Small, Appealing and Sustainable: Prefab LEED Porch House

The Lake | Flato Porch House project comes from Lake | Flato Architects and pays tribute to highly sustainable living spaces. Here is the press release we recently received from the project developers: The Lake | Flato Porch House combines the efficiency of factory built modules connected by custom designed “porches” for design-conscious owners who want a Lake|Flato home shaped by its place and climate with a predictable outcome of quality, time, and cost. The prefabricated living and sleeping modules can be configured in many ways — either alone, stacked or side-by-side. The “porches” are outdoor elements, such as porches, breezeways, carports and terraces.  These connect the rooms and ensure that each Porch House is custom, suited to the land it sits on and LEED certified. Central to the design of each Porch House is the porch itself. Relatively inexpensive spaces to both build and maintain, porches showcase the structural elements of roof construction and exterior walls, create additional shade, foster cross ventilation, and most importantly, provide pleasant and exciting spaces that maximize the connection with the outdoors.

Each Porch House is designed to be highly efficient and incorporates solar orientation, water saving features, natural ventilation systems, low-energy materials, healthy building materials and energy-efficient lighting.Clients can also choose to have a net-zero-energy-consumption house by adding photovoltaic solar panels. The Porch House library is comprised of nine individual and modular rooms for living and sleeping and includes a variety of exterior and interior finishes, along with numerous buildout options for flooring, cabinets, appliances, fixtures and hardware. Estimated time from the design to the move in of a Porch House is 6 to 9 months. [Photos and information courtesy of Lake | Flato Architects]