Modular sustainable home to be installed in Santa Barbara

Dec. 14, 2010 - PRLog -- Crowds gathered Wednesday to watch a house take shape as three modules were craned into place. The house, at 524 El Sueno Road is the first project by the Stillwater Dwellings in the Santa Barbara area.

Stillwater Dwellings is a Seattle-based housing company specializing in contemporary sustainable homes. The house is for Art and Liz Gaspar, and will be complete in about 20 days.

The 1,900-square-foot, single-level house is made of three modules, arranged in an “H” to form two courtyards. Modules were delivered by long-haul trucks to the site to be craned into place.

They were made under cover by Guerdon Enterprises in a factory in Idaho. Once the modules were in place, the house was about 95 percent complete.

Using modules reduces construction time and produces less waste than typical construction. Modules also fit together tighter, forming a more efficient envelope. Factory production of modules began in November and took two weeks.

The home will have three bedrooms, 2 baths, and a flexible living/dining kitchen space that opens onto a patio one side and the decked courtyard on the other. Stillwater Dwellings is targeting LEED for homes and Built Green four-star certification.

Stillwater Dwellings was founded in June of 2008 by Architects Matthew Stannard and Brad Conway along with contractor and developer Bart Mitchell.

The home is Stillwater Dwellings sd132 model that had design modifications to respond to the sites orientation, and the California oaks on the property. Some modifications were also made to the exterior cladding package to meet the California Fire Code. The home is one of Stillwater Dwellings more than 20 fixed price homes which come in three style packages Natural, Modern and Fundamental.

Stillwater Dwellings wants the project to launch its effort to bring contemporary, sustainable and well-designed modular housing to Santa Barbara. It has a number of other homes in the works including two homes in Healdsburg CA.

www.stillwaterdwellings.com

# # #

Stillwater Dwellings designs and builds high-quality, prefabricated, contemporary homes. Our process is the predictable and smart alternative to site-built homes.