Design Process
Eco-friendly modular home design
Discussing the design of an eco-friendly modular home may seem contradictory, as modules imply factory prefabrication, while ecological architecture requires careful adaptation to the climate and environment.
However, many individuals looking to build a home seek cost reduction through prefabrication, in addition to securing a fixed price for their house before construction begins.
Therefore, today we wish to share some insights regarding the construction and design of eco-friendly modular homes, highlighting their advantages, disadvantages, and low-cost alternatives, with the aim of achieving a comfortable, high-quality home within a reasonable budget.
The eco-friendly modular home: what is its origin?
Historically, great inventions arise from great needs, and in the case of prefabricated or modular homes, it was the massive and urgent need for housing in a post-war situation that led to their technical development and mass application.
Although there had been isolated initiatives, the years following World War II, when millions of people were displaced from their homes and resources were scarce, created an urgent need to build houses quickly and cheaply. In fact, this mechanism is still applied today after natural disasters or wars in developing countries, and emergency housing initiatives continuously emerge.
However, to what extent is it consistent to transfer the concept of a quick and cheap home to the construction of a house for a lifetime?
While it can be a solution for those with tight budgets, we must not forget that building a home is a lifelong investment that must comply with strict building regulations requiring minimum quality standards. In this sense, from the perspective of building a home for a lifetime, the cost savings offered by prefabricated construction today do not outweigh the significant long-term disadvantages.
In fact, the additional cost of a custom-designed eco-friendly home is more than recouped within a few years, as maintenance and energy costs are significantly lower.
Today, the design of eco-friendly modular homes has become widespread as a solution to reduce production costs, offering prefabricated products that do not consider the environment in which they are located or the family’s needs.
Thus, we are mortgaging energy efficiency, comfort, and family well-being in exchange for low-quality, low-cost housing, typically marketed by large construction companies whose profitability priorities supersede client needs.
Nevertheless, and despite our studio not being proponents of eco-friendly modular home design if it is not adapted to the site and client needs, it is worthwhile to examine all the pros and cons in detail so that everyone can make an informed decision.
Basic characteristics of eco-friendly modular home design
An eco-friendly modular home is characterized by being a set of modules that, together, form a dwelling. Different parts are joined according to the consumer’s taste and have standardized dimensions.
These modules can be complete parts of the house or elements such as walls or floors, depending on whether the prefabrication process uses wood or concrete.
The design of an eco-friendly modular home typically results in more adjusted prices due to its industrialization, and each module already incorporates all finished elements: structure, facade, flooring, roof, installations, windows, etc.
Let’s see what all this implies:
Advantages of eco-friendly modular home design
Fixed and reduced budget
Factory production allows for establishing specific prices without having to account for variables or problems that may arise on-site.
Furthermore, constructing hundreds of units of the same model is much cheaper than manufacturing unique, custom-made units.
Minimum execution time
As most of the work is carried out in the workshop, the house can begin construction in the factory while the foundations are being laid on-site.
Afterward, the modules are transported to the site and assembled in a few days. This way, a house could be built and ready for occupancy within a few months after design acceptance.
However, if we decide to build a custom wooden house, the process of workshop prefabrication and on-site foundation construction is also carried out similarly, thus reducing execution times.
Parametrized production line
This implies that before starting to build, all elements and specific details of each module have been defined and measured.
This reduces errors in details and finishes that could occur on-site, especially in brick or block constructions where execution varies depending on the individual carrying it out.
Disadvantages
Lack of adaptation to the site or client
An ecological house, by definition, adapts to the climate and location and leverages its characteristics.
An ecological house is oriented south, where the daytime areas are located with large openings to take advantage of solar heat. Bedrooms are situated east or west to benefit from the first rays of sun or the last of the evening, depending on the design strategy and the needs of each family. Finally, service rooms and bathrooms, used occasionally, are located north, which is the coldest part of the house and therefore should be more opaque.
Furthermore, all of this relates to specific needs established by the family and requirements dictated by the plot itself, its orientation, slope, and immediate surroundings.
All these premises are difficult to meet when starting with a pre-established module with specific windows and predefined materials; it is impossible to adapt to the terrain with a standardized module.
Nor does it adapt equally to those who will inhabit the house. Although we can decide how many rooms we want and the extra spaces we wish to implement in our home, the organization of these spaces will be determined by how they were established in the modular design of the house, allowing us only to choose from different plans that have nothing to do with authentic architecture adapted to people and place.
May require special transport
This is an issue often overlooked but can lead to many complications.
Firstly, it is necessary to consider that most prefabrication companies do not operate beyond 500 km, as transporting large modules over long distances is not cost-effective.
Furthermore, the transport of modules to the location of our house is not always included in the established price.
