When I was at the DausHaus at Daley Center here in Chicago a few weeks back I over heard a woman who said she loved the idea of saving money using passive design principles but stopped in pursuing it for her new home design because she wondered, “Why does it have to be so ugly?”

Krisstina Wise heard this complaint about modern  prefab homes so often that she decided to do something about it to dispel the rumors.  “Sustainability is part of our culture [in Austin]…but modern was rejected,”  So she created the Austin Modern Home Tour.

The modern home tour was designed to dispel the misperception Wise so often heard that modern was all about tearing down funky old houses to pour concrete slabs.

The prefab buildings were a relatively inexpensive way to expand to accommodate the quickly growing staff but in a way that was still environmentally conscious.

The tour has continued to grow and become more popular, and so has Wise’s company.  The building Wise works from has been transformed from a decrepit “pigeon house” just east of downtown Austin into a vibrant, eco-friendly workspace that now includes three prefab buildings from Austin’s Sett Studio.

Read more about it and view some spectacular homes at Dwell.

What do you think of modern prefab homes?

XOXO Jen