- Home
This year, delivered to a high-profile site right next to CAMP (Community and Meeting Place), Modernism Week's bustling headquarters and central hub, was a fresh-off-the-assembly-line structure by Plant Prefab: LivingHome 10. At just 496 square feet, the net-zero accessory dwelling unit included a living area, bathroom, bedroom (big enough for a queen bed), and fully equipped, galley-style kitchen. From the minute LivingHome 10 opened in the morning until the doors closed at night, curious passersby packed the ADU eager for a look.
This prototype, assembled in two months and with a price tag of $180,000 with the trailer, elicited hundreds of questions about construction and cost. One of the most curious remarks came from a gentleman who asked: "Has anyone put this on a barge as a floating home?" He then added, "I can think of a lot of places where this ADU would work. For people who don't want to wait close to a year to have something built, this is so fast and efficient."
The 411 on ADUs
ADUs are housing units built on an existing residential property—usually in the backyard. Also known as second suites, casitas or guesthouses, in-law suites, granny flats, and in Canada, laneway homes, ADUs usually are sized at 350 to 1,200 square feet. ADUs are quickly becoming a popular addition to our housing stock. They appeal to a wide range of buyers - from city governments and housing agencies to homeowners in urban areas where increased density is addressing population growth amid housing shortages.
In cities ranging from Minneapolis-St. Paul to Vancouver, Portland to Austin, Seattle to Los Angeles, ADUs present an affordable option to young or retired couples looking to purchase a home. ADUs also give homeowners an opportunity for parents or grandparents to age in place near family. Other homeowners build ADUs to live while constructing their primary residence, then lease them as AirBnBs or other longer-term rentals. Or they build ADUs intended as rentals from the get-go.
Plant Prefab's LivingHome 10 goes further. The ADU provides a net-zero option that's fully customizable. The sustainable LivingHome 10 was also designed and constructed according to the company's rigorous Z6 environmental health and sustainability framework.
Plant Prefab's Sustainable Option
Plant Prefab started as the residential design studio LivingHomes, which in 2006 completed the first home internationally to achieve LEED Platinum certification. The late Ray Kappe designed that home. It was installed in eight hours!
Since then, the company has designed an additional 27 LivingHomes that were certified LEED Platinum. Five more have been certified LEED Gold. Architects at Plant Prefab and LivingHomes designed some of the models that clients can choose from and modify if they wish. Internationally known architects such as Yves Béhar, Kieran Timberlake, Douglas W. Burdge, and Toby Long have also designed LivingHomes.
LEED, however, had limitations for Plant Prefab, says Amy Sims, Plant Prefab's Director of Design. She has concluded that the points-based program "doesn't address head-on many key environmental measures that we believe need to be minimized." So Plant Prefab developed its own environmental program or set of standards called Z6. The system clarifies and quantifies six critical metrics, Sims says: zero energy, zero water, zero emissions, zero carbon, zero waste, and "zero ignorance."
She adds that projects with a score of 85% or more "are considered achieved." None of the LivingHome models has yet achieved zero on every metric. "The point," she continues, "is to get as close as possible. We always, when designing a home, attempt to minimize or neutralize any negative environmental impacts. We also are constantly learning and improving, so that can positively address environmental issues with elements that, for example, sequester carbon and improve indoor air quality."
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Camille LeFevre
Camille LeFevre is an architecture and design writer based in the Twin Cities.