Acclaimed San Francisco-based designer Yves Béhar has thrown his hat in the prefab game, by launching designs for ‘fully-customisable accessory dwelling units' with LivingHomes (of Plant Prefab) as the Los Angeles' Summit festival this week. The relatively compact structures are set to offer a viable alternative to help solve housing issues, without compromising design or production quality.
Called YB1, the design is extremely flexible and can adapt to different roof lines, sizes, layouts for windows, various interior requirements, as well as different climatic conditions. There are three versions currently readily available, with more in the pipeline. The residential interior can include a full kitchen, bathroom with a shower, a living room, and a bedroom or office, while some details, such as electrical appliances, can be selected by the owners. Overall sizes can range from 23 sq m to 111 sq m.
The structures are designed to be prefabricated without any compromise to design or production quality. Image: Yves Béhar Living Homes
Environmentally friendly production methods at Plant Prefab's facilities add to the scheme's environmental credentials; while materials such as Forest Stewardship Council certified wood siding and cement panels mean that the design is climate-sensitive too.
‘Following our work on efficient living with robotic furniture company ORI, I’m excited to extend the passion for tiny homes and prefab by partnering with LivingHomes', says Behar. ‘For me, the next frontier of design is to think of the entire home as a product that a homeowner can shape to their needs in terms of size, usage, aesthetic and lifestyle. The design goal of the LivingHomes ADU is adding urban density with a range of sizes and home designs while providing a building system that delivers on sustainable and efficient living in urban areas'.
The small homes may offer a solution to housing issues caused by rising land prices and density in global metropoles like Los Angeles; in fact, their creation was sparked by ‘updates to California’s legislation, encouraging increased urban density while limiting the environmental impact of new construction', explains the team.
This is set to be just the beginning for the ambitious scheme. This design is only the first in a line of prefab structures to be launched by Behar and LivingHomes; watch this space.
Unveiled at the city’s Summit festival, the structure is called YB1. Image: Yves Béhar Living Homes YB1
The design is set to be only the first in a line of prefabricated homes from the same team. Image: Yves Béhar Living Homes YB1
These small units could be an answer to density issues in fast growing metropoles like Los Angeles. Image: Yves Béhar Living Homes YB1
INFORMATION
For more information visit the website of Yves Behar
-
Tiffany & Co’s artist mentorship at Frieze London puts creative exchange centre stageAt Frieze London 2025, Tiffany & Co partners with the fair’s Artist-to-Artist initiative, expanding its reach and reaffirming the value of mentorship within the global art community
-
'They're like my friends:’ Max Lamb exhibits a decade of chairs in a former church hallThe British designer’s new London show, ‘Exercises in Seating' (until 2 November 2025), brings together over 30 diverse works in a circle of connection
-
A postmodernist home reborn: we tour the British embassy in BrazilWe tour the British Embassy in Brazil after its thorough renovation by Hersen Mendes Arquitetura, which breathes new life into a postmodernist structure within the country's famous modernist capital
-
Ballman Khaplova creates a light-filled artist’s studio in upstate New YorkThis modest artist’s studio provides a creative with an atelier and office in the grounds of an old farmhouse, embedding her practice in the surrounding landscape
-
The most important works of modernist landscape architecture in the USModernist landscapes quite literally grew alongside the modern architecture movement. Field specialist and advocate Charles A. Birnbaum takes us on a tour of some of the finest examples
-
Jeanne Gang’s single malt whisky decanter offers a balance ‘between utility and beauty’The architect’s whisky decanter, 'Artistry in Oak', brings a sculptural dimension to Gordon & MacPhail's single malt
-
An idyllic slice of midcentury design, the 1954 Norton House has gone on the marketNorton House in Pasadena, carefully crafted around its sloping site by Buff, Straub & Hensman, embodies the Californian ideal of the suburban modern house embedded within a private landscape
-
Herzog & de Meuron and Piet Oudolf unveil Calder Gardens in PhiladelphiaThe new cultural landmark presents Alexander Calder’s work in dialogue with nature and architecture, alongside the release of Jacques Herzog’s 'Sketches & Notes'. Ellie Stathaki interviews Herzog about the project.
-
Meet Studio Zewde, the Harlem practice that's creating landscapes 'rooted in cultural narratives, ecology and memory'Ahead of a string of prestigious project openings, we check in with firm founder Sara Zewde
-
The best of California desert architecture, from midcentury gems to mirrored dwellingsWhile architecture has long employed strategies to cool buildings in arid environments, California desert architecture developed its own distinct identity –giving rise, notably, to a wave of iconic midcentury designs
-
A restored Eichler home is a peerless piece of West Coast midcentury modernismWe explore an Eichler home, and Californian developer Joseph Eichler’s legacy of design, as a fine example of his progressive house-building programme hits the market
