PreFab Green

IN PREFAB GREEN, architect Michelle Kaufmann shares her vision of creating thoughtful, sustainable design for everyone. Her firm, Michelle Kaufmann Designs, blends sustainable home layouts, eco-friendly materials, and low-energy options to create a "prepackaged" green solution to home design. Kaufmann tells about five eco-principles that are present in every design her firm creates-smart design, eco-materials, energy efficiency, water conservation, and healthy environment-and how each work together to create homes that make a difference.

Prefabricated housing, an all-purpose term that is used to describe any home that is built partly off-site, is enjoying a revival, thanks to a handful of innovative architects and hip shelter magazines. In its new incarnation, prefab is catching the eye of design-conscious consumers who appreciate its style and efficiency. Now, "built in a factory" means lower cost and higher-quality building components than many site-built homes. Most importantly, prefab and sustainability are a great match. Green prefab offers a more efficient way of building a home. People want homes that are affordable, enduring, healthy, and-now more than ever-environmentally sound.
In Prefab Green, architect Michelle Kaufmann shares her vision of creating thoughtful sustainable design for everyone. Her firm, Michelle Kaufmann Designs, blends sustainable home layouts, eco-friendly materials, and low-energy options to create a "prepackaged" green solution to home design. Kaufmann tells about five eco-principles that are present in every design her firm creates-smart design, eco-materials, energy efficiency, water conservation, and healthy environment-and how they work together to create homes that make a difference.
Kaufmann is part of a new generation of architects who are modernizing modular. They are taking the old idea of prefabrication and reshaping it to accommodate modern lifestyles and varying climates as well as a commitment to the environment. Even the small changes we make in our daily lives-as well as the large decisions we make about the kinds of homes we want to live in-can create transformations that will benefit for generations to come.
After receiving her master's degree from Princeton University, Michelle -Kaufmann worked for renowned architects Frank Gehry and Michael Graves. In 2002, she founded Michelle Kaufmann Designs. Michelle's work is widely published and her homes have been showcased in a number of museums, including the -National Building -Museum, the Vancouver Art Center, MOCA in Los Angeles, and Chicago's -Museum of -Science and -Industry. -Michelle lives in Marin County, California.
Cathy Remick is a designer with experience in architecture, graphics, and fine arts painting. She holds a master's-degree in architecture and has worked as a staff architect and designer for several -national firms in San Francisco and Washington, D.C. She is a design manager for -mkStudios. She lives in Orinda, California, with her husband and daughter.
Jacket designed by The Book Designers
Front and back cover photos 2009 John Swain
Kaufmann author photo by Cutter Cutshaw
Remick author photo by Terry Riggins