Pre-fab - Part 6

Curved by Design

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.

Cabin Fever

by Christina Nellemann

Clean, green and eye-catching. For fans of prefab tiny houses, these three words describe the beautiful designs of Cabin Fever, based in Irvine, California and Miami, Florida. Their prefab designs encompass everything that you need in a tiny house including green design, customization, various size options and simple but elegant details. The prices are not bad either.

The Cabin Fever cabins are built in the factory, then disassembled, packed and shipped to the customer, to be reassembled on-site. This process (along with the permit process) can take about five months. Their cabin packages contain pre-built wall sections, an engineered roof and precision cut components. All hardware, nuts and bolts, screws and nails, and a full set of engineered architectural drawings are included. Depending on local soil conditions, codes and site grade, cabins can be built on a concrete slab or a wood timber foundation system.

International Dome Houses

by Christina Nellemann

The Japanese know a thing or two about living in small spaces. Additionally, Japanese designers and architects also have to know a thing or two about how to design homes for a country with high land prices, strict building codes and numerous earthquakes. These futuristic prefab houses from the International Dome House Company are built from segmented slices made of expanded polystyrene that claim to be superior to wood, iron and concrete.

Japanese Dome House Website

The company is located in Japan, but the dome segments are made in their factory in South Korea. Several small “villages” of various sizes of the dome houses have been built in Japan, where the design has been approved by the Japanese Ministry of Land and Transport. This building system can also be adapted for small businesses, storage areas or bathhouses.

weeHouse Studio for Sale

by Christina Nellemann

Fans of Alchemy Architects and the weeHouse now have a chance to purchase the weeHouse studio that was used as the Saturn Sky convertible touring companion. The cost for the original house was $65,000, but Alchemy is offering the studio as is for $48,000.

Download the sales PDF here.

The 27×12 foot weeHouse was an integral part of the Saturn marketing campaign linking high-end cutting edge design with their automobile. The weeHouse shipped 100% complete, and features a special steel frame with forklift pockets and removable casters to allow the house to be easily handled by hand or forklift on standard flatbed trucks, thus significantly reducing shipping costs.

Lakefront Log Cabins

by Christina Nellemann

Now is the perfect time of year to curl up next to a woodstove in a tiny lakeside cabin. Lakefront Log Cabins, located in beautiful Lake Tahoe, offers customized precut cabin kits in several different sizes ranging from 12×16 feet to 18×32 feet. These cabins have been built for weekend getaways, hunting cabins and primary residences.

Lakefront has sent their cabin kits all over the country including Alaska. They are also working with customers in Canada and Panama. Each standard cabin kit is created from fresh milled logs and then precut by Amish craftsmen in Kentucky.

The P-POD

by Christina Nellemann

With a nod to Eastern style and philosophy, and an eye on ecologically sound and environmentally sensitive design, Tim Cornell of Polehouses.com has created a tiny house kit that is appropriate for any climate and location. The 576 square foot P-Pod is climatically appropriate, durable and recyclable.

Tim explained that the P-POD housing is a “building system” more than simply a specific house design. His system is a uniquely engineered “kit of parts” and space frame grids, that can be adapted quickly for any and all housing regimes, programs, and designs desired. P-POD units can be stacked 2 or 3 tall, or spread out in any configuration such as townhouses, duplexes, apartment buildings, etc.