olderThe Unofficial Guide: Green Prefab
Prefab is not a new thing, but the industry is changing and growing everyday. In the beginning, or roughly from 1908 - 1940, Sears, Roebuck and Company sold more than 100,000 homes through their mail-order Modern Homes program. Now, several companies offer various types of prefabs in a spectrum of prices. And to be completely honest, the word 'prefab' is completely loaded. 'Prefab' is commonly used to refer to modern homes built in some prefabricated/factory method. Terms of art and industry jargon abound with words such as modular, manufactured, panelized, stick-built, etc. And to add to that, some prefabs are green. Factory construction presents the opportunity for waste reduction and efficiencies, parts interchangeability, and renewable/recycled materials selection. With prefab, we're catching a glimpse of the future of building and construction. This post is meant to steer you towards the best information, so you can be an expert on the future of our built environment.
PREFAB NOW by James Grayson Trulove & Ray Cha - Freshly released on September 4, 2007, this book comes from the author of several other excellent modern architecture books, such as New Sustainable Homes, 25 Houses Under 1500 Square Feet, and Great Houses on a Budget. PREFAB NOW explains the best prefabricated houses on the market today; advantages/disadvantages of choosing a prefab over a custom-built home; and the cost, sustainability, and durability aspects of prefab houses.
PREFAB MODERN by Jill Herbers - This is also a recent book on prefab including coverage on the international market for modern homes and how to purchase them. The book contains several projects in the prototype (or rendering) stage and is said to be more for beginners, not hardcore enthusiasts. The pictures are excellent and the section on constructing prefab is highly recommended.
PREFAB PROTOTYPES by Mark Anderson & Peter Anderson - This is quality reading for anyone wanting to dig deeper than the pretty images and into the nitty gritty of prefabrication. The authors discuss various methods of prefabricated framing, analyzing the pros and cons of each. This is where to go when you want to know more about prefabrication.
PREFAB by Allison Arieff & Bryan Burkhart - Former-Senior Editor of Dwell magazine, Allison Arieff, put together this famous directory of information on modern prefab architecture. The prefab industry has gathered serious momentum in the last several years, and because this book was published in September 2002, it will not contain information on all the current players in the prefab market. Nevertheless, it's an excellent starting place for information.
FAB PREFAB - a web resource published and edited by Michael Sylvester, Fab Prefab is dedicated to tracking developments in the market for modernist prefab dwellings. This website could be the definite online guide to the prefab market. It includes periodically updated pages on prefab news, projects in progress, container projects, architecture school prefab projects, and forums, etc. Fab Prefab has tons of information available.
PREFABS.COM - billing itself as a guide to modern prefab and modular homes, PREFABS is an excellent online resources for getting started. The website lists most of the prefab designers with relevant pictures, background information, and contact information. I think you'll enjoy the minimalist design and easy navigation. PREFABS also has a really informative page on prefab financing, a subject that tends to elude even the loftiest of experts.
INHABITAT - Inhabitat is a wildly popular weblog founded by Jill Fehrenbacher, which is devoted to the future of design, tracking the innovations in technology, practices and materials that are pushing architecture and home design towards a smarter and more sustainable future. They have an extensive content archive of prefab information going all the way back to April 2005. Just looking at their website, you get sucked in and can read for hours. And all the writers know what they're talking about, too.
JETSON GREEN - I know, why make a list and include your own blog? Well, I work hard to keep up-to-date on news and trends in the green prefab industry. I plan to build and live in a green prefab someday. I'd like to build hundreds of them, so every time I write about prefab, I'm sharing my research in hopes that readers will add their perpective. Currently, we have a robust archive of 77 articles relating to green prefab.
MOCO LOCO - edited and published by Harry Wakefield, MoCo Loco is a web magazine dedicated to modern & contemporary design news and views, including everything related to modern architecture and prefab. MoCo Loco features some of the most unique, modern projects in the world, which is probably due to its huge fan base that submits the best of the best. This is high-quality material.
TREEHUGGER - now pumping out nearly thirty green articles a day, sometimes, it's a daunting task to keep up with all the information available on our planet as it undergoes a major green overhaul. Buried within Treehugger's helpful archive, you'll find articles and exclusives on the world of green prefab, many of which have been written by the irascible, yet affable Lloyd Alter. Lloyd has extensive experience working in the prefab world as an architect and developer--he knows prefab intimately better than most.
PREFABCOSM - a relatively new entrant to online world documenting the prefab scene, Peter Bernheim is the main guy behind Prefabcosm. Writing to the potential prefab or modular homeowner audience, Prefabcosm keeps tabs on new online articles, blog posts, and news for various prefab models. They want to have the web's #1 for prefab and modular homes, which I think is possible, but there's certainly going to be some competition with the stalwarts mentioned above.
What about Dwell? It is obsessed with prefab.
Posted by: Jennifer | October 20, 2007 at 03:16 AM
A little more academic, but a must-read if you are interested in the history of prefab, is Colin Davies' The Prefabricated Home. Last sentence:
"A garden shed can be more enchanting than a luxury villa; a roadside restaurant can be as pleasant as a pavilion in a park. It is a question of judgement, of caring about the building and its future life, of knowing how to strike the right balance between standard products and special places. Architects ought to be good at this kind of thing. But designing one-off prototypes to amuse their colleagues will get them nowhere. To make a real difference, they must learn the lesson of the prefabricated house."
Posted by: Lloyd Alter | October 21, 2007 at 06:23 AM