Issue 08
PREFABULOUS
By Carolline Kim
Have you ever wanted to live inside modern art? Among the trees? In the desert? In something that George Jetson might call home? Well then, a prefabricated home is the answer to your prayers.
Prefabricated, or “prefab,” homes are simply dwellings built in a different location from the property on which they’re intended to sit. They can be as simple as mobile homes or kit homes—the cookie-cutter models of prefab—or can be one-of-a-kind designs, either completely custom-built or consisting of customizable modules, styled to convey a modern or postmodern aesthetic. Modernist prefab homes run anywhere from $75,000 to upwards of $1 million, plus property costs.
Some of the most famous architects of the 20th century, including Le Corbusier, Frank Lloyd Wright, and Jean Prouve, designed prefab homes, each one a piece of (relatively) “affordable modernism.” For true architecture enthusiasts, prefab homes are not only testaments to modernism but innovative, praiseworthy works of art as well.
In Europe and Asia, prefab homes are selling extremely well. Ikea and its Japanese counterpart, Muji, each debuted highly anticipated prefab homes in 2005. German design firm Aisslinger has focused on the urban rooftop, introducing prefab homes built specifically for that landscape. Already extremely popular in Beijing, Aisslinger’s designs ease the overcrowding problem in large cities while offering unlimited architectural possibilities.
Of course, this wave of popularity is nothing new in the history of prefab homes. Sears and Roebuck introduced the first prefab home back in 1908, selling approximately 100,000 units of various models over the next 32 years. Every decade since has seen its own update of the prefab formula. Perhaps one of the most famous prefab homes is the Dymaxion house, designed by R. Buckminster Fuller. Originally designed for the U.S.S.R. during World War II, it was intended to surpass the home designs of the time with its ability to adapt to any environment and use resources efficiently. However, the prototype was the only Dymaxion house ever actually inhabited.
Though prefab homes are hugely popular abroad, several obstacles stand in the way of a major prefab boom in the U.S., at least in terms of modernist, customized prefab. Mobile homes are nearly ubiquitous in certain areas, but because they require neither installation nor their own plots of land they remain exempt from the challenges facing their cousins. Many local governments have refused to update their zoning codes to allow for installation of prefab homes, partly out of concern for their soundness and partly out of pressure from construction contractors and developers. Additionally, almost all land available for new housing is owned by developers looking to maximize their profits by building houses on-site themselves.
However, a growing community of prefab enthusiasts and designers is driving today’s rapidly expanding prefab market. According to Michael Sylvester, editor of prefab website Fabprefab.com, despite the many cons still associated with prefab homes, they’re still the most affordable housing option for people who want a modernist aesthetic but don’t want to hire an architect. “If people are willing to give them a shot,” he says, “they’ll see that in many ways prefabs can be more functional, aesthetically pleasing, and distinctive than traditional homes.”