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bm Modular One, Bethesda, Md.

Grand / Modular, Prefab Home

2 MIN READ

By Bruce D. Snider

October 2, 2014

1 of 10

Maxwell MacKenzie

The house’s 13 building modules were factory-fabricated over a… Read More The house’s 13 building modules were factory-fabricated over a period of two weeks.

Maxwell MacKenzie

The house’s blocky, geometrical massing made it a natural for … Read More The house’s blocky, geometrical massing made it a natural for modular construction.

Maxwell MacKenzie

Varied siding materials accentuate setbacks in the entry facade.

Maxwell MacKenzie

A floor-to ceiling niche turns firewood storage into a design el… Read More A floor-to ceiling niche turns firewood storage into a design element.

Maxwell MacKenzie

The kitchen centers on a large floating island.

Maxwell MacKenzie

Contrasting wall finishes define interior elements as geometric … Read More Contrasting wall finishes define interior elements as geometric solids.

Maxwell MacKenzie

A glass railing minimizes the separation between first- and seco… Read More A glass railing minimizes the separation between first- and second-floor spaces.

Courtesy Robert M. Gurney

The building modules were assembled on site in only two days.

Robert M. Gurney

The site plan.

Robert M. Gurney. FAIA Architect

The floor plans.

The clients who hired Washington, D.C.–based architect Robert Gurney to design this new residence had found a lot in a neighborhood that suited them, but they were limited in other ways. “They had a very tight time frame and not a huge budget,” Gurney says. As luck would have it, the builder/developer that sold them the lot, Bethesda, Md.–based Sandy Spring Builders, had extensive experience in modular construction but hadn’t yet applied it to a modernist house. That set the stage for Gurney’s first modular house and Sandy Spring’s first modular project in a modern style.

Gurney’s first task, he says, was “learning and understanding the rules of modular construction. But at the end of the day, they weren’t very restrictive.” Manufactured in two weeks, the house’s 13 energy-efficient modules were delivered to the site plumbed, wired, and with windows and HVAC ducts already installed. After two days of assembly, the resulting building required only minor finish work.

Deeming the finished result “extremely cool,” the jury expressed surprise at seeing a factory-fabricated house that reaches this level of architectural distinction. One judge said, “It’s using a modular kit, but it’s completely customized and breaks out of the mold of modular design and execution. It does something new and innovative with old conventions.” With its sophisticated geometry, variety of interior and exterior finishes, and apparently seamless build quality, the result “demonstrates that a custom home can be done in a modular way.”

On Site Modular construction most often is applied to conventional gable-roofed houses, but it may be better suited to modern designs. This house’s flat-roofed forms and stacked-block massing translated surprisingly easily to factory fabrication, says architect Robert Gurney. Compared with a traditional house, “it was much simpler the way we did it.”