|
A Modernist prefab model catches on By Sam Lubell
|
 |
|
 |
 |
|
Prefab’s popularity has helped Living Homes. Image courtesy Living Homes. |
|
|
 |
|
 |
SCI-Arc founder Ray Kappe, FAIA, who has been practicing in Los Angeles since the 1950s, has tried for years to introduce a new style of prefabricated, modular home into the local market. His idea is finally starting to take off in California.
A Santa Monica–based company called Living Homes is producing his line of Modernist-styled prefab homes. The 2,500-to-6,000-square-foot, steel-framed dwellings, which will be installed as a series of modules, will be clad with glass and either cedar, concrete, or stone. Home construction takes about three months, says Kappe. He adds that the structures, which employ subtle level changes and various intersecting planes, are somewhat reminiscent of his work from the 1970s.
“I’ve always been interested in how to build something that doesn’t feel like you’re walking into a box,” he says. But these homes are far more environmentally friendly than his earlier work. They will come with installed photovoltaics, green roofs, and radiant heating, and will be assembled using recycled wood and nontoxic paints.
Kappe has designed six of the homes, in Santa Monica, Venice, and Brentwood, and will likely develop 40 more for an affordable housing development in Santa Barbara. Costs range from $350,000 to $650,000, quite affordable by California standards. Living Homes plans to hire more architects for its future projects.
May 2006 |
