These Minimalist Prefab Homes Maximize Indoor/Outdoor Living

Ask any artist or designer and they will tell you: Constraint is fertile ground for creativity. The art of building a home—especially one like a prefab, with its standardized design elements that optimize both materials and labor—turns out to be no exception to the rule. Take, for instance, two inventive prefab residences designed and built by Connect Homes in Los Angeles, which "couldn’t be more different," says Jared Levy, the company’s cofounder and designer of the projects, yet they came from the same client-set parameters: "Both wanted clean, contemporary design, more natural light, and better indoor/outdoor flow," Levy explains.

Stark Contrast

When Los Angeles–based jewelry designer Nancy Newberg originally installed a Connect 2 prefab above her freestanding garage, her plan was to use the 640-square-foot space as a guest house. She chose the one-bedroom, one-bathroom model, and customized it with the addition of a covered deck. Soon after completing the project, her son Nick moved back to town following graduation from college on the East Coast, and he became the first resident to test out the space. "We’ve always shared a passion for tiny homes," says Nancy. "It seemed like the perfect place for Nick to begin his life in L.A."

The ADU also seemed like the perfect place for Nancy to try out more of her decorating ideas, having just completed a spectacular Marmol Radziner–designed new build for herself and her husband on the same lot. "The goal was to create a cozy little tree house nestled into the hillside," she says of the property’s crowing touch. They painted the exterior black and brought in bleached wood for the floors and ceilings. Levy adds: "The Newberg’s main house is a Spanish Mediterranean-style home covered in beautiful, off-white plaster, so our sleek, black wood cabin couldn’t create more of a contrast."