Oregon-based Ideabox has been on the prefab scene doing their thing in the Pacific Northwest for a long time now.  I’ve mentioned several of their homes and look forward to sharing a few newsworthy articles here in the next couple months.  As a preview, I thought I’d share a new design of the company — the Minibox.  It’s a 200 square-foot tiny house with a kitchen, bathroom, and bedroom/living area.  It’ll have IKEA cabinets and fixtures, energy-efficient appliances, and Energy Star windows.  More soon …

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KitHAUS recently shared photos of a prefab writer’s studio installed in the Brentwood area of western Los Angeles.  The building was made with bolt-together aluminum framing, windows and doors with low-E glazing, and SIPs that are CFC, HCFC, HFC, and formaldehyde-free.  The new studio is from KitHAUS‘s standard K4 module.  K4 has 187 square feet, assembles in about four days, and costs from $39,750.

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Now this is an interesting story as it relates to the prefab construction in the USA.  Blu Homes just announced that the company sold and is currently manufacturing its first home personalized entirely online in 3-D by the purchaser.  Cathy and Walter Pearlman fired up the Blu | 3-D Configurator, settled on the Element Series, personalized it, and then sent their custom design to Blu for purchase.  Blu confirmed the selections, made one change to the bathroom tile, and then the sent the 3-D plans to the factory.

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This is a “Granny Annex” in Kent, England, fabricated by in.it.studios in eight weeks. In.it.studios fashioned the backyard prefab with a well-insulated envelope, Canadian Western Red Cedar cladding, a “zero maintenance” living sedum roof, floor to ceiling windows, a sky light in the hallway, an Accoya deck, and other built-ins with PEFC- and FSC-certified woods.

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With off-site construction, homeowners can benefit from things like accelerated construction, controlled construction, construction without the elements, reduced construction waste, access to a skilled workforce, etc.  So it’s no surprise that the prefab industry continues to expand — we’re tracking that!  In fact, here are 22 built projects that we mentioned in the last year (with high hopes for several more next year, too):

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