Prefab Homes Get a Style and Solar-Powered Makeover

Mod.Fab is a project at the Frank Lloyd Wright School of Architecture aimed at designing a prefab home that's both elegant and enables sustainable living in a desert environment.

Historically speaking prefab homes have received bad press: Reasons include social stigma associated with the low-cost housing solution, lack of understanding by the consumer, and low-quality mass-produced designs. And that's clearly been a spur for the students and staff at the FLW school.

The complete prototype is sitting on the Taleisin, Arizona campus. It's visually appealing right from the start, with its large colored paneling and asymmetric layout. The design contains eco-technology from the ground up, with wall panels that are both structural and insulating, photovoltaic panels that collect sunlight and provide power, and there's a combination of passive environmental control--suntraps and natural ventilation, as well as active elements. The active elements include a grey-water recycling system and a water catchment system. Ultimately, the goal is to create a design that is entirely self-sustaining in terms of basic energy needs.

Solar powered Prefab House Picture

The most interesting thing about Mod.Fab is that it indicates how our homes should be constructed in the future: Its combination of eco-power sources and passive environmental controls mean that the house places a significantly lower burden on the environment. In Germany, so-called "passive" homes, that utilize similar design elements, are gaining ground thanks to increased taxation on heating oil and natural gas. The strict "passive" requirements, that include super-efficient insulation and exploitation of natural light and heat, result in homes that typically consume only around 10% of the energy of "normal" housing designs.

Even President Obama stresses the need for designs like this: His first weekly address stated that the economic recovery plan would aim to save an average working family $350 per annum on energy bills, with the associated eco-friendly knock-on, by funding "weatherizing" of 2.5 million homes.

If we made our future eco-homes as architecturally interesting as Mod.Fab, perhaps the public would become enthused about the idea.