prefabulous.

via inhabitat and anderson anderson architecture

my primary architectural interest lies in residential architecture. i love historical residences, but what really excites me is new, contemporary design. further than that, i love small houses. the bigger they are, the more ostentatious they feel -- and less like a home than a show piece. i don't like show pieces, i like houses. furthermore, prefabricated houses are basically the coolest idea ever. from shipping containers to jay shafer at tumbleweed tiny house company (which i first heard about when my dad met up with him in california and talked with him about these houses -- i suppose maybe some of my enthusiasm for this sort of architecture came from my dad) ...prefab is absolutely the way to go. if it's not the way i end up building my own house, the only other way i'll do it is from salvaged material and from scratch.

when one thinks of prefabricated homes, it's easy for the mind to fall straight into "trailer territory," which is exactly what i thought when i first considered the idea. who actually WANTS one of those trailers? you know, the oblong, weirdly-shaped, always 1970s-looking kind that they place around curving drives in what might otherwise be a campground off of a highway? no offense to anyone who actually lives in a trailer park, but aesthetically speaking... let's just not go there.

i'm speaking absolutely of aesthetics. prefab has come a long, long way. inhabitat is a site i follow regularly in their quest to share green and sustainable design. the house pictured below, in new mexico, popped up and i fell in love with it. it's site-specific, resident-specific (they built it with special animal sections so their pets could inhabit the house safely without danger of predators in the desert), and it's absolutely awesome. i love a metal house. i know that might sound strange -- i was raised in a wood-sided, wood-interior old victorian that's about 125 years old. but it might be that very difference that draws me to the variety of materials that are used in today's modern-style construction.

anderson anderson architecture is based out of san francisco -- no real surprise there. it's a hub of prefabulousness. both of the houses i've pictured here are by them. the one below, like i mentioned, is in new mexico. the one at the top of this post is in washington, about fifty miles from seattle.

i'm in love with them both. i love the modular style, the clean metal exterior, the large windows that take in the views, but also the natural daylight. and the one in washington, that hangs over the cliff? yes, please!