iDYLLIC

The New Zealand designed iPAD is an eco-friendly prefabricated building and one of “six of the best in the world” according to the Independent on Sunday. After producing the pioneering Bachkit in 2000, the sleek prefab that swept away the hand-me-down look of the traditional New Zealand holiday home, architect André Hodgskin’s latest “kitset” house is the smaller but equally smart iPAD. Like the Bachkit, the minimalist iPAD comes with foldaway fittings and single modules can be added together to form L-shaped or linear buildings around enough decking for the largest of barbecues. Already they’re venturing from their native shores; one is on its way to a Fijian beach in a 40ft shipping container. As Rod Gibson, the New Zealand-based designer of the Habode, puts it, prefabrication treats housing as motor manufacturing: systematised and broken down into efficient processes. And everything can be delivered to the site in one shipment, minimising the number of journeys made by construction workers. Gibson’s Habode can be assembled in three days. “There are many beautiful places that are still uncommercialised,” argues Gibson, and the modern, low-impact prefab, which leaves little evidence of its presence and demands little of its surroundings, could be one way to enjoy such natural places.