As Nicolás Tovo and Teresa Sarmiento of La Base embraced modular design as part of their architectural practice, they noticed that prospective clients were wary of prefabricated construction. So the duo teamed up with Place, an Argentine prefab builder, to make a proof of concept just outside the Patagonian resort town of Bariloche.
In 2020, Isabel and David Yahng bought their Portland house, which was originally designed by architect Saul Zaik in 1963.
In 2020, van Schaik founded SuperLA, a design and development startup seeking to redefine how we build homes. They create repeatable designs for multifamily buildings constructed with a prefabricated, panelized system made of cross-laminated timber (CLT). The system seeks to prioritize occupant and planetary health, says van Schaik, as well as design and construction efficiencies.
Concrete and travertine slabs were installed on the exterior, alongside an ipe deck with mahogany railings.
Candour is a prefab building system and a tool to customize building components within that system—including walls, floors, facades, and roofs—with a proprietary CAD plug-in. Users of the software can draft a design, determine if it’s feasible, and price it all in one day. Designs are built at Candour’s manufacturing facility in Sunshine, Melbourne.
Here's how a designer makes money: One day she dreams up a chair. She spends months developing the concept, selecting materials, devising the exact curve of the arm, the dip of the back. Satisfied with the piece, she works with a manufacturer to produce it. The manufacturer refines the design, invests in tooling to build it, promotes it, and gets it to market. You, the consumer, buy it. This is an original, authentic design. We discuss why knockoff furnishings may be cheap, but for the design industry, they come with a heavy price.
An outdoor breezeway between the storage shed and the main house is ideal for outdoor dining.
Borrassá by Peris + Toral Arquitectes holds 54 social housing units in Barcelona’s Besòs district.
Frontal facade - Street view
Cove room overhang and wrap around deck at dusk
A subdued palette and sumptuous curves help to showcase an epic city view.
According to the architects iHouse Estudio, this prefab in Punto del Este, Urugay, aims to immerse the residents in the forested surroundings. “Continuing with this idea,” they add, “the house features a flowing interior with no interior walls. Inside, blocks contain bathrooms, a kitchen, and closets, freeing the rest of the spaces to connect with the setting. The forest is framed at all times."
Architect Chris Pardo designed the Element 1 model for prefab builder Method Homes, cladding it in Cor-Ten steel and cedar. Pardo’s design “is the definition of simple, elegant, straightforward building,” resident Karen Kiest says.
Stillwater homes are made to prioritize indoor-outdoor living, with walls of windows usually leading to decks and pool areas.
Inspired by the surrounding landscape of chestnut trees, rocky hillside, and bubbling stream, Portuguese architecture firm 3r Ernesto Pereira chose to blend into, and take advantage of, the local geography rather than fight against it at this sleek, modern home near the coastal city of Porto. At a cost of €100,000 (approximately $125,000) and measuring about 140 square meters, this stunning, wood-and-glass retreat took about four months to construct.
After a fire ravaged the site in rural Portugal, architect Miguel Marcelino designed this country house on its existing stone garden terraces.
