Prefabulous World: Energy-Efficient and Sustainable Homes Around the Globe Hardcover – April 15, 2014

I have just spent my first few hours enjoying Sheri Koones’ wonderful new book "Prefabulous World." This book really is an amazing accomplishment, featuring 50 different prefabricated energy-efficient homes in 19 different countries. Many different architectural styles are represented, but each home has lessons to be learned which can be applied wherever you live.Sheri highlights both the energy aspects and green aspects of each house while providing additional background information on the various materials and technologies used, all in an easy-to understand format.The photography is stunning. The illustrations are elegant and consistent and the descriptions are ideal, just enough information to make each house interesting without overwhelming the reader with science.This is an ideal book for everyone who has wanted to live in a sustainable home and for the architects, engineers and builders who will increasingly be asked to design and build homes for people who care about our environment.

Good for what is is. Too many examples and not enough depth on each. I would have preferred half the examples but more in depth information on construction and design processes.

This is an Outstanding book! Way to go Sheri Koones! This book, like Sheri Koones' previous book gives multiple examples of modular homes, except this book does so through out the world. Each modular house's story is around 4 to 6 pages long, with multiple pictures, floor plans, and text. What I liked about this book, over her previous book, is this book introduced me to some "new" ideas. (Or at least ideas that I had not heard of previously). There are also different rating agencies throughout the world, for energy efficiency, and this book mentions some of them and how the owners of these modular houses adapted their building techniques to fit local sites, and situations.No "honest" critique would only say good things, so... I didn't like this books tearing down of Victorian homes, to be replaced with new modular homes. There is room for all kinds of homes in this world, including old, Victorians. Sheri Koones would be an invaluable resource if you ever decide to build a modular home, and her books are the next best thing to her personally being there. This is a Outstanding Book, filled with great ideas and Ms. Koones did a outstanding job writing it! I can hardly wait for her next book!

Probably building on her prior books, which I have not seen, this one surveys utilization of sustainable, environmental-friendly technology almost around the world in a beautifully photographed volume. Always on the lookout for ideas and details that I would like to adapt and/or use in a "dream home," the many homes in many extraordinary settings provided me with literally a wheelbarrow full of ideas and dreams. Plus, with a lot of my reading on solar passive and sustainable tech being dated, this survey really showed me how greatly this area has progressed in these recent years, and beautifully so! Seeing some of the homes being pre-fabricated reminded me of time in Southeast Alaska where many of the nicest and most efficient homes were pre-fab and then barged up from Washington state and put in place. This volume will not only be on my coffee table but is going to be and already is being read and enjoyed immensely!

This new book is a highly innovative, stylized, beautiful table top guide to some of the worlds most spectacular homes - that also happen to be energy efficient. Each featured home is spectacularly shown and gave me tons of ideas. Its rare to get so many ideas for both enhancing the beauty and style of your home; and for making it sustainable and green. Whether you want to improve the home you have, are looking to purchase, or build this is a must read. It makes an ideal gift as well.

piece of s***, not for architecture or engineer.

I have the entire series of the Prefabulous books and love them. If I could ask one thing I'd ask there be one created for "average" homes that don't cost so much. There are some smaller homes featured in some of the books but most look way over the average budget. Still it's a great book and I've spent hours on the couch reading it and looking at the illustrations. Very good books (I recommend the entire series of her books).

It's a great book showing great examples used around the world, however, I'm interested in pursuing this locally, so I wish I had seen more of the States; that's the hard part about buying on line - can't really flip through it first, my bad.