Eco-Friendly Customized Prefab Homes Gain Popularity

A Home a Long Way from Home

An article in Plenty Magazine online previews an interesting new exhibit at MOMA highlighting eco-prefab homes. “Everyone thinks prefab is just a big chunk of house you dump on a site and then you bolt it down,” says Douglas Gauthier, one of several architects chosen from nearly 400 to present a full-scale dwelling at the Museum of Modern Art’s prefab show, “Home Delivery: Fabricating the Modern Dwelling,” which opens July 15. “Ours is a little bit more like an Ikea project. It’s thousands of pieces that can all be handled and stitched together on site.”

Traditionally, prefabricated structures are built off-site and delivered almost entirely assembled. The Burst system uses powerful software to design and calibrate all of the structural components to a specific site and project, from the number of screws needed for assembly to the cuts of all the material. Advanced CAD systems and a highly efficient milling process for the plywood enable the team to create a structure with very little waste. “The machine nests so efficiently, you end up with very little extra. Construction waste can account for as much as 20 percent of a project, but we’re down below the 5 percent range,” says Gauthier.

The article describes the technologically advanced Burst 003, on exhibit from Australia: "Burst*003, aka Parish House, was designed for a family of five and is sited on a suburban cul-de-sac in North Haven, just minutes away from the north coast of New South Wales. The house is purposely designed in an understated form and with modest materials to capture the spirit of the traditional Australian beach shack. A mostly undifferentiated façade (in other words, no front doors or mullioned windows) is topped off with eye-popping roofing that borrows its pattern from a floral bikini. Structural joists are designed to store surfboards and bikes. And as of 2006, it was the only house in the neighborhood to actually meet the flood standards required of houses built so close to the water.