Chicago Welcomes its First Prefab Green Home
“These days, more and more people see the inherent value of an energy-efficient, healthy home that reduces not only your energy costs but your environmental impact,” said Jason La Fleur, Program Manager for AES, the LEED for Homes verification organization overseeing the certification for the project, “By bringing the first prefabricated sustainable home to Chicago we are setting the stage for more projects of this nature.”
The ‘C3 Prefab’ house has been in design development for quite some time, working out issues with permitting and scheduling. The building team is now beginning module construction and site preparation work, with the house scheduled to be completed by December. The home is the first C3 Prefab unit and was designed by Square Root Architecture to reduce energy use, maintenance costs, and overall environmental impact and used prefabrication as a means to achieve these goals. As a result, the owners will have substantially lower utility bills.
The green building features that will contribute to LEED certification include an energy-efficient building envelope including low-e glass windows, blown insulation and solar thermal panels for heating water. The design also features extensive use of day-lighting to reduce artificial lighting needs and a 3-story ventilation shaft to reduce cooling loads in the summer. The house is heated & cooled through a high-efficiency heat pump system zoned for each room. “New homes have to be energy efficient and environmentally responsible, period,” says Kate Votava of Square Root Architecture. “It just doesn’t make sense to build in the same archaic way when we know we have better technology at our disposal.”
The ‘C3’ is built as prefabricated modules in a controlled environment in Northern Indiana, which helps to ensure consistent quality construction in a weather-protected environment. “There are a number of advantages to building in a factory setting,” said Jeff Sommers of Square Root Architecture, “there is more oversight at every level and an efficient, streamlined and systematic process in putting together the structure”. This leads to a final product that is well sealed, perfectly fitted and consistently performs at a higher level than its stick-built counterparts. Yet another advantage is that waste generated from one project built in a factory can be used somewhere else, reducing the construction debris by up to 90% as compared to a typical home construction.
The site is in Chicagos’ West Town neighborhood at 1404 W. Ohio, located within walking distance of public transportation, shops, restaurants and other conveniences. The lot has plenty of open space for the owners to start vegetable gardens and have a compost area. Rainwater will also be collected for outdoor gardening and water needs.
The modules arrive at the site nearly complete with conduit, plumbing, drywall, and cabinets already installed. Once at the site, they are craned into place and married together. As part of the LEED third-party certification process, they will be visited both at the manufacturer during the construction process as well as on-site once completed to ensure quality construction benchmarks are met.
As a result of incorporating energy saving products and technologies, the C3 Prefab home is projected to achieve a commendable 47 Home Energy Rating System score or better. (Homes must achieve a minimum score of 85 – on a 100 point scale — to be “ENERGY STAR” qualified). Based on this energy efficiency and inclusion of other green building attributes, the home is projected to hit the LEED Platinum rating.
Indiana Building Systems is well versed in building efficient homes. Owner John Guequierre states, “The ‘C3’ will be our ninth LEED Platinum home in the last eighteen months. That probably means we have built more LEED Platinum modular homes than any other company. More importantly, every one presents its own unique challenges and an opportunity to learn and improve. The ‘C3’ has our entire work force excited.”
The Chicago builder, Hans Fedderke of Helios, believes that the prefab movement will gain momentum in the near future. “I believe this will become the standard method of building and I can’t wait to see what lies ahead for sustainable modular housing here in Chicago,” he says.
Find this article from the LEED for Homes Illinois here.
Prefab housing seeks a home in the city
City codes are tough to crack, but modular housing's low cost makes it attractive to some"So many were brand-new, luxurious and unaffordable," said Kathy Caisley, a city planner. "Then there were a lot of generic, cottage-style homes; we would have had to sacrifice the look we really wanted." What they really wanted was a sleek modular home like the ones they'd been obsessing over in Dwell magazine, so they did some research.
"It seemed impossible," added her husband, Michael Caisley, a video game sound designer. "We figured it just wasn't happening in Chicago."
And for the most part, it isn't. Prefab housing often conjures up images of double-wides and trailer parks or the mail-order homes Sears popularized in the early 1900s. Overcoming the social stigmas associated with the homes, costs, as well as Chicago's strict building codes have been deterrents for many designers. But a friend introduced the Caisleys to Jeff Sommers, the owner of Square Root Architecture, who had the same dream.
Sommers is now at work on the Caisleys' prefab, a modern home Sommers describes as eco-friendly and designed for urban installation and one, he hopes, will be a prototype for new affordable housing.
"If every one of these homes reduces the urban heat effect, improves water management and lowers gas and electric use by 50 percent; and you multiply that by hundreds or thousands; that's a big impact; he said.
