Prefab

Wheelhaus founder and CEO Jamie Mackay creates prefabs with the same quality and durability of the log cabins he grew up with, while also incorporating his values of green production and modern design. Although it takes about four months to construct his prefabricated properties, it takes about a week for the home to be delivered, and then three to five days for the house to be set up on site.

Large, dramatic openings bring transparency and contrast to the 10-inch-thick concrete facade, framing perspectival views of the landscape.

While architect Werner Sobek chose the name "active house," a contrast to the passive house philosophy of efficency and conservation, the incredible energy production achieved by the B10 wouldn't be possible without a next-level envelope. Utilizing opaque surfaces and a vacuum-insulated, frameless glass front, the model home achieves a super-tight seal; the terrace even folds up to completely shield the home from sun when residents are gone. "When we started building these research homes in 2000, we were making passive homes, but have always wanted to get around the limits of small windows and lots of insulation and make something active," says Sobek. The home is outfitted with Knoll furniture and kitchen furnishings by Leicht Küchen and Hansgrohe.

The two-foot-thick stacked stone walls constructed by Reed Hilderbrand nod to the masonry-free walls common in Revolutionary-era New England.

"It was erected in one and a half days; the modulars went up in one day, the stairs went up the next," Garrison says. The construction process can be viewed in a video on Garrison's blog. Photo by Josef Samuel.

The design of the Cantilever House, as it's known, is based on a 14-by-86-by-22-foot steel frame resting on a 14-by-31-foot concrete foundation bolted to an existing rock.

A palette of stone, concrete, and greenery greets guests at the home’s front entrance.

Floor-to-ceiling windows allow for an intimate connection with outdoor spaces.

With plenty of sustainable features, the all-electric home is on track to be a net-zero building, producing as much energy as it uses, and, hopefully, to receive LEED Platinum certification.

Les Jours Meilleurs House (1956) The "better days" house was inspired by the plight of a homeless woman and child, who passed away in the cold on a Paris street in 1954. After an appeal by the famous priest Abbé Pierre to solve the social housing crisis, Prouvé developed this 50-square-meter, low-budget prototype, which boasted a kitchen, bathroom and two bedrooms.

More than 4,000 people have visited the home since it was constructed last fall. The home's exterior is actually a fabric skin you can touch, a better physical experience than plaster, and part of the architect's vision for more comfortable living. "How does the building smell, is there temperature distribution all over the building, does the air flow?" he says. "We need to design the tactile parts of a building, too."

This flexible prototype, which can be subdivided with partitions for a more defined floor plan, will be a model for further developments, according to Sobek. He wants to bring these advances to taller, six- or eight-story structures and reduce the time it takes to install this prefab home from 24 to 18 hours, creating plug and play technology that can be a boon for future urban development. "As urban centers become more and more dense, these prefabricated units make more and more sense," he says. "They're light, require no workers on site or stir up any dust. Within the next 12 months, we will see several variations and the next generation of B10."

The modules are then trucked to their respective construction sites.

Top 5 Houses on Dwell This Week As the weekend slowly draws to a near, we've gathered up five of our most clicked on homes on Dwell this week for your perusal.

Jones, Partners: Architecture envisioned an open-air structure that resembles an "inside-out RV." A variety of prefab modules host essential activities, like showering and cooking, immediately outside the structure. The unit folds into one rectangular block, so it can be easily transported by trailer.

The exercise space contains ample storage and a convenient door for days when the couple wants to practice yoga outdoors. The blue Frank Gehry Left Twist Cube adds a pop of color to the space.

To build a home on a remote plot of land in Washington State accessible by ferry from Seattle, former Angelenos Amy Staupe and Christopher Roy commissioned Method Homes to construct a highly personalized prefab structure. "For us, the primary driver for us to move from Los Angeles and abandon our urban existence was our love of the property," Staupe says.

The home’s double-skin structure makes the most of Tasmania’s variable climate.

Architect Edward Paul Haladay, a volunteer for Habitat for Humanity of the Chesapeake, aimed to use prefab architecture in order to create an affordable housing solution for the large amount of population living below poverty in Baltimore, Maryland.