OpenHome, a new system for constructing customizable prefab homes, was unveiled recently in Dwell magazine. Created in collaboration with Bensonwood, a builder of timber-frame houses and high-performance architectural components, OpenHome aims to strengthen ties between the architect and the builder, offering homebuyers an easier and faster design-build experience with higher quality construction.

Homebuyers can choose from three different design systems created by Bensonwood, KieranTimberlake, and Lake|Flato and can customize the home according to preferences, landscape, and climate. OpenHome designs are designed digitally then constructed in Bensonwood's New Hampshire factory (the same factory where our 2006 Loblolly House was built). They are then shipped to site and assembled there. 
 
The Dwell feature highlights the low-impact, passive-house capability of the OpenHome design and construction process—and its expedience. All are designed to be low-carbon and energy-efficient with superior air quality, acoustics, and atmosphere. 
 
Detailed OpenHome designs will be available in April 2020. 
 
OpenHome Debuts Cutting Edge Prefab House Designed by World-Class Architects 

The three firms applied hard-learned lessons, and decades of experience in traditional architecture and construction, to overcome industry shortcomings. "Prefab has been a fragmented effort, it has never been cohesive," says Bill Aylor, associate partner at Lake|Flato. "Everyone has been afraid because it locks them in. I think it frees you up." 
… 
The system excels in its flexibility and adaptability—the architects can produce a home for balmy Florida just as easily as they can design a house for wintery New York. "We've climate tested in every zone," Matt Krissel of KieranTimberlake says. "They're really designed for flexibility and high performance."

 
Read the full Dwell article.