Need to test drive a prefab unit before trading in your energy hogging habitat for life in the green lane? Now is your chance. Rent a little cutie this summer and see how it goes. Here are a few goodies on the vacay market:
12 Container Houses:
June through August, the highly touted shipping material miracle in Maine is hipper than hip with undisturbed nature views, for $6,000-$10,000 per week. Yes, you too can experience the pure eco joy forged by architect Adam Kalkin of the prefab-forward firm, Architecture and Hygiene. Of course, it demands the kind of disposable cash scored in exploitative industries like banking, insurance, corporate public relations, war making and profiting. Not really the prefab message, but oh well. Nice digs if you can afford them. And you can get them, if you try.
Onward to good deals for recession victims on uncomfortably tight budgets (i.e. cook your own meals on all trips, cart your own vat of discount vodka and olives, steal extra toilet paper rolls when you check out). Here is a sampling of some of the most fab prefabs you can rent at a variety of rates.
Roll out the green carpet and feast your eyes on a great find:
Rolling Hut Prefab Vacation Cabins can be rented for a painless $100 per night. At a former RV camp in Mozana, Washington, the low rollers offer a provocative perch for taking in the surrounding mountains – a low impact approach to “civilized camping” by Olson Sunberg Kundig Allen Architects. Sign me up after that June Bat Mitzvah in Seattle!
This is my kind of camping:
The upscale cabin experience in the Cascade mountains of Washington can be had in this Mount Baker eco “Method Cabin” and is available for $250 a night or $1500 a week.
Ooh, la lot!
Check out the sweet surroundings visible through that cute port hole. Cube-shaped teeny vacation rentals by Carre d’etoiles can be rented in France and eventually other European destinations, providing the opportunity for hotel operators to grow their operations affordable by branching out into prefab, allowing guests a unique, eco accommodation for 90 euros a night. Great stargazing provides the ecotainment at night.
All the Wright Stuff:
Experience a Frank vision of stylish function for an overnight or two. The Duncan House in Acme, Pa., was designed by frank Lloyd Wright and opened for rental last summer after being relocated to its new digs 35 miles southeast of Pittsburgh from Illinois. Prefabricated by Marshall Erdman, a Wisconsin builder, it was bought by an electrical engineer named David Duncan after reading about the project in the mid-fifties. According to the New York Times, the reassembly required putting back together thousands of parts. Today it sits on a 125-acre tract of woodland owned by young builder, Tom Papinchak and goes for $385 a night with a two night minimum. Make reservations and find seasonal specials here.
Blast from the past
Rent a vintage Airstream at a campground like the Camp Lotus resort in Coloma, California. It’s the real deal, the precursor to the prefab and some of the Silver Trailers can be set up for you, from $175 to $250 a night.
Images: brewbooks, Vrbo, Alternative Consumer, Prefab, New York Times, Silvertrailers