2024 Thomas Avenue South
Minneapolis, MN, USA

FlatPak modular home

From listing:

Incredible opportunity to own a piece of architectural history, with this first-ever FlatPak modular home.

Designed by notable architect Charlie Lazor of LAZOR/OFFICE, this iconic landmark has been featured on the cover of Dwell Magazine and is just steps from Cedar Lake, the Greenway Bike Trail, and directly adjacent to the currently under-construction SW Light Rail Green Line Extension, which will offer car-less transportation metro wide, including downtown, the airport, the MOA and much more. Walls of glass, heated concrete floors and high ceilings provide extraordinary volume that lives even larger than its square footage. Additionally, the home has a two-story semi-attached wing that offers ideal work/school-from-home spaces. Visit the mini-version in the Walker Sculpture Garden as part of their permanent collection.

What is a FlatPak House?

Due to the fact that FlatPak House is the only property that has been designed by FlatPak, it has gained plenty of attention from the prefabs industry. While it may be the only design in the catalog, it is still regarded exceptionally well and has allowed FlatPak to forge a fantastic reputation.

What is the basic design of FlatPak House?
The beauty of FlatPak House is that there is actually no internal design, as this is entirely down to the end buyer. The internal floor space is set at 2,000 square feet yet depending on the customer's requirements, the number of bedrooms and bathrooms can vary hugely.

It should also be mentioned that while the initial floor space is the above figure - this is only applicable to the ground floor. FlatPak has stated that they are able to build up to four stories in FlatPak House, meaning that the customer has complete control over how their home is going to look.

What does the exterior of FlatPak House look like?
While the internal features of FlatPak House are entirely down to the end buyer, this is certainly not the case with the exterior of the product. The designers have spent a considerable amount of time perfecting the look of the outside of the property, with this featuring panels of various shapes and sizes. Moreover, as well as featuring these cladded panels, the company have made extra effort to include as much glass as possible and this means that occupants are benefited from a huge amount of natural light.

In other areas, the roof of the property is completely flat and this compliments the modern theme that FlatPak has tried to implement throughout. The company has also included decking areas around the property and this can be classed as nothing but a nice touch, with occupants having pleasant areas to sit in and admire the nearby surroundings.

Who is responsible for the construction of FlatPak House?
One of the grey areas of the prefab industry is the actual construction of properties. Some companies will only take care of the design stages and then ask the client to appoint a contractor to carry out the necessary construction. This is certainly a troubled approach for the consumer and one that FlatPak House does not use - with the developers insisting that they take care of all processes including design, planning, and construction.

A summary of FlatPak House
Even though FlatPak House is the only product in the FlatPak catalog, there’s no doubt it’s a hugely successful offering and at the core of the FlatPak business. The exterior of the building is hugely impressive and some potential customers will be blown away at all of the modern principles that have been included. Admittedly, some will not be satisfied that there are no set floor plans available, yet this does allow for a large degree of customization which will be met by open arms by a lot of buyers who want to add their own touch to their home.

Basic Details:
base price: $119,000
sq ft: 2,000
base price/sq ft:$100-110
bedrooms: varies
baths: varies
garage: optional

Pictures show a Flatpak house in Aspen

2024 Thomas Ave S, Minneapolis, MN, USA

2024 Thomas Ave S Home History
Lazor Office (Charlie Lazor), 2004

Modern architects have long been infatuated with modular and prefabricated housing de signed to supplant the standard  American "stick-built" home, which uses a structural system- known as balloon or platform framing-that's now well over 150 years old. From Buckminster Fuller's geodesic domes to Frank Lloyd Wright's Usonians to the all-metal Lustrons built after World War II, these dreams of a sort of house-in-a-kit have never made much headway in the marketplace.
This house, designed by and for Minneapolis architect Charlie Lazor, is one of the latest entries in the modular movement. Its name derives from the fact that it's built largely of wood, steel, and glass panels that can readily be shipped in so-called flat packs. The panels can be combined in different ways to produce a variety of designs. Here, the results are truly elegant, without any of the clunkiness that usually afflicts modular housing. Whether the Flatpak house can find a significant niche in the housing market remains to be seen, but this prototype certainly makes you hope that it will.

Citation: Millett, Larry. AIA Guide to the Minneapolis Lake District. Minnesota Historical Society Press, 2009.