Archive for July, 2007
July 16, 2007 at 6:55 pm · Tags: Florida, green building, Palm Beach Post, US
Green looks like gold at this year’s Southeast Builders Conference.
As the South’s largest trade show and educational conference, the gathering brings together everyone from builders to architects to remodelers from 12 states from Texas to Virginia, said Edie Ousley, spokeswoman for the Florida Home Builders Association, which sponsors the show every year.
Friday afternoon, the GreenTrends trade show was buzzing with activity. Exhibitors included Alpha Spray Foam (and it did - spray foam, that is), Forevergreen Building Products and Solar Energy Inc. From the elaborate - prefab Doric columns and tankless hot water systems - to the minute - handmade fishing lures, hundreds of conference members squeezed through aisles to watch and wonder.
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July 15, 2007 at 12:17 pm · Tags: Chesapeake Bay, KieranTimberlake, Loblolly House, Maryland, Philadelphia Inquirer, Washington Post
As much as any man-made shelter can, his new house gives the impression that it has taken root on its own initiative among the tall trees. The three-bedroom structure rises from the sandy ground on husky wood pilings that resemble the trunks of the region’s distinctive loblolly pines. It’s camouflaged on three sides by a lacy scrim of long cedar slats. You would never suspect that Kieran’s all-natural beach shack, dubbed the Loblolly House, is actually a child of the machine.
Designed on a computer in the Philadelphia office of his firm, KieranTimberlake, the house’s 3-D construction specs were e-mailed to a custom builder in New Hampshire, who turned out a flat pack of precision-cut panels embedded with all the necessary pipes, wires and windows. Those panels were shipped to Maryland on the beds of standard 8 1/2 -foot-wide tractor-trailers.
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July 10, 2007 at 4:25 pm · Tags: Glidehouse, Michelle Kaufmann, Michelle Kaufmann Designs, Oakland, US
MICHELLE KAUFMANN BELIEVES THAT buying an environmentally friendly home should be as simple as ordering a pair of sneakers. Sitting at her laptop in her Oakland, California, office, the architect goes to the Nike Web site, chooses a shoe, and clicks a few buttons. Moments later her customized sneakers are ready for review: white with orange laces and an orange swoosh, the initials “MK” stitched on the tongue.
The process for ordering one of Kaufmann’s solar-ready, sustainably built, water- and energy-efficient modular homes isn’t that different. She offers three basic designs, each of which uses ecofriendly materials like bamboo flooring, recycled-glass tiles, and efficient dual-flush toilets. Clients choose a model, then Kaufmann meets with them to figure out the details and price. They can customize finishes, select the number of bedrooms and bathrooms, and decide whether to have the house fitted with solar panels. A few months after final permits have been granted, trucks roll up to the client’s building site and deliver the house in sections. It takes only a couple of hours to position the modules, and another four to six weeks to complete the finish work. The prefab model costs 20 percent less than an identical site-built house and takes a third less time to construct. All this is key to Kaufmann’s mission: making green architecture accessible to everyone. “People want to do the right thing,” she says, “but it has to be affordable.”
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July 10, 2007 at 4:15 pm · Tags: Accessory, Modern Cabana, San Francisco
Today’s PreFabHighlight is on Modern Cabana’s prefab structures. According to their own website, “Modern Cabana is a private, family owned business that provides its clients with designer, pre-fabricated accessory structures of the highest quality design and integrity.”
Modern Cabana’s structures are simple, elegant, and inviting. We at PrefabUpdate would love one to do our blogging in!
July 10, 2007 at 4:01 pm · Tags: Availability, delivery, Oregon, PacificDomes, US, West Coast, Your Emails
Every once in a while, you, our readers, are nice enough to drop us an email. We respond quickly, and when the question is pertinent to others, we like to pass them along.
Herb out in Oregon recently wrote,
Who is currently selling modernist, high-tech prefabs in Oregon?
Truth be told, a lot of times a prefab builder’s whereabouts does not have a huge bearing on their buildings availability in your area; this is especially true if you are located in the continental U.S. or Canada. One reason for this is that the cost of delivery, especially if the home can be placed on one truck, is not exorbitant. Another is that many builders will partner with several factories around the country in order to lower the distance from factory to your site.
Some preliminary research found only PacificDomes which are interesting strucutres but are probably not what you had in mind, Herb.
If anyone has any suggestions, feel free to comment on this post or drop us an email (click the envelope icon on the left hand side of your screen).
