Pre-fab - Part 8

Seattle’s Timber Frame FabCab

Logan, Tammy Strobel’s from the Rowdy Kittens blog husband brought this new company to my attention recently. I have been in touch with Maura a partner in the business to learn more about this unique timber frame pre-fab product.

FabCab designs and sells pre-fabricated and kit-built environmentally-friendly homes and accessory dwelling units (ADUs).

Maura says: “We launched our company in March and we have had an outpouring of support and interest in our products. We are passionate about designing environments that marry “green” design, design that supports people with a range of ages and abilities and prefab design. Therefore, our environments are designed to be flexible, open and easy to use and live in.”

The Chapman Ridge

by Kent Griswold

This house is designed and built lt by John Hilmer. It has a bell swoop at the bottom and finishes at the top with a beautiful cupola that is utilized to vent the building.

The house is made of hemlock and pine from the woods of Maine and sawn by a local sawyer in Athens, Maine.

Since it is almost only wood and nails the building releases minimal off gases. No harmful glues and plastics are used. The building is built using mostly hand tools so as to lower the carbon footprint of the builders and customer. The walls are sheathed with boards the old-fasioned way so no ply wood is used that contains harmful glue.

Zook Cabins

by Christina Nellemann

Blending the benefits of a prefab, a log cabin and a mobile home, Zook Cabins, built by the Amish in Pennsylvania, offers several different types of fully assembled cabins in single or double-wide units that can be delivered directly to your property. Several different floorplans are also available, as well as customization and integration of your own design.

Zook Cabins are offered as fully assembled units for the simple reason in that it makes it easier on the owner. The Zook website says that most buyers of kit homes don’t have a lot of time or extra hands to construct a cabin from a kit or from scratch. Also, if your building site isn’t precisely level, the precut lumber doesn’t fit, or if you place one piece wrong you fight everything the rest of the way, and sometimes a piece will be cut wrong at the factory. Couple that with the fact that very few people have ever assembled a kit, and have yet to face the frustrations of doing it themselves or finding someone to do it for them.

The E.D.G.E

by Christina Nellemann

This tiny prefab home is an experiment in all things efficient. The E.D.G.E., designed and built by by Bill Yudchitz and Revelations Architects/Builders Corp. in Wisconsin, stands for an Experimental Dwelling for a Greener Environment, and recently won a design award from the American Institute of Architects-Wisconsin.

Several details of this design make it unique to other prefab designs. The “kinetic facade” rain screen, which consists of tall louvered panels, can be closed over the passive solar windows to insulate the interior and protect the E.D.G.E. when unoccupied. It contains two lofts with full staircases, and the furniture is custom made for the house and is multi-functional. In fact, the dining room furniture transforms into a bed.

dwelle dwelle.ings

by Christina Nellemann

These tiny prefab homes, originally created as “sheds for living” by architect, Richard Frankland, have morphed into the company dwelle. Their tiny houses are called dwelle.ings. Right now they are only for sale in the UK, but with the world’s response to the current economic climate, that may change.

This range of carefully designed micro buildings are highly sustainable, quick to erect and adaptable to many landscapes. The intent for each building is to be completely off-grid with additional costs added to incorporate renewable energy systems.

Backyard Box

by Christina Nellemann

These small, well-designed little backyard houses are actually much better looking and more detail oriented than a basic box, without forsaking the modern, prefab style. Backyard Box, a company based in Seattle, designs and builds small prefab houses that can be used in many ways: as a rental income property, guest house, home office, mother-in-law apartment or a tiny house.

The smallest design is the MatchBox, a studio that packs a kitchen, living room and bath into 400 square feet. It can fit into a lot that is 17 by 27 feet and starts at $79,500. A larger design is the SandBox, a one story backyard cottage with kitchen, living room, bathroom and one bedroom. It is 600 square feet and is designed for simple and minimalist living on one level, and will fit on most city lots at just 17 by 37 feet. The SandBox starts at $86,500. Each of these houses are custom architect-designed and you can choose from three finish levels.

Greenbox

by Kent Griswold

Derek Metson of Greenbox Designs, LLC located in Clackamas, Oregon let me know about their product which design I think could fit into the tiny house market.

Derek says that the Greenbox is the solution to a homeowner’s expanding needs, extending living, working or storage space outside your existing confines. Produced with sustainable, regional materials, Greenbox is a viable, quick and economical way of expanding your environment. A Greenbox unit can readily be assembled in one day.

Each unit is customizable to suit a home owners needs and comes in several different sizes.

