prefab

Ikea designs $86,500 prefab house, instructions included

I've put together some Ikea furniture in my time, but nothing close to an entire house. I'm pretty confident I could make it through Ikea and Ideabox's Aktiv house with minimal cursing, though.

Fortunately for prospective home owners, the Aktiv doesn't arrive in a massive pile of flat-pack cardboard boxes. It's delivered in a couple of chunks by semi.

The house is a joint-effort between Ikea and Ideabox. The companies' designers integrated Ikea kitchen cabinets, appliances, flooring, bathroom appointments, and built-in closet systems into the prefab one-bedroom home. … Read more

California city to get green prefab housing

Zeta Communities broke ground yesterday on a net-zero housing development in Stockton, Calif., the company announced.

The housing community, which will consist of 22 units, is being developed by the nonprofit group Visionary Home Builders of California.

Zeta Communities is known for its affordable, green prefab homes that are constructed using sustainable or recyclable materials at its factory in Sacramento, Calif. Building 90 percent of a home in the factory will cut construction time by 70 percent, according to Zeta.

In the case of the so-called Tierra del Sol community planned for Stockton, the Zeta prefab homes will be 1,… Read more

Recyclable school building makes the grade

Could prefab structures be a quick and cost-saving way to get U.S. students out of dilapidated and energy-sucking schools?

A recent award to a Gen7 school building, made by American Modular Systems, seems to signal that modular classrooms have moved beyond being ad hoc building solutions for developing nations.

For the first time in California, a prefab building has been awarded national Collaborative for High Performance Schools (CHPS) certification for new school construction. CHPS certification is awarded to those schools that meet specific health, comfort, maintenance, and environmental sustainability standards.

"The Gen7 classroom proves that a prefab structure … Read more

Wired's LivingHome installation gets real-time Webcam treatment

Chalk this one up as a shameless plug, but I do think it's blogworthy. Got a note this morning from my former high-school roommate, Steve Glenn, the founder of Living Homes, a company that builds really "green" prefab modern homes. He got Wired Magazine to promote the installation of a new $4 million home that Living Homes is putting up in Los Angeles, today. And by today, I mean right now, in real time, you can watch the thing going up.

Steve writes:

"It is with great pride that we announce the installation of the WIRED … Read more