Archinect - News

Skylab Architecture teams up with Steel Hut to design modern ready-to-build and climate resistant dwellings

2024-03-02T17:29:00-05:00

Portland-based interdisciplinary design studio Skylab Architecture has announced its partnership with woman-owned kit home manufacturer Steel Hut to design forward-thinking, affordable dwellings that boast increased fire resistance and durability for harsh climates.

The prefabricated homes are entirely made of recycled and recyclable steel. They can be used in a variety of ways, such as accessory dwelling units (ADU) and remote living spaces. The interior of the homes are characterized as ultra-modern and warm. They have an impressive visual scale relative to their size. In addition, the houses provide indoor-outdoor connections through large windows.

Steel Hut’s "Jackrabbit Loft" model.

“It’s an incredible opportunity to work with Steel Hut to address the many challenges people face during the design and construction process. And being able to support people’s desire to live in nature is too important to miss,” said Susan Barnes, Principal at Skylab. “These home designs merge state...

Can modular housing startups be saved at a critical time for the industry?

2024-01-18T14:08:00-05:00

The notion that factory-built modular homes can serve as the salvation to America's vexing housing crisis has increasingly come under scrutiny, a report summarized recently in Business Insider.

A crippling lack of widespread success for modular housing startups can be attributed to state and federal manufacturing regulatory barriers, a lack of builders’ experience, investors’ overconfidence, local building codes, persistent social stigmas about prefabricated homes, and an overall lack of demand. The inflexibility of the prefabrication process for single-family designs is another factor hindering many businesses as well, according to the article.

Katerra and, more recently, Veev are perhaps the best-known examples. The once $1 billion Bay Area ‘unicorn’ shuttered its U.S. operation in November after constructing 170 units total in 15 years. Veev's failure can be boiled down to a fla...

PietriArchitectes designs 15-unit social housing project using cross-laminated timber

2023-01-01T08:00:00-05:00

Paris’ PietriArchitectes has shared images of their new 15-unit social housing development in the northern suburb of Aubervilliers.

Completed towards the end of last year, 36 Ferragus is the key cog in a requalification operation for the city’s center. Currently, about two-thirds of Aubervilliers residents inhabit some form of social housing, and so the development provides relief in what is to some a frequent powder keg for related issues.

Opting for pre-fabricated components and wood as its main building material for the extension project, the studio worked within a site that’s part of the larger Heurtault block of the ZAC Moutier agglomeration to adapt a disused existing early-20th century residential structure and garage.

Image: Hugo Hébrard

Per the architects: "This game of opposition between old and new constitutes the soul of the project. On the street side, the extension is set back from the preserved construction, providing inhabitants with space to access the buildings. A ...

New prefabricated tiny house can be assembled in an hour for less than $40,000

2022-12-05T15:22:00-05:00

A Los Angeles-based tiny house startup named Vika Living has unveiled a compact, semi-permanent housing unit that it says can be set up in an hour for just under $40,000.

Called the Vika One, the fully prefabricated dwellings provide 144 square feet of living space, with a shared sleeping, living, dining, kitchen area, and separate bathroom. Its ceilings stand 8.5 feet tall, paired with a floor-to-ceiling glass wall and a 42-square-foot outdoor terrace.

The tiny house is also delivered complete with furnishings and fixtures, including a bed, table, chairs, toilet, kitchen, storage units, and mechanical systems for HVAC, water, power, and waste. There is also an off-grid model, which includes rooftop solar panels and batteries, fresh water pumping and filtration, and off-grid waste systems.

Image: Vika Living

The units are fully assembled in Vika Living’s Los Angeles factory and then delivered and installed on site. No foundations or heavy equipment are needed to set them up.

The ...

Apparently Elon Musk is living in a $50,000 Texas ADU

2021-07-15T08:52:00-04:00

After selling much of his real estate portfolio in the past year and listing his final property earlier this month to focus on his mission to Mars, the Tesla and SpaceX CEO is taking the phrase “Live below your means” to another level. Musk, who turned 50 in June, revealed in a tweet that he is now living in a humble $50,000 home that he rents from SpaceX on its launch site in Boca Chica, Texas.

