Perched atop stilts along the shore of Punch Island Creek in Dorchester County sits one of the most unique-looking, two-level, three-bedroom homes you’ve likely ever seen. Dubbed the Loblolly House for the pines that grace the nearly four-acre property, the 1,800-square-foot home resembles an enlarged duck blind. Three sides are clad in vertical planks of Western red cedar, which visually mimic the lines of the surrounding pine trees, while the glass-walled waterfront side of the home opens to the creek.

The striking exterior is matched by an equally exceptional interior outfitted with sustainable touches and a clean, modern aesthetic. But perhaps even more incredible than the visual impact of the house is the fact that it went up in less than two months.

Prefab housing is not a new concept. But the design developed by Philadelphia-based architects Stephen Kieran and James Timberlake of KieranTimberlake Associates for this house takes prefab to a new level.

The structure is literally a kit of parts consisting of eco-friendly materials that contain the home’s infrastructure—from walls and floors to the wiring and plumbing. The parts were fabricated at a manufacturing facility in New Hampshire and shipped to the Eastern Shore where they were bolted together, not unlike a piece of IKEA furniture.

The home was designed for one of KeiranTimberlake’s most discerning clients: Stephen Kieran himself. Four years ago the architect and his wife, Barbara, decided that they wanted a retreat from their 100-year-old Philadelphia home. “We were looking for a natural setting, something on the water, and the Bay was our first choice,” Kieran says. They began their search in St. Michaels, but ultimately purchased land on the less developed Taylor’s Island.

The fast assembly was the culmination of years of research. Staunch proponents of sustainable design, Kieran and Timberlake had been thinking about how to diminish waste in the construction industry. Materials like drywall and scraps of lumber account for the bulk of waste-clogging landfills. New-home construction also impacts landscapes, and it can be especially invasive in the fragile tidewater marshes that edge the Bay. Storm water runoff from development is fast outpacing the evil of farm runoff as the Bay’s biggest source of pollution. Kieran is sensitive to all of this. “We’ve become so divorced from our natural landscape,” he says. “We can’t afford to keep building like this.”

Once Loblolly outlives its function as a weekend retreat, it could easily be unbolted and sold for parts. (“Maybe even on eBay!” Kieran says.) Kieran and Timberlake wrote about these construction concepts in the groundbreaking book Refabricating Architecture, published in 2004.

The home has fast become one of the most prominent projects in the last year, earning awards from the American Institute of Architects before it was even completed. It also appeared in Architectural Record magazine, which selected it for its prestigious Record Houses of the Year designation.

Walking through it today, you are struck not by the advanced technology, but by the simple beauty of the interior, the expert use of natural light, and the classic, mid-century modern furnishings. An open floor plan in the kitchen and living room, located on the top level, becomes even more spectacular when the floor-to-ceiling doors open and give you the sensation that you are literally perched like a bird in one of the nearby pines.

Kieran’s design considers the specific reality of life on a barrier island. It’s oriented to the water and captures the off-shore breezes for natural ventilation, mitigating the need for costly air conditioning. The massive windows in the home are hurricane proof and include an adjustable outer layer that functions as a shade in the summer or a thermal heater in the winter, further reducing energy costs and environmental impact.

For the interior finishes, Kieran chose renewable bamboo flooring for the living area, which was custom stained a verdant green using natural vegetable oils. The home uses no drywall, with walls fabricated from a birch veneer. The lower level houses a second guest room and a bath as well as the owner’s bedroom.

Now that the house is up and running, Kieran’s next step is replicating it. “This house is a prototype, and we’re working to commercialize it,” he says. His firm partnered with L.A.-based prefab builder LivingHomes to help bring their building technique to the mass market.

Andrew Blum, a journalist who covers the architectural community, for one, is ready. “If prefabs are assembly-line Fords,” he wrote about the house in Wired magazine, “Loblolly is a custom hot rod, begging for mass production.”

Elizabeth A. Evitts writes from her home in Baltimore, Md.