Happy Halloween, kids! It’s the one time of year when being excited about seeing zombies waddling down your street on a dimly lit and blustery night seems passably normal. For those of you who view zombies with horror, however, it may be well past time to start thinking about your home defenses- luckily, Tiger Log…
Tag Archives: prefab
03
Oct
Oct
There have been a plethora of posts about shipping containers hitting the web recently – and why not? Shipping containers are cheap, durable, and available– and are as easy to ship as a traditional RV. This particular shipping container home is a bit different, though: it can expand! Designed by G-pod, a Hong Kong and…
24
Sep
Sep
I recently discovered this very affordable prefab house on Gizmag from North Wales author, Adam Williams. I found the house to be attractive and livable, with a story very much worth sharing. Overview: a Vietnam-based firm Vo Trong Nghia Architects recently revealed an affordable prefabricated prototype house to potentially offer Vietnamese people on low incomes…
17
Sep
Sep
Check out the prefab community blooming online these days! Tiny House Village is trying to connect communities of creative small dwellings. Ideas are abound for these eco communities with Resources For Life’s Small House Society. Tiny House design has a great set of resources all linked here as well. Check out the plethora of architectural…
12
Aug
Aug
“Our homes embrace the principles of eco-friendliness and cost-effectiveness, without sacrificing beauty. We can ensure that each dwelling achieves a gold or platinum LEED rating, depending on the particular finishes, building systems, and site design an owner chooses.” ~ Michelle Kaufmann Designs Each Glidehouse home is solar ready with other renewable energy system options possible…
28
Sep
Sep
I happened to live in France back in 2002, and during my year there I noticed a pretty significant gap between sustainability as practiced in Europe in the US. In Europe, I was working with large public companies who were already integrating the implications of global warming and sustainbility into their businesses. In the US…
18
Jun
Jun
Editor’s note: Modular (or prefabricated) housing is hot, and our friends at Low Impact Living have the lowdown on some of the companies driving this trend. This post was originally published on Thursday, June 12, 2008. It seems everyone is “going modular” these days with the rapid growth in the movement of green prefab design…
Photo Credit: Living Homes (via Inhabitat) Bob Ellenberg wrote a good, thought-provoking (and discussion-starting) article at Inhabitat titled 'Prefab Construction: Green or Greenwashing?' and drew comments from Preston Koerner (of Jetson Green) and Lloyd Alter (an architecture writer at Treehugger with whom I had some inter-blog discussion over the past couple of weeks regarding foundations, but more importantly also an entrepreneur in prefab construction with direct experience in the process).
Prefab is a popular concept in green design circles and shows up regularly on a number of blogs. A few of the more prominent examples include: Inhabitat (Pre-Fab Friday); Jetson Green; Treehugger; BldgBlog; MoCo Loco; and even a website devoted to prefabs: FabPrefab. But it's a valid question that is being asked. How "green" is prefab building, and should it be embraced by those who want a greener building? Bob sums his article up this way: "I want to honestly question what is and what isn't 'green' about prefabrication and encourage others to do the same."
Prefab construction can be very green. The LivingHomes prefab illustrating this article is a LEED Platinum building. But, there are very few examples of prefabs that have LEED certificaion. And not every prefab qualifies even as a LEED certified building, let alone a Platinum one.