Prefabricated Eco-Friendly Homes

Last weekend during a gathering with friends, we met a young man who had recently built his own prefabricated eco-friendly home.

According to his account, the experience had been disastrous. He had contacted a company online that had a prefabricated eco-friendly home design in Valencia. They assured him they could build a 100-square-meter house for €44,000.

After several months of construction, the company literally left the house half-finished, as they had exceeded the agreed costs and did not have the knowledge or resources to complete it. The young man had preferred to finish the house with another builder rather than enter into a lengthy legal process involving lawyers and trials during which he would not have been able to complete it.

The low-cost lure is a very common practice among inexperienced builders with limited technical solvency. As architects, we are genuinely surprised by the fact that signing a house project requires an architecture degree, yet building a house does not require any certificate or technical accreditation as an experienced builder. This leads to this type of shoddy work in which the client is usually the main victim, finding themselves immersed in a process that ultimately costs much more money, time, and headaches than anticipated.

Is it possible to build prefabricated eco-friendly homes?

The terms eco-friendly home and prefabricated do not make much sense in the same sentence. Eco-friendly homes must be adapted to the location, climate, and site requirements.

Sun exposure, orientation, wall insulation, and openings are key elements that must be custom-designed so that the house maximizes natural resources.

Where is the catch? How much does it cost to build a prefabricated eco-friendly home?

Let us examine why it is not possible to build prefabricated eco-friendly homes for only €44,000.

First of all, the price of this house does not include the foundation. The construction company does not know what type of subsoil exists beneath our land, and the price of the foundations for prefabricated eco-friendly homes will depend on whether we find rock or soft soil underground, for example.

Furthermore, in many cases this price will not include the final finishes, or if they are included, they will be of very poor quality.

And what about construction materials?

Another important aspect to consider will be the selection of materials and construction systems. There are many materials sold as eco-friendly that actually contain health toxins. This is the case, for example, with rock wool, a material presented as eco-friendly because it comes from a natural resource, but which firstly generates consumption of non-renewable raw materials, is transformed through the expenditure of a large amount of energy, and also incorporates formaldehyde during its manufacture, a compound recognized as carcinogenic.

What is the correct way to build prefabricated eco-friendly homes?

This is something I always mention in my articles: contacting the architect first will save us many headaches. In our case, we even offer clients support in the search for land.

Our architect will define the custom eco-friendly home project, adapting the dwelling to the site conditions, achieving an eco-friendly home that harnesses natural resources, with appropriate eco-friendly and natural materials and construction systems that ensure the proper bioclimatic functioning and energy efficiency of the house. Once we have the design ready, we will send the project to several builders to finalize construction and pricing. It is at this point that the possibility of working with prefabricated construction systems can be considered, reducing costs and construction times, but this does not prevent our home design from being custom-made and adapted to our needs.