A Useful and Agreeable Prefab
by Lloyd Alter, Toronto on 01.11.08
Those frequent fliers at travel site/mag/tv whatever Useful + Agreeable must be settling down, because they have commissioned a prefab (or is it?) from Neil Denari, who says "the u+a pre-designed mini hi-rise is not only a tightly designed house that uses every square inch of space wisely, it also attempts to express this economy in its smooth exterior surface shape, a form of industrial design at an architectural scale."
"useful + agreeable offers one option in this regard, the opportunity to purchase a pre-designed house by world-renowned architect, neil m. denari.
the u+a house is a flexible, universal product, designed for a variety of contexts and climates around the world, including: small-lot or cluster housing, remote vacation property and rooftop penthouses among other possibilities. "
"the u+a house options range from the "mini hi-rise" (pictured, 660 sq.ft - 61 m2) to "low-rise", or "high and wide" options extending up to 1800 square feet (167 m2). innovations include lightweight aerospace grade aluminum panels, solar power, rooftop patio, rain collection, flexible floorplans, plus some built-in furniture designed by nmda.
though there are elements of pre-fabrication which add quality and value, the u+a house is not strictly pre-fab. rather, it is pre-designed, and in a sense, downloadable anywhere in the world. the ideas and philosophy of the architect will be unveiled on ua.tv.
the potential purchaser can communicate with useful + agreeable by telephone or web video link, from wherever they are in the world. once specific sizing, zoning and other requirements are met, many materials are sourced locally, while others are shipped for assembly on site."
truly a useful + agreeable design product. Via ::Core77
See another Denari project in TreeHugger.
Thirsty for more? Check out these related articles:
- Prefab? High Concept? Green?
- SEED [pod] Incremental Housing from Binary Studios
- Stair of the Week: Clayton St House by Mork-Ulnes Design
- Naturhus Wraps A House In Its Own Private Greenhouse
It looks like an iPod charging station.
i'll bet moving furniture in would be a breeze with those staircases, hope its flatpack
It looks about as spacious as an iPod. When you're limited on square footage, using it up for stairs really hurts a design.
No building code in the US that I know of will let you get away without a conventional stairs. Even spiral staircases here have to be a secondary not primary staircase.
I suppose if you are out in the country, the building codes might be more lax.
Prefabs, in the suburbs complete with garage and SUV. Awesome.
Do Architects want to be Product Designers nowadays?
though no need to upgrade the garage and its resident four wheel drive gas guzzler, by the look of it. (left side of artist's impression). the more things change, the more they remain the same.
dangit, I was about to make an iPod charging station joke too. And it was going to be really funny. Well I guess you'll never hear it now.
Why are all the houses always shown on this website so damn ugly? The ones above are like some concoction about what life will be in the year 2000 as envisioned in the 50s and other houses look like something some drugged out hippy lived in back in the 70s.
Seriously, that looks terrifying. Just imagine a block of those. Talk about a scary, emotionless, uniform future...