Well, why would they not change? Just because prefabricated housing was conceived a century ago as being a cheap solution to provide livable homes to large numbers of people without the means to afford decent housing on their own, doesn’t mean that some creativity can’t be added to the same construction methods. A quick search on the Internet shows that when this happens, it produces gorgeous homes that are relatively inexpensive to construct as well as achieving real savings for homeowners when it comes to utility bills.

Of course modular construction will always be an attractive option when it comes to putting cheap housing on land that is relatively inexpensive. There will always be a need for housing solutions of this kind. But it’s worth affirming the value of methods of construction and materials usage that are at once easier on the environment and more economical, especially when it has been clearly shown now that using methods of prefabricated construction need not compromise the aesthetic sensibilities of homebuyers.

If some of the creations produced by architects in the last 20 years or so are any indication, the future looks bright indeed for prefab structures. In fact, in some situations these houses make it possible to live in places where one couldn’t put house previously. Some people have the dream of “living off the grid”, or at least putting a second home or a retirement home in a remote location, but the logistics of power generation and adequate water supplies rendered this dream possible for people without a lot of money. Prefabricated building techniques will reduce the cost of transporting building materials to a remote building site, as well as construction time required. But the real advantage is that the sensible, spare designs normally characterizing prefabricated construction mean that elements like solar paneling and water catchment can be incorporated into the designs of these homes rather than being an inefficient afterthought purchased at Home Depot and installed by yet another contractor.

Considerations such as these make prefabricated possibilities more attractive than ever. Maybe that piece of land that has been in the family for generations, that no one imagined would work as a site for a livable home, should be reconsidered. Prefabricated structures today give everyone a chance to make use of property that might have had a little functional value previously. Take a look at the possibilities, you might be very surprised.

But let’s take a closer look. Ultimately isn’t luxury, whether we are referring to luxury prefabricated homes or a classic woman’s white blouse, synonymous with a language of elegance that often has less to do with the cost of base materials, individual components or assemblies than with the overall impact of the design? This is not to say that basic materials are irrelevant, just that creativity, regardless of what it’s given to work with, can rival effects achieved by the use of high-end materials.

Here is a case in point. We have all seen the glossy travel magazines featuring gorgeous villas in Bali or Phuket or other exotic locations in Southeast Asia. Very often the design of these houses employs a so-called open floor plan, which means fewer walls and often high ceilings supported by columns or minimal framing. The end result is a wonderful airy feel to these homes where the line between inside and outside is blurred a little and one can feel close to the lush equatorial greenery that is such a big part of life in these latitudes. You can imagine walking across immaculate marble flooring while soft rain falls feet away from you, over early morning coffee.

Do you consider as you observed this luxuriant scene that the marble in the floor of the Bali villa was very likely sourced from a quarry on a nearby island for 1/20 the cost that one would pay for the same stone in New York City? Or that the thatched, conical roof was done by a local specialist for a price that would make you blush?

The villa example admittedly has little to do with prefabricated construction, but I have used it just to make a point about what constitutes luxury, extending even to a luxury prefab home. Isn’t it possible that homes can make use of prefabricated construction techniques that leave us as impressed by the overall design impact as structures that employ materials and techniques that simply cost more? Certainly mobile homes or modular homes are not necessarily as irrevocably low-end as they used to be; it’s actually easy to find builders of luxury prefab houses that are absolutely worthy of the term.

I would contend that, as people who have means are often very environmentally conscious, we can expect to find prefab techniques that use less in the way of volume of raw materials and also energy, to become more desirable over time. Architects should relish the chance to do much more with less, or at least less waste, extending especially to luxury prefab homes.

Imagine the difference in energy usage between building 100 prefabricated structures in a factory environment versus building 100 houses in the suburbs. All materials are brought to a central location, assembled and then taken as complete houses or major components of houses directly to the building site or sites. The point is that often one or two trucks is enough to transport the entire prefabricated house. The efficiency advantage of this method over many contractors bringing what they alone are concerned with building or installing to each of 100 sites can’t be overstated. There is some similar efficiency achieved if all the homes are being built in the same development or subdivision, but this is still quite a different thing from prefabricated home construction.

There isn’t any doubt that a home that is constructed at least partially in a remote location then shipped to the building site, makes for a much more efficient use of materials than a home that is constructed entirely on-site. If all the basic materials used in a prefabricated house are dropped at a factory or central location, then the processes used to create the major components of the prefab house like walls or ceiling, or even the entire house, are more systematized and precise.

Even for people for whom environmental concerns are not a major consideration in the way their homes are constructed, there are still very attractive cost savings that come along with choosing a prefabricated house. Depending on size and design one could be looking at a reduction in price of 30% to 50%, possibly even more. Aesthetics are probably the main reason why people reject the idea of modular homes, but if one could find a design that would suit them, it’s pretty clear that there is a lot of money to be saved.

A final attractive aspect of some environmentally friendly prefabricated houses, for some people, is that they enable one to live off the grid in a very rural area. Prefab houses that have provisions for things like water catchment and solar power now make it possible to place a house in locations where formerly would have been very difficult or impossible to live (even apart from the construction difficulties). You have more flexibility than ever today-do your homework.

Does introducing production-line elements to construction mean that the finished product has to be simple, or worse, boring? Not at all. In fact, with a little forethought, the same methods that result in cost savings with prefabricated structures in the first place will also make feasible design intricacies that might not have otherwise been. All else being equal, a worker of a given skill level will have an easier time maintaining a higher quality of finished product, regardless of its complexity, if he performs similar, or even identical, tasks repeatedly. As the architect incorporates this notion into his original concept, it can invite vibrancy and excitement into his design without violating budgetary considerations. What might have been rejected out of hand as an expensive extraneous flourish, might suddenly become at least open for discussion.

One wonders if, in a future that makes a much greater use of prefabricated structures, the function of finish carpenters, for example, might be more limited to tasks that make use of their talent and artistry, rather than more mundane tasks that could be accomplished offsite at great savings. Indeed, the combination of overlaying the talents of highly skilled workers performing functions most suited to them, with mass-production techniques left to other workers in other places, through a more pronounced separation of labor than normally occurs today, is a compelling one.

Blending the cost benefits of prefabricated structures with attractive, practical designs for living and working should be a challenge that architects relish, not one to be resented as an infringement upon creativity. If use of prefab is a constraint, it certainly does not need to be a limitation. Just as challenging terrain can be used to the advantage of a gifted architect that show off talents that would not otherwise have been revealed, so can we be dazzled by efficiency and attention to economical use of prefabricated materials.

luxury resorts.
I think I’d prefer warm water former drilling sites!