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These initiatives on state ballots will decide questions about rent control, property tax, and urban development.

While the homeowners initially hoped to renovate and add on to their original home, a review of multiple renovation strategies revealed that it would be less expensive and less time-consuming to start from scratch and use a custom-designed prefab.

The 2,420 square-feet

After an unprecedented year of earthquakes, hurricanes, and fires, a bright light has been shed on the benefits of building with concrete.

Mid-century designer Jens Risom's A-framed prefab family retreat, located on the northern portion of Block island, is bordered by a low stone wall, an aesthetic element that appears throughout the land.

This 3,200-square-foot structure was assembled with a prefabricated foundation, concrete panel siding, and efficient built-ins, minimizing construction debris and toxins—such as concrete foundation tar—on the site.

Juliet Gray, Mathias Kolehmainen, and their sons Cooper and Cyrus have a new favorite hangout: the wide back steps on the addition, which double as theater seating. (They project movies from the second-floor balcony onto an out-building across the yard.)

The resulting building, its angular form inspired by Japanese origami—was designed and built in two and a half months in early 2007.

While most homes have their front doors centered on a flat wall, this home in Canada by Omer Arbel is entered through two solid walnut doors at the corner of the home.

Streets and houses radiate outward from this hexagonal suburb in Florida. Gielen’s perspective reveals the patterns formed by the streets (and yet invisible from street view). Photo by Christoph Gielen.

Voted "Cool School of the Month" by pop-culture barometer Teen People, DASH opens up the world of design to students who "are not the type to fit in a typical high school."

Cubicco’s prefab houses, like the Cabana Beach model, are built with laminated veneer lumber, an engineered material that uses up to 90 percent of a tree—compared to typical wood timbers that use only 60 to 70 percent. Modules can be disassembled if the owners relocate.

An enclosed courtyard, bordred by ipe, is arguably the most distinctive feature of the house that the Phil Kean Design Group created for Adriana De Azevedo, Daniel Coelho, and their two daughters in Winter Park, Florida.