Pre-fabricated homes in Australia are often referenced as ‘kit homes’; the term ‘good design’ is largely ignored. The trend is building in Australia, with Happy Haus, taking its lead from its German forebears to create ‘pre-made’ homes, a purposeful deviation from the ‘pre-fab’ tag, suited to the Australian climate.

The idea behind Happy Haus is to provide architecturally-designed homes with minimal build-time and on-site construction.

1. Describe the project.

Happy Haus are designer premade homes and the result of a clever partnership with Australia's finest architects and Queensland largest privately owned builder, Hutchinson Builders. Sadly only 3% of houses in Australia are designed by architects; Happy Haus strives to make architecture accessible to more people by pre-designing and building efficient modular houses in controlled factory conditions. Prefabricated housing has a dull history in Australia, mostly uninspiring and cheap, Happy Haus set out to change the perception of prefab by engaging Australia's finest architects to design high quality homes produced in factory controlled conditions. Our homes and pods fully complete our homes offsite with kitchen, bathrooms, quality finishes and appliances taking between 4-12 weeks to complete. So once complete they are ready to be installed on your site within days. It's fast, green and smart. Our pods have a range of applications including extension, studios or expansive family homes. A one bedroom Studio by Donovan Hill fully fitted with kitchen, bathroom starts from just $86,000 +GST+ delivery and installation. Or our latest double storey home by Durbach Block containing three bedrooms, two bathrooms and expansive living space is $325,000 +GST +delivery and installation.

2. What is unique or new about this project?

Our latest release ‘Sky Haus’ by acclaimed Sydney architect Durbach Block has embraced a different design philosophy to that within our existing range of designs by Owen & Vokes and Donovan Hill. Donovan Hill’s DHAN Series and Owen & Voke’s WHITE Series consist of modules of varied sizes designed to connect together to form 1-4 bedroom homes. Sky Haus as part of Durbach Block’s DB Double Series is one of three double storey self contained homes with no attaching modules, Clock Haus and Bridge Haus will be debuted later this year. Sky Haus consists of two modules fixed vertically to form a double storey, three bedroom, two bathroom home. The curved ceiling, spiral staircase and black and white mosaic tiling are distinguishing features, quintessentially Durbach Block and setting a new benchmark for prefabricated housing.

3. What would people not know & love to find out about this project?

Many of our designs including Sky Haus have been designed to fit on a small lot. The houses are fitted with a special base axel that allows the houses to be relocated. All of our designs are a maximum of 18m long and 4m wide so they fit on the back of a truck. The houses and pods are all made with a steel frame to make them strong enough to transport, crane and relocate. Timber and glass is then used to clad and finish the house. Solar can be fitted on all designs and the houses and pods can be upgraded to meet maximum fire ratings and cyclone standards. They are made in a factory on a production line just like a car and then the houses are fitted on wheels during production and rolled from one trade to the next until complete.

4. How long did this project take to complete?

Sky Haus took several months to design and has only recently launched to the public. A prototype is yet to be built, however the production timeframe would be approximately 12 weeks.

Late last year, Happy Haus produced and installed a seven module double storey house in Currumbin, taking less than three months from start to finish, the WHITE Series house was the talk of the town as the multimillion dollar beachfront site was transformed.

5. What or who was integral to the projects success?

Happy Haus is the brain child of Brisbane developer Toby Lewis and architects Donovan Hill who after extensive research launched the business in mid 2009. Hutchinson Builders were engaged as the exclusive production partners and in mid 2009 installed the prototype house. DHAN Series by Donovan Hill was installed at Stradbroke Island and sparked a flurry of public and media interest that would continue over the next 12 months as Happy Haus gained popularity across the country.

Owen & Vokes were later engaged and designed the very popular WHITE Series. Durbach Block is the latest designers to join the Happy Haus team with Melbourne based architect, O’Connor & Houle soon to debut their range of unique glass based modules.

6. Any disasters or triumphs to overcome?

Happy Haus have recently entered a new Australian market - Victoria. Our first Victoria based home will be delivered in installed in Drouin, Victoria in late July 2010. The Victorian Developers, Cartagen will use the DHAN Series pod as a sales display to sell a residential land estate called Jackson’s View. After the land estate release is complete, the house will be relocated to be used as the family holiday house.

7. What did you learn from the project?

The recent sale into Victoria demonstrated the versatility of Happy Haus pods. All of our pods are relocatable giving them longevity and multiple uses. The commercial use of the pod as a sales display brought forward some design changes to ensure equal access for persons with disabilities.

8. What would you have done differently?

Happy Haus have come to understand that some projects, particularly large scale commercial, require a customised design, so we have recently changed our business offering to work with your architect and project team to produce residential and commercial buildings in modular form. Our large building capacity means we can efficiently produce modules in bulk saving you the time and stress associated with standard onsite building. We believe that prefab is the way of the future and we will happily work with commercial, government and individual clients to create stress free well designed modular buildings.

9. Where is the project location? Will it be sold, distributed, made or manufactured in Australia?

Happy Haus are a proud Queensland company with large production facilities based in Brisbane. All of our homes and pods are manufactured in our Brisbane factory and can be transported across the country to almost anywhere that is accessible by road. Your site will be assessed by our logistics team to ensure we can access the site by truck and crane before progressing with your order request. We currently have homes in Brisbane, Gold Coast, Stradbroke Island and as mentioned above, Drouin Victoria.

10. What don’t people know about you?

Happy Haus was inspired by a Brisbane based developer who endured a long and painful design and building process for his own house. He was determined to find a better way to build a house that did not compromise on architect and design but removed the logistical nightmares associated with onsite conventional building. And born was Happy Haus.