Design New England

May/June 2008

“Size Matters: Minimal structures designed by a Lawrence, Massachusetts, company are powerfully energy-efficient”

The founders of Powerhouse Enterprises didn’t expect little pods to create such a big stir.

When Quincy Vale and his partner, architect John Rossi, who launched their Lawrence, Massachusetts, company to create modular prefabricated buildings, presented sketches of the PowerPod concept at a trade show, they were meant to be a minor attraction. But the compact size and streamlined design of these one-module structures, which Vale and Rossi intended to serve as basic vacation getaways, art studios, pool houses, nanny quarters, home offices, or yoga studios, struck a chord: People wanted them – and not just as secondary spaces. Customers requested units for primary residences, too.

The pared-down and simple design of the PowerPod holds obvious appeal for anyone in search of an anti-McMansion – or anyone interested in reducing a personal carbon footprint. In buildings this small (currently they come in 250-,350-, and 450-squre-foot models), it’s easy being green.

“Just by virtue of its size, a PowerPod is green,” Rossi says. “It requires fewer materials to build and less energy to maintain.” And because it’s constructed at a factory, there’s much less disturbance to the land, less waste, and less gas used to fuel big trucks driving to and from a home site with materials and contractors. Team PowerHouse could have stopped there and still marketed the Pods as sustainable design, but it did much more.

“Some of the most important green elements are the materials used,” Rossi says. To wit, Forest Stewardship Council-certified wood framing, low-VOC paints and finishes, and a host of recycled and locally sourced materials.

The pods also feature triple-paned, superinsulating windows low-flow showerheads and water-saving toilets, energy-saving lighting, efficient radiant floor heating, and solar roofs. PowerHouse’s signature solar butterfly roof design – an option for all pods – combines active and passive design. “It offers a solution to the problem of bringing together good solar access for daylight and also space for solar equipment that can heat water and make electricity,” Vale explains, adding that the PowerPod exceeds the criteria for Energy Star certification. All told, he says, living in a PowerPod could reduce your energy needs by as much as 80 percent.

In addition to being a kind choice for the planet, PowerPods are kind to their owners in that they significantly reduce the hassles that tend to accompany new home construction. They aren’t quite “plug-and-play architecture,” says Rossi, but you can go from zero to Pod in about six weeks. Of course, that’s after you have taken care of zoning permits and hired a contractor to prepare the site and install the Pod for you. (PowerHouse can suggest contractors, and they provide drawings and detailed explanations of everything that needs to be done.) Delivery takes a week or so. The price isn’t a huge stressor in the grand scheme of real estate, either: PowerPods start at less that $100,000.

“The PowerPod is about being hip and affordable,” Rossi says. “It’s cool green living for the rest of us – you don’t have to be a celebrity with a kazillion dollars to afford it. In the green world, so many of the buildings look like science projects. They are the Brussels sprouts [healthy, but not so appetizing] of architecture. But the PowerPod is personal and fun.”

Seems like good things really do come in small packages.