Tag Archives: prefab home

Our favorite tiny prefab home made 99% offsite is the future of affordable & sustainable construction has unveiled new information!

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Hüga means finding happiness in small things, a concept born from the Danish philosophy ‘Hygee that is followed by thousands of people around the world. This is exactly where Grandio drew its inspiration from to develop a unique, different project that combines a set of brilliant ideas with design, construction, and marketing. After 24 months of work by a multidisciplinary team of professionals from Córdoba, Hüga was born – the future of the tiny home movement!

Grandio uses its technology to keep the architectural industry to date with its building system that allows for 99% offsite construction. In October 2020, they unveiled their very first prefabricated concrete home called Hüga. Today, the team has developed an advanced enough system using the same technology that can be deployed for commercial, hospitality, and residential functions thus scaling up its positive impact on sustainable construction. Hüga was made to find a solution for the unsatisfying demand in housing and public buildings because that industry has remained the same for centuries. ‘the use of brick in our constructions for over 5000 years is a clear example of how the construction industry is reluctant to change. The construction industry is still looking for a satisfactory solution, one that replaces the slow and expensive traditional systems that require skilled labor.

The Argentina-based studio wanted to provide a more efficient way to build and formed a multidisciplinary team of 23 professionals, civil, mechanical, and industrial engineers, architects, industrial designers, and specialist technicians to create modern construction methods (MMC) and world-class manufacturing (WCM). The final results are these hüga units that are built with reinforced concrete and designed for minimal maintenance as well as reducing your energy costs. These compact homes can withstand all climates and adverse conditions, including earthquakes, wildfires, and hurricanes. Hüga homes are also mobile and modular so much so that you can extend your house in plan in just one day.

Hüga also reduces construction time and any company can use integrate this technology. The goal of this design is to democratize technology with an affordable technological license for professionals or construction companies so that impact can be made on a large scale keeping the environmental impact in mind. This license helps companies with daily monitoring and support from professionals in both construction and sales processes. Both consumers and companies using the system will benefit from any new innovations developed by the Grandio R&D laboratory for free as their community benefit. But it’s not just for homes, Hüga can also be used for commercial functions like cafés or restaurants.

“Hüga technology aims to revolutionize the construction industry, achieving innovation in the final product, in its commercialization, and especially in its manufacturing process. With the use of modern construction methods (MMC) and the efficiency of world-class manufacturing (WCM), all companies in the hüga ecosystem will be able to present disruptive building responses to the current and future demand of our planet. The massive use of this technology will accelerate the urgent changes that our population needs. Hüga technology came to change history in the construction industry. Hüga came to revolutionize our way of living, undertaking, or investing,” concludes the Grandio team. We can imagine Hüga urban villages as the future of sustainable, affordable, and flexible living!

Designer: Grandio

This prefabricated tiny home is shaped like a geometric igloo for a sustainable off-grid living!

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One look at the rugged terrain of the Faroe Islands and you’re instantly transported to the latest fantasy television show where moss coats the roofs of handbuilt cottages and clicking hooves replace the sound of car engines. Danish engineer, Ole Vanggaard and Faroese architect, Kári Thomsen worked together to build their own cluster of prefabricated cottages in Kvivik, a hamlet cozied up in the hills of the Faroese landscape.

Named the Kvivik Igloo, the tiny, prefabricated houses perch the hilltops of Kvivik, overlooking the bay and surrounding mountains. Designed to look like tiny hobbit cottages, each Kvivik Igloo is built with a hexagonal frame and design elements meant to echo the past. Lined with asphalt panels, the Kvivik Igloos can sprout grass and greenery from their roofs and sides to really transport residents into their favorite hobbit fairytale. The igloo’s living roof not only adds to its charm but also to the tiny home’s sustainability factor, creating a heightened nesting place for birds and woodland creatures alike. Underlining their sustainability efforts, the builders use passive house construction practices and natural materials to build the Kvivik Igloos, including wood, glass, aluminum, and rubber. Chimneys also punctuate the top of each igloo’s roof, suggestive of a wood stove or fireplace. Steel framed windows form grids on the exterior of Kvivik Igloos, sweeping the entire span of some facades and merging the brisk outdoors with the cottages’ cozy insides.

Known for their strength and staying power, igloos have operated as a form of dome sheltering during winter months for many Inuit and Eskimo people for as long as they’ve existed. The angled structure of the Kvivik Igloo makes it so that the interior walls, floor, and ceiling converge, producing inclined skylights and a tall interior height. The cloudy white sunlight in Kvivik filters through the igloo’s handmade glass windows and skylights and gives the interior an antique air.

