coodo Is the Sustainable Prefab Modular Home That Redefines Modular Homes

One company was building units of this kind long before it was the trendy thing to do. In 2002, German entrepreneur Mark Dare Schmiedel founded LTG (which stands for Lofts To Go) and introduced the flagship coodo home. Offered in three models, the coodo is hailed as “the modular home that redefines modular homes” and “not just a house [but] the most beautiful and smallest unit of a social, ecological and economic universe that you can help to shape according to your wishes and needs: your new way of living and being.”

That’s a big promise that coodo makes, and it’s striving to keep it.

The coodo is a prefabricated home that aims to check several boxes at once, all of them very important: affordability, sustainability, versatility, and movability. In essence, it’s a box that you can ship to wherever you want it to be, including in areas where you might not get a permit to build a brick-and-mortar home, like on a lake, on the rooftop of a skyscraper, or in the middle of the woods.

The same box can be delivered to you just the way you need it, whether that means as a blank slate (i.e. empty) for you to furnish, with just the basic utilities, fully furnished, or as part of a larger structure. You can opt between three models (the moon, the sun, and the earth), which offer different building materials and insulation, with or without electric underfloor heating, and different possibilities of extending available space into the outdoors.

The moon is the basic unit, which is also being offered in the United States as of the summer of 2022. One unit offers a floorplan of 32 square meters (344.4 square feet), which can be expanded by adding as many modules as you want – and obviously can afford. You can either annex them on the ground or stack them up, and you can also get a pergola. The moon has a steel structure and composite facade, and double- or triple-glaze aluminum frame windows. It also has insulation and is proofed against moisture.

The sun is the coodo for warmer climates or beach use. It offers 24 square meters (258.3 square feet) of living space, which can be extended by adding more modules. Options include a pergola. The earth integrates the terrace and it’s the only model that is not modular: you can get it as a 36- or as a 60-square-meter (387.5- or 646-square-foot) home.

All coodos, regardless of model or options, are made with sustainable and, to whatever extent possible, locally-resourced materials. They are energy-optimized and up to passive house standards. Because they’re more compact and don’t require building onto a piece of land, they’re also cheaper than average houses.

The idea for the coodo is to provide a space, whether it’s a home or office or a showroom, that has minimal impact on the environment in all its stages, can adjust as you grow (old), and is easily modified. The best example in this sense is that of a family home, which usually accommodates one at first, then two adults, then children, and then just the two adults again, as the kids leave the nest. With coodo, adjusting to these changes is a matter of simply removing one or two modules.

“Nothing is for eternity. Except coodo,” reads the official description of the modular home. “Because coodo sets a cycle in motion, just like in nature. Its building materials comes from nature and once it is used by humanity, they can divide it, expand it or minimize it. When it is no longer needed, it can travel to another place and so on and so forth….”

coodo is offered in Germany, where it originates from, Denmark, Scandinavia, the U.S., Dubai and certain territories in Asia. To further facilitate reduction of costs, LTG eliminates overseas shipping by working with licensed partners in these territories. For Europe, pricing starts at €2,300 for a square meter of coodo, without appliances and furniture – or approximately $2,330 at the current exchange for 10.7 square feet.