Henry David Thoreau had Walden Pond, Tom Thompson had the lakes, rocks and trees of the Canadian Shield and Form & Forest has five acres of pristine riverside Rocky Mountain wilderness. Five acres of wilderness embraced on three sides by a glacial river surrounded by the soaring peaks of the Canadian Rockies.  Not only are these five acres the perfect setting for a modern cabin they also act as the perfect muse for Form & Forest.  Inspiring the nature of the company and the design of the cabins themselves. (more…)

Technorati Tags:   Build a Cabin, cabin, Cabin Kits, cabin life, modern cabin plans, modernism, prefab, shames mountain

At Form & Forest we spend a lot of time thinking of ways and means to make prefab architecture more accessible. It looks like Lego has us beat by a long shot with news that they are introducing two Frank Lloyd Wright masterpieces to their architectural lineup. The Guggenheim model has been available since May 15 and none other than Fallingwater itself will be available sometime in July. So there you have it you’ll be able to build Fallingwater on your coffee table for $45 or so. Not so good for living in, but ideal for looking at, and perhaps the perfect excuse to play with Lego under the guise of serious architectural study. So if you want to build a prefab but are still waiting for the perfect lot to come available or the local authorities to approve your plans you can satisfy your immediate needs with Lego. Perhaps a series of Form & Forest Lego kits will be available in the future…. Lego are you listening?

Click through to see the kits. (more…)

Technorati Tags:   architecture, Lego, prefab

Construction waste accounts for almost half of what goes the landfill.

According to the EPA up to 40% of what goes into landfills is construction waste. A 2,000 square foot home produces almost 8,000 pounds of construction waste.  That is a staggering amount of garbage.

If you dissect what goes into a dumpster on a job site you will find that by weight or volume, wood, drywall and cardboard make up 60 – 80% of that waste. Two of these three major components of construction waste can be recycled or reused.

Take a look at the dumpster the next time you are on a construction site. You will probably find yourself thinking “I could almost build another house with the stuff in here”.  The sad fact is this is close to the truth.

Waste reduction is a basic and overlooked element in most construction.

In my experience proper planning can keep cardboard and wood out of the waste stream. At Form & Forest our design and manufacturing process is very tightly integrated. That means we are able to plan for reduced construction waste from the very beginning.

Our first cabins will be available this spring and they are being planned for efficient use of materials and waste reduction, all the way from the initial architectural design through to the manufacturing process.

This is important not only because it conserves resources, but also because it saves you money.  Good construction waste management will save you money because you have less to haul away, and more importantly you don’t pay for material you don’t need.

In traditional site based construction most of the waste comes from framing errors, and weather. Typically a builder will overestimate the amount of wood they need to account for this. This extra wood is not only expensive to dispose of it is also expensive to buy in first place.

When you build a cabin using our factory built framing components you don’t lose materials due to warping and weathering. You don’t have to worry about costly framing errors either, because we can manage quality control better on the factory floor than we can on the job site.

During the design process D’Arcy Jones and I have been working together very carefully to ensure that we can build his cabin plans as efficiently as possible. We run everything through a program that allows us to make the most efficient use of our materials. When you decide to build a cabin from Form & Forest we already know precisely how much material to order.

Technorati Tags:   architecture, construction, green building, prefab, prefab cabins, sustainability, waste

Conventional wisdom says you need to keep up with the neighbors. Really, if we are being honest, not just keep up but get ahead. If they have a four bedroom lake house, you need five bedrooms on the ocean. If they have a big vacation home, you need a bigger one.

It’s a crazy backward kind of logic, and it’s a thing of the past. It’s time to put status anxiety behind us and focus on what is important in life.

You work hard to achieve your dreams. Owning a cabin is one of life’s great rewards. You should enjoy every moment of it.

Your cabin can be a space to spend time with people you like. It can be a place where you do the things you really enjoy. It can be a place where you reconnect with the things that are truly important. (more…)

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