A few of our favorite posts:

• In May, we found the LV Series Yahoo! Group, a great resource on Rocio Romero's LV Series homes

• We wrote about Nashville Modern Prefab in June. The plan: to build a Hive Modular home. Sadly, it looks like work has stalled.

• Shedworking entered our radar at the end of June. The blog is a great source of information on small prefab homes.

• We love A Prefab Project, which tracks the progress of a Resolution: 4 Architecture home in West Virginia. In July, we watched the home being delivered.

• Also in July: Hive Modular started a blog.

• Sears Homes were some of the earliest prefabs. We were excited when we found a great resource on the homes: the Sears Archives.

• I'd forgotten about this one: we covered a great Flickr set of a Flatpack House going up. Now the home is much more complete.

• In December, we came across ModularHomeChoice.com. It offers some useful information about building a modular home.

• And we saw Secret Fortress Hideout, a blog all about the construction of an LVL Home.

Greg LaVardera brings us Letters from Sweden - land of modern, land of prefab:

In my previous entry I introduced Scott, my correspondent from Sweden. An American builder relocated to a suburb of Stockholm, he landed in an alternate reality where modern housing was everywhere, commonplace, even dare I say unremarkable. None of the stigmas or resistance we have come to associate with building a modern house were present. Every builder offered solid modern design in the range of homes they sold, and were more than happy to sell you one. On top of this prefabrication techniques were the norm. Sizable portions of the houses Scott saw being built were put together in the factory...

What did Scott find?

"...the majority of new construction is built like this. I would call the house panelized - but it is "way way panelized" and is a total package. The houses come on trucks from rural places in Sweden. The windows are in, the insulation, wiring, wallboard where possible - every thing - the pipes, the wiring systems, the doors, stairs ... everything has been engineered and rationalized to reduce labor, find energy and material economy and work with the method of construction where stuff is pre-assembled as much as possible inside a building and then "erected" or installed on the site under very compressed schedules...."

Read the full post for Greg's comparison to prefab on this side of the pond.

We recently added Modular Today to our sidebar. The site is useful for anyone looking to build a modular home, with information ranging from an expected timeline to a financing guide.

System3, from Austrian designers Oskar Leo Kaufmann and Albert Rüf, will also be showcased in MoMA's Home Delivery: Fabricating the Modern Dwellings show:

The system is based on the separation of a building into "serving space" and "naked space".

The "serving space" is a completely prefabricated serving unit that provides all staircases, kitchens, baths, installations, electricity, heating, and cooling systems for the entire building. The "naked space" (space that is only defined by the placed furniture, such as living or sleeping rooms) is formed by "naked elements": solid slabs of wood...windows, skin. All "naked" elements are also prefabricated and are delivered directly from factory to building site, where everything can be assembled in a few days.

Each unit fits in a shipping container, giving it the characteristic "long and narrow" format. Several units can be placed side by side:
Or stacked:

Overall, an intriguing approach that I can't wait to see realized at MoMA. Oskar Leo Kaufmann and Albert Rüf have been experimenting with prefab since 1996. We'll look at their past work in more depth soon!

model: System3

designer: Oskar Leo Kaufmann and Albert Rüf

G Living commented on the TrailerWrap project:

While the low cost motive behind the introduction of mobile homes in the mid-1900s was a good one, the execution was often aesthetically reprehensible, shoddily constructed and inefficient energy-wise. TrailerWrap set out to take these small, dilapidated (often abandoned) structures and re-fashion them into something exciting and remarkable, yet sustainable and affordable.

Freshome covered the Perrinepod:

a cute prefab home that can be built in just 3 days and withstand everything from earthquakes to cyclones.

The Good Human's Prefab Wednesday showed a prefab development in London that was covered last year on some of the other blogs.

Inhabitat's Prefab Friday featured the Single Hauz, a sort of house-meets-billboard:

...the idea takes shape in such a stylish little form that we can’t help ponder the challenge posed: how much space do you really need and where do you want it?

TreeHugger posted a video of Adam Kalkin speaking about containers, and looked back at their enthusiasm of three years ago.

On the heels of the port-a-bach comes news of the iPad, another prefab "bach" (see note below) from New Zealand:

The iPAD is a true kitset bach designed to covers a range of options; it could be a one bedroom holiday home, secondary dwelling, granny flat, office, studio or resort unit to name but a few.

