Joshua Tree Houses Make Living Simple

Blu Homes' Pre-Fabricated houses use 50 percent less energy

JIM POWERS Real Estate

There is nothing blue about this home.

It’s all about living green.

Tim Disney’s home sits off a road that leads to Joshua Tree National Park, a steel framed pre-fabricated living quarters and guest house that rests amongst stacked boulders and stark desert landscape.

Disney, who sits on the board of the manufacturer, Blu Homes, previewed the house and three others back in September of last year. The house has been the backdrop to a pair of Modernism Week events already, including a fundraiser Feb. 16 for the A+D Architecture and Design Museum in Los Angeles and the July exhibition of "Never Built: Los Angeles". Another pair of free tours of Disney's home will be held from noon to 4 p.m., Feb. 23-24. Shuttle service is available from The Sportsman’s Club in Joshua Tree. To RSVP, visit the Blu Homes website.

In addition, Blu Homes’ CEO Bill Haney and Vice President of Design and Creative Director Karl Daubmann will join Dwell Editor-in-Chief Amanda Dameron from 6-8 p.m. Feb. 19 at The Saguaro Hotel in Palm Springs to discuss, “The Amazing Prefab Evolution.”

The trio will focus first on the past, present and future of prefab, then move to a more detailed seminar on the architectural design and technology of Blu Homes.

Both the guesthouse and Disney’s home provide extensive visual opportunities with simple, clean designs that are built at the company’s Vallejo headquarters, shipped and unfolded on a prepared foundation. The green building materials create a home that uses about 50 percent the energy of a traditional home.

The Blu Home team will also be based at the Modern Living Expo tent from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Feb. 22-24. The Expo Tent is located in the pavilion behind the Palm Springs Hilton Hotel, North Calle El Segundo and East Andreas Road. Tickets are $10 each.

For more information, visit the Palm Springs Modernism Week website.