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For his holiday home outside São Paulo, Rodrigo Ohtake wanted to balance quality against affordability. He opted for prefab construction without the prefab look. “The challenge was to design a house that didn’t look like a prefabricated modular house, without deviating from the original modular concept,” he explains.

Architect Matt Wittman’s upbringing in rural Washington nurtured a respect for functional buildings that worked with their surroundings: a utilitarian perspective that would inform his Seattle-based studio’s modular home system. “While prefab houses are sometimes divorced from their context, Puzzle Prefab can be modified according to each site,” Wittmann says. “This system has the ability to create spaces that can expand or contract for a variety of environments, whether remote, suburban, or urban.”Architect Matt Wittman’s upbringing in rural Washington nurtured a respect for functional buildings that worked with their surroundings: a utilitarian perspective that would inform his Seattle-based studio’s modular home system. “While prefab houses are sometimes divorced from their context, Puzzle Prefab can be modified according to each site,” Wittmann says. “This system has the ability to create spaces that can expand or contract for a variety of environments, whether remote, suburban, or urban.”Architect and Majamaja cofounder Pekka Littow designed a seaside retreat in Finland to showcase the potential of self-sustaining homes. The first cabin was built in 2020, and there are now four along the archipelago outside Helsinki. Prefabricated elements like vertical wood cladding and crisp gables allow the cabins to be dismounted with minimal impact on the landscape.

The pilot home on Whidbey Island demonstrates the system’s potential: a 600-square-foot interior paired with nearly equal covered outdoor space, set lightly on a pin foundation that protects tree roots and cuts carbon by 77 percent. "Puzzle Prefab can be modified according to each site,

Dwell’s managing editor, Jack Balderrama Morley, tested out the company’s latest model, nicknamed the O-Frame, a wooden prefab designed by architecture firm oioioi.

Marie Saldivar’s experimental metal-clad dwelling is the perfect place to host family—and proof of concept for her new prefab company.

“Unfinished House is a two bedroom, two bathroom 1,400 square foot home in Canada that is a prototype for panelized prefabricated construction with a high-performance envelope,” says Workshop Architecture. “Panelized prefab means that instead of being framed on site, the house comes flat-packed on a truck, a jigsaw puzzle of 8-to-16 foot-wide pieces that have the structure, insulation, and vapor barrier all pre-assembled.”

Floor Plan of Halcyon 02 by Fritz Tiny Homes

Built by Fritz Tiny Homes and delivered by crane, the compact ADU brings new potential to a compact Silver Lake lot.

Though it has the same square footage and pricetag as the Heim, the Tind model aims to make the inside of the home feel larger and brighter.

This studio was constructed in a Seattle backyard, where it can be used for work or recreation.

A long paved drive leads to the historic home, which sits on four wooded acres.

Extensive glazing allows the home to have an intimate connection with nature. The primary suite, along with four additional bedrooms and two baths, are located on the lower level.

BrightBuilt Homes started as a singular zet-zero, sustainable barn in Maine.

The company's base model comes with a custom Murphy bed and a Kohler bathtub for $64,955. It is technically a studio, and the company is working on its first one-bedroom model for ordering in March.

Niki Weber and J.P. Guiseppi were booted from their rental in Venice, California, with only a month’s notice. In the frantic search that followed, the pair bought the first property they visited: a hillside residence in the Silver Lake neighborhood of L.A. The plot had enough space down slope to install an ADU. Putting their hard years of renting to good effect, the pair hired Cover, a Los Angeles-based start-up specializing in prefab backyard homes, to build the rental they wish they had lived in as tenants.

Blend Projects offers to install solar arrays and water catchment systems in their homes to make living in them more sustainable.