Philippe Barriere Design Collective’s Modular Transitional Growth Housing (MTGH) system proves once again that prefab is not only earth-friendly, but a highly-adaptable, scalable, and efficient form of building. The project, conceptualized for a post-Katrina New Orleans housing competition, and runner-up in last year’s Metropolis Next Generation competition, delivers a system to provide everything from minimum emergency shelter units to large-scale town house residences.
Designed for mass production, affordability, and easy transport, these compact housing units also boast a self-recycling process that reuses existing parts for future applications and BioClimactic design for natural light and passive cooling.
+ Modular Transitional Growth Housing
From Philippe Barriere Design Collective’s website:
“MTGH allows for expansions through its occupants housing needs, and recycles itself through the process of housing evolution. The unique self-recycling feature entails reusing existing parts, a process of organic shading, as MTG evolves towards a more mature expression and a more complete appropriation and identification of of housing which is tailored to the individual’s life need and span, in tandem with their socioeconomic resources. Beyond the use of recycled materials, the BioClimactic Design (high ceilings and naturally induced cooling ventilation) addresses priorities in vernacular architecture making MTG housing with a character of nobility and environmental assimilation.”
i’m in love. i want one of these in the middle of the city. yummy.
This is unique, but there is this voice in the back of my head saying,”What the @#$%”
Great concept, but realistic? I can see eco-friendly prefabs like this taking off as vacation homes or camp outposts, but do we live in a world where the average person will want to change?
It’s so nice to see pre-fab housing that when grouped, doesn’t look like stacked boxes. If more designers embrace organic forms such as these, it will help to spark interest throughout the general population instead of just appealing to folks like us who care about function foremost. Very nice, ship a couple down to florida for me!
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I love everything but the ‘modular transitional growth’ part that gets stuck in my throat – must be my built-in pretentiousness gag reflex
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I like it. It’s a breath of fresh air!
Walt
Multifamily prefab experimentation is refreshing, although I’m still a little wary of architectural experimentation for disaster relief (versus willing and paying test subjects). It looks like he really took the gulf coast climate to heart as well. Between this, Rocio Romero and Rockhill + Associates, the Kansas City area is becoming a prefab hotspot– go KC!
Hooray for prefab that isn’t a rectangular box! The lines of this one are just lovely. Even with the very modern building materials, it still has a little bit of an organic feel to it. Quite nice.
I want to build a house instant arrival no architects or consultats. Planning permission granted for site although it would need re aplication. Got two good builders..
House needs small bedroom + bathroom (possible two bedrooms) long sitting dining kitchen room. Good views and backs onto natural courtyard…..budget around £100,000 quoted more + fees for reasonably interesting building…
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è incredibile… come si sono modificate negli anni le costruzioni prefabbricate… ecosostenibili, riciclabili… conviene molto di più rivolgersi verso questo tipo di strutture, belle e rispettose dell’ambiente.
Architects embracing modular, off-site construction is fantastic. At Kullman, our 80-year-old steel and concrete modular company, we love working with new ideas, shapes and sizes for our mods. They don’t have to be stacked like shoe boxes, as we often make mods with round walls, trapeziod shapes, etc. This was recognized by the architects who competed in the Pratt Institute graduate student housing competition judged by Kenneth Frampton and Barry Bergdoll where all the architects designed using a modular concept.
If you are interested in modular…check out our Muhlenberg College residential dorms we are setting right now on their website: http://construction.muhlenberg.edu/view/index.shtml
Our construction method was perfect for this situations because we can complete student housing in half the time of conventional stick built jobs allowing the college to use the existing dorms we replaced until May 15 while the new dorms were built in our factory. On their live webcam you can see us setting the five, 3-story 42,000 sq. ft. project with full brick facade. All of the buildings, 3-stories 7,500 sq. ft. each include a 20 ft. tall gable roof . It tok Kullman 34 hours last week to erect one building. The building was prefabricated at our plant and the roof was constructed on the ground at the site (in 5 days prior to set) and hoisted onto the building and placed over it like a “hat.”
It is really an incredible sight and speaks volumes about this method of construction. We got the site on May 15th when demolition and foundations were done and student will be in their rooms (and the college will start collecting rent) by September 1st.
We ask ourselves everyday…why isn’t everyone building this way?
I don’t think people who have just gone through a disaster such as Katrina would want a new, techy house with glass walls. I’d much rather have something else, where people can’t see me and maybe a bit bigger, too. This would best make a small vacation home type-thing.
*All yall*
Need to come down to Australia, the modular prefab scene has just exploded!
New residential developments are opting for the prefab style because the look is Vogue.
Come down and check it out some time ..