A prefab structure in the woods supports a client's yoga practice.
This serene lakeside retreat, designed for yoga and exercise, is part furniture design and part architecture. It's a modified Bunkie, or a small prefabricated structure produced the Bunkie Co. that can be rapidly assembled on-site. Its designs are a joint effort among a team of architects: Nathan Buhler and Jorge Torres, furniture designer Evan Bare, and furniture manufacturer Jim Moore. The highly collaborative structures are prefabricated using CNC mill technology-essentially computer controlled drills-that ensure higher quality and better material economy than traditional methods allow. This technique produces individual parts that, much like some furniture manufacturing processes, are a ready-made fit together. The Bunkies themselves can be used as playhouses, guest rooms, home offices, and a range of other functions. Their size-about 100 square feet-means they don't require permits for construction. More lenient codes in the U.S. has enabled the Bunkie Co. to begin designing a 200-square-foot model for the American market.