Jetson Green

Modern Prefab Cabin Available For Rent on East Coast

If you've been listening to the chatter on prefab and thought: "What's the big deal with prefab homes?" or "Why would anyone ever want to own a prefab?", now's your chance to find out.  In his most recent update from A Prefab Project, Chris dropped a link to his shiny new website for Lost River Modern, a prefab cabin in Lost River, West Virginia.  And as you can tell from the images on the new website, Lost River Modern is quite incredible to look at.  Designed by Resolution: 4 Architecture, creators of the original Dwell Home, Lost River Modern is the first and only res4 home available for guests.  You can (and probably should) rent the place and completely chill out.  I see some slots are already filled up, so if you're interested in testing the prefab waters on the East Coast, you better get on it quick. 

Toyota Looking to Expand Stylish Prefab Homes Unit

Forget the fact that I lived in Japan and absolutely love its culture, I didn't know that Toyota had a homes unit.  And they've been in the business of making homes for over twenty years!  The company adapts automobile manufacturing technology to build stylish, earthquake-resistant homes for sale within Japan.  The Toyota Homes unit accounts for only .5% of the company's $262 billion in annual sales, and Toyota would like to beef that up a little bit.  Plus, with the roll-out of the plug-in hybrid beginning in 2010 (remember all that discussion here about solar homes and plug-in hybrids replacing gas stations?), Toyota would like to do more with their environmentally-friendly, prefabricated homes. 

Zamore Homes Focuses on Stylish, Green Kit Homes

I've been noticing some chatter about Zamore Homes, an online company that provides ready-to-assemble kit-homes that are built with off-the-shelf components.  Zamore Homes is looking to capture the market that wants high design at a low price.  They do that by flat-packing and shipping components to a home site, all of which seem to come from various different places with the lowest possible transportation costs.  They also claim to provide simple instructions for contractors to put all the components together.  With simple designs and flat-packed parts, Zamore Homes estimates that their affordable, energy-efficient kit homes can be put together in under 20 weeks!

[Video] Venice Green Prefab Built Module At A Time

[3:03] Pardon the pre-roll on the video below, but the LA Times has some excellent interior / exterior footage of a Marmol Radziner Prefab being constructed in Venice, California.  As you can see, it was put together module-by-module with much of the interior already in place.  Regularly featured on the MR Blog, this house appears to be for Leo Marmol himself and has been referred to as the "Palms House."  The Palms House is 2800 square feet, made with 13 modules, and includes 3 bedrooms, 2.5 bathrooms, a living room/dining room, kitchen, office, and a spacious deck/outdoor area.

It's fun watching the video, because you can see Ron Radziner's enthusiasm bubble inside as he explains one of his company's newest creations.  These guys are having fun, you can just tell. 

Flickr LVL Home With Subtle Flashes of Red

As always, I'm amazed by what can be found on Flickr.  Just within the last couple weeks, someone posted photos of their friend's LVL home by Rocio Romero.  It's quite nice both inside and out.  But we've talked about Rocio Romero prefabs before, including this Napa LV Home and this Arkansas LVL Home, and what's interesting is: how they're customized.  Every Rocio Romero home starts with a primary focus on quality, sustainability, and design -- from there, owners tend to add their own personality to the inside and out. 

The Landscape House Illustrates Smart Green Design

This is The Landscape House, a concept designed by Maul Dwellings that won the AIA's 2006 Committee on Design competition to design "A House for an Ecologist."  Although the concept was originally planned as field residence for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, it's also an example of the smart integration of design, technology, and sustainability.  The Landscape House features a double roof to enhance natural air circulation, operable louvered shutters that harvest energy, a Water Pod that houses all the efficient plumbing systems, and a solar dehumidifier unit that captures moisture from the air to produce distilled drinking water. 

Santa Barbara Green Prefab on Display this Saturday!

Starting at 10:00 am this Saturday, June 14, a custom-made Sunset Breezehouse designed by MKD will be open to the public in Santa Barbara, California.  The open house will happen in conjunction with the Built Green Santa Barbara Expo, Conference, & Tour, but if you're not able to attend, Michelle Kaufmann has been posting photos and details of the home for the past couple weeks.  The home, in addition to having all the various green materials and products typically used in MKD homes, has a PV solar array and sustainable landscape design that fits the home just perfectly. 

HOM Draws a Crowd at Dwell on Design [LA]

HOM Escape in Style made its debut at Dwell on Design this weekend and drew a considerable crowd.  Apartment Therapy said HOM was their favorite home on display, and Curbed liked its interior design.  Of the three models that HOM plans for production, the (smaller) 1000 sf design was exhibited throughout the weekend in LA.  HOM designs cost in the $200 psf range, which calculates to approximately $200,000 for a 1000 sf house.

A Stunning Flatpak House in Aspen, Colorado

This is a Flatpak house in Aspen, Colorado.  I stumbled upon these shots in Flickr, so I don't have much background on the project.  But we've featured modern Flatpak homes before in the Goodwin-Wise Flatpak and Lazor's Flatpak.  Flatpak houses each have their own particular and interesting features, but the Flatpak system is the same.  It's a menu of components for living that includes walls, cabinets, bathrooms, kitchen, and various built-ins.  The components are pre fabricated and designed to meet the needs of a various owner and/or site. 

Taliesin Green Prefab Prototype Now Taking Shape

Since mid-January, Taliesin students have been blogging on PrairieMod about their project to build a small modern home on the grounds of Taliesin West.  The students, with Dean Victor Sidy and Jennifer Siegal of OMD, designed a simple but elegant home with sustainability in mind.  At first, they were going to prefabricate the structure, but later decided to go instead with on-site, panelized construction using SIPs for the walls, roof, and floor.  Now, the exterior is certainly taking shape and the interior will be finished throughout the summer.  When done, the structure will demonstrate passive and active environmental control systems, water catchment, top-tier insulation, a gray water system, native landscaping, and a solar power system.