The Dwell Home is for sale, with bids starting at $550,000. Official press release follows...
WORLD FAMOUS MODERN HOME OFFERED FOR SALE
OPEN HOUSE NOVEMBER 17 – NOVEMBER 20
Raleigh, NC – November 8 -- The most celebrated modern prefab home in America is now offered for sale. An open house will take place from Thursday, November 17 through Sunday, November 20 at 196 Beech Hill, Pittsboro NC. Bids begin at $550,000. Directions and more information can be found at www.Wieler.com
Winner of the first Dwell Home Design Invitational, the Wieler House has claimed its place in architectural history; it has been featured in major world publications, including USA Today, The Wall Street Journal, and The New York Times. Hailed as “the most high-profile modern prefab house in America†by the Washington Post, the home marries luxury, sustainability, modern design and 21st century prefab technologies.
Set on a hilltop retreat on seven acres adjacent to hundreds of acres protected land, the 2,340 square foot home has two bedrooms, 2.5 baths and includes a 300 square foot bonus room/office/guest bedroom with a separate entrance. Its open floor plan affords panoramic views of the neighboring federal nature preserve and features the ultimate in high-end luxury amenities, including:
Gated driveway with remote control and keypad access, gourmet kitchen, stainless steel Jenn-Air appliances, Kohler Purist fixtures, soaking tub in master bath, Artemide lighting, sustainable bamboo flooring, maple cabinets, Bang & Olufsen audio system throughout house, Home Director smart home system, Lennox Signature Series high-efficiency A/C, rooftop terrace with outdoor fireplace, Neoporte stainless steel entry doors, Loewen windows and sliding glass doors, Trex decking, red cedar siding, wood-burning fireplace in living area, and much more.
The home is located 25 minutes from UNC at Chapel Hill and the university hospital, 40 minutes from Duke, Durham and Raleigh Durham Airport and downtown Raleigh auditorium, civic center and RBC sports complex.
Encouraged by the overwhelming media attention in national and international publications, and the enthusiasm of thousands who traveled far to attend the open house, Nathan Wieler decided to make the same type of housing available to other homebuyers. Thus, in addition to sparking a movement, the Wieler House is also the prototype for launching Mr. Wieler’s modern housing company, Wieler Homes. In addition, Wieler DFG, a company that Wieler started with business partner, Adam Hathcock, is developing hundreds of acres, primarily in Chatham County, North Carolina, where architect-designed modern prefab homes will be welcomed.
About Wieler Homes and Wieler DFG
Wieler DFG develops modern communities and residences, primarily in Chatham County, about 30 miles southwest of Raleigh, North Carolina. Current projects include The Henley Community and The White Mountain Community. Exclusively offered through Wieler Homes are Greenbelt houses, a series of homes designed by the venerable Case Study Architect, Ralph Rapson. His series of Greenbelt houses offer cutting-edge prefabrication techniques and environmentally friendly construction practices. Greenbelt Houses are available in several different designs that combine into dozens of configurations to accommodate diverse site conditions, changes in family requirements, climates, and budgets. Homebuyers nationwide also have the option of purchasing the Greenbelt Design Packages, also offered exclusively through Wieler Homes.
For more information contact:
Annette Mason 305-373-8616
Annette@IWPRGro
14 Comments
so much for affordability through prefabrication.
Dwell forgot about its "fruit bowl manifesto" ages ago, but this latest stunt cements its move towards those who can afford luxury SUV land rovers, a $2,000 coffee maker, and 55" plasma tvs. These are all ads in the latest dec/jan 2005 issue.
Has it jumped the shark?
It jumped it, poked it in the eye, kicked it in the stomach, ate it in one bite and 'passed' it on the white sand beach.
