Feature: Out of the Box
November 1, 2007
LivingHomes
On the morning of April 13, 2006, the sun came up over a bare
lot in a quiet, hilly Santa Monica neighborhood. Eight hours later, a
2,480-square-foot two-story modern residence stood firmly on the site. Glazing,
cabinetry and finishes took several more days, and within a few weeks, owner
Steve Glenn, founder of the sustainable building company LivingHomes, moved in.
Designed by architect Ray Kappe, the LEED platinum–rated home was pre-measured and -cut in a factory, then pieced together in one day with the help of a crane on-site, virtually eliminating the usual delays and material waste associated with building—not to mention the months, or even years, of grating noise neighbors must usually endure during construction.
"I’ve been amazed by the reaction to the first one," says Kappe, founder of the Southern California Institute of Architecture (SCI-Arc) who, along with architect David Hertz, has designed several prefab models for LivingHomes. Kappe explains that all the construction prep work takes place at a factory, where the main pieces are assembled to a degree, ensuring everything fits together properly. These are then disassembled, taken to the site and placed on the foundation. "The design was based upon an idea I had about 40 years ago," notes Kappe, who repeatedly presented the concept through the years but couldn’t muster enough intrigue to get it built. "The interest just wasn’t there at the time. But we’re seeing a lot of interest now."
Kappe’s first completed home includes a tucked-away garage and a rooftop meditation deck—or LivingRoof—that affords 360 degree views, a design available in some models. Walls can be designed to move as the owners’ spatial needs grow or subside, and floor plans, layouts and finishes are completely customizable. The LivingHomes website allows users to plug in their specific set of criteria, such as site condition and square footage, for a solid cost estimate. For example, a 5,000-square-foot, LEED silver–rated custom Kappe home going onto an uncomplicated, flat site is estimated to cost around $2.1 million. Cut the square footage in half, and the price falls to less than one million. From design to build out, standard homes take around 46 weeks, with custom models taking 54.
"Sustainability is a real buzzword this year," says Kappe. "It’s all over the world now. We’re getting calls from everywhere."
LivingHomes, 310.581.8500, www.livinghomes.net
MARMOL RADZINER
"As architects and contractors, our experience working on
site-built homes drew us to explore fabrication," says Leo Marmol of Marmol
Radziner in Los Angeles, a firm at the forefront of modern prefab design. Like
the LivingHomes models, Marmol Radziner’s houses are steel-framed, factory
built, customizable and delivered and built on-site in surprisingly little time.
"We knew firsthand the inefficiencies of the site-built process in terms of
time, cost and waste," says Marmol. "This drove our decision to design a modular
prefab."
One can "build" a home on the Marmol Radziner prefab website, adding details such as stairways, wood cladding, solar panels, appliances and fixtures, and nail down a price before even contacting the firm. The project then rolls into motion quickly, with an average of three to four months of factory fabrication time and concurrent site preparation, followed by a single day of module placement, then four to six weeks to finish installation—"easily half the time required for an equivalent site-built home," says Marmol, "with a dramatic reduction in noise, dust and damage to the site and neighborhood."
The firm employs recycled steel frames, structural insulation panels (SIPs), insulating glass, formaldehyde-free fiberboard and low-VOC paint. Their base price of $275 per square foot (about 30 percent less than a site-built structure) includes high-end finishes such as CaesarStone countertops, Bosch appliances, Eco-Timber wood floors and teak cabinetry. "We act as a one-stop shop for homebuilders," notes Marmol. "We try to alleviate as much of the logistical burdens that traditionally fall on the shoulders of homebuyers."
Marmol Radziner Prefab, 310.689.0089, www.marmolradzinerprefab.com
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