A few weeks ago we decided to answer Jetson Green’s challenge to enter the Re:Construct competition put on by Re:Vision. The competition is aimed at generating new types of structures and techniques to “reconstruct” the ideas and realities of sustainable building. I mentioned that our entry would be titled something to the effect of “Prefab is NOT the answer” and I guess it peaked Preston’s interest from Jetson Green because he asked me to write a guest post on the subject.
Well, it took some time, but our lengthy guest post on why we think prefab is not the answer to bringing modern, green and relatively affordable architecture to the masses is up at Jetson Green. Check it out if you have a few minutes to blow reading more of my ramblings.
We didn’t plan this timing, but the submission deadline for the Re:Construct contest was yesterday. Writing for Jetson Green was really the only thing that allowed us to hit this deadline. Nic spent most of yesterday developing pretty diagrams, charts and illustrations of the core concepts that were talked about in the post. We submitted them pretty late in the day on the final day of submissions (as is our tendency) so we hope they went through and we don’t get snubbed like we did in that last Dwell contest. Below is what we came up with for your viewing pleasure. These are meant to be printing on 24″ x 36″ boards so you’ll have to click on the image to blow it up larger to read most of the captions.
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great diagrams!
Nic makes a mean and clean diagram.
Chad,
I agree with the general conclusions of a hybrid system but I wonder about the hybrid windows. Do you have examples of locally constructed windows that are more energy efficient/cost effective than national brands?
Also, it would be really great if we could see a diagram similar to the “traditional vs prefab vs hybrid” diagram above, showing the specifics of how the 100k house fits into the hybrid model. Perhaps an ideal one and an actual on to see where you have had to make changes to stay on budget for this project.