Last month we kicked off our Green Guide to Prefab series with an article exploring the history of prefabricated housing. Now we’re back with another article in this series to take a look at mobile homes
and their influence on the development of prefabricated housing.
Although the words ‘mobile home’ today often conjure up images of
sprawling trailer parks outside cities, these compact homes-on-wheels
were, in fact, part of a design revolution that gave way to a low-cost,
portable option for single-family home ownership. Read on for the second
installment of our Green Guide to Prefab, where former Lindal Cedar Homes CEO, and green design consultant Michael Harris schools us on the history of the mobile home and how it helped shape modern prefabricated housing.
The Preassembled Prefab: Born On a Truck Chassis, Matured Into Cost Effective Homes
Motel Rooms on Wheels Evolve Into Primary Homes for a Mobile Society
A new type of factory-produced house evolved in the 1930s and 1940s – while architects and manufacturers were creating factory-cut and site-built systems, mobile homes
metamorphosed from “weekend caravans” — or motel rooms on wheels — into
practical homes able to hit the road. These mobile homes offered an
alternative to traditional homes at a modest scale and affordable price.
When major weekend caravan producers shifted production to full-time
homes on wheels, they sought to provide the lowest cost antidote to the
mammoth housing shortages of the Great Depression and WWII, when
hundreds of thousands of soldiers returned to their parents and spouses
and wanted a home of their own. They also understood that relocating
several times might be required if they were to find steady employment.
It is no surprise that the mobile home industry’s roots are in the Midwest – near cities where automobiles and trucks were produced. The mobile homes
were built on chassis with wheels, clad in polished or enameled sheet
aluminum with small sliding windows, and were sold completely finished
with bathrooms, complete kitchens, wood paneling and furniture.
An Affordable Approach to Single Family Home Ownership
By the 1950s, hundreds of producers had sprung up across the country with names like Skyline, Fleetwood and Champion,
selling 10 by 60 foot mobile homes for $4,000. These same companies
have continued to refine their products and remain leaders among the
nearly 100 mobile home producers today.
Mobile home owners didn’t typically purchase home sites – instead
they tended to rent small “pads” with utility hookups in mobile home
“parks.” The homes typically remained on wheels, sometimes with
decorative skirting to conceal them. Affordability – not modern design
and customization – was the primary design goal at the time.
While architects and producers of kit houses managed
to create a new design paradigm aimed at efficiency and affordability,
mobile home producers were the most successful in reaching that goal and
they became the largest segment of the prefab industry. By 1970, mobile
homes accounted for over 10% of new homes, with total production of
over one million units.
The Mobile Home Construction and Safety Standards
Over time the popularity of mobile homes began to decline – fewer
homeowners hooked their homes up to a vehicle and drove them elsewhere.
Also, since they are classified as vehicles,
mobile homes could not be financed with mortgages and this became a
problem for consumers planning to purchase land and finance their homes.
Mobile home parks were also viewed as a blight by some communities, and
fatal fires and accidents drew focus upon the fact that the
construction of mobile homes was not regulated by any building codes or
safety standards.
In 1974, Congress enacted the Mobile Home Construction and Safety Standards Act (the
HUD Code), and the mobile home industry was reborn as the
“manufactured” housing industry. The wheels and chassis came off the
units, which were placed, single or double wide, on permanent
foundations. Sheet aluminum siding was replaced with aluminum
clapboards, and windows were upgraded to double-hung windows which often
came with shutters. Thus it was that prefab construction developed from
caravans to mobile homes to modular houses that took on the appearance
of conventional ranch homes. Home mortgage financing became available
for modular houses, granting them legitimacy and giving buyers access to
long-term home financing.
In order to capture more of the new home market, producers created
systems that enabled flat roofs to fold up to form moderately pitched
roofs once a home was installed on-site. Producers also developed
systems for stacking modules together to look like traditional homes,
drawing attention away from their modular construction.
Affordability was still the primary goal, and the crowing achievement
of the modular producers. In 1995, they produced over 300,000 homes and
captured over 20% of the new home construction market.
In keeping with the times, modular homes continued to grow in scale
and complexity (I have seen a single family home composed of 35 stacked
and connected modules!), and costs have risen with the inclusion of more
upscale finishes and amenities. Still, the advantage of dramatically
reduced on-site construction time and predictable cost continue to
attract many consumers.
A New Model: The Green Prefabricated Home
Prefab Attracts Designers and Consumers Alike
During the last five years, changes in the economy, skyrocketing energy costs,
and the growing understanding that the endangered environment poses a
threat to humanity have forced a “time out” for serious reflection on
how we are living.
The age of outrageously conspicuous consumption is thankfully over
and has been replaced by a sober sense of reason and responsibility.
Federal and state legislatures now mandate various green building and
living measures, and today there is an increased awareness that building
green does not mean adding significant cost. Different pressures –
financial and otherwise – have made sustainable architecture a more viable option, especially in conjunction with prefabrication.
The current tight mortgage market makes the financing of cost
overruns from building a new home a near impossibility. As a result,
prospective homeowners have come to value predictability and avoid
expensive time-consuming risks whenever possible. Prefab building
systems meet these needs since they are based on streamlined processes
and mass-purchased and produced components. They also make the
modification of existing designs or the creation of new designs less
time-consuming and cost-efficient.
Systems building also reduces waste in the factory (where remnants of
larger pieces are often used to fabricate smaller parts) and on-site,
saving the cost and environmental aftermath of carting waste to
landfills. Overall, the amount of fuel required to deliver components is
reduced when they are tightly packaged on one or two trucks, rather
than in dozens of small deliveries. Systems producers also often invest
in research and development that results in the use of innovative
engineered components and sustainable materials.