Designers: Ole Vanggaard and Kári Thomsen

Located in the Faroe Islands, Kvivik Igloos are built with hexagonal frames and plywood exterior panels.

The angled windows of Kvivik Igloos produce inclined skylights and allow sunlight to filter through the handmade glass surface.

A concrete foundation provides a sturdy base for the Kvivik Igloo to rest atop.

Colorful steel frames border the windows and give Kvivik Igloos a whimsical air.

All windows, doors, and window frames are handmade offsite and measure to fit the igloo’s preferred size.

A grass roof coats the tops of Kvivik Igloos, echoing the builders’ commitment to sustainability and nature.

This sustainable tiny home creates one modern multifunctional living space to reduce its carbon footprint and cost!

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Nowadays, most of us are thinking tiny, especially when it comes to living spaces. Tiny homes and prefabricated cabins have spread across the globe like wildfire and for good reason. Many of us are still eager to travel and can do that with a tiny home hitched to the back of a truck, then some of us prefer tiny homes for their cost-effectiveness, and the rest of us hope to reduce our personal carbon footprints by taking up less space. Johannesburg-based architect Clara da Cruz Almeida designed her prefabricated tiny home, Pod-Idladla with the idea of creating a tiny living space for young graduates without the means for a downpayment.

Before the manufacturing process, Pod-Idladla was conceived by Clara for young professionals to have a sustainable, affordable, and multifunctional living space. Inside, the living areas form one fluid space, rather than individual rooms. Walking through the unit’s front door, vertical storage solutions line the unit’s veneered walls and universal brackets allow the plywood storage bins to be moved around the pod. Even the pieces of furniture, from the kitchen table to the living room sofa, have dual purposes to optimize the unit’s space allowing residents to customize the space however they like. To merge practicality with convenience, the shower is even located in the passageway, which is outfitted with duck boarding, or slatted wooden flooring to keep the timber from getting wet.

Speaking on the unit’s multifunctionality, Clara says her tiny home contains, “spaces, not rooms. You could use the task room to store clothes or to keep your sports equipment. You could have an upstairs study if you don’t want to sleep on the mezzanine.”

Coming up with Pod-Idladla, Clara created a prefabricated modular home that could either stand by itself or attach to additional modules. Measuring a mere seventeen square meters, Pod-Idladla was built to fit into most backyards or small outdoor areas. The frame of Pod-Idladla takes the shape of an upright trapezoid to easily cozy up against any wall or attach to additional units. Each tiny home is built from standard drywall materials, including steel, aluminum, and wood. Outside, the home is clad in timber that can last up to 100 years with the proper care and maintenance. To save on transportation costs, the prefabricated components of Pod-Idladla are constructed in a Johannesburg-based factory and assembled on site.

Designers: POD-iDLADLA

Inside, the unit feels more like one multifunctional space, containing the functionality of the kitchen just below the mezzanine bedroom.

Small enough to fit into most backyards, POD-iDLADLA measures 20.52 square meters including the outdoor deck.

A ladder brings residents from the ground level to the mezzanine that can keep the bed or be morphed into an upstairs office.

The kitchen and dining area merge into one with the help of multifunctional furniture, like the expandable kitchen table.

Vertical storage solutions punctuate the unit’s veneered walls throughout.

Plywood boxes make up the unit’s storage spaces and can be moved throughout the unit.

Clara chose Dokter and Misses to design the interior for their industrial, yet quirky design schemes.

Even the unit’s light fixtures can be moved from their sockets and placed elsewhere in the home.

This tiny cabin shaped like the home icon features floor-to-ceiling facades for nature lovers!

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Tiny homes have taken the globe like a storm, cropping up in backyards and remote forests throughout recent years. The tiny home is the home built for whatever you might need– remote working, fitness or yoga space, a meditation room, or even just an outdoor playhouse for the kids. The Bunkie Co., a team of designers, craftsmen, furniture makers, have designed and built their own line of tiny homes, including one called Monarch, an eleven-foot tall single room cabin designed for anything between, eating, working, playing, and sleeping.

With the pandemic keeping us indoors for the majority of this past year, tiny homes have only surged in popularity, begging designers to bring their interpretations into the mix. Monarch from The Bunkie Co., measures at 12′-6″W x 8′-6”D x 11′-6″H, comes complete with a fully glazed, floor-to-ceiling front-facade and standing seam steel metal cladding all around for a generally thicker grade of steel compared to typical metal cladding.