The house comes from a Las Vegas-based company called Boxabl. The company aims to “significantly lower the cost of homeownership for everyone” with foldable, 375-square-foot prefabricated ADU called Casitas that have developed a significant following online since the Tesla founder’s Twitter announcement in June.

Musk had previously gotten rid of his real estate holdings following another series of bizarre Twitter posts days before the birth of his child. Curbed has more on his modest new trappings here.

A possible future for ADUs and its growing 'familiarity factor'

2021-03-30T15:08:00-04:00

The allure of ADU's has grown significantly. Yet, with new state laws initiated in places like California pre-fabricated options for backyard dwelling units are more accessible to those who want them.

This past month, Los Angeles launched its new ADU Standard Plan Program to streamline the approval process while "promoting good design" with preapproved plans. In our previous editorial coverage, Los Angeles hopes to cut housing red tape with preapproved ADU designs, our team showcased a selection of designs from architectural firms.

SO – IL: 1-story, 1 bedroom with options (693 sf)

Jennifer Bonner/MALL: 1-story, 1-bedroom with roof deck with options (652 sf)

sekou cooke STUDIO: 2- bedroom 2 -bathroom (1,200 sf)

Continuing with coverage of ADU growth, Bloomberg CityLab's Kriston Capps reports on California's new "backyard apartment boom." Using Los Angeles, San Jose, and Portland's ADU growth, there's more to these backyard units than extra space. Kim-Mai Cutler, a partner at the ventur...

Self-powered home builder Dvele acquires prefab company Blu Homes

2020-06-10T18:02:00-04:00

Dvele, a San Diego-based housing technology company, has acquired Blu Homes, a modern luxury prefab home manufacturer. The two entities will come together to deliver a comprehensive prefab offerings to customers.

"In the early years of our entrepreneurial journey, Blu was the company we looked at as leading the charge for high-end prefabricated homes," said Dvele Co-Founder and CEO, Kurt Goodjohn in a statement. "We have the utmost respect and appreciation for what Blu has contributed to our collective space. They forged a path allowing Dvele’s innovative home focused technologies to flourish. Combining the Blu brand with our original vision for Dvele as a technology platform is a powerful step forward in our quest to revolutionize this industry."

With its recently launched self-powered home initiative, Dvele will combine its technology with Blu's prefabricated designs to deliver a new spatial solutions for future customers and residents.

“We’re excited to join with Dvele for the ne...

East Berlin’s Plattenbau may rise to new heights

2018-09-06T15:08:00-04:00

Berlin has decided on a novel location to host some of the new apartments the city badly needs—on top of the old ones. Yesterday, Berlin’s Senate announced a project to add more units on top of already existing buildings in the city’s east, with a possible capacity of up to 50,000 new homes. The plan to add floors isn’t novel in itself, of course, even in Berlin. What’s striking is the specific type of building chosen for the experiment: East Berlin’s Plattenbau.

Kanye West's first YEEZY Home project appears to be a prefab affordable housing scheme

2018-06-04T14:00:00-04:00

It's been merely a month since rapper/entrepreneur/design aficionado Kanye West announced on Twitter that he would launch an architecture venture with his design firm, to be called YEEZY Home, and now first renderings have appeared on Instagram that list West among the designers.

"Low income housing scheme, made of prefabricated concrete in collaboration with Petra Kustrin, Jalil Peraza, Kanye West, Nejc Skufca," reads the caption of an image that shows a minimalist courtyard flanked by walls that mimic the brutalist, austere aesthetic of West's latest private estate as well as his YEEZY HQ in Calabasas, a posh Los Angeles suburb.

Image via Jalil Peraza/@jalilperaza on Instagram.

