Unique All Steel Prefab

Innovative architectural design and sustainable architecture can have a powerful impact in the world regardless of size and all initiatives that embrace energy efficient practices needs to be at least be acknowledged, that is why I was pleasantly surprised to read an article by Susan Kraemer, on www.greenbuildingelements.com regarding a unique Steel Prefab Residence, in the middle of the Desert.

Steel is just about the most recyclable building material on earth. You could be well reading this in an office building built with steel originally smelted from iron in Julius Caesars day.

So it makes good green sense to build eco prefab houses with steel…

Steel does not spread fire. Building with steel allows for a lighter load, so it does not require a huge concrete foundation. Making concrete is one of the most carbon intensive building industries there are, producing the heaviest carbon footprint.

And steel framing makes for construction simplicity: these homes are able to be erected by hand and do not require welding, special torque tools or specialized inspections. This allows an entire house to be framed and enclosed in less than five days.

To grade a traditional home pad would have irreparably damaged this beautiful site, instead the house stands above the terrain on legs, which is becoming an increasingly common new eco building vernacular because this allows local wildlife to continue to move freely underneath the house without disturbing the human interlopers in their land. And vice versa.

This part prefab system offers 500 square foot modules that can be combined in any combination to create houses of any horizontal configuration and up to three stories tall. At the center is a factory built “core,” where the bathroom, hot water tank, air handler, washer/dryer and electrical subpanel are all located.

This Blue Sky House is sited 4,000 feet above sea level amid massive weathered boulders and ancient piñon and juniper trees.