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Home Designs with MODERN BONES

We are a design firm specializing in high-performance homes and developments. If you are looking for a team with expertise in sustainable and healthy buildings - you are in the right place. Look through our base designs and imagine how you would make it your own. Every home is custom designed for the site and client’s need but all incorporate our details, prefab envelope, and systems for low-energy consumption and superior health.

We have made it easy to start with a floor plan and customize exteriors and finishes. Express personal style or fit seamlessly into a neighborhood by selecting exterior finishes and rooflines to suit. In addition to our base plans, we can also create custom floor plans and configurations that can be created quickly with our standardized panel sizes - add square footage, bathrooms, decks. We are happy to design solutions for every lot and every climate without losing performance and optimization.

Each project begins with the requirements of a client’s needs. The program leads us to one of our standard floor plans. The living space and the relationship to the property allow us to address those crucial orientations, views, traffic flow, and relationship of the building to light and climate. Our wall panels can be mixed and moved to create appropriate windows and door placement and to take advantage of standardized components to create an appropriate and site-specific home plan.

 

HOME DESIGN STEP-BY-STEP PROCESS | PERFORMANCE AT THE CORE

We’ve made it easy to choose a floor plan that can be easily customized to fit your needs.  B.PUBLIC offers exclusive single-use licensing of standard plans for homeowners and multiple-use licensing for developers. Express personal style or fit seamlessly into a neighborhood by selecting exterior finishes and rooflines to suit. In addition to our standard plans we can also create custom floor plans and configurations that can be created quickly with our standardized panel sizes - add square footage, bathrooms, and decks as you see fit. We are happy to design solutions for every lot and climate zone without sacrificing performance and optimization.

Each project begins by assessing the client’s requirements & needs. The program leads us to either one of our standard floor plans or a custom design. Next, we address site strategies such as building orientation, daylighting, viewsheds, and site circulation. Our wall panels can be reconfigured to facilitate appropriate window and door placements and to take advantage of standardized components to create a site-specific home design. Book an info meeting.

  • We offer a unique option for new construction: a high quality, progressively-green, and super sustainable way to build. We want to meet you to hear about your project, share the details of our system, and discuss how we might consider working together.

    But first, you have homework! Follow the link and complete the program questionnaire. This is where you can start to tell us about your project needs, dreams, specifics, location and share with us some of your property information such as a survey of your site. If you have inspiration like Pinterest boards, screenshots, or napkin sketches, this is the best way to upload all of that information to your project file.

    Next, we’ll schedule time for you to meet in person or virtually with our design staff to walk through your design possibilities and options. You will get a good sense of what to expect in terms of schedule, cost, and the process for completing a successful project. If we are a good fit, then we can move forward with a Pre-Design Agreement.

  • At this stage, we will create a Pre -Design Agreement based on your program that goes into detail about our process, fees, and timeline. Once the agreement is signed, we will schedule time with our design staff to move forward with Phase 1: Pre-Design and Site Feasibility.

  • During the Pre-Design Phase, we look at opportunities and restrictions on your site and evaluate the feasibility of panelized construction. We identify a standard floor plan or sketch a custom floor plan. We then create a preliminary site plan that includes placement of the home, access points, additional buildings (garages, storage, existing structure, etc.), pedestrian and vehicular flow on the property, as well as identify landmarks, utilities, wells, septic, and other key features.

    At the end of this phase, we will provide Pre-Design Documents, which include: (1) an initial site plan sketch, (2) an initial floor plan, (3) a sketch elevation, (4) a B.PUBLIC Building envelope model of your home, and (5) a dated estimate of panel costs for the envelope.

  • When you are ready to move forward with a full set of construction plans, we will prepare a Design Agreement that goes into detail about our process, provides estimated design costs and an initial schedule. Once the agreement is signed we will schedule time with our design staff to start the Design Development Phase.

  • Every project needs a local builder. We will give you an immediate cost for your high-performance building envelope and an estimate from our closest preferred install subcontractors. The rest of your building costs, including sitework, foundation, and finishes, will be the responsibility of your builder. We would like to meet your builder as early in the process as possible. We will support them by providing information about high-performance construction, our standard details, delivery timetable, and cost estimation.

  • During this design development phase, you will revise the initial floor plan and make changes if necessary, select interior and exterior finishes, approve the foundation and roofline, and select windows and doors from our approved partners. Our design team will finalize a floor plan accordingly and engage our partner structural engineering firm.

    The Design Development Documents will consist of drawings and other documents to fix and describe the size and character of the project in terms of architectural design, the thermal envelope, mechanical & electrical systems, finishes, and other elements that may be appropriate to take to the bank to secure a construction loan.

  • Based on the approved Design Development Documents and any further adjustments you might request, we will prepare Construction Documents consisting of drawings and material finishes setting forth in sufficient detail the requirements for construction of the project.

    We will also prepare materials including plan sets, prefabricated shop drawings, and any other required permit submittals for you or your general contractor for submission to the pertinent governmental authorities having jurisdiction over the project.

  • Depending on the schedule for your project, you might be ready to place a PO or to put the project on hold. Place an order for windows & doors and your B.PUBLIC building envelope, lock in your delivery date, and get ready for the installation of your project.

“I am so glad I found and contracted B.Public Prefab to build our house. This is a great group of people that are passionate about their mission. The B.Public design team took our initial ideas and made a custom house plan to meet our needs. The fee was reasonable and the architects were efficient and always responsive to our concerns. The result was a beautiful design that is tailored to our family. The B.Public team worked with my local contractor so that our site was ready for the panels to be installed when they were delivered. It was exciting and surreal to see the structure emerge over the span of a week. The structure was an insulated shell with openings for doors and windows. Our contractor took over the project to complete all rough and finish electrical & plumbing as well as all interior and exterior finishes. This approach allowed us to personalize and budget our project accordingly. The B.Public team was excellent to work with at every stage of the build. They supported our contractor on some of the aspects of panelized construction that he was unfamiliar with. The panelized construction added value to our home by providing ‘passive house’ energy efficiency and fixed costs on the panels and the rapid installation of the shell structure saved time overall. I know that they have several stock designs that people can choose from which would probably save some money on architects fees. We have now moved in to our lovely home and it truly exceeds our expectations. I highly recommend B.Public.
- Sebastian Little, Santa Cruz, California”
 

Are you looking for a custom home? We can design your very own B.PUBLIC home. You’ve come to the right place for inspiration.

Every home design by B.PUBLIC will be efficient in material use and energy consumption. We are here to serve your greenest dreams and create a healthy home to last generations for comfort and climate resilience.

These B.PUBLIC floor plans as a starting place for your customized project.

Work with our team to mix and move wall panels to create appropriate windows and door placement. Use standardized components to create an appropriate and site-specific home plan and add square footage, bathrooms, decks, etc.

We are happy to design solutions for every lot and lifestyle without losing performance and optimization.

If you want to use one of these floor plans as inspiration, mention it on the Start Home Design form.