The Modern Texas Prefab won the Jury Award for the category Architecture + Prefab.

The Lake Austin House won the Jury Award for the category Architecture + Stone.

Coincidentally, the two houses also happen to be neighbors.  The houses, designed for two different clients at two different times, blend harmoniously together on one small subdivision in Austin.  This is in part due to having the same architect, as well as the same landscape architect – Michael Boucher Landscape Architecture in Freeport, ME. Maybe good houses make good neighbors?

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The number one reason people do not design and build a custom home is that it just takes too long.

There are several reasons for this. Land in some parts of the country, like the Northeast, is hard to come by. Financing may be difficult if you don’t have enough cash for the down payment. The process may be unclear or just unknown.

Conventional Construction

Planning, design and construction of a custom home takes 3-5 years. That is a long time! Finding just the right piece of land is the first step and you will want to choose wisely. Design and documentation typically take a year from start to finish. The length of the permitting and approvals process varies depending on your area. And then there is construction that usually takes between 2-3 years depending on the size and complexity of the home.

I understand if you are ready to give upon this idea right now. So let’s look at the alternatives. You could buy an existing home and use it the way it is or renovate it to meet your needs. You could buy a pre-designed stock home from a builder that can erect it in 6 months. There are kit homes and a few types of prefab homes that allow you to choose from a few models. There are pros and cons to all of these options that you can consider.

Construction of a custom designed home takes so long because the work happens sequentially. The foundations must be complete before the framer comes to the site. The framing must be done before the plumber and electrician can do their work and so on. A delay at one step snowballs down the line and it is difficult to make up the time.

Parallel Processes

We have developed a new approach that we call “Parallel Processes”. In IT and computing if you want a job done faster you use multiple computer processors working simultaneously to do it. Our approach works the same way.

During construction while the foundation is being excavated and poured the exterior walls and roofs are being framed, sheathed and insulated in a shop. The rough plumbing and electrical is also being run in the walls. By the time the foundation is done the entire exterior envelope of the house has been delivered to the site and can be erected in a matter of weeks. Finish work then happens on site and construction is complete within the year. We have proven this method out on our Modern Texas Prefab.

This process is different from any of the alternatives mentioned above because at the end of the day you have a fully custom designed and built house that is unique and made specifically for you.

We recently presented a case study, Panelized Prefab Scores Trifecta On Time, Cost, And Quality, of the construction method we used for the Modern Texas Prefab at ArchitectureBoston Expo.

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The Smokehouse

Mock-up Samples for Modern Texas Prefab

We have been interested in this technique and material as an exterior siding for quite some time. We experimented with its use on our Warming Hut Project because of the relationship between the fire to make it and the fire to warm you in the hut. More recently, we used it in our award-winning Modern Texas Prefab Project. Paradoxically, charring the wood also makes it more fire retardant as well as being rot and pest resistant. For both projects, the charring was achieved by using a blowtorch on the wood before it was installed.

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Hill Country Contemporary Originated in the Factory

When designing a custom home, the details are paramount. And it’s the details—such as an exterior clad in locally-foraged charred Shou-Sugi-Ban cypress, and utilitarian fixtures outfitted with unique, industrial hardware—that make this lakeside residence designed by Boston-based Aamodt / Plumb Architects undeniably custom. What isn’t as obvious is that the 6,000-square-foot house also happens to be prefabricated.

A New Approach

With roots in Cambridge, Mass., and a branch in Austin, Aamodt / Plumb was commissioned to design and construct the New York–based clients’ home-away-from-home in a mere 12 months. A custom home of this scale usually demands two to three years, so partners Mette Aamodt and Andrew Plumb looked to other industries in search of tactics they could “borrow” that would allow them to accelerate the process.

Their solution came from information technology in the form of parallel processing, which divides a task between multiple processors to run a program faster—much like the panelized, prefabricated building system that ultimately allowed the firm to frame the foundation and envelope of this house in just two weeks.

In collaboration with Bensonwood, a company that specializes in sustainable timber, as well as local high-performance builder Matt Risinger, Aamodt / Plumb built an airtight, Passive House–compliant envelope in the time it would have taken to complete the foundation work on a traditionally-constructed house. While Risinger prepared the site and poured the concrete, Bensonwood manufactured and shipped the timber frame and panelized sections from their factory in New Hampshire.

“Traditional custom building is a sequential process,” Aamodt says. “We were interested in prefab because it could allow us to perform some of those processes in parallel.”

The Design

The interior of the house is simply finished with wood floors, white walls, and exposed wood beams. A relatively open plan allows the owners flexibility in how they use the space.

Thoughtfully sited to preserve the site’s existing oak trees, the structure combines a rustic, ranch-style vernacular with modern details. Two individual volumes—in contrasting shades and heights—connect at a glass-paneled, light-filled mudroom and entrance foyer. Offset by a white steel roof, the charred wood and white stucco exterior gives way to modern interiors that feature reclaimed timber, local limestone, and raw steel. Full-length windows meet mesquite flooring to invite sunlight deep into the home and provide expansive views.

“We wanted the interiors to be very simple—white walls and white ceilings. We used the reclaimed wood in very specific instances to add richness and texture,” Aamodt says.

Hill Country-inspired décor hand-picked by New York interior designer Bella Mancini finishes the look, creating an embodiment of the downtown Austin charm that’s just beyond the front door.”

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