Designer Eyes Housing
Designer Yves Béhar's company is behind many innovative branding strategies and home features, and is now working with modular home builder Plant Prefab to create attractive, affordable homes.
Working with Plant Prefab, which recently received funding from Amazon, Béhar has designed a modular, customizable accessory dwelling unit (ADU) called the YB1. In a new interview with The New York Times, the San Francisco-based, tech-focused designer says, "It’s a solution for housing stock in cities, and hopefully bringing costs down. And people can do it themselves rather than waiting for local government or developers." Béhar sees booming interest in ADUs today by both homeowners and housing experts, professionals, and officials, and expects it will continue to grow.
A.D.U.s — secondary residences like in-law units associated with a larger home — are already popular in cities like Portland, Ore., Seattle and Vancouver, Canada, and have recently been getting a lot of attention in California. Over the past few years, the state and numerous counties and cities have introduced new laws and programs aimed at encouraging homeowners to build A.D.U.s in response to housing shortages.