DIY Network

Prefab Architects: Charlie Lazor's Home From "Assembly Required" episode DASR-113

The Res4 guys aren’t the only architects who are using their talents to create a prefab housing alternative. For Charlie Lazor: husband, father and architect, the project is more personal—he’ll be living in it!

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	Figure A
	Figure B
	Figure C
	Figure D
	Figure E
	Figure F

Charlie Lazor’s Home

When his wife sold the family home, Lazor was left to use his architectural skills to find a way to build a modern and affordable home quickly. These three qualities are often contradictory, but Lazor’s wife, Zelda, believed in his ability to make the impossible a reality. Twelve months, $340,000 and 2,600 square feet later the Lazors had their prefab kit house; it’s called the FlatPak House (figure A).

Today, Charlie offers the FlatPak House to everyday homeowners. Since it is based on an outsourcing model, Charlie uses many different specialized manufacturers, such as Seelye Craftsman, a Minneapolis metal shop. The FlatPak is different from other prefab homes. Unlike Res4’s design, Charlie’s FlatPak travels in panels made of wood, glass, concrete or metal... not in modules (figure B).

Charlie calls his approach "manufactured architecture" rather than "prefab." In his mind, it’s a new and different approach to building homes. The components in the FlatPak can be configured in any size or shape the homeowner or site demands.

When Charlie’s associate Dan Vercruysse makes a visit to another factory to check the progress of a recent set of concrete panels, he watches the experts pour the concrete into molds and smooth them to ensure a uniform consistency. Dan notes that FlatPak provides the efficiency of pre-manufactured pieces, tighter tolerances on the pieces and a speedy assembly.

Charlie and Zelda and their team of friends and associates put the first FlatPak together bolt by bolt and panel by panel. A testament to the speed with which a building envelope can be put together, it took less than 12 hours to assemble the metal roof panels on Charlie’s personal prototype.

Charlie and his family moved into their new home, and Zelda says the normally self-critical Charlie seems fairly satisfied with his work. The rest of the family is also pleased. The kids have a secret passageway (figure C) and drop down bunks in the bedrooms, and Zelda has storage space galore. There are plenty of wide open, classically modernist spaces for the family to congregate (figure D).

There is one drawback—the large, glass panel windows don’t open in FlatPak Homes (figure E); it’s not cost effective. However, there are simple steel doors that allow fresh air to float into a room (figure F). Overall, Charlie and Zelda are thrilled with their custom abode, and Charlie has high hopes as he moves the Flatpak House from personal prototype to the mass market.

More Lazor Homestead Pictures

RESOURCES :

Resolution: 4 Architecture
Website: www.re4a.com

Lazor Office
Website: www.lazoroffice.com
Website: www.flatpakhouse.com

Seelye Craftsmen Co.
Website: www.seelyecraft.com

Apex Homes, Inc.
7172 Route 522
Middleburg, PA 17842
Telephone: 1-800-326-9524
Fax: 1-570-837-2346

J.H. Construction & G.C. Inc.
E-mail: jhconstinc@aol.com

A&E Construction