Prefab

"It only cost about $48,000 to build, which was incredibly cheap," says Turner of the Stealth Barn. "We got the Timber Frame Company to supply the shell, then we clad it and fitted out the interior and windows ourselves. The idea was to take the archetypal black tar-painted agricultural building and make an almost childlike icon of that."

Vo Trong Nghia Architects utilized passive design strategies and a double roof, constructed from Nipa palm and corrugated cement, to ventilate the home, an important consideration in a humid, tropical environment.

Since the front door is located in the exterior wall, residents first enter a vast garden before reaching the gable roof house.

The roofline of the Tind house prototype, designed by Claesson Koivisto Rune for prefab company Fiskarhedenvillan, has more conventional Swedish gables than the flat-roofed modernism of typical prefab units.

The living room's double height makes the space seem larger that its actual size. Stairs leading up to the sleeping loft are placed next to the open fireplace. The plastered wall and the soapstone tiles on the floor add some roughness to the wooden interior.

The outer wall means residents don’t have to worry about privacy when the sun goes down and the house’s windows begin to glow.

Photo by Patrick Barta