The image was shared by designer, and former Kanye West collaborator, Jalil Peraza who added another rendering this morning of an ultraminimalist kitchen with muted brass and concrete surfaces, crediting the same design team.

Image Jalil Peraza via hypebeast.com.

Hypebeast also published another rendering o...

Fluxus assists HUD manufactured housing regulatory reform

2018-04-04T13:24:00-04:00

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) has asked for public comments on the current and planned standards for manufactured housing. This action is taken following an executive directive to reduce the U.S. government’s overall regulatory complexity.

In January HUD announced a review of manufactured housing rules seeking public comments on identifying regulations which stifle affordable housing.

Fluxus LLC, a prefabricated building technology platform, has submitted the following comment for the HUD Regulations Division’s consideration in current and planned manufactured housing rules. The group identifies two main issues and offers two recommendations each to address these issues:

Problem Statement No. 1
The definition of HUD-code Manufactured Homes constrains its potential applications typologically, programmatically and aesthetically. According to the definition below, the HUD-code Manufactured Homes applies only to dwellings with an attached permanent chassis on which they are transported to the site in one or more sections.

Recommendation
1. Focus on creating outcome and performance based standards to replace overly prescriptive design standards.
2. Focus on code development cost of ownership not cost of construction

Problem ...

This Swiss firm is experimenting with prefab movable housing

2018-03-20T15:29:00-04:00

Swiss architectural practice Rahbaran Hürzeler Architekten is developing an experimental residence to be realized anywhere. Called movable house, every aspect of this project is determined by motion from floor plans to structural elements to energy storage.

Movable house rendering © Rahbaran Hürzeler Architekten

The movable house is not designed with a specific site in mind, but rather can be constructed almost anywhere. The main goals of movable house are that it can be put up quickly with easy and efficient transportation of all structural elements.

Movable house rendering © Rahbaran Hürzeler Architekten

This prefab architecture can stand alone or be attached to an existing building. The four main areas of the structure are arranged around a central library which doubles as a transitional space to connect it all together. This creates a flexible and transparent living space for a family of four on the smallest possible footprint.

Movable house rendering © Rahbaran Hürzeler Archite...

This modern prefab house in Spain boasts only a five hour assembly time

2017-12-28T17:35:00-05:00

It took less than four months to build this modern prefab home in a factory, and only five hours to assemble it on-site. The minimalist modern abode is set in Valdés, a small town in Asturias, northwest of Madrid. Studio [baragaño] designed the Montaña House as a stylistic mix between a traditional home and the granaries found throughout the area.

The house, designed by Studio [baragaño], was constructed in less than four months in a factory in Madrid then transported to Valdes, where a local artisan embellished the structure with a slate roof. This space was designed using traditional residential architecture as inspiration and boasts an impressive on-site assembly time of just five hours.

The house serves as residence for an English landscaper and his family with two levels and plenty of common space. Diffuse natural light is used on the top level with light polycarbonate panels functioning as barriers between rooms. A metal staircase acts as a center piece around which the other spaces were organized. With a strictly minimalist interior, the home's defining feature is its fireplace suspended from the living room ceiling.

Amazon now sells pre-fabricated container houses

2017-10-07T10:19:00-04:00

The overall look and the customer reviews are not so great, but, if you always dreamed of owning a container that has French doors, Amazon now has it for you! With the rising popularity of the tiny house movement, who knows, we might see those popping around our neighborhoods. Not available on Prime just yet and no free shipping.

2017 Antepavilion playfully subverts planning legislation and explores alternative city-dwellings

2017-08-14T15:57:00-04:00

The Antepavilion program, a joint venture between the Architecture Foundation and the Arthouse Foundation, launched an international competition to design a £25,000 pop-up rooftop at Columbia and Brunswick Wharf in Hackney, north-east London. The goal was to invite architects, artists and designer to explore innovative ways of living within the city while engaging with issues of sustainability. After shortlisting five designs, PUP Architects—a London-based studio—was selected for their duct-shaped pavilion.

