The original Mod.Fab installed on the grounds of Taliesin West will live again thanks to a new endeavor between Lindal Cedar Homes and both the Frank Lloyd Wright School of Architecture and Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation. Thus, Mod.Fab will be available anywhere there’s a Lindal dealer, except the plan is also available in an additional exterior finish and in two larger sizes, 680 and 790 square feet.
When I first saw what Vine Saccento was doing with v100 Mod Box, I was impressed. And I’m still impressed as his prototype has been rolled out recently in the form of three prefab homes at the southern end of downtown Phoenix at 749 S. Second Street. One is rented by Tom Kelly, CEO of Schaller Anderson, and designer Saccento is living in another.
One thing you don’t want to do, if you’re interested in buying a prefab home, is pay some company to design something only to find out you can’t afford it in the first place. Or, as mentioned in a recent NY Times article about prefab kit homes, you definitely don’t want to get into the build without a clear vision of the total costs to complete the home. It’s mission critical that the prefab buying process be entirely transparent.
The concept of using off-site fabricated modules for core elements of a home is not necessarily new. In fact, most recently Proto Homes introduced a hybrid-prefab system with the Proto Core, which is a chase for mechanical, plumbing, and electrical. It’s also being used in the form of “wet-cores” for The House of the Immediate Future with Habitat for Humanity (Seattle/South King County) at the Seattle Center.
Here’s a time-lapse video of one of the first Huf Haus prefabs in the country. Offered through Cleveland-based DotGreen, these homes are precision built in Germany and shipped in containers to the project site. Then, with the help of the local architect, in this case Sage Designs NW, the general contractor, Schmoes Construction, and the structural engineer, Visser Engineering, the timber-frame prefab is assembled.
This is Beachaus I in the White Rock area of British Columbia. The home (like the neighbor, Beachaus II) is on the market, should you have an interest in a luxe, modern, prefabricated home with incredible views. Beachaus — located at 15611 Columbia Avenue — is waiting for LEED certification from the CAGBC and has three bedrooms, two full bathrooms, two half bathrooms, a two-car garage, and about 2,085 square feet.
