HOUSES OF THE FUTURE--NOW

Pessimists point out that designer prefab movements have sprouted before and never taken root. But Kaufmann, for one, is optimistic. "People are expecting more from design now," she says. "And we can e-mail drawings. I couldn't have handled 40 prefab clients like this 20 years ago." For a little perspective on that point, we need only look at architect Ralph Rapson, now 90, who designed one of the famous modern Case Study houses in 1945--and is now at work adapting it as a prefab house for a 32-year-old developer in North Carolina. To us that says good ideas never die.

© 2005