While owners of Monarch have the choice of getting standard dual airflow vents installed onsite by the contractor, the rest of the tiny cabin comes outfitted with R22 insulated walls and floors, so Monarch could practically function as an escape from home on a year-round basis. Inside, Monarch can accommodate a small electric fireplace with heat control, as well as additional storage cabinets and table furniture like chairs and fold-out desks. UV coated maple veneer plywood panels line the walls of Monarch, providing a warm ambiance to complement the cabin’s soft white lighting.

To adapt to the changing seasons, owners can either get engineered hardwood flooring or luxury vinyl flooring installed as opposed to the maple veneer plywood panels. In addition to the conveniences of insulation and natural airflow, each unit comes with the option of installing a wall bed so work that turns into play could turn into sleep. Designed to become the space that’s unique to you and your needs, Monarch really is the tiny cabin designed for everything from eating and working to playing and sleeping.

Designer: The Bunkie Co.

The Monarch from The Bunkie Co. features a fully glazed, floor-to-ceiling front-facing facade to bring owners as close to nature as they can get.

The ideal size to fit into a backyard or pool deck, Monarch from The Bunkie Co. can be placed discreetly in remote locations for isolated work sessions or meditations.

Built to be transported, each unit is constructed offsite before getting placed in the owner’s preferred location.

Filling out a similar area tot hat of a backyard shed, the Monarch tiny home fits right into the average-sized backyard.

Inside, maple veneer plywood panels line the walls to embrace a warm interior.

Owners have the option of installing a murphy bed for the ultimate tiny home that can do it all.

Natural light coming in from the glass facades provide enough warmth and light to fill up the whole cabin.

Owners can decorate the inside of their cabin according to their needs and the cabin’s function.

Shades can also be installed to keep the natural light from heating up the cabin too much during the warmer seasons.

This prefab modular home includes an open floor plan + arched ceiling with curved pinewood walls!

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Modular homes have been on the rise. Even if we’re only dreaming, each one of us is searching high and low for our own prefabricated getaway somewhere far away in the woods and modular homes offer a feasible means to create our own dream cabin in the woods. Whether we’d like one for work-related retreats or for family holidays, Woonpioniers, an Amsterdam-based architecture, and design studio has created Indigo, a modular building system that designs homes to replicate one of your dreams.

Depending on the home you’d like to build with Woonpioniers, Indigo’s structure and shape may vary. Recently, Lia Harmsen collaborated with Woonpioniers to design her live-in workspace for sculpting. The finished custom two-floor home measures 861-square-feet and features fixed-end moment building practices that produce a beautiful, curved interior leading from the wall to the ceiling. The fixed-end moment frame of the home offers an open-air floor plan, giving complete access for the building’s interior layout to take shape, leaving behind the spatial restriction of support beams and partitions.

Inside, the topmost section of the pinewood sheets that make up the home’s wall curves and connects to the ceiling, producing beam-like support for the building’s structural forces without the physical need of additional beams. Woonpioniers built the bendable wooden sheets themselves, making small incisions in the wooden sheets until they curved to the desired shape. Below, pigmented concrete fills Indigo’s ground floor while the stairs and the upstairs bedroom is lined with ProFi flooring from solid timber and given a transparent coating for a finished look.

From the outside, Harmsen’s dark-as-night Indigo live-in workspace features floor-to-ceiling windows that cover the whole of the structure’s front and back facades. The abundance of natural light showcases the home’s floorplan, which features a small kitchenette, dining area, living room, and bathroom located below a staircase with integrated storage options that leads to the home’s loft bedroom.

Designer: Woonpioniers

From the exterior, Indigo appears to have a traditional frame, but a closer look showcases curving interior walls.

Indigo’s exterior facades are paneled with pinewood and connect to a metal roof.

The curved walls provide the loft with a cozy frame and an organic placement for the built-in skylight.

From both ends of the loft, Indigo features a triangular floor-to-ceiling window.

The materials used to build Indigo were chosen for their self-regulating properties were responsibly sourced for an overall minimal environmental impact.

The first floor of Harmsen’s Indigo features a small kitchenette and dining area on one side, and a woodfire oven delineates the kitchenette from the rest of the floor plan.

The polished concrete flooring is only found on the first floor and bathroom interiors.

Equipped with integrated staircase storage, Woonpioniers made clever use of the 861-square-feet on which Indigo rests.

