19/04/2007

Prefabricated houses in Finland

People in the US think that prefabricated houses are something for the poor people. Not in Finland. It has nothing to do with a mobile home. Of all the single family houses built in Finland last year 68 percent were wholly or partly pre fabricated.

See yourself.
Look the photos of the Finnish manufacturer Kannustalo.
Take a virtual tour in the house called "Aurora"

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

Those houses are so cute! I love the fact that they all have sunrooms.

You are correct that prefabricated houses have not been thought of well in the U.S. for a while. But, that was not always true. In the early 1900s, there was a company that sold house kits directly to consumers. They were called "Sears houses." There are several in the D.C. area. They are quite pretty.

I think high quality prefabricated homes (sometimes called modular homes) are growing in popularity. Many communities in Florida are being built using very nice prefabricated homes.

Riikka said...

Thank you for your comments Katherine, I wasn't aware of the Sears houses and that it was already in early 1900's when they made pre fabs in the US. Amazing.

The price of pre fabricated homes is not necessarily any cheaper than houses constructed in the building site. Some of them might be.

I quess the biggest advantage of a pre fabricated house in Scandinavia is that it's much better to build the a under a factory roof that in the open air, when it's threatened by rain or snow, or the variations in the temperature.

There are many ways of doing pre fab houses, some manufacturers do small panel elements, others build big elements (wall panel elements) like the outer and inner walls and roof, but the inside of the house is left for the client to do himself. Or it can be made out of modules, like one or two rooms are ready and then they just install them together as a whole house.

They normally let you choose, if you want your house to be turn-key or not. You can save money by doing some things your self, but turn-key is nice, if you don't have the time or the know how.

Unknown said...

As these? This information is a lot of interest for us in our country, since one of the big problems that we have nowadays few houses are for a very high demand. This prodría to be taken in account to improve this situation. Thank you.

Denise said...

Wow. I just checked out your links. You are right to say that prefab houses are not highly thought of in the US. There is the common "manufactured" home that is almost like a glorified mobile home, up on cement blocks. But the ones I have seen look NOTHING like the ones here in your links. These are very nicely made. I am very surprised at the style they have to them.

Riikka said...

Well yes, they are different to what you have in the US. I wouldn't mind having a prefabricated house. I like the traditional looking ones - wooden villas.

Joshua Blevins Peck said...

Yr right--there is such a difference of opinion when you say "pre-fabricated" here in the USA.

I tell people I wouldn't mind living in a smallish, modern prefab structure out in the country and people look at me like I've lost my mind.

Irma said...

Your blog has convinced me that I should move to Finland. It's so beautiful. I have spent hours now looking at the websites of these prefab manufacturers. Thank you!

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Unknown said...

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