A New Zealand architecture company has designed a three-bedroom house that three people can assemble in six weeks for $335,000.
RTA Studio just constructed its first ‘Living House’ in Rotorua.
It is 85sqm and designed for quick assembly once the foundations are in place, the cost includes a functional kitchen with appliances as well as flooring, lighting, carpets and heating. It does not include the land value.
If I’m reading it right, the walls are prefabricated pine panels 120mm thick with corrugated iron external cladding.
No idea how that would compare to typical timber framed construction. Probably no worse.
It’s a good point on the insulation though. It has no mention of that, but says it’s pre-consented, so must meet insulation requirements. Are these prefab panels naturally well insulating?
Someone can chip in with actual numbers, but pine is a goodish insulator, but it depends on the thickness. Corrugated iron is a terrible insulator, and the real important part is what’s in between. I can’t help but think that if it was good stuff, they would be proudly spruiking it in the article :/
They cover it here: https://livinghouse.nz/#living-house-cost-breakdown
They allocate $15k for insulation. It says cost dependant on location - different parts of the country have different requirements for R value so I’m guessing they are going for bare minimum required by law. However, it turns out they are an architecture company not a building company so they simply sell you the plans for $10k and you contract your own builders to do it (they have agreements with suppliers for most of it but you aren’t required to use them). What I’m getting at is you can spend a bit more and get better insulation if you wanted to.