New modular homes nail quick construction, high efficiency, hot design

The architect is known for his talents in contemporary design. The prefab home manufacturer is known for swift, economical construction.

They made a fine team.

"Our whole promise was: Could we do a cool, energy-efficient modern home and do it modular?" says Brad Tomecek, 35, an architect with Boulder-based Studio H:T. "The answer is 'yes.' "

Take a walk through Brad and Christa Tomecek's sleek 2,700-square-foot Barvista Homes house, in the Highland neighborhood northwest of Lower Downtown, and your preconceived notions of what a factory-built home looks like are dashed. Forget safe, neutral- toned Formica and standard finishes. The kitchen features bold black granite countertops, a colorful glass mosaic backsplash, stainless steel appliances and bamboo flooring.

Black-stained wooden stair risers and a smooth drywall finish add to the contemporary look.

Even the master bathroom is chic, with a riverstone shower basin, ceramic denim-colored tiles and black flooring.

Fine Living: Prefab cabanas catch on as affordable extra room

Prefab Cabanas home picture

Nate Cohen wanted to add on a guest bedroom to his home in Larkspur; instead he added a guest house complete with a kitchenette and full bath in his front garden, and was ready to welcome out-of-town visitors in just a few months.

"Everybody who sees it, wants to come and stay in it," he says of his compact 12-by-25 prefabricated building with knotty cedar siding and a 50-year steel roof.

And why not? There's a shower/tub combo and a tile floor from Tile Stone in San Rafael in the bathroom; a cooktop, maple cabinetry and granite countertops in the kitchen; and floor-to-ceiling windows and engineered walnut flooring in the open living space.

His studio by Modern Cabana, the latest model to roll off the San Francisco company's assembly line, is highly customized, but all models are "green" with recycled denim insulation, dual-pane or low-E coating windows, no or low VOC finishes and FSC-certified wood down to the studs. Because it uses off-the-shelf materials, "we have just a tiny pile of waste - only 5 percent waste compared to usual 30 percent of a site-built project, owner and architect Casper Mork-Ulnes says.

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.

Dwell retools on prefab with Marmol Radziner, Turkel Design

Turkel Design on Prefab

Put this one in the category of Interesting Timing. Just as other modern prefab companies are scaling back or calling it quits -- and as real-estate developers and architecture firms of all sizes continue to struggle -- Dwell magazine is launching a new iteration of its prefab construction arm.

At its Dwell on Design conference this weekend in Los Angeles, the company will unveil a new collaboration, under its Dwell Homes Collection label, with architecture firms Marmol Radziner and Turkel Design.

Turkel -- run by Joel Turkel, an architect and a veteran of Empyrean, the company that developed Dwell's prefab line before abruptly closing last year -- will design three prefab houses for Dwell Homes. L.A.'s Marmol Radziner, which recently shuttered its own prefab factory in Vernon, will offer six. The houses will be built by Lindal Cedar Homes, an established manufactured-home company based in Seattle.

My guess is this is more about the appearance of momentum for Dwell's prefab efforts than actual momentum.

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.