From the April 23, 2013 ECOBuilding Pulse
By Jennifer Goodman
It’s the perennial challenge for prefab home builders: Most
modular homes’ narrow floor plan and 8-foot-tall ceilings offer limited design
options. The boxy configuration works for functional areas such as bedrooms and
bathrooms, but doesn’t lend itself to open, light-filled living spaces that
many affluent home buyers crave.
To solve this dilemma, developers Scot Cohen and Brenden
Maloof devised a hybrid approach for their modular Modern Cottage prototype, a
2,700-square-foot cedar-clad showpiece in
the efficiencies of computer-controlled factory construction while also
building parts of the dwelling on site.
“People love big walls of glass, and 10- or even
15-foot-tall ceilings,” says Cohen. “You can’t do that with modular alone.”
The duo worked with Joel Turkel, an
architect and MIT instructor who specializes in prefab design, to come up with
a floorplan that would push the design limits of factory-built components while
capitalizing on their efficiencies. Two 15-foot-9-inch-wide modules were
shipped from Epoch Homes’ New Hampshire plant and set on an insulated concrete slab. The
50-foot-long lower module containing a master bedroom, master bath, stairway,
and mechanical room was topped by a 54-foot-long upper level containing two
more bedrooms, a den, and bathroom.
Each unit was pre-fabricated with plumbing, electric, HVAC
infrastructure, and even ducting for a central vaccum system. This
factory-built approach yielded a 50 percent reduction of building material
waste compared to site built practices, Maloof says.
For a dramatic living space, the project team constructed
stick-built walls on site to enclose the two modules with a custom
31-foot-by-31-foot entry, living room, and kitchen combination. The space features
12-foot-high ceilings and is surrounded by a wall of south-facing windows that
look out onto the rural site.
Maloof and Cohen upped the sustainability quotient with
insulation levels rivaling that of high-performance stick-built homes, which
helped to earn an NGBS Emerald certification. Unlike most factory-built homes
that have few climate-specific features, the Modern Cottage was carefully
designed for its Northeast location. It is insulated to practically Passive
House levels, with an R-48 SIPS roof, a thermally broken insulated concrete
slab foundation, and R-21 thermally broken walls.
Heating bills range from $120-$220 a month depending on use,
according to Maloof. Because the house is so well insulated, planners were able
to specify a single 310-foot-deep well for the geothermal HVAC instead of a
pricier loop system. Other technologies geared to cold weather include:
–High R-value, double-pane Serious Windows with thin-film technology.
–Studs and headers were constructed using the Enviro-Wall framing system from
Nordic Engineered Wood with built-in thermal breaks.
–Icynene open-cell and closed-cell foam insulation