The concept of prefabricated homes has taken off in many parts of the country, with 30 percent of new home construction in the past decade, either prefab or made with prefab components, according to the Department of Housing and Urban Development.
Sommers, who plans to erect the Caisleys' home this summer in the West Town neighborhood, has been working with Chicago zoning officials for more than two years.
"Safety is always the main concern," said Bill McCaffrey, director of public affairs for the city Department of Buildings. "Prefab homes must comply with Chicago building and inspection regulations. The biggest issues are the copper pipes and electric conduits behind walls."
Architect Michelle Kaufmann, who designed a prefab home on display at the Museum of Science and Industry, said that working in Chicago — even on an exhibit home — was a challenge.
But Mayor Richard Daley and Buildings Commissioner Richard Monocchio encourage green building, said McCaffrey. And for the past year, Sommers and fellow architect Kate Votava have been working on a home for the Caisleys that meets Chicago's code requirements.
For a traditional Chicago project, licensed installers and city inspectors visit the site at every stage ensuring that plumbing, mechanical and electrical components are up to code. But construction for the prefab is being done out of state — at a factory in Middlebury, Ind.—so there is no city site to visit.
"This is a hybrid approach to prefab," said Sommers. "We are drywalling 90 percent in the factory and leaving those connection points visible for traditional inspections. The city has been very willing to work with us."
Tim Heppner, a consultant on the Chicago Green Homes Program, said the time is right for prefab in Chicago.
"We are starting to see the problems of pollution and people are saying, 'Wait a second. All of the old ways of doing things got us into this mess. We are looking for different ideas and willing to try something new,' " Heppner said.
"I went over the drawings, and everything looks good from an environmental perspective." Heppner said of Sommers' design, calling the architect a "pioneer" in Chicago. "This project is an innovative look at an old idea and if it gets going will be a really affordable, energy-efficient house in Chicago, and that's what we are all looking for," he said.
Kaufmann, a leader in green, modular home design, agrees that the time is right. She designed mkSolaire, a three-story, loft-style prefab featured in the Museum of Science and Industry's "Smart Home: Green+Wired" exhibit.
Modular home construction leaves behind 50 percent to 75 percent less waste than traditional building, causes less impact on neighborhoods, costs less and is safer for builders, said Kauffmann.
"It's crazy that we are still building buildings the way we have been for hundreds of years. It's so wasteful and time-consuming," said Kauffmann. "To think that the best way to build is on site is like saying cars should be built in driveways. It doesn't make sense."
Kaufmann is developing a community of modular buildings-- townhomes, live-work and multi-family—as part of the Aria neighborhood revitalization project in Denver. Julius Zsako, a spokesman with Denver Community Planning and Development, said that although modular makes up a small portion of the market, he hasn't heard of anyone having trouble getting permits.
Sommers expects the Caisleys' home to be a model for what can be done with prefab and green homebuilding. The home includes upgraded insulation to limit the conductivity through the walls, solar thermal panels and a ductless HVAC system, which is twice as efficient as a traditional model, easier to install and controlled room by room. Photovoltaic panels are a future possibility.
"I want to create something so great that even if you don't care about the environment, you will make the responsible choice because you'll save money," Sommers said.
He said his initial goal was to keep costs at $150 a square foot, which would include everything except the price of the land. But the Caisleys upgraded some of the finishes and appliances.
"The final cost should be about $180 to $200 per square foot for a 2,000-square-foot, three bedroom, two-bathroom, two-story house with an attached garage," said Kathy Caisley. "You couldn't buy a new house with those specs in that area."
Sommers' hope is that his work will lead to an amendment to the building code, making modular construction an affordable option for green housing in Chicago, as it is in Denver and other U.S. cities.
"It's not rocket science," Kaufmann said, adding that her firm has completed 55 homes in the U.S.
"Luckily, I think there could be a good outcome of the perfect storm of the financial and environmental crises happening at the same time. Everyone is trying to do more with less and be smarter about using technology — and green homes cost less to live in," she said.
The concept of prefabricated homes has taken off in many parts of the country, with 30 percent of new home construction in the past decade, either prefab or made with prefab components, according to the Department of Housing and Urban Development.
Sommers, who plans to erect the Caisleys' home this summer in the West Town neighborhood, has been working with Chicago zoning officials for more than two years.
"Safety is always the main concern," said Bill McCaffrey, director of public affairs for the city Department of Buildings. "Prefab homes must comply with Chicago building and inspection regulations. The biggest issues are the copper pipes and electric conduits behind walls."
Architect Michelle Kaufmann, who designed a prefab home on display at the Museum of Science and Industry, said that working in Chicago — even on an exhibit home — was a challenge.