Photo Credit: Jim Stephenson

Called the H-VAC, the structure is built of a timber frame, cladded in shingles made from peach iced-tea Tetra Pak cartons. The design playfully subverts planning legislation by disguising the dwelling as air conditioning equipment. Their design exploits loopholes for mechanical rooftop equipment that does not require planning permission due to relaxed permitted developments rights. The firm stated that "while permitted dev...

Just add a cabin: Gapahuk, a readymade cabin from Snøhetta, is designed to fit in almost anywhere

2017-05-04T13:10:00-04:00

While the gapahuk (which in Norwegian means "a simple wooden structure with two or three walls and a roof") is not new, Snohetta's conceptualization of it as a multi-terrain, potentially solar-panelled off-the-grid insta-cabin is.

The gapahuk has a purposefully tight layout to make it easy to heat and large windows to make it easy to gawk at any available scenery, and also features three bedrooms and an adaptable exterior patio to make it easy to socialize.

The twisted roof bears up equally well under punishing winds and sun, while the design calls for low maintenance materials that can usually be locally sourced. As entries in the sustainably chic category go, this rates highly (provided you have some extra land lying around on which to place it).

Fearing a drop in skilled workers, Brexit Britain looks to prefab housing

2017-03-16T15:01:00-04:00

The prospect of Brexit choking off the supply of EU workers is reshaping Britain's homebuilding industry, with big companies increasingly looking to factory-manufacture houses in sections that can be slotted together on-site with minimal labour. Many of Britain's leading housebuilders, including Berkeley, Taylor Wimpey, Persimmon and Your Housing, told Reuters they were either planning new developments of prefabricated homes or considering doing so.

"You can almost feel the fear among the contractors and housebuilders where they've been surviving on labor from outside the country," says Mark Stevenson, a managing director of construction supplier Kingspan. "We're being pulled in a direction that customers want us to go in, from more work from the building site into the factory."

China will build modular housing factories in the UK, aiming to produce 25,000 homes per year

2016-12-20T13:00:00-05:00

The six planned factories will use British light gauge steel framing to produce panelised components for residential developments that are “at least 75% off-grid” thanks to solar power and energy efficient design, renewables developer Welink said in announcing the joint venture today (19 December). [...] The UK government greeted the news enthusiastically, as it tries to lure innovative entrants to the UK housing market to help it deliver its objective of 1 million new homes by 2020.

More pre-fab on Archinect:

To solve a housing crisis, invest more in modular construction

2016-07-19T13:15:00-04:00

Researchers from the University of British Columbia have suggested that modular construction techniques are key to assuaging cities' housing shortages.

Associate engineering professor Kasun Hewage at UBC, along with PhD candidate Mohammad Kamali, conducted "the first comprehensive review of conventional and modular construction research of its kind," and found that increased factory-produced housing should make it easier for prospective renters and buyers to find a place. It would help cities provide more options that can be built "cheaper, faster and results in fewer workplace injuries," according to Hewage. Their findings were recently published in the journal Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews.

Modular construction is obviously not a new method, but has a bit of a negative rep according to the researchers—the public tends to associate the method with lower-quality structures, and communities like trailer parks. But the study, which reviewed construction data between 2000 and ...

Students design disaster relief structure that takes 2 hours to assemble

2016-06-29T13:08:00-04:00

“AbleNook is a modular disaster relief dwelling that you can put together without tools in under two hours,” Verdecia said.

While Shigeru Ban has become the de facto expert in designing quick yet elegant solutions for disaster relief housing, he may have some competition in the form of two University of South Florida architecture students whose "AbleNook" can be assembled in under 120 minutes without any tools.

Sean Verdecia and Jason Ross, the students behind the design, constructed their 20' x 13' x 10' module out of aircraft grade aluminum with insulated panels that "you can just click together without any tools,” Verdecia said.

