Prefab Housing - Affordable Modernism

Friday, February 20, 2004 12: 16 PM

I am on a BIG prefab/modern housing kick right now.

The endless surburban landscapes of the Phoenix area are really depressing me. I mean, they really do. My wife and I built a house and spent three of our young, childless years in the suburbs with white picket fences. Literally. We commuted. We commuted a lot. We found we pretty much had to commute everywhere. Nothing was close by. What was the benefit? A cheaper house with more space? We weren't using the space. We wised up. We sold. Got out of dodge before another neighbor asked when we were going to start having kids (I think it was actually in the Home Owners Assocation policy manual, "resident must have a minimum of 2 children to reflect the family focus of the neighborhood, so that home values stay high.")

We moved back to the city and nature. We now reside in a much smaller place at the edge of a desert mountain range at the Phoenix-Tempe border. We discovered an eclectic location that is suprisingly close to nature, without sacrificing the convenience of urban amenities.

Looking back on the whole process I am amazed that we found ourselves so wrapped up in the concept of the perfect American suburban neighborhood at one time. That view of the world seems to throw out issues concerning the environment, innovation and urban planning when it comes to housing and growth.

Stucco covered houses creating endless rows of uninspired architecture are contributing to the environment of uninspired conformists within our society who simply settle into this seemingly predestined pattern of life that we call the American Dream. You grow up. You go to school. You buy a car. You get a job. You get married. You buy a house. You have 2.5 kids. You get overweight. You diet. You die.

If that makes someone happy, then I am not going argue with their chosen direction in life. But I don't want that pattern. I want to explore. Create. Live. Take a risk or two. Raise our future kids with an innovative and intelligent view of the world. My interest in prefab/modern housing is just one extension of my growing discontent with the traditional patterns of American life. Innovative architects are surfacing and putting more time, money and energy into really finding ways to reinvent the American home (and by extension, neighborhoods and cities.) These architects are seeking ways to produce unique, architecturally stimulating housing that conserve space, are environmentally friendly and can be built in a fraction of the time, compared to traditional housing. Sign me up. A few links that have inspired me recently:

• fabprefab: Great, great resource on the current trends, design and people behind many prefab and modern housing projects.
• Resolution: 4 Architecture - Custom Modular Homes: Incredible modular homes. At the top of my list. So many different configurations. They are also doing the Dwell Home.
• The Dwell Home: Dwell Magazine is sponsoring a modern home being built for $200k. Still too pricey. But the prefab, modern living approach is great.
• Building a Small Town: Example of how rapidly the Phoenix area can generate a community in the middle of nowhere, seemingly overnight. Urban sprawl at its most blatant, boastful self. Interesting how planners are realizing people aren't going to move to BFE unless they fabricate a main street to create a faux urban environment for the buyers. I am officially creating a new term for this trend in master planned communities: Faux Urbanism - creating the illusion of an urban environment within the construct of a new neighborhood.
• The McMansion Next Door: Newsweek's call to modernize housing architecture.
• Fast Company post on prefab with some more links.

Archives.