Modular Modernism

In their December 2004 issue, Fortune magazine described prefab modernist homes as one of its top 25 products of 2004. And Resolution: 4 isn't the only firm getting into the modular modernism arena. Royal Homes, a large Canadian modular builder based near Toronto, now offers a special Q Series of prefab modern homes that retail for about $100,000 (land not included). And The New York Times recently reported on how an Austrian architect, Oscar Lee Kaufman, built a 39-foot-by-24-foot modernist home using what he calls OA.SYS (Open Architecture System) at his factory in Dornbirn, Austria. He then shipped the home to a New York couple, and five workers assembled it in about as many days. Total cost to the buyer (including landscaping and excavation): about $300,000.

“We're aiming at between $125 and $150 per square foot for a modernist home in rural mid-America,” Luntz says. “If you're closer to urban areas, the cost is more like $150 to 175, and if you're around the New York City area—say, in the Hamptons—you will probably pay $200 a foot.”

Of course, these new modernist marvels have drawbacks. Because they are built in modular sections, they require electrical and plumbing contractors to finish the job. Even more challenging is the lack of any central heating or air-conditioning system—a problem that Luntz is working toward solving. These “urban bunkers” are also smaller than traditional homes, although living large seems to be less important than living well to the clients interested in this aesthetic.

On the up side, the smaller footprint and factory construction of these homes give them a solid green pedigree: They have less wasted material, have firm, tight, well-insulated envelopes, and can be sited to take advantage of passive solar heating. In fact, says Luntz, clients drawn to these designs tend to be environmental early adopters.

“We're putting geothermal heat into a home in upstate New York right now,” notes Luntz. “These are people who are also interested in using green products in an environmentally correct response.”

If these prefab homes are so popular, why aren't U.S. modular home builders adding them to their mix?

“The modular industry is regulated at the state level,” Luntz explains. “They have a systems approval that allows them to do things within their system only. These homes don't fall within that system, so each time we go to a different state or build a different house, that requires a different system approval.”

In other words, so far, the architects have been steering the bus through the precipitous terrain of certifying these prefab homes, one by one.

That doesn't mean, however, that Luntz has a problem with the idea of mass-producing modular prefab homes to create a whole community, for example. On the contrary. He says his firm is already talking to large builders and developers about that very thing.

“Would we be interested in producing something large scale as a product? Absolutely,” Luntz says. “We fully subscribe to mass customization, and we think when that happens, we will be able to get some economies of scale—to bring prices down.