Prefabrication experiments - 99 - «HOMB»'s triangular tectonics

Method Homes is an American company based in Portland, Oregon. Established on a relatively new business model: made-to-order/measure modular prefab. Method Homes is part of an expanding generation of manufacturers that are attempting to expunge the long lasting tension between architectural originality and the advantages of factory production in matters of waste reduction, climate controlled quality, worker safety, productivity and timeline efficacy.

Connect Homes, Blu Homes, Arkit, Ecosteel, Muji, are just a few contemporary producers that renew prefab’s practical potential to serve but also energize its architectural output. Method Homes offers a series dwelling types, all with a characteristically «dwell» modern vibe articulated to a totally customizable buyer experience. In addition to this customizable experience, product families showcase associations with architecture and design firms.

The «HOMB» series has received attention from contemporary prefab literature as it relates production with modular mass-customization processes. «HOMB» functions as an open modular building system comparable to Swiss Architect Justin Dahinden’s Trigon 65.  The «HOMB», or an inhabitable honeycomb was co-developed by Skylab architecture, illustrating the fertile cross pollination between designers and producers: collaboration which is marginally present in the traditional prefab industry but supports many of the more progressive producers and embodies the contemporary sustainable design discourse.  

«HOMB»’s open structural system’s adaptability is governed by the strength and compositional agility of triangles. This straightforward but forceful search for innovative building and architectural systems arranges 102 square-foot triangular based prisms together in multiple geometries or architectural compositions and could generate infinitely adjustable plans. In a responsive display of architectural tectonics, the timber-framed triangles are revealed through the use of both contrasting materials for ceilings and exposed joinery. The geometric base adapts to any modular coordinated solid to a width of 13 feet. Designers and clients can personalize window sizes, finishes, and materials further enhancing the made-to-measure capacity of the planning grid.

This information based modelling collaboration between architects and manufacturers achieves a mass-customization potential characterized by its ordered variability. Along with its flexible organisation, Homb modular prefab proposes energy efficient systems for reducing the building’s environmental footprint. Method Homes and more specifically the «homb» series showcases a new prefab with quality, careful and collaborative design, open to a host of potentials from spatial organisation to overall system adaptability.

HOMB modules from the website