Suture,
Although I agree that Dwell seems to have strayed from their manifesto isn't this the homowner who is selling this not Dwell?
welcome to the real estate bubble... I am guessing the homeowner (who is basically a property developer) is feeling the coming implosion and selling fast.
yuck.
this pre-fab model only proves that the aristocracy can own homes built on and off site.
i could be wrong but the founding fathers of pre-fab (frey, gropius, keck and keck, fuller, breuer, etc.) may have had something else in mind... something a soldier and their family could afford I believe was the idea.
for 500k, you'd at least hope there were a couple of gold-plated toilets in the house.
the dwell (and most other heavily-hyped) pre-fab model is available to those architecturally- curious folks, with means, who want to play around with a pet house for funzies. there is really zero evidence that a fully-functioning and fully-equipped pre-fab house on the market (at least from the design side... see below) today can be had by anyone who couldn't already afford a modest (to not-so-modest), site-sensitive, traditionally built, house. thus relegating this model to an inconsequential anomoly at best.
sadly, there is a booming pre-fab house system in place. put the tunnel vision aside and look around as you leave any large city and you will see the 'manufactured homes' that we all abhor, but are purchased regularly like an extra value meal at wendys. thank you... drive through.
if the dwell-model could tuck its tail between its legs and quit perpetuating the horrors of this profession that thrive on further alienating the architectural community from the masses and accept that there is a successful pre-fab system that could be embraced in a meaningful way. maybe its not our train... but who said we can't jump on one that is already moving? set the bar lower at first rather than swinging for the fences. our first victory may be simply getting rid of those plastic shutters that currently doll-up these homes. and then go from there.
the larger problem is that high-design pre-fab will not work in any meaningful way until we understand that our first charge is to bridge the gap between SAKs and Walmart.
500K could and has easily housed 5 families in East Texas. Nevermind the chicken coups and broken-down farm equipment.
So: is this Nathan Wieler guy for real, or just f***ing around? Selling the general public on the benefits of modern prefab are pretty tough when you issue national press releases to announce that your own prefab dream home was at least 275% over-budget. What a joker.
tha606 is jumping to conclusions a little. the house budget was for the house only. presumably the sale price now includes the land and site improvements beyond the house.
also the house budget was the budget for the wielers, building their own house. we can assume that they will make some profit in the sale.
all prefab projects aren't pursuing the same agenda so we shouldn't lump them all together. this project was not about making cheap housing. it was about making custom modern housing competitive with non-architect housing of similar specs. it's about getting US involved in the design of houses.
i can't imagine why pre-fab would want to compete with non-architect driven custom homes. there couldn't be an audience for this other than the occasional one-off... like this dwell-house. if WE are to be involved in the design of a house, it seems those who could afford the Dwell-model would want something a little more tailored to their own lifestyle (and site) rather than something out of a factory (I include myself in this theroy).
Educating potential clients about the benefits of architect designed homes is one challenge... certainly.
Pref-fab, historically, was and should be about the masses. The architect in this case almost needs to be the silent partner, letting the public judge if we actually have something to offer by unknowingly chosing our effort over the tried and true iconoclastic, monopoly-style, manufactured home.
Anyway... it just seems that pre-fab, by nature, isn't for those who could have it anyway they want it. It was intended to be economical at it's core.. and thus for people of reasonable means.
If all prefab projects aren't conceptually aligned, then it will almost be impossible to provide for the masses, if some philanthropist was willing to pay a premium just to see his house delivered to his site on a flatbed truck.
I don't see a realistic scenerio where there can be two bars, if they are both coming from a factory...
unless, one factory can dip a house panel in diamond-powder.
the dwell house was a one-off, sort of... it was also part of a much broader scope of inquiry on the part of res4. if you read what they're doing, here, it's pretty clever and makes some sense.
they didn't jump on a bandwagon > they had an idea and they pursued it, putting everything they had at risk in the process. isn't rigorous pursuit of an idea for improving both the role profession in the built environment and quality of life something to be admired?
and, despite what you might think, there does appear to be an audience/clientele for this kind of housing. the feedback that dwell, res4, fabprefab, flatpak, vardera, glidehouse, romero, etc. have had has been phenomenal.
Steven - OK, good point.
I'm only wondering why I can't find photos of a single Wieler/Rapson Greenbelt anywhere on the internet. (That one on LiveModern doesn't count, it is mostly sitebuilt.) So I restate my original question - is Wieler for real? Does he expect people to take him seriously when he's hawking BIRDHOUSES www.modernbirdhouses.com?
