Sunset Breezehouse PreFab Home: I Wish I Lived in Your Trailer Park

I am suddenly feeling less arrogant about living in a pre fab home.
From the Sunset Website

The huge success of the prefab Glidehouse at Sunset Magazine’s Celebration Weekend last May—boosting attendance to more than 24,000 over two days—has prompted Sunset to plan a sequel. For 2005, we’re calling it the Sunset Breezehouse.

Designed by Sunset and Glidehouse architect Michelle Kaufmann, the 1,750 square foot Breezehouse is a flexible, eco-oriented, light-filled, two-bedroom, two-bath home. The signature feature is the Breezeroom at the center, under a distinctive butterfly-shaped roof. This room, which is actually a glass-enclosed breezeway or porch, functions as the main living and dining space between the kitchen and children’s bedroom wing on one side, and the flexible library/guest/office and master suite on the other. Terraces and decks are at front and rear.

The Sunset Breezehouse, a joint venture between Sunset and Michelle Kaufmann, aims to sell for approximately $160 per square foot, or roughly $280,000. It will be assembled at Sunset headquarters—fully furnished—to debut for public touring at Celebration Weekend, May 21-22, 2005. Sunset’s article on the Breezehouse will appear in the August, 2005 issue.

From Michelle Kaufmann Designs:

The Sunset® Breezehouse™ is the newest “clean and green” modular home designed by Michelle Kaufmann Designs and Sunset® Magazine. This eco-oriented home blurs the boundary between the interior and exterior through a series of courtyards and private gardens.

The signature feature of the Sunset® Breezehouse™ home is the Breezespace at the center, under a distinctive butterfly-shaped roof. This room, which is actually a glass-enclosed breezeway or porch, functions as the main living and dining space between the kitchen and children’s bedroom wing on one side, and the flexible library/guest/office and master suite on the other. Terraces and decks are at front and rear.

One of the key features of the Sunset® Breezehouse™ home is that every major room has a private garden: bedroom gardens, private bath garden, entry garden, and a kitchen herb garden.

The Sunset® Breezehouse™ home is designed to blur the boundary between interior and exterior. By borrowing space from the outdoors, the house feels larger than it is. The home is green in many ways. All major rooms have a garden view to integrate nature with living. In addition, the home is earth friendly in the following ways:

Off-site construction

Efficient use of materials with very little waste
Less environmental impact to home site

Low energy lighting design

Window placement designed to wash surfaces and minimize need for artificial lighting
Energy-efficient fluorescent lighting

Eco-Friendly materials

Renewable, recyclable materials (such as bamboo flooring, Richlite countertops composed of recycled paper)
The bathroom will feature fixtures that save water such as dual-flush toilets
The kitchen will have formaldehyde-free cabinets and energy-smart appliances.
The walls of the house will be finished in non-toxic paints
On demand water heater
Bio-radiant heating system

Sustainable design layout

Cross ventilation in all major rooms
Large operable doors in Breezeroom designed to maximize breezes for cooling
Stone floor in Breezespace for thermal mass for heating glazing based on solar orientation
Sloped roof for solar panels (the butterfly roof configuration provides sloped surface for solar panels, but screens visibility and glare of the panels from neighbors)
Spray in insulation in roofs for energy efficient envelope