Meet Us in the Middle: Design & Prefabrication

When one decides to build a house, two of the most important questions often are; how long will this project take? and how can I stay within my budget?

Our portfolio features many projects where our design team is highly involved from project conception to the day when the general contractor hands the keys over to the owner. Robustly applying our services to your project enables us to work hand in hand with you to design each aspect and detail of your home, business, or landscape. One of our studio's strengths is the ability to scale our services to each client's project, whether our involvement is ongoing and highly detailed or short yet deeply impactful. When time and budget requirements necessarily limit CDG's involvement to the more elemental components of a project, it creates an opportunity for us to briefly and vigorously apply our skill and wisdom to have a significant impact on the outcome.

Recently, our team worked with a client for whom a shortened timeline was a priority. They were relocating, and simply put, they would need a place for their family to live by a certain date. We were persistent in controlling the project's timeline, and bringing the cost of construction below that of a custom site-built home. To meet these goals, our design team guided the clients towards prefabrication using Huntington Homes, with whom CDG has collaborated on several projects. Prefabrication is a process of manufacturing houses in modules in a warehouse, then assembling those sections of the house on the homeowners’ site. Because of the fabricator's ability to streamline the conditions and processes at their indoor fabrication facility, this method of building houses can cut the time to completion and occupancy in half, as well as reduce the overall costs when compared to conventional site-built homes.

We worked with our client to design conceptual floor plans that were then developed and fabricated by Huntington Homes. Due to the size constraints of the warehouse and the limitations on transporting the modules, there are a finite number of floor plan options. With these projects, our team's goal is to work with clients to customize a space to their vision while working with Huntington Homes to make it a reality.

For this project specifically, our design team sited the home to naturally integrate the home within its landscape and orient it towards mountain views. We diagrammed the placement of windows to align with the drawing views of the mountains, and to maximize day lighting of the interior. The layout of light fixtures was designed by CDG to create an even, natural, and appealing arrangement. Although our team's involvement was modest, it is deeply rewarding to help people achieve their dreams and vision towards the spaces they will occupy.

What does construction look like on the site of a pre-fabricated house? Take a look in the video below!