Cost-Effective Prefab Summer Home In The Pyrenees

Architects and designers are increasingly considering how prefabrication techniques can be used to build speedy and cost-effective yet aesthetically pleasing housing. That’s why they keep creating more and more such dwellings, and today we are sharing one of them.

Spanish architect Marc Mogas created this prefabricated cottage in Spain’s Pyrenees mountains as a cost-effective summer retreat. The pine-clad sections – one for bedrooms, another for the lounge and a third for a roofspace mezzanine – were joined together on site to create the 100-square-metre Ripollès cottage. Intending to budget control the work, three decisions were taken: to minimize land excavation, to prefabricate the house and to reduce aids in construction site. Earth excavated to embed the house in the sloping site was reused to create terraces, and the blocks were slotted between existing trees.

To reduce the impact on the site further, retaining walls are made from reinforced concrete bricks – negating the need for a crane on site. The timber modules sit atop these concrete walls. To confer the idea of a forest cottage, the project is located in order to cut down as few trees as possible.

Windows and doors are surrounded by white steel frames, and a cutaway from the front of the living room creates an entrance porch. Inside, the pine structure is left exposed and the walls are painted white throughout to create a uniform, pared-back appearance.

The combined lounge and dining area hosts a wood-burning stove in a sitting area nearest the door, and a decoratively tiled kitchen is located to the rear. To make the most of the small floor plan, Mogas developed some clever space-saving solutions. A mezzanine is slotted into the mono-pitched ceiling above the tiled kitchen, while a false ceiling in the hallway provides the perfect spot for stashing away suitcases.

Three bedrooms are arranged along the length of an adjacent block, with the master suite is arranged at the end overlooking the slope and a family bathroom at the rear.