Skylab Architecture and Steel Hut lead the charge to create a safer, fire-resistant dwelling.
Image renderings courtesy of Skylab Architecture
The Search for the Fire-Resistant Home
Sweeping flames, entire hillsides stripped of trees, towns destroyed, and lives upended and lost — the dangers posed by wildfire in Oregon are no joke.
Does a changing climate mean homeowners will abandon the state’s beautiful and remote areas? Not likely. But the need for a fire-protection upgrade for Oregon housing is on everyone’s mind.
“The risk of fire is increasing with climate change,” says Jessica Halofsky, director of the Northwest Climate Hub. “Actions are especially important in the wildland-urban interface, where homes are built adjacent to forested area.”
To address this, as well as the overall demand for more housing in the West, founder Marie Saldivar of Steel Hut —
a Central Oregon-based provider of steel-based, consumer-focused building kits — approached Portland-based Skylab Architecture, known for its optimistic and explorative designs. Their goal? To create new takes on two classic forms: the A-frame and the Quonset hut.
“We love the Quonset hut shape and style, and that style evocative of old modernism reborn,” says architect Susan Barnes of Skylab Architecture.
Together the two Oregon companies envisioned designs that would address the West’s need for more affordable but stylish homes.
One major benefit: They would incorporate U.S. manufacturer SteelMaster’s fire-resistant steel roofs, which don’t ignite when exposed to flames.
What emerged from the collaboration is a growing offering of steel-roofed designs and prefabricated kits created to maximize modern-lifestyle needs while addressing dangers posed by a changing climate.
Prefab: How it works
To bring the project to fruition, consumers buy their desired designs, as well as one of Steel Hut’s prefab building kits. Homeowners are in charge of connecting with a local contractor to build out the interior spaces, which, like traditional A-frames and Quonset huts, are fully customizable based on personal preferences.
“The concept really facilitates contractors of different skill sets or even owners who want to build it themselves,” says Barnes.
Prefabricated designs, or “prefab” designs, are considered sustainable because they offer faster construction times, often lower costs, improved quality control due to factory production, potential for greater energy efficiency, and reduced waste compared to traditional building methods. Essentially, they allow for a home to be constructed quickly and with less on-site disruption, making them a great choice for building on beautiful natural parcels.
With the A-frame and Quonset hut designs, the roof goes up first, easing construction during Oregon’s changing seasons.
“It’s a giant benefit,” Barnes says.
It also makes them ideal for use as Accessory Dwelling Units. “Many regions and communities are trying to help homeowners and density with ADUs,” Barnes says. “That really was our starting point.”
They’re also sustainable. Most prefab designs have high-quality insulation and airtight seals, meaning they are better energy performers. Using a single manufacturing source cuts down on the energy needed to transport materials. It all adds up to a process that, even with custom finishes, cuts down on custom building in Central Oregon to around $250 per square foot and reduces carbon emissions by 40%.
And that trendy A-frame design? It draws on the iconography of the vacation chalets that became popular in the 1960s (and which could also be ordered as a kit and built by one person). Skylab improved on the original A-frame by exchanging the form’s peak with a curve, thus making for a roomier interior.
Steel Hut founder Marie Saldivar is optimistic that the concept can help solve some of the West’s most pressing challenges — but also do what homes should do best, which is make people happy.
“The fire-resistance component is the cherry on top,” Saldivar says.
Huts With History
The Quonset hut — named after Quonset, Rhode Island, where it was developed — came into being in the 1940s from the U.S. military’s needs for fast and efficient manufacture of housing, storage and hospitals. Simple, efficient and inexpensive to build, the huts soon found their way into residential culture as temporary homes to meet post-war housing demands. Today they are a popular building style for homes, shops, storage, farms and small manufacturers throughout the world.
Homestead Haven: The Courtyard
Tiny Abode: The Jackrabbit
Fire-Resistant Natives
Plants can be beautiful and resist fire. Rethink your yard with high-moisture plants well suited to the Pacific Northwest.
A deciduous shrub that adds vibrant red color in winter.
A hardy, drought-tolerant native shrub that can help slow the spread of fire while offering wildlife habitat.
A low-growing, evergreen groundcover with dense, waxy leaves.
A hardy, fire-resistant perennial that grows well in full sun, with striking blue and purple flowers.
An evergreen shrub with thick, leathery leaves — it has beautiful yellow flowers in the spring.
A native shrub that produces white berries in the summer and fall.
A native evergreen with excellent fire resistance and a valuable landscape tree.
A moisture-loving,evergreen fern native.
