Prefabricated Housing

Stación-ARquitectura Arquitectos has designed a modular home to house poor families in Monterrey, Mexico.

Trans_City Architecture and Urbanism have unveiled a comprehensive plan for Jacmel, Haiti. Highlights of the plan, which took a year and a half to draw up, include prefab homes that work around the city's "topographical challenges."

When one thinks of prefab, its usually a lowslung modernist building sitting by itself on a lot. A group of designers and engineers are debuting a plan for multi-story prefabricated buildings.

The Klip House is a series of modular, prefab units that can be clipped together much like the binding on a ski boot, allowing homeowners to lease or own the home parts they need for their stage in life, then upgrade or downgrade when necessary.

A new study out in JAPA this week details the fire codes, zoning codes, subdivision regulations, etc., that prevent manufactured housing from being built.

Eoin O'Carroll, writing in the Christian Science Monitor, notes the plans to bulldoze neighborhoods in decaying American cities and wonders if all this waste couldn't be avoided in the future by building more pre-fab houses.

The city council of Vancouver is supporting the creation of 550 temporary homes, including some prefab, to house the area's homeless.

Following the Ikea model, home builder John Sawyer is bringing a new -- and cheaper -- process to affordable housing in New Orleans.

Prefab is less wasteful, green and affordable? Not according to Chad Ludeman, who has taken the pulse of the prefab field and found it wanting.

Prefab housing is experiencing a revival of interest among architects and design magazines. But as one realtor puts it, “I just think the whole thing is a false promise."

In a recent interview, architect Allison Arieff talks about the past, present and future of modern prefabricated housing.