Today, for the first time, there is a real and measured consensus among
consumers that prefab houses exceed conventionally built houses in both
quality and value.
Architects,
seeking to make their services and designs accessible to a broader base
of design-savvy yet value-conscious consumers, have turned to the prefab
industry to deliver the dream: an architect-designed home, produced
efficiently in a factory, sustainably built on-time and on-budget.
Res4 Architects, Marmol Radziner, and Michele Kaufmann
have led the way in offering both strikingly beautiful pre-designed
homes and custom homes produced in modular home factories and co-joined
on-site. While the costs may seem high for those familiar with modular
home pricing, in actuality they are more affordable than conventionally
built homes designed by architects.
Dwell Magazine shined the spotlight on modern prefabs by selecting a Res4
design as the first Dwell Home, which was built as a demonstration home
in 2004 in Pittsboro, North Carolina. The idea was appealing enough to
attract over 2,500 visitors on the opening weekend.
Architect Marmol Radziner’s prefab Desert Home
Prefab as a Modern and Green Option for Homeowners
Today, prefab is no longer simply about saving money – it is also a
system for producing personalized homes while still providing
predictability and confidence in a process often fraught with surprises.
Modernism and green design share a common creed: the efficient use of
materials, time, and economic resources.
Building green is a twenty-first century extension of modernism’s
mandate of environmental and economic responsiveness. A contemporary
home is not modern if it is not green. A prefabricated house enhances
its green credentials through numerous efficiencies in resources, labor,
money and the time inherent in its building process. Buyers interested
in a prefab housing design project must ask the tough questions. They
need to explore the methods utilized by producers to respond to
personal, societal, and even environmental priorities.
Where to Start: Understanding the Basics
When it comes to your own purchasing decisions, don’t look for a
magic bullet. Ask yourself a series a questions such as: Is there a
higher quality solution, or a less costly, faster, more enduring, or
greener solution? As you begin your exploration of alternative housing
approaches, recognize from the start that there are likely many
excellent solutions. But before diving in head first, you should take a
moment to go through the following exercise:
Make two lists of your priorities:
List one: The first list should describe your vision
qualitatively — do you want your house to be funky, glassy, modern,
warm, super green, and energy-efficient? Also include all programmatic
essentials – whether it’s a room for your elderly parents, a ground
level owners’ suite or a home office with a special views, list them
all.
List two: The second list should be process related.
Ask yourself: do you want to work directly with a designer or work from
an existing design? When do you want your home to be ready? What are
your budget limitations? Do you want local assistance in planning,
builder selection, and permitting, or are you planning on going it
alone? How much time can you invest in planning?
After completing each list go back and prioritize everything you’ve
listed starting from the essential to the desirable. Take your time and
collaborate with all stakeholders, young and old. This exercise sounds
simple, but trust me, my forty years of direct experience with clients
suggests otherwise. A project this important and a process this complex
requires discipline. In the heat of decision-making, having
clear-headed, prioritized criteria will be invaluable as you explore and
determine which options are most responsive to your needs.
Your Road to Prefab Home Ownership
The next three parts of this series will explore the three different
types of “clients” that are served and satisfied in every successful
project. I will also explain which form of prefab typically satisfies
each of the three clients. I hope this will help you on your way to a
successful homebuilding experience.
One last thing – if I were a brain surgeon I wouldn’t consider
operating on myself, nor would I be comfortable with a surgeon
performing their first surgery on me or a loved one. Unless you are an
experienced professional, don’t undertake this endeavor without seeking
the proper guidance. Experience matters. Prefab producers who have
endured the current downturn (and prior downturns) offer stability.
Survival is the result of continuous improvement and innovation and in
all likelihood, working with these kinds of companies will result in a
product that endures as well. The journey to a green prefab home is far
more likely to reach a satisfying destination when you are guided by
experienced, local professionals who can facilitate every aspect of
design and planning, and make the most of your time and money.
Lindal Cedar Homes is the world’s largest provider of quality
custom cedar homes. Founded in 1945, there are more than 50,000 Lindal
cedar homes—and satisfied homeowners—worldwide. Known around the world for their signature post and beam building system, quality building materials and detailed craftsmanship, their experienced Lindal Cedar Homes dealers will help you each step of the way.
Michael Harris is a MIT graduate with two degrees in
architecture. Michael has made it his professional mission to innovate
system-built design and the planning process to ensure fulfilling client
experiences. Michael spent 31 years at Deck House Inc.
working with clients, designing new products, innovating client-centric
sales process and marketing, and was involved in the acquisition of a
competing brand (Acorn Structures). He led the company as CEO and served
on its Board of Directors for 15 years. In 2006, Michael joined Lindal Cedar Homes,
working with executives, staff and dealers to build a new strategic
plan, then implementing the plan as President and CEO. Today he works as
an independent consultant and dealer (testing the efficacy of the
plan by” walking the talk”).
While at Lindal, he led the company’s entry into the modern
market; forged a collaboration with Dwell Media initiating Lindal’s
participation in the Dwell Homes Collection;
and created the Lindal Elements program, a new line of on-system
designs and process he designed with the company’s creative staff. He
brought the iconic industry player to become the first “Green Approved”
building system by the NAHB Research Center and the only single family home included in TIME Magazine’s Green Design 100 in 2010.
In addition to selling and consulting, he serves on the Board of
Advisors of Blu Homes, writes on the subject of manufactured housing,
and enjoys life with his wife Carol, splitting their time between
Seattle and their family’s home base in New York City.
