Designer prefab homes grow in popularity

Charlie Lazor, formerly of the Minneapolis furniture and design company Blu Dot, had a similar experience when he wanted to build a home for himself. He turned to manufactured housing; his new firm, Lazor Office, launched a design using flat panels, leading to its name: Flatpakhouse. Lazor has five more homes in the works and expects the market for the industrialized design to grow.

“We all know there are many people out there for whom design is important. And they love good design but they are only able to access it at the level of the toothbrush or the computer or the car,” he said. “But that same group of people would also like to have a well-designed living room.”

400-year history
The history of prefab housing began nearly 400 years ago, when a wood house broken into panels was shipped from England to Cape Ann, Mass., in 1624, according to “Prefab.” Among its best-known incarnations was the House by Mail, sold to nearly 100,000 Sears, Roebuck and Co. customers from 1908 to 1940. But there have always been architects who sought to do more with factory-built homes, including Frank Lloyd Wright, who set up a factory in Wisconsin to turn out his designs for the masses.

Tanney, whose New York firm, Resolution: 4 Architecture, won a competition by Dwell to create a prefab, architect-designed home for $175,000, said many factories that build homes for developers hesitated when they saw his designs. With a background in apartment loft renovations, Tanney gravitates toward straight, clean lines and 90-degree angles.

The Dwell house, finished last fall, went over budget but Tanney and Arieff said was primarily because it was a first attempt. As the firm expands its relationship with manufacturers and becomes more accustomed to the process, the task will grow easier — and less expensive, they say.

“All the systems are in place for these factories to build the kind of homes that we’re talking about,” Arieff said. “A majority of the industry is still pretty skeptical.”

Tanney is now working with two factories who understand what he’s looking for — high-end materials, careful craftsmanship and consistent work. With one house planned this year for Martha’s Vineyard, Mass., several in upstate New York, and another in Annapolis, Md., his long-term goal is to create an entire community of mass-customized homes.

For now, cost of the homes — not including the price of the land — ranges from about $130 a square foot in places where labor and materials are relatively inexpensive, to about $170 a square foot on the coasts. That translates into $260,000 to $340,000 for a 2,000-square-foot house, not far off the $273,500 average price for a home in 2004, according to U.S. Census Bureau figures.

“It’s never going to be as cheap as people would like,” Arieff said. “Cost is not the only reason to build prefab.”

For Walker and her partner, whose prefab home will have bamboo floors, slate countertops and bioradiant heating, it was the design that counted the most.

“We thought a lot about why the prefab is important. It’s not one particular thing, other than it gives us something to root for,” she said. “It’s an underdog in this world of McMansions and houses that all look the same and that all feel soulless to us.”

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