I've been working on a thought for some time now and I would welcome any comments on the appeal of it. Is there some value in offering for sale a pre-packaged design for a house - designed by an architect - so that one can avoid the need to hire an architect and work through months of design, choosing finishes and fixtures, answering questions and having meetings? Similar to how one purchases a commodity such as a car or a phone, perhaps I could apply all that I know about green building and design to work out a compact, well thought-out, energy efficient home that has a few options but would be otherwise be a completely designed house, ready for construction. I think the first house would fit on a very tight footprint, be mostly vertical and have the latest technological home advancements. My inspiration comes from the Mini Cooper or iPhone, well-crafted machines (with some flaws) that are not cheap but are sexy and attractive and clearly superior in design to what has preceded them.
Please continue visiting my website over the next couple of months to see how this thought about pre-fab homes developes.
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- Element 5 Architecture, PLLC
- Element 5 Architecture is a full service architecture studio based in Austin, TX. The five principals met in graduate school and represent a wide range of interests and specialties.
1 comment:
Hi Nick - I think the pre-fab idea has legs! If you could put together something like you describe in the $120 - $150/sf range I for one would be VERY interested. Of course there are SO many variables that this would be monumentally challenging - site conditions at the top of the list. The design would need to be flexible enough to accommodate a variety of lot sizes, sloping topography, solar orientation, trees, etc, etc.
Have you moved forward on this idea at all since posting back in 2010??? Ma Modular (by KRDB) seems to be doing pretty well with their pre-fab designs and they all seem to be in the $140 - $150/sf range (including soft costs, foundation, button-up, etc) . . . however, I'm not inspired by the designs themselves.
Would love to hear more from you on this topic.
Rob
carnochan@mail.utexas.edu
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