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THE FANTASY OF OFF-
the-grid living—make that
luxurious off-the-grid liv-
ing—is inching closer to
reality. That’s thanks to Max Gerbut,
the brains behind a 3-D-printed manu-
factured house called the ModuleOne.
Unlike prefabs, this 400-square-foot
unit—with a sleek minimalist Scan-
dinavian look, large windows, and a
bright-white interior—arrives fully as-
sembled, inside and out, and ready to
hoist in place anywhere. All you need to
do is fill the roughly 500-gallon water
tank. Solar panels gather enough en-
ergy to run the house, from the refrig-
erator to a high-definition projector.
Gerbut, a window manufacturer
with a Ph.D. in robotics engineering
and physics, has long been dismayed
by what he sees as a lack of innova-
tion in the construction industry,
especially compared with other, more
forward-looking sectors. “The indus-
try is too conservative,” Gerbut says.
“We’ve got advanced smartphone
and autonomous-driving Teslas, butwhy do I still have to live in a cave?”
To reinvent the domicile, his Reno,
Nevada–based company, PassivDom,
has developed a proprietary building
composite 20 times better at retain-
ing heat than an insulated wood
house. With its composite walls, roof,
and energy-efficient windows, the
ModuleOne is so thermally sound
that you’d use more energy bringing
a cup of water to a boil than the
house needs to keep itself warm for
an hour in winter.
Outfitted with more than 100 inte-
rior sensors, it’s got brains, too. Doors
automatically close to retain heat,
and if you run the tap waiting for a hot
shower, that clean water is directed
back into the house. Algorithms con-
trol heating and cooling, even moving
the window shades to block the sun.
So far, a dozen versions of the Mod-
uleOne are spoken for and headed to
California, as guesthouses and Airbnb
units, and to Arizona for a student
residence. Gerbut also sees them as
perfect vacation homes in remote
locations for buyers who want an
energy-efficient house with AI that
helps it take care of itself. But it’s not
tech for tech’s sake. Says Gerbut:
“Smart gadgets inside a dumb cave
doesn’t make the cave innovative.”
$199,999; passivdom.comMAX GERBUT
Founder and CEO,
PassivDomThe Instant
Smart House
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INNOVATORS