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