I just watched a segment of How Do They Do It? on Huf Haus. Based in Germany, it offers prefabricated homes that are very pretty. Open and airy, with two floors, the architecture is pretty much exactly what I’d like in a house.
I pass by prefab sellers on the way to and from work. Palm Harbor Homes look like typical American crackerboxes. Boring. Lindal Cedar Homes have a more open plan and I like them better. They fit in with the Pacific Northwestern aesthetic. Only they’re a bit stereotypical.
Huf Haus houses look ‘modern’. Not boring like Palm Harbor, nor ‘The Great Outdoorsman’ like Lindal. The post-and-beam construction is nifty too. (I should mention I’m a big fan of Ikea. ) It’s too bad that A) I already have a house (and it would piss a lot of people off if I tore it down, since it’s been here some 74 years and there are many longtime residents and descendants of early residents here), B) I’m still paying for my house and can’t afford to replace it, and C) Huf Haus is in Germany.
The Huf Hauses are Uber-cool! Pity they are only in the UK and Europe. Rob and I are planning to put up one of these in 2012 or before. We visited their factory over Christmas 2006 and were blown away by their efficiency. Hooray Prefab!!
Looks a little lacking in privacy, but in a thinly populated area with big lots, they’d be cool. A browse through the site didn’t didn’t say anything about pricing – any idea what one would cost, aside from the land?
There’s definitely a lot of glass (double- or triple-paned for insulation – bulletproof optional). That’s why they make blinds though. The cedar homes (possibly, but not necessarily Linal) that I see around here have large glass fronts. There’s one just down the block, facing the beach.
They certainly look cool, though I’m not too keen on having huge walls of glass in a house - I like a greater sense of security than that. I wonder if they offer models without the giant windows?
But I don’t want to have to remember to close the blinds when I’m running about the house in my underpants! That’s just silly! My one major complaint about the designs is that a lot of prefab housing really does look like half-glass wonder cabins from “the future” that a 1950s architect designed. They also seem a little ‘cold’ design-wise… and I can’t imagine what they’d be like in the midday sun when all that glass lets the light through. I wonder what a heating/cooling bill for a house like that would be like. :eek:
I think I saw an episode of Grand Designs where a couple in the UK built their house using Huft Haus - apparently uses a lot of propriatory technology which amazed the architect presenter.
[QUOTE=nashiitashii]
My one major complaint about the designs is that a lot of prefab housing really does look like half-glass wonder cabins from “the future” that a 1950s architect designed.
[quote]
That reminds me of a Pink Panther cartoon where a guy wants to build a normal house, and PP keeps changing the blueprints to make him build a Jetsons-style structure.
A matter of taste, of course. I’m a big fan of old structures. Love 'em. But at the same time I like clean, functional designs. That’s why I prefer my Ikea bed to an ornately-carved sleigh bed, among other things. If I had gobs of money, my house would have a large room with wood floors and big windows and one chair in the middle of it. I like space. So the open design appeals to me.
You have a point about heating and cooling. I can tell you that since I replaced my French doors, front door, and the exterior doors on the two rear bedrooms with double-glazed doors the house stays warmer in the Winter. Winters are famously gloomy here on the NW Washington coast, and it gets cold. I’d like to have a large expanse of triple-glazed windows to capture what radiation I could. Triple panes would insulate fairly well.
Cooling would require some thought though. Summers here are not ‘hot’ (remember I come from L.A.), but they’re still plenty warm. I get by with a fan or two now, but big glass would require a/c. Still, there are systems such as heat pumps with underground piping that would mitigate the monthly bill (which would only be for about three months anyway). It looks as if some of Huf’s designs have large overhangs. I think a retractable shade built into them would do a fair job.
You want clean, functional design? How 'bout this place? Built in a York, Neb., factory five years ago. Believe it or not, it’s actually our dream home. I’m a big fan of pre-fab, and the Huf Haus homes prove that they can be everything a “stick built” ever could be.
Post and beam construction, scads of glass, wide open plans, in-floor heating/cooling… Where have I seen this before?
.Looks like they’ve just brought Eichler into the 21st century. At least they fixed one of the nagging problems that plagues so many Eichler homes and went with pitched roofs.
) It’s too bad that A) I already have a house (and it would piss a lot of people off if I tore it down, since it’s been here some 74 years and there are many longtime residents and descendants of early residents here), B) I’m still paying for my house and can’t afford to replace it, and C) Huf Haus is in Germany.
