Prefab is notorious for being a whole lot of concept and not much follow-through. So it’s no wonder that the early buzz about the new Jeriko House rings with skepticism. Lloyd Alter’s review at Treehugger pointed out that this thing sounds almost too good to be true. But since we don’t know yet whether it is, might as well ooh and aah at just how good it does sound…
Jeriko claims to bring the best of all worlds together. They eliminate the waste of material, energy, and money that conventional construction incurs, while bringing the homeowner a simple, ideal combination of flexibility, sustainability, and affordability.
Do those fake lighting effects on the images bother anybody else besides me?
The light… It’s so blinding…
That’s great that the house is green, but what about their marketing? Their free brochure is not available online – only through the mail.
Oddly enough when you contact them for a brochure, you receive a nice e-mail back with a link in it to their e-brochures, why they don’t just put the links up on their site I don’t know.
Here they are though.
http://www.jerikohouse.com/ebrochure/Jeriko_House_EBrochure.pdf
and
http://www.jerikohouse.com/ebrochure/TRENDbyJerikoHouse.pdf
‘Lighting effects’ is not the point folks ! What’s being put forth here is a new framing system which: “is designed to withstand hurricanes, floods, and earthquakes.’, using a ‘precision engineered modular interlocking system’… which ultilizes ‘ click-in fasterners’… and is fashioned from ‘aerospace grade aluminum’ and stainless steel. If no nails or screws are required, as is claimed, because ‘click – in’ fastners take their place… it appears that we’re talking about an evolutionary housing frame system here, one that could create much greater ‘ owner – builder ‘ possibilities, along the lines of the world famous ‘Eames House’ (Case Study House #8).
‘Click – in’ fasteners also imply ‘click – out’… or a structure that can be taken apart and reused elsewhere. If this is so, this is an amazing step forward. Imagine going to Home Depot, or somewhere, someday… and buying the frame members of your house ‘off the shelf’ ! That’s what this new assembly system seems to portend. Forget the $175 a sqaure foot construction costs. If just the framing system was sold retail, housing costs could be drastically reduced. I hope the Jeriko House people consider this option.
Love the looks – but all that glass wouldn’t fly here in Florida.
When I contacted Jeriko House, I received a brochure with lots of ideas and possibilities for design configurations. They also followed up with a phone call that allowed me to ask the hard questions of availability and cost. They need a case study house….to answer all the questions around assembly and costs.
quite nice looking,might be a downer spending weekends cleaning your windows
Here we go again – another glass house. Who would actually want to live in a store front? The car port has more privacy than the living room by the look of it. Now I agree with Richie’s comments “If no nails or screws are required, as is claimed, because ‘click – in’ fastners take their place… it appears that we’re talking about an evolutionary housing frame system here, one that could create much greater ‘ owner – builder ‘ possibilities”. Now that is a good idea. They should focus their marketing photos on self- designability and self-construction. That would be novel!
I agree it is some very forward thinking ideas. Hettie quoted them as needing a “case study house”. I have heard architects use the term “early adopters”. I prefer the term guina pig. It’s one thing to design it but quite another to risk your own money and assets to develop and build it.
Like Treehugger realized, its really a Tomahouse: http://www.tomahouse.com/
I like the modular assembly, but I don’t see how their offerings are suitable for climates that require insulated buildings. Sure, you can make insulated panels, but they are limited in their thickness, and the nice aluminum frame exposed inside and out is a nice thermal bridge, bringing the heat or cold inside. Maybe they address this to some degree, but I’m not seeing it. Also, unless these panels attach and form a good seal from panel to panel, there will be lots of ventilation/heat loss/cooling loss in a conditioned space.
Interesting ideas about a plug in structure…. but i wouldn’t say it hasn’t been done before… Architects for countless years having been looking at the modular system for building..just look at le corbusier with the red and blue modular as your first point of call! The key issue with modular housing is flexibility, cost and combining all the trades in one process-off-site, generally pre-fabrication off-site will reduce costs and the contract period, and if you create keys for each of the componets slot into which are to tolerances that a contractor can work too on-site then job done!!!
In the u.k. currently the goverment and industry have been looking at reducing costs to create a 60k house (which they have achieved- at a build cost…land value/ marketing / overheads / profit not considered)… inevitably this has ended up as a modular pre-farbicated off-site design…green issues considered by high insulation within the perimetre walls and the orientation of the building within it’s environmental context to heat and cool the building (scandanavian line of thought)….
i would also be concerned about the level of glass in the jeriko house… although the roof overhang does add the benefit of shade to the glazing.. but is the building going to overheat, what are the sap calcs for a design with all that glass- and is it carbon neutral i wonder!
I don’t much know about the green aspect, but it sure is beautiful.
The only living that will likely ever be done in this house will be done in a dream.