There are a lot of terms thrown around “prefab” and “sustainability”, but what do they all mean?  What sort of home does LivingHomes specialize in?

Prefabricated Homes

Commonly called prefab, these homes are constructed in pieces in a factory to be installed on-site. The process saves time, money, and resources. However, not all prefabricated homes offer the same high quality design and construction of a LivingHome.

photo credit: Guillermо

There are several varieties of prefabricated homes, ranging from mostly factory-built to mostly site-built:

Manufactured Homes

Commonly called mobile homes and built to meet federal Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) code instead of local code, these homes are manufactured off-site in one or more sections, and attached to axles, wheels, and a hitch for transport. While manufactured homes are the cheapest form of prefab, they generally lack quality, sturdiness, and energy efficiency, and their value decreases over time.

Modular Homes

Home construction takes place in a factory, before being assembled on a permanent site in pieces.  Factory construction can save time and cost, and result in higher quality products.  Modular homes come in the most complete and fewest pieces, thus maximizing the advantages of factory construction. Unlike manufactured homes, modular, kit, and panelized homes must conform to local building codes. In California, modular homes are treated the same as site-built homes and they cannot be excluded from financing or any communities.  As permanent structures, their values increase like site-built homes.

Panelized Homes

Wall, floor, and roof panels are built in a factory and attached together on-site. These homes are sometimes built with SIPS, structurally insulated panels.  While they require more construction and fit-out time on-site, their panels compact efficiently during transport.

Kit Homes

Manufactured and packaged in pieces off-site, and built on a permanent site according to a set of instructions.  Kit homes are often meant as a do-it-yourself project.  Since the fabricator does not monitor the on-site construction, quality control can be more difficult than other types of prefab.

We build LivingHomes using modular construction because we believe that it allows us to produce the perfect combo: higher quality homes in less time and with less money than either traditional homes or other types of prefab!  Quality control is much easier to monitor inside a factory environment and the homes are engineered to withstand transportation and installation by crane.  Construction time is reduced through parallel development of the sitework and the factory modules, and efficient fabrication time results in lower labor costs.  With a larger percentage of construction completed within the factory, modular homes benefit more from these advantages than panelized or kit homes.  By building in volume, we can gain volume discounts on materials and experienced builders who are familiar with our projects.  Modular fabrication is also more sustainable than site-built construction, as it drastically reduces the waste produced during construction.  Learn more about modular construction.

EcoFact. Thirty to forty percent of the material used to construct a traditional, stick-built home ends up in a landfill.  For a typical 2,000 square foot home, that is more than 25,000 pounds of construction waste!  In modular homes, only about two percent of the materials end up as waste.

The style of modular home that LivingHomes builds is also important.

Modernism

A 20th century architectural style characterized by undecorated rectilinear forms and the use of glass, steel, and reinforced concrete.  Modernist designs are characterized by the integration of form and function, an honesty of materials, and a lack of adornment.  Open floor plans and floor-to-ceiling windows open the space, integrate the outdoors, and daylight these structures.  Modern architecture’s clean lines, lack of decoration, and open floor plans make it well suited to prefabrication.

At LivingHomes, we focus on “warm modernism”, integrating the light, volume, and linear forms from modernism, and the warmth and attention to detail from Craftsman homes.  Our homes are inspired by the Bauhaus school of modernism and practiced by great architects like Ray Kappe, who designed the first line of LivingHomes.  Read more about LivingHomes’ environmental modernism.

Finally, LivingHomes is committed to building homes that reduce our reliance on energy and water and minimize emissions and waste.

Sustainability

Literally, sustainability means the capacity to endure.  In terms of development, sustainability means the ability to meet the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.

As a company,  we are committed to building good homes that are good for you.  We use sustainable, healthy building materials, as well as energy-efficient environmental systems and products throughout each LivingHome.  We build homes that minimize their “ecological footprint” with respect to the resources they use for their construction and operation.  Sustainable systems can add cost during construction, but will more than pay back these costs in energy and water savings during the lifetime of the LivingHome.  Our use of modular fabrication drastically reduces the waste produced during construction.  Factory construction also reduces the risk of contamination and wear on materials that can occur when exposed during on-site construction.  Find out more about our commitment to the environment.

EcoFact. In the U.S., buildings consume 1/8 of all the water, 1/3 of all the energy, and 2/3 of all the electricity that we produce, according to the USGBC.  Let’s change that!

Remember to take a look at our completed LivingHomes.  Tour the first LivingHome, Wired LivingHome, Builder LivingHome, and Kohler LivingHome.

Sources: FabPrefab; Report of the World Commission on Environment and Development: Our Common Future.