Not only can the unit be constructed without tools, but its modularity allows for easy expansion into larger structures. Here's the video backstory behind the Cade Museum People's Choice Award-winning design:

Tracking down Sears Catalog Homes

2016-05-17T15:45:00-04:00

Not long ago, the Sears, Roebuck and Co. mail-order catalog was the ultimate marketplace, much like Amazon is today. You could even buy a house straight from the catalog. Just pick out the home you like, and voila, Sears would deliver it just for you. [...] From 1908 to 1940, Sears sold between 70,000 to 75,000 homes, so there are plenty out there, you just need to know where to look.

↑ This photo shows a Sears "Magnolia" kit house in Benson, North Carolina. (Photo: Rosemary Thornton; image via Wikipedia)

"Sears Modern Homes offered the latest technology available to house buyers in the early part of the twentieth century. Central heating, indoor plumbing, and electricity were all new developments in house design that "Modern Homes" incorporated, although not all of the houses were designed with these conveniences. Primarily shipped via railroad boxcars, these kits included most of the materials needed to build a house. Once delivered, many of these houses were assembled by the new homeowner, relatives, friends and neighbors, in a fashion similar to the traditional barn-raisings of farming families." (via the Sears Catalog Home Wikipedia page)

A Parisian architect's plan to solve housing shortages by adding pre-fab houses to existing structures

2016-02-11T12:52:00-05:00

Parisian designer Stéphane Malka Architecture has suggested creating affordable housing in the French capital by adding prefabricated elements on top of and between existing buildings. The “3box” system does not require the purchase of sites. Instead, the right to build is obtained in exchange for renovating existing buildings. According to Stéphane Malka, the housing would cost 40% less than the usual market price and could be built quickly and cheaply in workshops.

"The units would work with a new Parisian law, the Loi ALUR, which states that 70,000 new dwellings should be built each year, and that rents should be stabilised."

Interested in other novel housing solutions? Check out some related Archinect coverage:

Providing egalitarian habitat for humanity

2015-11-30T05:04:00-05:00

more of them were built in the former Czechoslovakia — in a boom that stretched from 1959 to 1995 — than any place else on what was once Soviet earth. Today, about a third of all Czechs and Slovaks, from all income brackets, still call their panelaks home

Lisa Schwarzbaum traveled to Bratislava to explore its ubiquitous panelaks (aka "panel house"), Soviet era concrete high-rise housing units. The city is also the home of monuments to new capitalism, such as the Aupark shopping center and corporate complexes like Digital Park.

On a related note back in 2014, Hello Czech Republic interviewed architect Michal Kohout regarding possible future(s) for the panelak housing estates.

Regarding the remarkable range of prefab, self-built, movable, and vernacular dwellings

2015-11-24T01:59:00-05:00

Prefab housing plays a big role in recreational dwelling, aside from permanent and work-nomadic forms. This is well illustrated by the thriving KOA (Kampgrounds of America) site I pass on the way into town. KOA, founded in 1962, has 500 sites around US — an alternate housing archipelago experienced by millions of vacationing Americans, and the world’s largest private campsite chain.

Tim McCormick (Founder at Houslets a modular, redeployable, user-buildable, live/work-spaces project), takes readers on a prefab housing tour of Willits, CA.

h/t @AlJavieera

The VIPP Shelter joins the industrial-chic prefab housing market

2015-01-20T18:28:00-05:00

Not long after Muji's Vertical House and Philippe Starck + Riko's eco-prefab house, Danish lifestyle brand VIPP — who is best known for their bins and kitchenware — recently launched their own industrial-chic prefab known as the VIPP Shelter. The VIPP Shelter is a 55 m2, galvanized steel "container house" designed as a getaway retreat that complements VIPP's houseware products inside and various remote natural landscapes.

The two-story prefab structure is delivered in two containers and assembled on site in a matter of days. The house can accommodate up to four people, and is also equipped with furniture, lighting, tables, towels, and bed linens. It also has electrical floor heating and a centrally located fireplace. VIPP Shelter prices start at $585,000 (€485,000) with a delivery time of six months plus freight + installation.

