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Modern Prefab by Marmol Radziner | |
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Modern Prefab by Marmol Radziner Initially this technology was applied only to commercial and site-built projects. Then in 2005, the firm completed the Desert House in Desert Hot Springs, California, which served as the prototype house for Marmol Radziner Prefab, which the architects launched to produce green prefab homes. Desert House Designed for Leo Marmol and his wife, Alisa Becket, the Desert House extends over the landscape to combine 2,000 square feet (190 square meters) of indoor space with as much covered outdoor living space. The project was built using four house modules and six deck modules, arranged in an L shape that defines a protected exterior area with a pool and fire pit. The project has impressive green building credentials. It derives all of its power from photovoltaic solar panels. In winter, concrete floors provide passive solar heating. And like subsequent Marmol Radziner Prefab homes, it was built with recycled steel, structural insulated panels, and Forest Stewardship Council (FSC)-certified wood. Mass Customization Houses by Marmol Radziner Prefab are not mass-produced kits-of-parts that require extensive installation from an outside contractor. Rather, these homes are made in the firm's own factory space and shipped to building sites as completed modules, with preselected windows, doors, fixtures, and appliances. The modular dwellings are designed for LEED certification. The company specializes in designing customized prefab homes, a kind of hybrid between traditional modular and site-built houses. Nine such projects have been completed so far, with about ten more in the works. These handsome designs are a far, far cry from typical trailers and manufactured homes. The Hidden Valley House near Moab, Utah, reveals an elegant blend of wood, glass, and metal, as does the Palms House in Venice, California, with its Japanese-influenced wood screens and boxy geometry. Standardized Lines In a newer development, the company has started offering two lines of standardized prefab residential structures: the Rincon series and the Skyline series. The Rincon models are small, single-module structures intended as accessory buildings. The largest model, the Rincon 5, starts at $179,000 for a one-bedroom, 660-square-foot (62-square-meter) unit. It boasts a bevy of sustainable features, from recycled denim insulation to low-VOC (volatile organic compound) paint and LED lighting. It's also easy to add solar panels, and the buildings can function completely off the grid. The Skyline series — yet to be installed anywhere — includes six standard models, starting at $435,000 for 1,316 square feet (122 square meters) with one to two bedrooms, and going as big as the six-bedroom, four-bathroom Skyline 2.6. These models can be configured as one-story or two-story homes. Even the smallest version has the rigor of a highly resolved work of architecture. Prefab's Possibilty Radziner is enthusiastic about the advantages of prefabrication. "Imagine if you're building a site-built house in Malibu like we're doing," he explained. "If there's anything that needs to be corrected, you have to bring it back to the shop or correct it on site. But with prefab, the module is right there in the shop. The quality can actually be higher in prefab. And I think that's the way it will go." Prefabrication also offers the environmental benefits of reducing waste and energy consumption. Even so, Radziner says prefabrication still has a long way to go. "I feel like we're building prefab like people built cars before Henry Ford," he added. "Someday someone will decide to invest the capital and create a real assembly line. I think it should be mass-produced." Architects as Builders Marmol and Radziner say that creating prefab homes was a natural extension of their holistic approach to building and designing. Marmol Radziner + Associates most often utilizes the design-build method of delivering projects, which is a common approach in the United States, but is almost always led by general contractors. Instead of being a firm of contractors who happen to employ an architect on the side, Radziner explained, "We're architects who choose to build our work in order to see the work built as designed." There is nearly a 50-50 split between architects (with accompanying support staff) and people working in the field on construction sites or in the central factory shops. >>> Discuss this article in the Architecture Forum...
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