I smell a distinct lack of vision...
right. yes. all very admirable. to be commended.
i am familiar with all you have mentioned.
but, again, pre-fab in these cases, do not seem to serve the greater need. yes, the house and spaces are wonderful and exciting. and, in the end there is nothing wrong with the projects and ideas.
but, in my mind, there will be no paradigm shift without an enormous eye on the bottom line.
the phenomenal response you mention is a relative term. and it appears (and i could be wrong) that the responses you refer to are again from those who brought an appreciation of design to the table in the first place.
historically, pre-fab was first in tended to be affordable... and the bonus was that the good design was thrown in for no additional cost.
these examples you site are not following that model.
again, the efforts are to be commended here. but perpetuating good design is something that should be a broad-based effort anyhow... a constant... nothing that 'special' among people who frequent this site. better design in the context of medium that historically was to be driven by economy of means makes the whole pre-fab fad more questionable inherently. and, admittedly a huge challenge.
i simply do not agree that anything 'special' has been done within the pre-fab model until you cater to the average Joe... and actually positively affect the broader housing market.
the problem with the manufactured housing industry to date has been that it has been poorly designed and considered 'cheap'. this is because economics were the first consideration, over quality.
if a model can be developed in which manufactured housing is, first, desirable, and then its desirability can lead to the lowering of its cost, through supply/demand, does that not have the potential to affect the broader housing market?
if the effort starts with bottom line as the primary consideration it will go the way of those efforts in the past. it will be seen as 'cheap'.
creation of desire, and thus a market, must come first.
i believe you can look at the Target Graves model as a good expample where his teapot cost the same as one lesser designed teapot next to it. Had the Graves model been evenly marginally more, the consumer probably wouldn't have bitten.
this is what the pre-fab. market is up against. those who are willing to pay more for design, even a little more, will likely hire an architect, even if they can't afford it, and get something that is uniquely theirs.
i absolutely do not agree with the idea that if you design what you and i consider a desirable model, then the masses will follow. it will not happen. not to be a cynic, but this is a fact. unless you can make the cost between it and the manufactured home option a constant, it will not happen.
and the idea that design costs will be lowered once demand has been established is again pretty naive... in the reality of the built environment (which is completely unique compared to say the electronic gadgets world, where your arguement stands up).
i could be wrong, but i don't think the dymaxion was seen as cheap.
build it and they will come... an attitude that has long been cliche' and generally unsuccessfu in our propfession. focus on the bottom line and throw in the design at 'no additional' cost. then you may have something. then once you have a housing stock out there and in place, the bottom line can be raised as needed.
i think within this debate, it must be reinforced that when you are talking about patrons of design (be it through pre-fab or fashion or whatever), you are talking about a drop in the barrel of the population. I am interested in seeing more meaningful efforts that can actually significantly change things. The Dwell-model, and others are not going to be able to do this... until more humility is brought to the table. There are forces in place much greater than good fenestration and the rest of it that must be embraced and manipulated to the advantage of our cause (because we obviously know best) before a difference will be made.
i do think that leveraging the methods of manufactured housing can allow lower costs through economies of scale. the dwell house was a prototype and was therefore expensive. if put into production, the customizable prefab would realize economies through volume.
i think saying anything is 'fact' when you're talking about what will/will not happen in the future is kind of goofy.
the dymaxion house was probably never seen as cheap. but, then, it was only seen as desirable in a wonky, science project kind of way...
i know that many architectural experiments have failed in the past. prefab as a way of building is an idea (and currently a notable cultural phenomena even beyond architectural circles) that will either succeed or fail and i can't guess which.
i'm not looking to win, so i'll stop here. my initial response was merely to make sure that some misconceptions about the dwell house in particular didn't go unchallenged.
great discussion...and i rather late am going to jump in....
i love pre-fab but i think that i am sadened by the fact that much like bauhaus design intended for the common man...we are left with something that become "in reach" for only the rich. (sorry DWR)
ikea is really the only model that we could follow. something from ikea is not a longterm solution, but gives good design to the masses.
one of the ways that the market controls design is that nice design increases the value of land etc. think of places like marfa, tx... naturally, i would sell my property if the value (and taxes) suprpass my abilities...
i think the problem does not lie in the construction process as prefab has attempted to solve...but in long term use. the way we make a city better is by having people who care for their city. we have become a nomadic society...and see our property merely as an investment...
sorry, it is a little scattered. i have been working on this for a couple of years...too much material.
Block this user
Are you sure you want to block this user and hide all related comments throughout the site?
Archinect
This is your first comment on Archinect. Your comment will be visible once approved.