Press

RIALTO, California – February 20, 2020: Plant Prefab, the first prefabricated residential design and construction company dedicated to sustainable building, materials, processes and operations, is thrilled to debut four introductions, including: convenient voice-controlled smart home experiences with Alexa that will now come standard in every LivingHome, which are sold and built by Plant, and Plant Building System (PBS), a patented, component-based process for more efficient design and construction. The PBS was used to build the LivingHome 10, the first Accessory Dwelling Unit (ADU) designed by Plant’s Design Studio and available for tour during Modernism Week in Palm Springs from February 14-23, 2020. The Alexa package will be showcased to the public within the LivingHome 10. Following this unveiling, Plant will debut their newly redesigned website featuring a new three-dimensional home design configurator tool, the first of its kind. These key innovations will give Plant the ability to design and build more efficiently and will make it easy for clients to include smart home technologies in homes Plant builds for them.

Living SmartHome
To help homeowners make their homes smarter, safer, and more convenient, all LivingHomes and custom homes designed by the Plant Design Studio will now come standard with Alexa-compatible smart home devices. Customers can ask Alexa to adjust the thermostat, enable guest Wi-Fi access, control lighting, help with energy monitoring and more. The Living SmartHome products come fully installed and ready for activation. As a part of this new service, homeowners are taught how to utilize all the benefits of their home's technology through a visit from an Amazon Expert, who activates all devices and helps customize the experience based on the homeowner’s personal preferences.

“Following our investment in Plant Prefab last year, we at Amazon are delighted to continue collaborating with Plant Prefab to deliver convenient smart home experiences in every LivingHome,” said David Jackson, Director, Smart Home at Amazon. “From the day they move in, homeowners can rely on Alexa to help make daily household tasks more convenient, offer peace of mind while at home or away, and more.”

Available soon on plantprefab.com, prospective homebuyers can also select and personalize a LivingHome with a selection of three different Living SmartHome packages, in addition to the baseline offering included in every LivingHome. A new, three-dimensional design tool on Plant Prefab’s revamped website allows users to virtually tour the home and customize it with a variety of interior and exterior finishes, add the desired additional smart home technology, and then share their designs via social media. The real-time configurator is believed to be the first of its kind offered to consumers by a homebuilder.

The smart home technology incorporated in each LivingHome includes:

Amazon Echo Dot (3rd Gen)

Amazon Echo Show 5

eero Mesh Wifi

Ring Video Doorbell 2

Schlage Encode Lock

ecobee Smart Thermostat

Lutron Smart Bridge

Lutron Smart Dimmers

Sense Energy Monitoring

To upgrade and personalize the smart home capabilities of their LivingHome, Plant Prefab clients can also add a Smart Entertainment Package, Smart Appliances Package and Advanced Smart Security Package.

Plant Building System
The Plant Building System (PBS) is a patented new system for building prefabricated homes even more efficiently and with more design flexibility than traditional site-based and prefabricated building methods. PBS utilizes a combination of modular units and Plant Panels, a new panelized construction system developed by Plant. Unlike regular panels such as SIPS, which only integrate framing and insulation, Plant Panels include plumbing, electrical and finish materials. By integrating both modular and panels, PBS provides architects with greater design flexibility and reduces the complexity and cost of transportation and craning. PBS also includes an advanced engineering system that translates designs into virtual building instructions faster, and far more precisely than traditional, manual methods. The engineering system is a modeling platform that creates detailed digital structural, mechanical, electrical, and plumbing renderings of the project to ensure design, structural, and manufacturing compliance before construction begins. The models are offered at a very high fidelity (down to every finish and fixture) and provide 3D plans, shop drawings, an executable bill of materials, and CNC data to expedite the actual building process to ensure expedited building and a better price point. All these engineering efficiencies enable much faster completion, less construction waste and cost, and higher quality at delivery.

LivingHome 10
Debuting for the first time at Modernism Week is the LivingHome 10, a one-bedroom, one-bathroom accessory dwelling unit (ADU), built with the Plant Building System and outfitted with Alexa-compatible smart home devices. LivingHome 10 is a versatile, 406 sq foot ADU designed to provide affordable, sustainable rental units or family housing on existing single-family lots.

“We are thrilled to introduce the first Accessory Dwelling Unit we’ve developed and to announce Plant Prefab’s new Living SmartHome packages, and our Plant Building System at Modernism Week this year,” says Plant Prefab CEO Steve Glenn. “These three introductions coupled with the unveiling of our new website marks a new era for Plant Prefab. As a company committed to bringing the best in sustainable, customized, prefabricated housing solutions to the widest possible audience, these advancements allow us to do so even more efficiently and effectively.”

For the showcase, the LivingHome 10 features interior decoration by Sarah Rosenhaus Interior Design and furniture by Blu Dot, provided by Pelago Palm Springs. The LivingHome 10 will be located at Modernism Week CAMP (at the intersection of North Palm Canyon Drive and West Chino Drive) from 9am to 6pm during February 14-23, 2020.

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ABOUT PLANT PREFAB
With a mission to make it faster and more cost-effective to build custom, high quality, healthy, single-family and multi-family homes, Plant Prefab is the first prefabricated residential design and construction company dedicated to sustainable building, materials, processes, and operations.

All Plant projects are prefabricated in the company's 62,000-square-foot home building factory in Rialto, California, with a patented building system that reduces build time by at least 50% over traditional construction while minimizing construction's negative impact on energy, water, and resources. Clients can work with any architect they choose, or they can use Plant's award-winning, in-house design studio.

Plant is defining a new standard in residential home design and construction, helping individuals, architects, and developers alike efficiently design and build high-quality, cost-efficient, healthy homes. Plant was funded by Amazon, Obvious Ventures, and others.