Marmol Radziner's Rincon 5 Live in LA
If you read Dwell's February 2009 Process section, you saw the inner workings of the Marmol Radziner prefab factory, where they construct their loved and lauded modern homes. Those of you in Southern California can now see Marmol Radziner's smallest prefab, Rincon 5, live and in person, on display in all of its 660 square feet of glory beside their offices in West LA.
Decked out in green insulation, zero-VOC paint and LED lighting, the Rincon 5 was originally designed as a guest house or vacation retreat but seems in reality to be the perfect size for a rethought home for two. Larger than my current apartment, I would start living in Rincon 5 even as it sits in Marmol Radziner's parking lot; sleek bamboo floors, built-in walnut cabinets and closets, Heath tile in the bathroom, big windows all around.
Of course the price tag is a hefty one. Starting at $179,000 for the basic model, if you want additional features like those tiles in the bathroom, a kitchen island, or polished poured concrete, it's going to cost you a little more. The model they have currently displayed goes for $290,000 and would be shipped from their factory in Vernon (just south of LA) with everything intact: floors, cabinets, tiles, appliances. The whole thing can be solar powered and function off the grid.
So even as the economy tumbles, and even if Rincon 5 is out of reach for many, it points us in a direction that is a more sustainable and more reasonable alternative to an era of McMansions, ever expanding closet space, and conspicuous consumption.
See all the details on Rincon 5 on the Marmol Radziner site.
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I'M A STUDENT FROM CALIFORNIA STATE UNIVERSITY, LONG BEACH. MY PROFESSOR(PETER DEMARIA) USED THE RINCON 5 AS OUR PROJECT FOR THE FALL 2008 SEMESTER. WE HAD TO DO FLOOR PLANS, ELEVATIONS, AND FURNISHINGS ON AUTOCAD. WE, AS A CLASS, VISITED THE RINCON 5 FOR A TRIP AND IT WAS AMAZINGLY SMALL. IT WAS NICE TO SEE WHAT WE WERE DOING IN CLASS COME TO LIFE.
At $270/sq feet without land cost? You're right about pointing it to the unattainable/unafforable direction of being sustainable. Those who can actually afford this will make this "room" his/her second house (basically a McMansion extension of his/her first home), thus negating the making of the whole conspicuous consumption ideal in the first place. Bershire Hathaway just bought the company who will be making iHouse. Another European company is already stepping foot in the east coast with their LabHaus, focusing on making changes instead of profit. Now that's pointing us to the reality of having a sustainable, conspicuous consumption home, with the word REALITY (affordable) stressed in.
Jodi, Thank you for the mention. We actually are unrolling houses starting at $90k turnkey in the next weeks for something similar to the featured home. Cost is a factor that architects are famous for ignoring. But it's not simply a matter of ignoring construction costs at the factory, it's also about not controlling the transaction. A big part of bringing affordable, quality homes to 'the masses' is figuring out how to structure the on site build and the land acquisition properly. The typical process by which homes in the US are built adds a good 50% to the price before profits are even taken. And those (often very high) profits are based upon the inflated costs, not the actual costs of the commodities involved. Because our ownership is rooted both in architecture and real estate and has taken three years to work out the process, we are able to make sure that the greatest portion of the end-user cost actually goes to the structure, rather than to waste. A bit more on our philosophy can be found at our website: http://www.labhaus.com/2008/11/27/introduction/. Please also take a look around at the models we offer and give us some feedback!
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