Foundation costs not included
Similar to transport, the cost of foundations is typically not included in the budget provided by the construction company. This can represent a significant unforeseen investment, especially on sloped or excessively soft terrains where the additional cost of the foundation will be considerable.
Environmentally unfriendly processes
As this involves mass production, widely used materials that are not ecological are often employed.
For example, reinforced concrete, which contains many chemicals; steel, which generates magnetic fields inside the home; synthetic insulation, which is poorly breathable and does not allow for good regulation of indoor humidity; or synthetic finishes, which generate static electricity in interior spaces, causing discomfort to occupants.
Houses are not designed to be moved
Modular prefabrication originated as temporary housing until it was permanently fixed to the ground with foundations. A house, however, is a home and a unique space that we do not move. Manufacturing a house far from its site implies less adaptation to the location than houses built on-site.
So far, we have examined the advantages and disadvantages of this type of construction, but for those who prioritize a fixed price, are there alternatives?
Is it possible to achieve an eco-friendly modular home design that adapts to the site and its occupants?
As mentioned earlier, the design of a prefabricated eco-friendly modular home shares some similarities with the design of a partially prefabricated wooden house, in the sense that we can control costs in detail before starting construction and save a lot of construction time through parallel work in the workshop and on-site.
Let’s examine this particular case in detail, which we do support and, in fact, apply in many of our projects:
Eco-friendly wooden modular home design
Designing a custom home by prefabricating part of the process, especially when working with wood, offers a great advantage as it reduces construction time and budget.
Terrain
If we start from the premise that we will design with custom-made modules, we can work to adapt to our terrain.
Depending on the slope, for example, we will propose modules that can vary in height and dimension them to adapt to the gradient.
The shape, orientation, and dimensions of the plot are factors that will greatly influence the design of an eco-friendly wooden modular home.
Transport
Road transport is limited by a specific clearance. Any element exceeding the marked dimensions will require special transport with all that this entails.
In the case of transporting a wooden modular house, the width is determined by the size of the module walls, which can be as long as the transport truck and as high as the maximum allowed clearance for road transport.
The maximum road clearance allowed is 2.55 m wide and 12 m long, with a total height of 4 meters. Therefore, any modules exceeding these dimensions will require special transport. This will involve requesting special permits from the police and, consequently, an increase in the budget.
Spaces in an eco-friendly modular home
As with a conventional dwelling, in an eco-friendly modular home, we must establish our needs regarding the organization of rooms.
It is important to know that in a modular house, whether prefabricated or custom-designed, certain measurements must be respected, dictated by the concrete panel or by the length or modulation of the wooden beams and pillars, as the case may be.
Generally, concrete allows for wider spans (distances), while wood, however, will depend on whether it is composed of laminated beams and pillars that offer greater resistance, or if we work with solid wood, in which case the maximum distances will be defined by the length of the tree.
In any case, we must consider that none of the rooms in a modular house will be very large, as they must conform to the maximum modulation.
When organizing the distribution of rooms, it will be necessary to locate the daytime areas in the warmest parts of the house, the south facade, to maximize light and heat during the day, thereby saving energy.
Energy consumption
Just as in non-prefabricated ecological houses, in a modular house, we must adapt and take advantage of our climate to minimize energy consumption.
For this reason, it will be necessary to assess the appropriate thickness of thermal insulation and the suitable type of windows to enhance solar gain and prevent heat from dissipating from our home.
Designing a house that fully adapts to the climate and environment, and meets our requirements, becomes almost impossible if we start with modules of pre-established dimensions.
Materials
In our studio, we always prioritize construction with natural, chemical-free, and locally sourced materials.
Today, it is practically impossible to find prefabricated modular home construction companies that adhere to these conditions. On the contrary, companies that pay little attention to the indoor environment and, to reduce costs, work with environmentally unfriendly synthetic insulation that is not breathable and generates condensation and humidity inside the dwelling, are abundant.
The most recommended material for designing an eco-friendly modular home is, without a doubt, wood. Wood allows for workshop-based structure work – unlike brick – and is an ecological material that does not require a large amount of energy to process nor does it contain chemicals.
In summary, if we seek efficiency, health, and well-being in our home, and if we are going to build a house in which we will live a good part of our lives, it is important that it is not chosen from a catalog but rather emerges from a slow design process hand-in-hand with a trusted architect. At our studio, we work closely with the client from the first day until the completion of the house’s construction.
Throughout history, modular and prefabricated houses have primarily been used after major disasters, when rapid action is essential – and when the budget is low – to replace all the housing that has been destroyed or rendered unusable.
One of the most recent examples we find, and which should be mentioned as a success story, developed after Hurricane Katrina, a storm that left thousands of people without homes or shelter.
After the catastrophe, actor Brad Pitt launched a foundation to promote the construction of eco-friendly modular homes called Make It Right, aiming to create affordable, ecological homes for all those left homeless in the New Orleans area.