Koto Design, which I have written about before on the blog, has just announced both a partnership with Plant Prefab and two new home designs. Koto is based in the UK and is a designer of small and energy neutral homes and cabins. Plant Prefab is based in the US and is, according to Koto, the first prefabrication company entirely dedicated to sustainable building practices. This partnership — called Koto LivingHomes — now means that Koto’s designs are available for delivery in the US.
The smaller of the two new designs is the Yksi House. It consists of two stacked volumes (pictured above) and is about 1,000 square feet. The ground floor has two bedrooms and the second floor houses the main living area. This allows the exposed roof areas of the lower volume to serve as outdoor spaces. You also naturally get better views from up top, which is one of the reasons why this configuration is so common across many vernaculars.
If you’d like to play around with the Yksi House in 3D (directly in your browser), you can do that over here. It’s a wonderfully simple design. I know that the building industry has been talking about and experimenting with prefabrication for many generations (and it has never stuck), but I can’t help but think that as beautiful products like these become far more accessible and affordable, we might finally make it happen.
Image: Koto Design
BRANDON DONNELLY 
Prefab homebuilder Royal Homes is right here in Ontario for years. We are very satisfied with product.
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Hmm, gorgeous home design, but why do companies that claim to be “sustainable” plonk their homes on a sensitive beach bluff environment that is subject to erosion and massive storm damage. Clearly there is no understanding that developing in such areas is pure folly, no?
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Nice blog! I really like the article and very helpful for me. Thanks for sharing.
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