material and design advantages
One of the primary benefits of the Blue Sky Homes Building System is speed of construction. According to McAdam, although the process for the prototype home took eight weeks to complete, future homes could be completed in six weeks, saving substantially on labor costs compared to conventional construction methods. Because the system rests on six piers embedded in concrete footings and requires minimal grading, site-prep time is reduced as well.
McAdam believes the structure also will prove to be extremely durable. The steel members are less likely to degrade, and because no wood is used in the home’s structure or exterior, it isn’t susceptible to termites or rot and is fire-resistant. Lance O’Donnell, AIA, principal of o2 Architecture (which has been working with steel structures for the past decade), helped Blue Sky Homes develop a thermal break system to overcome steel’s natural thermal conductivity. The steel structural members combine with foam-insulated STEPs manufactured by Accelerated Building Technologies to create an energy-efficient building envelope. “There’s little actual exterior metal that transfers directly to the interior metal,” O’Donnell explains.
Now that the design and engineering team has overcome the thermal liabilities of steel, O’Donnell believes they have a viable system for hot/arid climates, as well as hot/humid and temperate climates. The team continues to work on solutions that will allow the building system to perform in damp and cold climates.
Because the house walls are non-load-bearing STEPs, the architects had the flexibility to design any interior layout they preferred. O’Donnell and project architect Martin Brunner, AIA, also of o2 Architecture, created a design for the prototype and additional house models in a modern, minimalist aesthetic with strong indoor-outdoor connections. In the 1,000-square-foot prototype house, one large public room containing the kitchen, dining, and living areas opens onto a cantilevered deck, expanding the living space to the outdoors. Two equally sized bedrooms flank the central bathroom and mechanicals module.
Though modestly scaled, the series—which currently includes a 500-square-foot casita (with bathroom); a 1,000-square-foot, two-bedroom, one-bath model; and a 1,500-square-foot, three-bedroom, two-bath model—is designed for comfort, as well as efficiency. Several floor plans are available. Base models are priced from $175,000 (the casita) to $425,000 (the 1,500-square-foot configuration), including delivery and installation in Southern California. Blue Sky Homes plans to introduce designs for 2,000-square-foot and 2,500-square-foot models later this summer.
the road ahead
The market for all-steel homes, no matter how time-efficient to build, may be limited, but McAdam believes there’s an opportunity in the United States to push home building to a new level, and that the Blue Sky Home Building System has potential. Blue Sky is working on developing its local market for starters, but McAdam has his eye on expanding to a national market and perhaps even going international.
O’Donnell is more reserved in his expectations. “It probably will remain a niche, unfortunately,” he says. “But it will open people’s eyes, because we’ve approached [the prefab concept] in a new and interesting way that’s also economical. Ultimately we hope to have wide acceptance and distribution, but if we only start to change the way the home building process is done currently, then I feel we’ve succeeded—maybe not on a financial level, but on an ‘architect-with-a-cape’ level.”