The kitchenette’s countertop was built by Lia Harmsen herself.

Across the room from the kitchen, Indigo also features a small living area.

This prefabricated tiny office workspace uses a love of details to create this must have 2021 getaway!

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Prefabricated cabins and tiny homes have taken last year and the start of 2021 by storm. It seemed like nobody could say they hadn’t found their dream tiny home after digging through rabbit holes of options. It makes sense. Tiny homes provide a quiet space for you to live out your dream mobile lifestyle, off-the-grid and if anything, these times have shown that you might as well take advantage of the options available. Aux box, a team of carpenters, contractors, and designers based in Vancouver produces prefabricated units for exactly that reason– to provide thoughtfully produced prefabricated units that cater to their customer’s dream lifestyle, which otherwise wouldn’t be fully realized within the confines of a cramped home office.

The team at aux box offers four different models of prefabricated units, each of which provides an array of functions– their most versatile being Model 240. Dubbed “the pinnacle aux box product for versatility in small living,” Model 240 is comprised of two distinct rooms and a small outdoor patio area. Like the rest of their models, the team at aux box constructs Model 240’s structure from pre-finished pine wood, which is then reinforced with pre-painted metal siding, enhancing the unit’s durability and overall look. Thinking about even the smaller details, each aux box model comes with as few open crevices as possible so that residents can enjoy the beauty and peace of the space without worrying about any future cleanup job. In addition to the unit’s clean corners and finished paint job, the Model 240 comes equipped with a hidden downspout, gutters and fasteners, a hidden hot water tank, vents and hoses, an electrical box on the outside of the building, no trim or baseboards, and no roof overhang.

Among other features, the Model 240 comes with engineered hardwood flooring, ample storage options, as well as large format glass doors. From the placement of the kitchen’s transom windows to functional, staggered outlets, the team at aux box really put the love in the details. Born out of a desire to bring some excitement and a sense of calm to your backyard, the team at aux box has sophisticated minimalism down pat.

Designer: aux box

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With a covered deck and two distinct rooms, aux box set out to take full advantage of the small space available.

One prospective layout delineates two separate spaces for your kitchen and bedroom, while your bathroom remains accessible through a swinging door.

Another layout suggests that your living room be positioned right in front of the large-pane glass window, so that your bedroom can have its own space next to the bathroom.

One last layout allows residents to make optimal use of the space provided by Model 240, keeping bulky gym equipment out of the bedroom.

“We chose large format glass doors and strategically placed our windows to not only enhance your connection to nature but also provide ventilation and privacy when and where you need it.”

With a staggering outlet, Model 240 residents are able to maximize the unit’s available power.


The auxffice is aux box’s entry-level home office – simple, functional, and designed for work-life balance.

The 106 is slightly larger than the auxffice, offering a more spacious workspace.

The 146 comes equipped with a covered patio attachment.

This prefabricated intelligent tiny home is a reinforced concrete + weatherproof design, making it nearly indestructible!

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The Danish word Hygge refers to a quality of coziness and comfort that comes from embracing life’s quieter pleasures either with oneself or loved ones. Hygge, typically used to regard architecture and interior design, might be so popular because it gently pulls us away from the smartphone if only for an evening to remind us of what’s truly important. Building on their own interpretation of cozy, Grandio, an architecture firm based in Córdoba, Argentina, recently launched a prefabricated concrete home called Hüga inspired by hygge living.

Hüga was conceptualized, designed, and built over a span of 24 months, during which Grandio’s team of designers were able to produce a 45 m2 residence with space for a bedroom, living room, bathroom, kitchen, and dining area. In order to ensure that Hüga could be transported anywhere and installed on-site, the team at Grandio developed a system of lightweight polymer molds to build the home’s “structural shell” so that it can ultimately be reinforced with concrete and maintain its form. Weighing about 55-Tn, Hüga requires a team and machinery for transportation but can be placed according to the prospective resident’s preference.

Inside the house, Grandio outfitted the interiors with materials and means for energy that provides, “the greatest comfort, habitability, and the lowest energy consumption.” Residents of Hüga only have to connect electricity, water power, and sewer systems, but speaking to the means for power, the team at Grandio was certain to pre-certify the home to meet Leeds standards and promote sustainable building tools and materials, as well as energy practices and performance. Residents are free to decorate the inside of Hüga however they choose and rest assured that their new home embraces both smart performance and green energy for convenient, supportive living. The final result is a home that is both bulletproof and weatherproof, with its minimal exteriors hiding a spacious and well-lit interior space.

