As more artist types–or types on artist’s budgets–lament the rising costs of real estate, architects from Tokyo to Tampa have begun searching for ways to create a fabulous yet affordable home. So they are looking to prefab–which dates back centuries in England and to the California gold rush in the United States–and vowing to ditch kitsch and overcome the industry’s reputation for building flimsy shelters prone to flying away in thunderstorms.
In Britain, a growing number of policymakers and architects are also pushing prefab for political reasons. The average Brit moves every seven years, and government officials estimate millions of new homes will be required in the next 25 years to accommodate new homeowners. Add to that the Labour Party’s hopes that prefabs may be the sanitary answer for brownfield sites (a plot of property previously used for a different–often industrial–purpose). Some say that the British architectural firm Yorkon (yorkon.com) had this in mind when they put up good-looking and affordable prefab units in East London.
But for many, reconstructing prefab was always about recycling the profane into something novel. Even before the government poked its nose through the sliding glass door, some were experimenting with ways to apply edgy-looking rods and metals. It’s that attempt to apply style on the cheap that is getting attention: prefab is making pied-a-terre everywhere, from Channel 4’s “Big Brother 3” (“BB3” directors like their set soundproof, which prefabs boast) to the cheap, hip Target warehouses in the United States. Even Ikea (ikea.com), the champion of do-it-yourself furniture from Sweden, took to the trend when it introduced Bo Klok (Swedish for “live smart”), intending to provide affordable homes for single moms.
Prefab is also gaining notoriety in Japan, where the government also promoted prefab housing imported from abroad. After the 1995 Kobe earthquake, tens of thousands of prefab homes were set up as emergency homes for victims. (Those homes were taken apart and sent to Peru to be used as classrooms.) Now it’s become chic with famous Japanese architects like Shigeru Ban (creator of the “Wall-less House”) using less traditional building methods for the houses, like paper tubes to support the roof.
In the United States, prefab is also taking root among couples looking for bargain first homes. Richard and Kim Markham stumbled upon a new building block–the shipping container–after hitting a hurdle encountered by many fans of modern architecture: –custom-designed modern homes are expensive. For the Markhams, who hope to build and sell 26 live-and-work spaces to artists priced out of Tampa’s increasingly trendy Channel district, scrimping was crucial. “We investigated traditional construction methods and realized the units would cost $220,000 and up,” says Markham. “Many artists we know can’t afford that.”
Inspired by London’s Container City (containercity.com) and a Global Peace Containers school in Jamaica (gbs-gpc.com), the Markhams hope to build their 2,000-square-foot homes for less than $100,000 each by stacking four of the eight-foot by 20-foot reinforced steel boxes. A precut metal and glass staircase structure will connect the four stories. “Shipping-container homes in a warehouse district,” says Markham, “just makes sense.” It’s downright prefabulous.
