For as long as there has been architecture there have been visionaries trying to find a way to make its slow, arduous processes faster, cheaper, and more efficient. Los Angeles entrepreneur Dafna Kaplan the founder of Cassette Systems and a veteran of both the construction and product industries hopes hers—unlike so many before it—will stick.
Last fall Kaplan formally launched Cassette, a company that creates a single product: a one-bedroom apartment pod that can stack up to six stories high into a multifamily development. Architects, developers, and others can employ the steel paneled modules as components of their projects, adding their own features like stairs, hallways, and so on.
The key to making her idea work, she notes, is focus. Unlike many prefab endeavors, there is no customization and there are no change orders.
Each 14-and-a-half-foot wide, 43-foot-long unit costs between $140,000 and $170,000, including delivery and installation. Supported by a combination of moment frames and post tension cables, they can be connected together both horizontally and vertically at module columns, while mechanical and electrical systems link vertically. Buyers can combine them however they choose. They can leave their walls exposed or paint murals on them. They can stack them on top of each other or next to each other. And so on.
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Gary Fleisher is the Editor in Chief of Modular Home Source and Offsite Builder magazine. Email at [email protected]
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