New Atlas

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Pipe-shaped micro-cabin can hang from a mountain or dangle from a tree

Adam Williams February 14, 2019

The Fuselage, by Tree Tents, is a pipe-shaped dwelling that can be suspended above ground using trees or even a cliffside, or installed on stilts on the ground. It measures just 5.3 m (17 ft)-long and can run off-the-grid with a solar power setup.

The Fuselage can be suspended from a tree or cliffside, or placed on the ground on ...

Tiny Houses

Prefab tiny houses installed into old dilapidated homes

Adam Williams November 26, 2018

In 2016, People's Architecture Office (PAO) designed a novel modular home that could be built within a day using just a hex key called the Plugin House. The firm is still developing the design and recently installed two new models of the Plugin House into dilapidated old houses in a Chinese village.

The Shangwei Village Plugin Houses cost around 85,000 YUAN (US$12,200) for the smaller model and 130,000 ...

Architecture

Modular patient room could make for quicker hospital builds

Ben Coxworth September 13, 2018

When cruise ships are being built, the cabins are just slotted in as prefabricated modules – it's faster and easier than building each one from scratch. Well, Philadelphia-based EIR Healthcare is taking the same approach to hospital-building, with its MedModular prefab patient rooms.

Multiple MedModular rooms can be fitted together like Lego

Architecture

Sustainable flatpack SysHaus pops up in less than a month

Nick Lavars August 30, 2018

Homes that come in easy-to-assemble flat-packed components are gaining in popularity, and a new SysHaus to pop up in São Paulo, Brazil is undoubtedly one of the more impressive we’ve seen. It was designed with sustainability in mind, right down to its tasteful, low-maintenance garden surrounds.

The SysHaus took just 28 days to assemble

Architecture

Five of the finest flatpack homes

Nick Lavars August 20, 2018

There’s little doubt that the neatly packaged nature of a certain Swedish furniture-maker’s products are a big reason for its success, and lately we’re seeing how flatpack kits have a certain allure for those looking for alternative housing solutions. Here are five of our favorites.

The Britespace flatpack homes comes in three sizes

Architecture

Cube Haus aims to disrupt housing market with architect-designed prefabs

Adam Williams May 14, 2018

London's expensive housing market means owning an architect-designed home is out of reach for many. A new firm aims to offer prefab houses by top architects at a reasonable price by squeezing them into underused plots, like disused alleyways, wasteland, and even the roofs of other buildings.

David Adjaye’s Cube Haus design is an adaptive modular home that can respond to a sites’s ...

Architecture

Honomobo raises the bar with recycled shipping container

Adam Williams April 24, 2018

We've reported on all kinds of uses for shipping containers that don't involve actually shipping things, including houses, farms, and swimming pools. We can now add pop-up bar to that list, courtesy of Canadian firm Honomobo and its Honomobar.

The Honomobar is available to purchase for CAD$25,178 (about US$19,764)

Tiny Houses

Tiny prefabricated cabin has a Scottish Highlands flavor

Adam Williams April 9, 2018

In 2011, artist Bobby Niven and architect Iain MacLeod installed an artist residence in the Scottish Highlands. The project proved very popular and has now evolved into Bothy Stores, which offers a tiny house/cabin with similar styling for sale.

The Artist Bothy can be installed within a day

Architecture

Kombi-inspired prefab rooms stack up to a modular mountain chalet in Switzerland

Nick Lavars April 2, 2018

The modular rooms making up Switzerland's Revier Mountain Lodge are designed to mimic the camper van experience. But the sum of these prefab wooden parts make for much more of a mountain chalet-style aesthetic.

Each of the 96 rooms making up the four floors of the Revier Mountain Lodge was ...

Architecture

Gallery: The prettiest prefabricated homes

Nick Lavars March 20, 2018

Prefabricated homes might be cheaper and quicker to assemble, but they come with certain limitations that don't impede traditionally constructed dwellings. As these examples demonstrate, however, that doesn't always have to mean compromised aesthetics.

Portuguese prefabricated housing firm Mima Housing's Mima Light features a mirrored base section that makes it ...