It can be grouped as a series of pavilions to form larger accommodation if required....

Of particular note is that the iPAD can be either manufactured off-site and easily transported to its final destination, or shipped as a kitset and erected on site by a licensed contractor.

TreeHugger has some thoughts and also mentions the earlier Bachkit.

Bach = "small structures like beach huts or small holiday homes" (from Shedworking)

(Hat tip: Materialicio.us)

More details about the modular homes that are replacing FEMA trailers for Katrina victims:

People will have to apply for the housing and will pay rent in the first year of 20 percent of household income. After that, occupants have the option to buy the homes, and a portion of the rent can be used for a down payment. In addition, the occupants will get help finding mortgages.

I came across ModularHomeChoice.com while perusing some news the other day:

This website is for those interested in purchasing a modular home or those considering one and wishing to learn more about them.  I will share my experiences and lessons learned while acting as the general contractor on my modular home in the St. Louis, Missouri area.

When researching modular homes, I found a lot of information supplied by builders or sales agents of modular homes.  I am trying to add another perspective to that - that of someone purchasing a modular home as well as being heavily involved in the planning and scheduling of the project.

Sections of the site include:
• background information
• a list of modular builders by state
• financing
• lessons learned
• pictures of all stages of the process

The site is barebones, but informative.

Toll roads aren't just annoying to commuters; they can raise the cost of doing business:

A Pennsylvania law to toll Interstate 80...will have a devastating effect on Pennsylvania's modular housing industry, states The Modular Building Systems Association....

Pennsylvania is the top producer of modular homes in the Northeastern United States and one of the top three (3) production states within the entire country. Approximately forty (40) percent of all homes produced in Pennsylvania are transported to other states and even if appropriately sized booths are placed at tolling areas, the toll fees and other related costs will add thousands of dollars to every home.

According to Don Shiner, President of DeLuxe Building Systems in Berwick, PA:

"The cost of our homes will increase not only because of the tolls imposed when we transport the finished home to the job site, but also on raw materials being delivered to our factories, employees traveling on company business, the return of empty undercarriages to the factories for reuse in transporting the next home, time delays in transporting our homes that will result from I-80 being a toll road and other, additional factors."

Link: Modular Building Systems Association

From The Southern Illinoisan:

Charlie and Ellen Sharpe have seen their business, New Horizons Homes, undergo much change in recent years....

"This new modular home is a nice example of our construction."

Sharpe said the 2,300-square-foot structure features six modules, which were built independently off site in Pinckneyville.

"There's no worry about the weather," he said. "Materials are kept dry and there's less chance of theft. It's basically a safer work environment and much more efficient...."

Ellen said structures vary from one to three stories in height. Basically, no size is too small or large.

"It's just an educational process for the general public," she said. "This is the wave of the future. Instead of waiting months to build a house, it can be done in a matter of days. Our sales are up 15 percent from last year and we project a 40 percent jump next year."

Read the full article for details.

A few weeks back we reported on 40 lucky families moving from their FEMA trailers to new modular homes. The homes are done and families are moving in, according to the Press Register:

A group of community leaders stood in a circle, hands clasped, praying in the shadow of Bonnie and George Sprinkle's new elevated modular home.

The Sprinkles are one of 40 families chosen to receive modular homes funded by a...U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development grant to the city of Bayou La Batre. Seven families have moved into their houses so far....

The Mitchell Co. of Mobile has overseen the installation of the modular homes, which range between 1,100 and 1,400 square feet and cost between $100,000 and $115,000 each, depending on the elevation required.

The Virginia Gazette reports:

Ginger Crapse has the answer to affordable housing. 

“Build modular,” she said....

“The perception is that they are glorified trailers,” she continued. “The inspector freaked out. I had to prove it’s modular. He said, ‘It can’t be. It doesn’t look like a modular house.’ People think modulars have to be perfectly rectangular. They see the porch and think that it can’t be modular....”

The ongoing affordable housing debate drives her nuts. 

“Every time I read this in the paper, I go epileptic,” she said. “They whine, ‘There’s no way to build a house for $110,000.’ There’s no reason we can’t get young families in affordable housing in Williamsburg. We are going to have problems getting teachers, firefighters, police and county employees....

“You can build and at a reasonable price.”