6 Northern California Prefab Homes With Verdant Forest Vibes

Perched lightly on the land, these prefab homes celebrate the beautiful landscapes of Northern California.

Settled on a picturesque hillside in Somona, California, the Connect 5 residence features stunning floor-to-ceiling windows, which allow warm natural light to flood through the home.

From secluded mountaintops to low-lying apple orchards, prefabricated residences have popped up across some of Northern California’s most beautiful landscapes. From serene weekend getaways to new family homes, these factory-built dwellings all share an affinity for the outdoors and a contemporary aesthetic.

Sonoma weeHouse by Alchemy

An exercise in simplicity, the minimalist Sonoma weeHouse features two steel-framed weathering steel volumes with ipe interiors, oiled oak cabinetry, and massive sliding glass walls that overlook valley views.

An exercise in simplicity, the Sonoma weeHouse consists of two steel-framed volumes with ipe interiors, oiled oak cabinetry, and massive sliding glass walls that overlook valley views. 

Photo: Brian W. Ferry

Designed in Minnesota, built in Oregon, and then shipped to a remote Santa Rosa site, the Sonoma weeHouse is an award-winning luxury retreat for an Apple senior design director. Comprising a 640-square-foot main house and an adjacent 330-square-foot guest module, the ultraminimal residence is a custom take on Alchemy’s modular prefabricated housing system.

High Horse Ranch by KieranTimberlake

Conceived as an escape from city living, this 2,580-square-foot prefab comprises two primary and 11 secondary modules, while the 290-square-foot guest cabins consist of single modules craned into place atop concrete piers.

In response to a client’s brief for a low-impact home with reduced construction waste, KieranTimberlake turned to off-site prefabrication. The factory-built project—consisting of a main house and a pair of guest cabins—was sensitively set into place on a 64-acre site in Willits, and oriented toward panoramic views of the forested valley below.

Renovated Tiburon Kit Home by SHED Architecture & Design

Built with a heavy timber post-and-beam structure, this renovated Tiburon kit house retains its standard footprint, framing, and tiled roof. Massive sliding glass doors were added to create an indoor/outdoor living experience.

See the full story on Dwell.com: 6 Northern California Prefab Homes With Verdant Forest Vibes

Similar Posts

  • Add/Subtract House

    The Add/Subtract House is derived from the stereotomic operation of subtracting from and adding to a solid volume to enable specific programmatic relationships and daylight conditions. Sited on a typical 50’x150’ single-family residential lot in Austin, Texas, the design questions the standard house massing and arrangement by stretching along the length of the lot. Rather than single the dichotomy of front yard and backyard, the design establishes smaller courtyards, hardscapes and softscapes at various scales to relate to individual rooms. The external material palette (standing seam metal, tongue & groove wood paneling, and stucco) is applied to reinforce the distribution of individual program elements. Each material is composed into folding planes which capture space and define zones throughout the house. Every room in the house benefits from natural light from at least two sides as daylight is modulated throughout, offsetting the need for electric light during daylight hours and allowing occupants to more directly track seasonal and daily patterns.

  • Burnt Cedar

    This is a full-time beach house for a car passionate family of four situated across from Burnt Cedar Beach in Incline Village, Nevada on the north shore of Lake Tahoe. Prior to being pulled up the hill to flumes and rails destined for Virginia City, logs were staged here as the mountains around the lake shore were logged during the silver mining years of the 1860s. Set into a neighborhood originally built in the 1950s and bordered by houses to the sides and rear, the house takes a simple box form, half buried into the slope. It faces the lake with full height glazing that encloses a loft-like plan with double height living spaces. The clients requested a space that felt like the landscape and maintained a feeling inside of being outside in the light and shadow play of the sixty to ninety-foot Jeffrey and Ponderosa pines that populate the lake shore.  Perforated wood ceilings and acoustical plaster walls soften the sounds of the concrete and glass pavilion-like house. An underground garage is excavated under the house with level access to the street, a must in this snowy climate for a family with an eclectic car collection.