In the three-story model, the Container House can be built with the bottom floor partially buried into a hillside, which can enable the residents to take advantage of thermal massing to help regulate temperatures during the extremes of the winter and summer months. Each of the three homes also features an open floor plan that allows for a high degree of flexibility.
The pitched roof also includes window cutouts that draw natural light into the wood-paneled interior. On one side of the house that can be sited with a southern exposure, sliding glass doors and floor-to-ceiling windows let in even more light, blurring the line between interior and exterior. The deeply recessed windows within the thickly insulated walls are beveled above and below to hide the joists and ensure that sunlight will reach into the home.
However, for all its increasing popularity, the prefab market in Australia is relatively immature, representing only about 1 per cent of new constructions, compared with about 4 per cent in the United States.
If you are placing a manufactured home on land you are buying or already own, consider the distance from utility hookups and how much it will cost to install your home there. If service from a public or community water or sewage system is not available, make sure that the ground water and subsoil would allow you to install an individual well and/or sewage disposal system.
If you are buying a manufactured home that will be placed in a park, determine the rental cost, miscellaneous services, and other rules and requirements established by the owner of the park.
Remember that if you want to move your Prefab House at a later date, you’ll need to hire a professional mover and the relocating could be expensive.
