Casa ZGZ Is How You Turn a Prefab Into a Sustainable, Sleek Residence

But all this is not to say that they can’t be luxurious as well. Almost all prefabricated homes we’ve covered so far focus on affordability and quick delivery, with some throwing in extra bonuses with off-grid capabilities, some movability, low environmental impact, and lower maintenance costs. The Casa ZGZ from iHouse still has many of these traits, but it’s also at the higher end of the spectrum in terms of luxury living.

Yang must have its Yin, and the comparison feels accurate because of the pitch-black exterior of the Casa ZGZ, which makes it “melt” away into the shadow of the surrounding forest. A creation of Montevideo-based architecture firm iHouse, which specializes in custom prefab homes, this house is designed as a vacation home for an Uruguayan that lives in London, but still visits family frequently.

The brief called for a home that would have minimal impact on the environment, but that would be inspired by the wooden cabins popular in the Colonia area. There’s no mention of budget, but this is probably not your Boxabl Casita, the tiny prefab that caught Elon Musk’s eye, so he became the owner of one of the first under-$50,000 prototypes. It’s not your regular container home, either.

Casa ZGZ was completed in late 2020, after only 70 days: that was the entire duration of the project from the first Zoom meeting with the client to delivery of the unit. The house itself was set up in just five days on the owner’s family land, near the small village of Blancarena, and this short timeline was possible because all construction took place off-site, at the Montevideo factory.

What makes Casa ZGZ stand out from other prefab homes was its focus on sustainability, especially in the way it impacts the surrounding environment. That said, architects Marcelo Mederos and Andres Garcia, founders of iHouse, didn’t design a mimetic construction in relation to the environment, but an obviously alien structure that tries to blend in. This is a family home, and a luxury vacation residence to boot, and it makes no pretenses otherwise. Instead, it tries to adapt itself to its surroundings, mostly by means of the pitch-black exterior, the two decks that expand indoor space into the exterior, and floor-to-ceiling glazing on either side.

“The brief was for a vacation home, cozy as are the small typical wooden cabins of the hemisphere where it resides, but in a contemporary enclave that can also withstand the vertiginousness of modern life and contemplate all the comforts of it, as well as rational use of resources trying to minimize the environmental impact,” iHouse says.

The home is comprised of two separate modules joined on-site lengthwise. One module holds the wet functions of the home, like the kitchen and the bathrooms, while the other is for the living and rest areas, like the living room and the bedrooms. The layout is simple, and all the more striking because of it: there’s a single level to the residence, and you have one bedroom and an ensuite bathroom on each end of the Casa, with the kitchen and the living room in the middle.

An oil-like finish helps protect the exterior wood, allowing the house to disappear into the shadow of the forest. The black finish also serves as a contrast with the warm interior and helps regulate temperature, in direct correlation with its location, so it’s warmer in the winter and cooler during summertime.

With the exception of the steel frame construction, materials were chosen to be eco-friendly. For instance, all the wood used is certified by the Forest Stewardship Council, which means it was sourced from responsibly managed forests.

Casa ZGZ offers a total living surface of 120 square meters (1,292 square feet), two bedrooms and two bathrooms, a fully-equipped and quite sizable kitchen, which is open-plan, and the living area. Two decks on either side allow expanding the interior space into the surrounding environment, especially due to the fact that they’re accessible by means of slide-out doors.

No price for the project is offered, so instead, we’ll focus on the takeaway that not all prefab houses are built the same. While the majority of them focus on affordability and low maintenance costs, a compact footprint that allows for downsizing and cost reduction, off-grid capabilities, and the possibility of relocating them at will, they can also be luxurious.

This one is outstanding because it’s luxurious without losing sight of the importance of a low environmental impact or sacrificing esthetics to the altar of sustainability. If anything, Casa ZGZ is a beautiful example that sometimes less really is more.