Dwell December 2013-January 2014

Prefab Now When discussing the trajectory of prefab, the conversation often begins with the Crystal Palace, designed in London by Joseph Paxton in 1851. Both venerated and excoriated in its day—Fyodor Dostoevsky was decidedly not a fan—the Crystal Palace was a wonder of prefabricated technology, a soaring glass-and-steel edifice that symbolized a new age of modernity, industry, and technology. Called “the most visionary and adventurous building of the whole nineteenth century” by the late author Marshall Berman, the Crystal Palace—though no longer standing after a 1936 fire—remains an essential starting point for both the enduring promise of prefab and the equally persistent resistance that has often inhibited its large-scale adoption. At Dwell we prefer to focus on the promise. We feature homes that offer glimpses of just how far prefab…

As an “Arconaut” (one who has lived at Arcosanti), I was especially excited to see your article on Soleri’s gem in the Arizona desert (“A Radical Proposal,” September 2013). Though thousands of volunteer hours have gone into this project’s construction, and though it has influenced many, it often goes unnoticed. Thanks for giving it the recognition it deserves; I hope to continue to see lesser-known (but publicly accessible) architecture featured in your magazine. Halley Anderson Cleveland, West Virginia I can’t tell you how impressed I was with the July/August issue’s focus on American-made designs. Since 1980, we have lost nearly nine million jobs in the manufacturing sector in this country. We can reverse that trend by just buying more American-made products, such as those you featured. I liked the way…

Georgie Bean “I fell into my line of work by accident, probably from curiosity about how other people like to live,” says Georgie Bean. “I remember selling raffle tickets door-to-door as a kid so I could get a glimpse into people’s houses!” The Melbourne-based writer and stylist has worked for Wallpaper and Vogue Living. For this issue, she tells the story of a vacation home located on Australia’s Mornington Peninsula (Backstory, p. 65). William Lamb Reporting the story about Mimi Parsons and Tom Siebens’s summer retreat (“Ferry Feat,” p. 88) gave William Lamb, a writer and editor based in Jersey City, New Jersey, his first look at Fishers Island, New York—whose seascapes enchanted the Rockefellers, Roosevelts, and DuPonts. The experience also brought him closer to fulfilling his goal of visiting…

The incredibly prolific Stockholm studio Claesson Koivisto Rune first delved into prefabricated architecture in 2008 with Arkitekthus, a typical prefab factory in Sweden. Using a slightly different framework, their new collection of three houses for another building company, Fiskarhedenvillan, comes with plans and building materials—and buyers must build the structure themselves, onsite. With a hybrid pitched-flat roof and large windows that allow light to flood the interior, the Tind house archetype bridges the gap between modern and traditional Scandinavian design. It’s more flexible and less expensive than what architect Mårten Claesson calls a “more processed product, where a factory builds the sections and it’s delivered on a truck like Legos.” Instead, the Tind house is delivered as building materials, planks, and insulation, with instructions on how to assemble. The designer…

Combining experience in their respective fields of environmental entrepreneurship and venture capitalism, Bill Haney and Maura McCarthy founded their prefab company in 2008 with a few goals in mind. For one, Blu Homes would owe as much to the tech industry as to the construction industry. It would also speak to a generation of home builders for whom green is the status quo—and it would do so directly, without middlemen. Under Haney and McCarthy, Blu Homes has put up over 100 prefab houses across 18 states. Dwell queried Haney about Blu’s competition, audience makeup, and design inspiration. How is Blu Homes’s building model any different from traditional development channels? Historically, housing companies are in the land business. They buy wholesale and then sell retail units on the land. They speak…

Project: Onemana Holiday Home Designers: Studio 19, Unitec Institute of Technology, unitec.ac.nz Location: Onemana, New Zealand Every summer for over a decade, Andrew and Shiree Morrison have journeyed to Onemana, a coastal town on New Zealand’s North Island. They used to stay in a small trailer, often fantasizing about building a house on their sloping plot of land but always coming up short on the amount of money needed to get a project underway. So their longtime friend, builder John Cocks, suggested an unconventional solution to obtaining a custom home within their budget: collaborating with architecture students. At Auckland’s Unitec Institute of Technology, Dave Strachan leads a program called Studio 19. The yearlong class guides students through every step of a real-world architectural project, from client brief to full-scale build.…