Press featuring Polyhaus™

Dwell

These $300K Prefab Cabins Are Designed to Withstand Wildfires

Polyhaus™’ models use timber panels that snap together like a puzzle, eliminating air gaps and forming a geometric shell to reduce burn risk.

Text by Kenya Foy Photos by Andy Cross cody cloud

LA Times

Imagining a Future LA

For López-Pérez, the future is also about using new technology, such as the robotic arms that assemble panels, to get more out of the stuff we’re already using.

“By 2050, we’ll be mixing ancestral materials with high-tech solutions,” he said. “Think Star Wars: a lightsaber in a cave.”

(Los Angeles Times photo illustration; Photo via Getty Images)

By Jack Flemming

Staff Writer

Aug. 10, 2025

NBC 7 San Diego

This home can withstand wildfires, earthquakes & a housing crisis, USD professor says

By Joe Little • Published February 8, 2025

...The units are capable of withstanding earthquakes, storms, and wildfires far better than traditional homes, Lopez-Perez said. The diagonal design of the panels is structurally stronger and the angled walls deflect winds much easier than a flat, squared surface. He also said he could hold a blow torch against the mass-timber panel walls for hours and it would not catch fire.

San Diego Magazine

San Diego’s Polyhaus is Designing the Future of Fire-Safe Homes

PUBLISHED

SEPTEMBER 4, 2025

The unique design is the brainchild of Daniel López-Pérez, the director of the University of San Diego’s architecture program. To him, the housing crisis and the climate crisis are two sides of the same coin, and the answer might just be a polyhedron. “When we come to housing production, we are back in the 19th century,” he says, “one two-by-four at a time.” The Polyhaus™ breaks that mold, both literally and figuratively. The angular structure goes up in two-and-a-half days; requires just three framers; and, thanks to the digitally manufactured panels with no airgaps, gives fire little oxygen to feed on.