Another feature of the VIPP Shelter is Architectural Solutions' PanoramAH! Series 38 sliding windows on two of the house's four sides on the main level. One si...

Muji's prefab Vertical House now available for Japanese residences

2014-11-03T15:11:00-05:00

MUJI HOUSE, the architectural entity of Japanese design brand Muji, recently released their latest prefab house in Tokyo called the Vertical House. The slender 3-story structure was primarily designed for urban dwellers living within Tokyo's tight living spaces.

Designed with simple white walls and wooden flooring, the house exhibits the same contemporary minimal aesthetic that Muji's products continue to gain popularity for. The house was built with a timber framework method and an open plan interior with no doors or interior walls. The house also features a kitchen and dining area, a living room, bedroom, bathroom, and large windows that allow for ample sunlight.

Muji isn't entirely new to the prefab house scene. The company worked with prominent Japanese architects like Kengo Kuma for the Window House in 2008 followed by the Tree House in 2009. Muji then worked with Shigeru Ban for the Furniture House during the House Vision 2013 Tokyo Exhibition.

Product details:
Name: Vertical Ho...

Philippe Starck + Riko realizes first prototype of custom eco-prefab house

2014-10-17T09:38:00-04:00

First launched in 2013 after years of technological development and collaboration, French designer Philippe Starck and Slovenian wooden prefab building company Riko released the second generation of their customizable Prefabricated Accessible Technological Homes (P.A.T.H.) to the global market just this month. The first P.A.T.H prototype was also recently realized in Montfort, France.

As France works towards its 2020 thermal regulation goal to have all new buildings possess positive energy status, Starck + Riko's prefab homes are packed with high eco-technological systems to allow the homes to produce more energy than they consume. Homeowners have the choice to integrate features like photovoltaic solar panels, wind turbines, rainwater recovery systems, and heat pumps.

Perhaps the most interesting, if not highly marketable, feature of these prefab homes is the variety of mix-and-match design options that cater to homeowners' individual needs and aesthetic preferences. For starters, P....

JAJA & ONV Architects Win Copenhagen Affordable Housing Competition

2013-06-25T20:25:00-04:00

Danish firms JAJA Architects and ONV Architects, in collaboration with Bascon and Scandi Byg, have won the fourth delivery of the affordable housing concept AlmenBolig+. The order comprises 300-400 housing units on sites in the greater Copenhagen area.

Jens Risom's Block Island Retreat by Gary Nadeau

2012-11-26T15:58:00-05:00

"In the late 1960s, designer Jens Risom sought an affordable vacation home for his family on Block Island, off the coast of Rhode Island. Now some 45 years later, the prefab cottage still exists to serve the needs of the growing Risom brood." dwell

A Prefab, Short on the Fab

2012-04-19T15:52:00-04:00

Affordability, along with a minimalist aesthetic, were the reasons she decided on a prefab house — points on which Mr. Buryk, who had years before remodeled a 100-year-old house in Portland, Ore., wholeheartedly agreed. “I, similar to Zoe, was coming from a place of not wanting to do that again,” he said. But it wasn’t quite as affordable as they had hoped. The house cost $260,000 to build, from start to finish (the kit itself was $47,000) — nearly $100,000 more than they’d expected.

IKEA Debuts Completely-Furnished, Pre-Fab, Modern Homes

2012-02-29T16:01:00-05:00

Swedish furniture company IKEA, has collaborated with Oregon architectural firm Ideabox, to launch its first line of prefabricated houses in the U.S., named the “Aktiv.” The IKEA-themed dwelling is a one-bedroom home centered around space-saving furniture and products. The hip and modern house was outfitted taking into consideration the demands from Pacific-Northwest homeowners, and is designed to be eco-friendly.

The Aktiv, Swedish for active, is expected to be priced at US$79,500.