On the Stands: Dwell's Prefab Issue
by Lloyd Alter, Toronto 
on 12.24.08
I remain a fan and subscriber of Dwell Magazine. It was the biggest promoter of my previous gig, prefab housing; it almost invented modern prefab with its 2001 issue covering the subject. For full disclosure I will note that I have been quoted in it a couple of times and was a speaker at two Dwell conferences.
So I was very excited to see their new Prefab issue; it is a must for anyone following the industry. TreeHugger friend from Inhabitat and Worldchanging Sarah Rich covers ZeroHouse, carefully treading about the concept of prefab vaporware; Debra Prinzing covers garden sheds, many of which we covered here. There is good coverage of Marmol Radziner, builders of the most beautiful prefab I ever saw, Geoff Manaugh of BLDGBLOG fame gives Fuller his due. DWM of the month is Konrad Wachsmann, and the smartest guy in the prefab room, FabPrefab's Michael Sylvester, writes an excellent introduction to prefab.
But as interesting as what is in the issue is what is left out.
Over the past ten years the failures in prefab are as instructive and perhaps as interesting as the successes.(as a failure, I admit bias) It is no surprise that Dwell did not spill a lot of ink on their own participation in the Dwell Homes with Charlie Lazor and Resolution 4- print is expensive. They pass as well on a story about how this industry is dominated by supremely talented and creative women, like Michelle Kaufmann, Rocio Romero and Jennifer Siegel.
illustration from Michael Sylvester's article
But it was churlish of them to ignore the contribution of Allison Arieff, who worked with Karrie Jacobs on the first issue of Dwell on modern prefab. Allison and her husband Bryan Burkhart then wrote PREFAB, the first popular book on the subject, and Allison promoted the industry in the pages of Dwell and elsewhere for years. She deserves better than the single reference to her, the description of her book: "more than a coffee table book-it's a good primer"- how long did it take them to figure out how to damn her with faint praise in ten words.
Dwell would have done better to tell the whole story, warts and all, rather than this attractive but self-reverential and oh, so carefully edited issue- it is a story worth covering and they could have done a great job on it.
More from TreeHugger on the architects discussed in this post:
Marmol Radziner: stunning new prefabs
Zero House by Scott Specht
Buckminster Fuller's Wichita House- Early Sustainable Design
Prefab Now- the Tropical House Reconstructed
Prefab Homes by Dwell
Flatpak House
Joe Tanney on the Swingline House
Modern Prefab by Kohn Shnier Architects and Royal Homes
Michelle Kaufmann Prefab On Exhibit In Chicago
Book Review: The Perfect $ 100,000 House
Swellhouse by Jennifer Siegel Built in Venice
Home Delivery: Modern Prefab Lives Fast, Dies Young, Leaves Good ...
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I don't want to address the question of whether Allison Arieff should or shouldn't be paid homage in the latest pre-fab issue of Dwell. I just want to correct what is either a factual error or sloppy writing:
You wrote:
"But it was churlish of them to ignore the contribution of Allison Arieff, the editor in chief with whom Karrie Jacobs worked on the first issue of Dwell on modern prefab."
At the time that the first prefab issue of Dwell was published in April 2001, I was the editor-in-chief and Allison was the senior editor.
As I note in my essay in the current issue of Dwell -- it's the first time I've written for the magazine since my departure in late 2002 -- I proposed an issue about mass produced housing as part of the vetting process for the editor-in-chief job. When I got the job back in 1999, I began hiring staff. When I originally interviewed Allison, I showed her my concept for the mass production issue and she was very enthusiastic. Her enthusiasm for the topic was certainly part of the reason I hired her. Much of Dwell's original pre-fab issue came directly from my proposal.
I didn't invent the idea of pre-fab. It's been around a long time. But neither did Allison. The idea of doing the first Dwell pre-fab issue was mine. The idea of wedding the magazine to the concept of pre-fab was Allison's.
Those are the facts.
Dwell has gotten plenty of mileage over the years out of my ideas, but that's not something they often acknowledge. Nor do I expect them to. That's not how it works. When you found a magazine, you establish a culture. When you edit a magazine, you pour your ideas into it. When you leave -- if you've done a good job --they continue to operate within that culture and use those ideas. But they don't pay homage. Not to me. Not to Allison. That's showbiz.
Think it's a good idea to eat local? Then you should probably ignore the pre-fab's siren promise of instant housing gratification, and build local too.
Prefab houses are a con. They have been "on the verge of a price breakthrough" via the unfulfilled dream of mass appeal and volume production for at least eighty years but (still, always) cost more than an equivalent site-built for anything more upscale than a double-wide. And if the dreamed-of volume market ever materializes most of the units will be shipped in standardized indifference to local climate and site conditions and dropped onto mis-oriented footings at the direction of couldn't care less developers, who will then have succeeded in outsourcing skilled and rewarding local jobs to remote factories in economically-disconnected communities. A wet dream for corporate builders, a dead loss for the local community.
Why would you want to support any of that?
The problem with building locally or buying an already built home is that in some cases the repairs and costs are more than even a prefab home is worth.
I want to go green but if I buy a mid 1900's home the cost of updating it to the standards that I would set for my green home would double the cost that buying it would.
For that same price I could buy the house take it apart, donate the salvage to Habit For Humanity, and then put down the prefab that is already green.
The costs of paying local workers here in California to build green is insane. Of course building in itself is expensive if you have to pay others to do it for you. I know I don't know how to build a modern home.
I am not sure what Ms. Jacobs problem is but I see not of the errors her response seems to point out.
In fact, her response comes across as angry and bitter. I am sure there is some back-story here but is this really the place to play our your career history?
As to the topic, prefab is dead to the mass market. Sure there will be mobile homes, but there really is not economical way to mass produce standard housing. It just ain't gonna happen. If Bucky could not do it, no one could. It is, and will remain, a niche product for those of means, not a solution to the middle class.