New Affordable Condo on Oahu

I saw this story about new affordable condominiums going up in the Salt Lake area on yesterday's KHON newscast. The applications for the units were on a first-come-first-serve basis starting Sunday so families were camping on since Friday in hopes of landing a home they could call their own. The condo units cost anywhere from $218,000 for a one bedroom unit to $397,500 for a two bedroom unit. The article reports that median condo prices on Oahu are currently about $325,000 for resales and $577,953 for new condos.

Click here to read more about this project.

Image taken from Salt Lake 6 LLC at the Honolulu Advertiser

Home Factory - Stackable Prefab

About a year ago, two young professionals working in Marketing/PR and Advertising decided to form a company called Home Factory with the intention of creating a designer prefab apartment system at affordable prices in the Greater London Area. Their business is geared towards forming partnerships with various Housing Associations to deliver a mix of Private, Shared Ownership and Social Rented apartments. Although they shy away from the term "Prefab" and the connotations that may go with it, the units are constructed from two modules prefabricated in a factory setting. Once shipped to the site, the modules are fitted together and then can be stacked upon each other. The concept is similar to the Murray Grove project mentioned in an earlier post, but is marketed more as affordable designer housing. Interior and exterior finishes can be selected depending on the buyer's budget. The units they are producing are geared towards young professionals, first-time home buyers, and social/government employees priced out of the market.

Home Factory Website

I think Home Factory has a good marketing and business plan but the architectural product is mainly focused on the interior presentation of the units. The stackability of the project sets it apart from other prefab housing projects, but also limits the exterior expression of the building. Once everything is put together, what will visually and physically distinguish it as a product of prefab, or Modern Methods of Construction (MMC) as they prefer to call it? I think for modern architect designed prefab to be successful, it must both present an affordable and efficiently constructed product as well as provide innovations, features, or forms that are only possible through the process of factory production and technological advances in construction.

Image taken from Home Factory

Is Modern Prefab Just a Fad?

In this frank slideshow essay found in Slate Magazine, the author, Witold Rybczynski, argues that "the current vogue for prefabs is more about industrial chic than affordability." Many of the projects he cites are those made popular by magazines such as Dwell and furthermore they are touted as the "future of American housing" in The New Yorker. In the end, Rybcynski feels that modern prefab is another passing fad in architectural history and that the much cheaper, established, and traditional-looking modular and manufactured housing industry will continue to prevail as the option for those searching for affordable, new, single-family homes.

Slate Magazine: The Prefab Fad

I agree with several of the points that Rybczynski makes, many of them referenced from Colin Davie's book, "The Prefabricated Home". I think that much of the modern movement of prefab single-family homes is geared towards buyers who want a custom architect-designed home but cannot afford one. For those who are just looking for an affordable, well-designed dwelling they can call their own, modern prefab homes are still out of their price-range. For example, Rybczynski cites that although Rocio Romero's prefab kit-of-parts LV Home is listed as $31/sqft, that only includes the exterior shell. After all the interior necessities are added, such as plumbing and heating, the home comes out to more than $100/sqft. On the other hand, a conventional prefab panel home, also a kit-of-parts, comes out to less than $40/sqft when everything is included.

So what should be done? I think there is certainly a market for the modern prefab movement, but it will not make much of an impact for the everyday person searching for an affordable home. Instead, I think architects who want to make in impact in affordable housing through prefabrication need to look at how prefab technology can be applied to larger residential multi-family projects.

Images taken from Witold Rybczynski's slideshow essay at Slate.com

Murray Grove - London, England

Murray Grove is an innovative affordable multi-family housing project that is composed of prefabricated light steel framed boxes that are stacked on top of each other to create a five-story 30 unit complex. The housing was designed by Cartwright and Pickard for the Peabody Trust, a London housing association that pushes affordable, sustainable housing. Click here or on the picture to read more about Murray Grove.

This is exactly the type of project that I want to inform my own Arch. D. research and design project. In addition, I'd like to investigate more technology derived methods of prefabrication. The prefabricated volumetric modules in Murray Grove are standard light steel framing, which is built in a factory and then shipped to the site to be installed. Instead, I'd like to see how prefab technologies like CNC milling can be used to create easier assembly processes or more custom and creative, but still prefabricated, forms.

Image taken from Roger Sherwood at HousingPrototypes.org

"No Relief in Sight"

This article written a little over a year ago by Andrew Gomes of the Honolulu Advertiser discusses some of the issues of affordable housing in Hawaii. He talks about some of the efforts being taken on by government agencies and developers but concludes that there is "No relief in sight" as the demand far outpaces the supply for housing in Hawaii.

One interesting affordable project that is being developed on the Big Island is an affordable condominium complex that will offer 108 two bedroom units for about $290,000. The developer, Westpro Holdings, has already started building modular single-family homes and will be using the same prefabricated construction techniques in their condo project. I'll keep track of this project to see how it goes.

Image taken from Martha P. Hernandez at the Honolulu Advertiser