Many of today’s new prefab home companies are proving that green can cost less. Here’s what just a few of them are doing.
Denver’s Eco-Infill http://www.eco-infill.com/ is working with the Boulder architectural firm Studio H:T to build the first-ever. The project is targeting a Silver LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) certification from the U.S. Green Building Council, the USGBC. The three-level home is within walking distance of downtown Denver and located on a narrow, 24-foot-wide lot. It will be built in a factory north of Denver, then trucked to the site and craned into place in about four hours.
Green architect Michelle Kaufmann, based in California, designed the prefab Breezehouse™ with Sunset® magazine. A distinctive butterfly-shaped roof over the BreezeSpace, a glass-enclosed breezeway or porch, allows the “green in to the main living and dining areas.” Other designs from MKD include the MKlofts and the MKlotus homes. Prices start at about $200/sf.
You can read the stories behind many of her prefabs and learn from her five eco-principles–smart design, eco-materials, energy efficiency, water conservation, and healthy environment–in Kaufmann’s new book, Prefab Green, which was just published by Gibbs-Smith. Prefab Green can be purchased at Amazon.com and Barnes & Noble as well as specialty bookstores, including Builders Booksource (Berkeley, CA), Rizzoli (NY), and the bookstore at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art.
Like Kaufmann, LivingHomes, also based in California, caters to the higher end of the green building market with green amenities like tankless water heaters, bamboo flooring, and rainwater harvesting.
Alchemy Architects’ WeeHouse is a marvel in the world of small, and green, construction. Their box units start at about $65,000 for 341 sf.
If you don’t like the look of the prefab box, especially when it’s dropped into an older neighborhood, there are the “new old modular” homes designed by NewWorld Homes. The New York-based company specializes in designs that look like old homes but that include a “host of environmentally friendly products and practices,” including optional wind or solar power.
Bluhomes in Boston also are committed to green building practices, as are the PieceHomes line of green prefabs designed by Davis Studio Architecture + Design of Los Angeles, and the woman-owned ecohealth homes which has partnered with the huge Penn Lyon Homes to bring EnergyStar-certified modular models to market.
“Prefab homebuilding is undergoing a revival,” says Home Power magazine in a good wrap-up of the current green prefab industry. “Green prefab promises an efficient way of building a high quality, energy-conserving home with smart, earth-friendly materials.”
The Modular Building Systems Association is sponsoring a special training opportunity in Green Building at the new midtown campus of the Harrisburg Area Community College in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, on April 17 and 18 with the Central Pennsylvania Factory Built Housing Partnership. This course will also include the exam to receive Green Advantage Certification.
