| Want to shift from Boston to California | | | | find out that it can be inexpensive and |
| and worried to death because you do not | | | | also look the same as stick-framed |
| want to abandon the home that took every | | | | houses." Since the houses are inspected |
| drop of your sweat to build and neither | | | | at every phase of construction, there |
| do you want to rent it to a faceless | | | | are no cost overruns because the number |
| stranger? What about packing it and | | | | of contractors are less and most of the |
| taking it with you? Yes sir!! You heard | | | | costs are fixed. What comes as an added |
| me correctly. That's the modular home | | | | advantage is that a well- built modular |
| for you | | | | home has almost the same longevity as |
| A Modular home is the distant, | | | | it's site-built counterpart - something |
| less-tainted cousin of the mobile house. | | | | that raises its value over time. |
| The mobile house, though considered as | | | | However, the modular home has had a |
| the answer to America's | | | | difficult journey towards widespread |
| "affordable-housing" void, faced a | | | | acceptance because buyers have often had |
| head-on blow when it was categorized as | | | | to sacrifice quality for affordability. |
| 'low class' and 'trailer-park'. | | | | Such trivial issues have found their |
| Modular means design based on a module | | | | solution in Douglas Cutler, principal of |
| (unit of measurement) which is repeated | | | | Douglas Cutler Architects in Wilton. It |
| throughout the building. Thus a modular | | | | always struck Cutler that manufacturers |
| home is a house, the sections of which | | | | never sought out talented architects to |
| are transported to the building site and | | | | "jazz up the design" - an initiative |
| then joined together by local | | | | that he took in collaboration with |
| contractors. | | | | manufacturers like Goscobec Modular |
| This kind of a house has it's own | | | | Homes, SUN Building Systems and Haven |
| advantages. To begin with, modular homes | | | | Homes. As a result, we today have |
| are built in such a way that they | | | | modular homes with an architectural |
| conform to any kind of geographical | | | | flair. |
| territory. So if one wants to shift from | | | | And still, the best is yet to come. MIT |
| Bristol to Brunei, there would be no | | | | researchers are 'studying ways' to |
| worries about the reconstruction of a | | | | reduce the brittleness and reinforce the |
| house. And then, there is the question | | | | cement with microspheres. Innovative |
| of economic viability. To test which, a | | | | metallic and adhesive bonding techniques |
| two-unit modular townhouse was built in | | | | are being worked upon to join the panels |
| Cambridge by Epoch and the Hickory | | | | into a weather-tight shell. Combining |
| Consortium - a Cambridge Massachusetts | | | | metal fasteners with structural plastic |
| based group. With the aim of | | | | tapes are also under consideration. |
| constructing environmentally sustainable | | | | The modular home is yet to see its best |
| and economical houses, the group found | | | | days when the completed design will be |
| that modular homes cost a whooping 15% | | | | sent via computer network to an |
| less than site-built construction. | | | | automated factory where the components |
| As Steve Snyder, the executive director | | | | would be prefabricated and the entire |
| of Modular Building Systems Association | | | | house with roof, floor and walls would |
| in Harrisburg puts it, "A lot of people | | | | be erected - all in one day!! |