Reclaimed Space is about constructive building. We’re focused on reversing the impact new building is having on our natural environment, resources and society. Achieving this goal starts with providing alternative energy capabilities and fully sustainable living, while building with reclaimed materials. Along with our commitment to forward-thinking and eco-responsibility, Reclaimed Spaces are always visually appealing and affordable.

ONE+ is a modular small house concept from Scandinavia, based on a co-oporation between Denmark and Sweden, choosing high quality materials from both countries. Based on 15 sq meters (161 sq ft) modules, the ONE+ house is designed for those needing extra room on their lot.

via Add A Room

The system can be linked together with other modules in different ways to create a variety of designs and meeting different needs, kind of lego building blocks for adults. The system includes deck and pergola as well as posibilities to connect other outdoor facilities such as outdoor kitchen, all to make the houses feeling bigger and erasing the lines between out- and-indoor. Quiet simply, we call it compact smart living!

via Add A Room

Danish architect, Lars Frank Nielsen: Our goal was to design a simple, almost minimalistic house, a house that can stand alone, but also a house that can be pieced together unit by unit. During the design process, there has been an evolution towards a true “multi-unit-concept”: you can start with a single unit and enlarge it step by step into a genuine holiday home.”

Sebastián Irarrázaval: This house was to be built on the outskirts of Santiago, so the supervision of the construction could not be exhaustive. For this reason, a simple cuboid form was adopted. Moreover, the restricted budget obliged us to choose a rapid and economical construction system. We decided on a system widely used in U.S.A. and Canada, and which is starting to be used here in Chile in “Georgian” style houses, consisting of a structure made of galvanized steel profiles, OSB plywood panels, and plastic imitation wood siding.

via Sebastián Irarrázaval

via Sebastián Irarrázaval

Creativity Online: As a concept, prefabricated housing seems to make so much sense that it’s a wonder why all houses aren’t built with prefab techniques and methods. I thought the prefab manufacturing methods had finally reached a level of efficiency that would enable mass customization, but it was brought to my attention just last week, that one of the most well-known players in the prefab housing industry was shuttering its doors. So what happened?

The percentage of people that will buy land, and design and build a house themselves is very small. Most people choose to buy existing houses because the majority of people do not want to wait or deal with the complications of design and construction of a home, and in addition, they are not that creative nor do they want to be. Present somebody with a blank canvas and they’re not sure where to start, but show them an empty house and they can imagine living in it. It is much easier for people to visualize space when it is already built.

I was sure that prefab was the future a few years back, but now when I ask myself the question: if I had land and money to build a house, would I really choose prefab? The answer, despite my preferences for sustainability, is probably not. And why not? Somehow I feel restricted by the pre-designed concept, I feel as if I’d be ordering to build a house from Legos. It may be that I haven’t educated myself thoroughly on the possibilities of prefab, but for the time being, this is my instinctual reaction.

HUDSON Architects’ Cedar House, a new-build private residence in Norfolk , pilots a new prototype for cost-effective new-build modern housing. It deploys innovative off-site construction, which simplifies the building process without compromising the architecture of the house.

The prefabricated timber panel floors designed in collaboration with Alan Conisbee Associates and off site construction specialists Framework CDM, are entirely cloaked in 15,000 untreated cedar shingles, a material which belies the prefabricated system beneath. The cedar reads as a dramatic sleek protective cloak, which sits harmoniously with its countryside surroundings.

via DigsDigs

via DigsDigs

The Quik House is a prefabricated kit house designed by Adam Kalkin from five recycled/modified shipping containers. It has three bedrooms and two and one-half baths in its 2,000 square foot plan. The shell assembles within one day at your site, you will have a fully enclosed building. From start to finish, it should take no longer than three months to complete your house.

via Quik Build LLC

The Quik House is 75% recycled materials by weight. Further green options include solar and wind energy sourcing, a green roof system and a super-insulating R-50 system.

ecosistema urbano: Twenty-four shipping containers are retrofitted and transformed into PUMA CITY, a transportable retail and event building that is traveling around the world along with the 70-foot long Puma sailing boat – il Mostro – during the one-year long 2008 Volvo Ocean Race, just started in Alicante, Spain in early October. The building is fully dismountable and travels on a cargo ship along with the sail boats; it will be assembled and disassembled a number of times once it reaches the different international harbors.

via
LOT-EK

Treehugger: Puma City is a truly experimental building that takes full advantage of the global shipping network already in place. At 11,000 square feet of space, it is the first container building of its scale to be truly mobile, designed to respond to all of the architectural challenges of a building of its kind, including international building code, dramatic climate changes, plug-in electrical and HVAC systems and ease of assembly and operations.

via
LOT-EK

startribune.com: Architect Geoffrey Warner hopes to make factory-built housing more popular by focusing on sustainability and smart design with his modular weeHouses. That concept has evolved from a one-room cabin to this three-level house in south Minneapolis.

The weeHouse concept started with a one-room cabin built in 2003 near Wisconsin’s Lake Pepin. The Feldman/ Lutz house is far bigger — Werner calls it a “not-so-weeHouse” because it includes four shoebox-like modules and encompasses almost 3,000 square feet.

Not affordable at all
Cost: $350,000 including modular pieces, design, site construction and finish work (the developer, Brian Oeschger, saved money by acting as his own general contractor). The house sold for about $700,000, according to Hennepin County property tax records.

The Method Homes are designed by Seattle based Balance Associates. Method Homes has done everything possible to insure that the construction process and their finished homes are sustainable. Method’s down-to-earth, contemporary design approach utilizes locally grown and produced building materials such as FSC (Forest Stewardship Council) certified Douglas fir framing material, reclaimed fir trim and cedar siding, as well as energy- efficient lighting and plumbing fixtures, hydronic radiant heating, whole- house ventilation systems, solar options and enhanced insulation applications.

m-house is beautifully designed and detailed contemporary house or office. It is entirely manufactured under controlled factory conditions, which guarantees both quality of build and delivery time. m-house arrives in two pieces, each 3m (10′ approx) wide, which are then joined together on site, which takes about a day. It comes completely fitted-out and ready for you to move into immediately, and delivery is 12 weeks after order. It’s already become an iconic object. It is one of Kevin McCloud’s ‘perfect houses’, design commentator Stephen Bayley thinks it’s ‘so much cooler than an Airstream’, and Jonathan Glancey in the Guardian said it’s ‘inspired’ (in his article on buildings of the year).

via m-house

m-house provides over 1000 sq ft of contemporary space, with 8ft ceiling height. It has underfloor heating throughout, high acoustic and thermal insulation and really top specification equipment. Everyone who visits our test-bed m-house leaves completely in love with it. The internal walls can be omitted if required to make a studio, office or showroom, or can customized to suit individual needs.