Plumbing, electrical or HVAC can be customized.
Windows are available in over 25 pre-finished colors.
Low VOC paints are available in over a thousand colors.
Color matching with paints or stains is available to match your existing residence.
Read more

Tiny Prefab Units Promote Eco-friendly Building

by Kent Griswold

Tammy from Rowdy Kittens alerted me to a local article about some prefab units being built for parking lots in Berkley and San Francisco. Following is a couple of paragraphs from the article and you can read the complete article at SFGate.

A young San Francisco company that makes prefabricated housing is set to provide multifamily buildings for two urban Bay Area projects that its development partner hopes will become a model for eco-friendly construction.

Zeta Communities will construct the housing for the 22-unit developments, planned for parking lots in Berkeley and San Francisco. The projects will feature tiny living spaces – 310- to 340 square-foot studios – and no parking. Instead, they will include a car-sharing space.

The proposed four-story projects are the first foray into prefabricated housing for East Bay developer Patrick Kennedy of Panoramic Interests.

Allwin Prefab Summer Cottage

by Christina Nellemann

I saw this deep blue prefab summer house on a website called Allwin, a Chinese company that develops, designs and manufactures prefabricated buildings.

Their CH23 mobile house unit is a 20 foot-container made of light steel. The house includes one bedroom, one bathroom and an open kitchen. The total area is 15 meters square. It’s suitable for any climate and location.

There is modern styling in the bathroom and kitchen and the windows and doors allow for ample sunshine and beautiful panoramic views.

Allwin really offers a huge selection of prefab housing ranging from small summer houses and tea houses to hotels and apartment buildings. They even have a mobile cottage that looks surprisingly like the Lodge on Wheels. Their website is a little difficult to wade through for English speakers and their information is lacking, but some of their designs are eye-catching. You can contact them directly on their website for design and shipping questions.

Allwin was established in 1997 and feels it is their duty to create ecological construction and high quality buildings.Their products are prefabricated in local factories and the design can be individualized and made to withstand earthquakes, hurricanes or other disasters.

Cabana Village Kits

by Christina Nellemann

Last year I did a small post on Cabana Village Garden Buildings, and since then their tiny cabin kit gallery has grown. I thought the Tiny House readers would get a kick out of some of Cabana Village’s latest designs. Their website also features an interactive design center so you can customize your cabin kit.

Cabana Village builds cabin kits and cottage bunkies to be used as weekenders, lakeside cottages, starter cabins or backyard retreats. They also build pool houses, sheds, garden studios and garage kits. The cabins, cottages and bunkies feature cedar doors, windows and trim and are available in cedar or maintenance-free Canexel siding. All their cabanas have 1/2″ plywood roof sheathing and 2×4 SPF framing. With their sturdy construction and use of quality materials, extensive pre-fabrication, ease of assembly, and attractive design, their possible uses are only limited by your imagination.

House Plans Flexa Studio

by Kent Griswold

Dan Gregory from HousePlans.com contacted me the other day to let me know about their new Flexa Studio, a modern, versatile, 120 square-foot prefabricated room. “It’s a way to add space without the expense and disruption of remodeling,” he says.

Award-winning designer Casper Mork-Ulnes, who holds a Master of Architecture degree from Columbia University and is creative director of Modern Cabana, developed Flexa Studio in collaboration with Houseplans.com.

The 10- by 12-foot structure comes pre-assembled or as a panelized kit-of-parts that you put together yourself. In both cases you build the foundation, then bolt the Flexa Studio to it.

The Flexa Studio has a simple shed-roof and crisp horizontal rain-screen siding — with glass entry door and fixed and operable side windows — give the structure a handsome contemporary presence to complement any garden setting. Place it in the backyard or side yard, to use as a home office, media room, or teen pad: or add a sleeper and turn it into an overflow guest room, or as many of us tiny house enthusiast would consider great for a retreat or tiny house somewhere.

Curved by Design

by Christina Nellemann

If your dream home still takes on the shape of a mushroom or a Hobbit house, maybe one of these dome homes by Curved by Design will fit your bill. Curved By Design, Inc. is based in British Columbia, Canada and they design and build small garden or backyard domes, cottages and guest houses for recreational and tourist properties.

Their smallest design is the Garden/Backyard Dome which is approximately 12 feet in diameter, provides 100 square feet of floor space and can be built on a small stem wall to provide additional height. The advantage of this size dome is that it falls under building permit requirements and yet provides a spacious and calm ambience. Curved by Design also features two small designs: the 24 Foot Open Plan dome which is ideal as a relaxing yoga studio, a spacious conference room, or a guest house and the 24 Foot One Bedroom dome which can accomodate one spacious bedroom, a full bath and kitchen, a cozy living room and plenty of storage.