LEED Platinum Prefab Home Now Available

Yet another large step in the quest to make green building efficient and more affordable: Green building leader Bensonwood Homes has constructed a prototype net zero-energy home that was recently awarded LEED Platinum status, the U.S. Green Building Council's highest rating for green building construction.

The Unity Home, currently occupied by the president of environmentally focused Unity College and his wife, uses widely available green building strategies including passive heating, tight thermal insulation and concrete slab foundation (which allows the home to stay warmer in winter and cooler in summer). These low-energy techniques work so well that even in the cold Maine winter, the homeowners rarely need to rely on the rooftop solar panels for energy to heat their home.

Prefab Home Builder In Receivership

Prefab Home Picture

Prefab home builder Empyrean International, the builder of Deck Houses, Acorn Homes, and Dwell homes is the latest victim of the credit crunch. The Massachusetts-based company closed in late October and two weeks ago, a court-ordered receiver took control of the company. The owner of Empyrean, Patrick Gilrane, blames the failure of Lehman Brothers as well as the weakening economy for the closure. He had hoped to restructure and reopen the company next year but the home builder has defaulted on a $7 million loan and has not paid its utility bills or taxes for months. The Boston Globe reports that the receiver, attorney Stewart Grossman plans to put the company up for sale once he puts its affairs in order. The company's roots go back to 1947 with the founding of Acorn Structures. Deck Houses and Acorn homes have crated entire neighborhoods. Over the last few years Empyrean has worked with Dwell magazine to create boxy modernist homes. Dwell plans to continue working on prefab homes with a different builder.

Prefab: Blue Sky Homes prototype in Yucca Valley

Blue Sky Prefab Home Picture

The pitch on this prefab prototype in the desert actually came from AEP Span, the company that manufactured the roof. The design is a prototype from Blue Sky Homes, which touts the light-gauge galvanized steel frame as a less costly alternative to some of the custom structural steel modular designs winning magazine spreads. The design, by Palm Springs-based o2 Architecture, is a kit of parts assembled on site and meant to be both site-specific and flexible enough to work in other settings. For more details on the cost and construction time -- and for more photos -- click to the Read More.

Startup's prefab homes aim for zero energy bills

Startup's prefab homes aim for zero energy bills

Prefabricated housing seems an unlikely ally in the fight against climate change, but a new San Francisco company is setting out to construct factory-built homes that create as much energy as they use - reducing greenhouse gas emissions associated with operating buildings.

Zeta Communities, which is headquartered in South of Market and owns a manufacturing plant in San Leandro, is close to completing its first "zero energy" townhome in Oakland and is working with a developer on a proposed 30-unit studio apartment building in Berkeley.

The firm plans to build segments of housing units indoors and ship them to development sites for assembly.

Modern, Naturally Prefab Houses

A steel-and-glass prefab home connects to the outdoors.

Modern and Natural Prefabricated House Picture

When Boston architect Jim Higgins purchased a little gray house and an adjoining plot of land on Spinney Creek in Eliot, Maine, he thought he had found the perfect project. His plan was to fix up and sell the existing house and build another traditional New England-style home next door. Instead, he built a low-lying, rectilinear house sheathed in corrugated galvanized steel -- a far cry from the shingled Cape Cod-style homes that surround it.

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.

Ptrfab Homes

Prefabricated Houses is a directory of modern, modular homes and modern prefabricated homes. We provide images, data and contact information for many of the newest prefab home designers and builders. Here you can browse home designs, view images, and compare details for many prefab homes.

Building a prefab home is environmentally friendly. Prefabrication techniques reduce waste, offer energy-saving designs and improve manufacturing and construction efficiencies. More green thoughts; reduce your carbon footprint, recycle waste, and car donation.