Prefab Small House – Bungalow in a Box

Here’s one for the Legomaniacs of us who have graduated to building real houses: Bungalow in a Box. Based out of Woolwich, ME, wife and husband team Vicki and Raoul Hennin founded the Montsweag Brook Corporation in 1998 to design, manufacture and deliver their Bungalow-in-a-Box prefab kits that include modular stick framed walls (or SIP panel walls), timber frame ceiling elements, and interlocking natural, sealed wood sheathing in combination with air barrier house wrap.

Bungalow in a Box

A veteran timber-framer by trade, Raoul developed B-in-a-B over the course of several years. The first home was delivered and erected in 2001 before the foundation was even poured. Each home is manufactured with optimal consumption of material in mind to minimize waste, while each design is laid out to deliver the most usable space that could be packed into a small home. Bungalow accomplishes this feat by pre-manufacturing interlocking stick-built panels at their Bungalow Barn in Maine.

The aesthetic of the home is a swift departure from last week’s entry on Rocio Romero. The look of the home is classic contemporary New England with timber loft joists left exposed to appreciate for keeping the roof together, or counting how many rings you can see from three sides of a trunk. The exterior is finished with a metal roof and wood panel siding. These basic materials produce an elegant and understated finish. If the prospective homeowner chooses the right materials when finishing the interior, the home would be fully degradable and recyclable one hundred years from now or whenever its service life cycle has been met.

Each Bungalow is delivered flat packed in the back of a box truck, no pun intended, or on a flatbed truck. A typical Bungalow takes about a day to erect and the homeowner is strongly encouraged to take part in the construction. A celebratory mood at the end of the day comes standard with every installation.

The home dimensions advertised as standard plans range from 288 square feet to 384 square feet, if you need a little more, or even a little less, the folks at Bungalow welcome a custom design challenge.

Check out this short video on WMTW about Bungalow in a Box or the one below on YouTube. Visit the Montsweag Brook Corporation in Woolwich, ME, call them at 207-443-5691 or visit them on the web at http://www.bungalowinabox.com/.

photo credits: Montsweag Brook Corporation
via: WMTW

4 Comments

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  1. 4
    Felipe

    you guys should check the honey bee’s project held by permacultura society in Brazil

    http://casacolmeia.wordpress.com/

    They use bio forms to build a house, so they have the octagon construction, just like a bee house, and all the angles inside are 120 degrees, what makes all the walls usable, since a 90degree corner is a waste of space!

    Slow living, slow dying!

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