Hygge has resonated with many of us in the past few years for the reason that it encourages us to veer away from our “plugged-in” norm. Most of us are constantly interacting with so much work-related stuff we forget that there’s a world beyond the calendar. In constructing Hüga, Grandio aimed to shift the public’s gaze from grandiose and ostentatious design as a means to demonstrate wealth to a more modest lifestyle that prioritizes the naturally attainable pleasures of quiet living.

Designer: Grandio

This “unfolding house” comes prefabricated and can be assembled in less than 3 hours!

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Putting an absolutely new kind of spin on “Home Delivery”, Brette Haus’ prefabricated cabins are literally shipped to your location on the back of a trailer. In a matter of 3 hours, the home is placed on the site, unfolded, and secured in place, turning it from one weird wooden carton into a liveable cabin with anywhere between 22 to 47 sq.ft. of space (depending on the cabin’s variant).

Each cabin takes roughly 8 weeks to fabricate and comes made entirely from carbon-neutral, weather-proof, and sustainable cross-laminated timber. There is no need for a permanent foundation… the cabins can easily be unfolded on any levelled ground before being secured in place using screw piles. The hinges on the cabin can survive up to 100 folding cycles (which means you can carry your house to multiple locations), and Brette Haus even offers optional addons like a waste-tank and solar panel kit, allowing you to live comfortably, yet off the grid… and possibly far away from civilization if you’re tired of the human race after this exhausting year.

Designer: Brette Haus

This panoramic view cabin keeps bugs out using a unique Japanese technique

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I am obsessing over outdoor cabins since we are all stuck indoors. My favorites are the ones like LUMIPOD because they bring the vastness of nature into your cabin through the thoughtfully designed structure and, in this case, creative windows! We all know windows are a true blessing in quarantine and LUMIPOD seems to have the one so large its basically a door into the wild.

The LUMIPOD are a series of prefabricated cabins that are installed 1000m above sea level in the French Alps (here is when you start planning your post-pandemic getaway) so you can only imagine how pristine the views are. To do the French Alps justice, the design team built the structure with one aim – giving you a fully immersive experience of being in nature with a luxurious upgrade. The most unique feature about this cabin is its LUMICENE windows – the curved window provides a 180º view and makes you feel like you are in a snow globe. The window is set in aluminum frames sliding between two rails so you can blend the indoors and outdoors by simply opening the window.

The circular cabin measures 5.45 m with interiors specifically designed to resemble a high-end hotel. The structure is made from steel to provide top grade stability that is required by the LUMICINE windows. Another interesting feature about this house is how it keeps the insects away – the exterior has been wrapped in Douglas fir which has been charred using a Japanese technique (shou-sugi-ban) proven to keep bugs outside your bedroom! The interiors have earthy tones because of the light oak and merino wool usage which provide a warm ambience while also keeping the cabin literally warm through their insulation properties.

It is a minimal cabin that allows you to focus on the scenic experience rather than being distracted by free toiletries. “This prefabricated housing module, a real cocoon of simplicity, settles in the middle of Nature to welcome city dwellers willing to relax away from the concrete jungle,” says the LUMIPOD team. The cabin has three different sizes to accommodate your needs and can be installed in 2-3 days. It feels like a personal snow globe and I will continue to imagine all the little details about it until the next cabin getaway.

Designer: LUMIPOD

Add ‘architecture’ to Yves Behar’s skill-set!

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Having built brands like Fitbit, Jawbone, Sodastream, Hive, and having contributed to super-brands like Herman Miller, designer Yves Behar quite literally needs no introduction. Founder of Fuseproject and the designer behind a lot of the projects we revere as ‘great design’, Yves Behar’s latest venture focuses on the bigger picture. You’re looking at Livinghomes YB1, Behar’s first line of fully built prefab homes, made for Plant Prefab.

A fully-furnished prefab home is more of a systems design project, than an architecture and interior one. The YB1 house comes made from multiple 4X4 foot modules that can be customized and put together, allowing you to explore a wide range of layouts. Users can essentially choose different modules, and even the walls that cover the sides of the modules, opting from plain walls to full-size windows. The interiors are completely modular too and you can quite literally choose room-arrangements based on the layout of the flat, picking up prefabricated kitchen and bathroom details to just simply install in your house. Upon order, the home takes a few weeks for manufacturing and one day for installation with all electrical, plumbing, lighting, HVAC and appliances built in.

Designer: Yves Behar (Fuseproject) for Plant Prefab

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