Archinect - News

Plant Prefab installs four-unit housing complex in three days

2020-07-16T13:12:00-04:00

Modular home builder Plant Prefab has announced that it completed installation of a 11,054-square-foot, four-unit townhome development in Los Gatos, California in July in just three days.

According to Plant Prefab, The townhomes range in size from 2,650 to 2,902 square feet, and each include three bedrooms and four bathrooms. Designed with modern styling and underground parking, the development is also topped with solar panels and wood and stone finishes.

Rendering of the Los Gatos project.

In a press release announcing the project, project developer Jordan Castillo explains, “Building with Plant Prefab allowed us to significantly reduce disruption to the neighborhood. Building offsite also meant that we could work on the site and structure simultaneously. This was particularly beneficial in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic.”

Another installation shot.

The homes were constructed in Plant Prefab's Rialto, California factory and designed by Metro Architects.

Plant Prefab also ma...

Brooks + Scarpa and Plant Prefab debut adaptable prefab apartment model

2019-10-05T09:00:00-04:00

Los Angeles-based architects Brooks + Scarpa and factory home builder Plant Prefab have partnered on a new line of adaptable apartment modules that aim to provide streamlined responses for creating much-needed high-density in Los Angeles.

View of unit types for the Blue Jay model. Image courtesy of Plant Prefab.

The kit-of-parts-style Nest LivingHome toolkit is a research-led design paradigm crafted to fit into Los Angeles's average residential parcels. Dimensions for the prototypes correspond to the buildable areas of L.A.'s standard-sized 50-foot-by-150-foot residential lots, for example. Meanwhile, the architects have designed a series of potential unit plans that vary between rapid-rehousing, single-room occupancy (SRO), and conventional multi-family configurations.

The team's Blue Jay configuration, for example, presents a spare 11-foot, 4-inch-wide room that's 28-feet-deep and can be laid out as a one-bedroom unit or in various multi-bed shelter designs. The Dove line groups ...

Plant Prefab pledges to achieve carbon neutrality by 2028

2019-09-27T18:00:00-04:00

Plant Prefab, a building manufacturing backed by Amazon, has announced a plan to achieve "net carbon neutral" operations by the year 2028.

According to a Medium post announcing the move, since 2006, the company has steadily worked to increase its "comprehensive and continuous effort to employ and improve materials and processes that are energy, water, and materially resource-efficient and that are safe for humans and the environment."

The plan comes as investor Amazon issues its own carbon neutrality pledge with the aim of achieving "net zero carbon by 2040 and 100% renewable energy by 2030," according to a press release.

The company's mostly-single-family home product lines already make use of an array of sustainable practices. Image courtesy of Plant Prefab.

Describing Plant Prefab's ambitions, founder and CEO Steve Glenn writes, “Our promise is a commitment to being carbon neutral by 2028, which we’ll achieve by our continued efforts to implement industry-leading sustainabilit...

Amazon buys into the (Alexa-powered) prefab housing market

2018-09-26T13:32:00-04:00

Amazon has made clear that it wants to own the smart home space. Now the company's going a step further, taking a stake in a start-up that's building actual homes. On Tuesday, Amazon said its Alexa Fund invested in Plant Prefab, a Southern California company that says it uses sustainable construction processes and materials to build prefabricated custom single- and multifamily houses. The start-up is aiming to use automation to build homes faster and bring down costs.

With this recent investment in eco-friendly prefabricated home factory Plant Prefab, Amazon uses its mighty financial leverage and dominance in the market for voice-controlled connected devices to make the brand just as synonymous with smart homes as it already is with online retail.

Plant Prefab, headquartered in Rialto, California, offers standard and custom prefab homes in collaboration with established design partners, including Ray Kappe, KieranTimberlake, and LivingHomes.