Plant Prefab makes custom houses for the urban market. Amazon thinks Alexa may be right at home there
On a mid-September morning, six trucks pulled into an alleyway of Oakland's fast-gentrifying Golden Gate neighborhood, their oversize load wrapped in white plastic sheets - each truck carrying a piece of Jeff Stone's prefabricated home.
As the blocks were lifted by a crane and anchored in place by a small crew of construction workers, Stone, an assistant editor at Pixar Animation Studios, his wife, the couple's friends and neighbors stood watching. Module after module, the red barn house that the Stones had first sketched on a piece of paper a few years back - a nod to Oakland's farming past - began to take shape.
By the end of the workday, the 1,741-square-foot duplex still needed work. Plumbing, wiring and gas had to be connected, and finish materials had to be applied where the blocks came together. But an entire house was standing in place of an empty backyard.
The residence had been constructed in just a fraction of the time it typically takes for a custom home to be designed and rise from its foundations. And while not quite
