Blu is the new green

As promised, here it is, the coolest new idea in prefab: Blu Homes fold for easier shipping. [In honor of full disclosure, I should probably tell you that Dennis Michaud, Blu Homes' VP of product development is a friend of mine from architecture school. However, that doesn't change the fact that, as you'll see, this company is doing some pretty rad things.]

At the end of last year, Blu Homes, a Massachusetts-based design build company, announced the launch of their Origin product line. The design of Blu's Origin homes is based on a logic of mass customization, an approach that takes advantage of computer-aided manufacturing systems to make products which are customizable for individual needs. Aspects of the homes are standardized - wall sections, programmatic components, construction details - but the flexibility of digital modeling tools and digital fabrication allows these standardized components to be configured and reconfigured in a variety of ways to suit the specific needs of a client and his or her particular site.

Basically, instead of designing single buildings, Blu Homes has created a streamlined system of making buildings that begins with client input, uses innovative digital fabrication techniques, and ends with the finished house. However, while mass customization is definitely an improvement on mass production [and, I might add, an important buzz word in the prefab business] it is not the coolest or most innovative aspect of Blu Homes design.

One of the problems with prefabrication is shipping. Since the prefabricated product [an entire house, in this case] is manufactured off-site, it can be extremely difficult, dangerous, energy intensive, and expensive to transport it to the building site. Blu Homes, however, has devised a way of constructing their homes in such a way that they can literally fold up for smaller, safer, and thus cheaper shipping. The folding mechanism also allows Blue Homes to create modular homes that are more spacious, with higher ceilings.

I didn't really believe it either, at first, but check out this video.

In addition to their innovations in packing, Blu Homes is committed to using healthy, renewable, and recycled building materials, as well as a variety of renewable energy technologies such as rainwater collection and storage, solar hot water heating, and photovoltaic-ready roofs.

What I really appreciate about Blue Homes is that they aren't just incorporating green features into their products, they are using "greenness" as an excuse to innovate.