The modular home of the future can grow (and shrink)
OVER the years, the space needed by families grows and shrinks. Children are born, they grow up and then they move out. Now a new trend in homebuilding is hoping to provide enough flexibility to accommodate these changes.
In the traditional nuclear family, two people set up home together and then with time a third, fourth or even fifth little person arrives. That inevitably requires more living space.
Then as the years go by, the children move out and perhaps only one of the original inhabitants is left and doesn’t need that amount of space any more. It would be wonderful if the size of the houses could be altered to reflect these needs. In fact, in one case, such a flexible home already exists, thanks to modular building techniques.
There is a growing trend towards the individual configuration of products in many areas. Professor Horst Wildemann at the Technical University of Munich is an expert in serial construction and predicts: “Something that has long been common practice when buying a car is also going to catch on when it comes to buying a home.”
However, this will be far more than just meeting the client’s needs with individual planning on the computer – it goes all the way to future building measures such as extensions.
“Individual modules made from light building materials can be industrially pre-fabricated, just like in the automobile industry, and then put together on site,” says Professor Wildemann, explaining the production of a modular house. Entire sections of a house can basically be constructed and then brought already completed to the building sites.
The construction of these components doesn’t differ that much from the way elements are used in a normal pre-fabricated house, says Christoph Windscheif, of the Federal Association of German Prefabricated Construction, based in Bad Honnef, Germany.
They are usually wall and roof elements for timber-frame houses. They are serially produced in the factory, and some elements such as domestic appliances or interior decoration are already included in the production.
“The construction of the house can be carried out very quickly, sometimes within 24 hours,” Professor Wildemann explains. If the house is already constructed then it’s easy to extend it with further modules or to dismantle existing elements – all depending on the family’s living situation and finances.
“You can, for example, start with a small house measuring 50 to 60 square meters and then expand later with extensions or add another floor,” Windscheif explains. There are already small modular houses available for less than 50,000 dollars, suitable for singles or young families.
Then eventually, as the family and its needs grow and there’s more money to invest, the home can be extended. There can be more room for the children, or a home office, or even accommodation for a geriatric nurse in the homeowners’ old age.
Theoretically, you could even move the modular house to another location. “These homes have no foundation slab, they are not connected to the ground beneath,” Windscheif says. “And the modules are designed to be the right size to place on a flat-bed truck and transported from place to place.” Nevertheless, one can’t just place it anywhere. In terms of planning laws, it is treated just like a normal house and requires a building permit “Modular houses are a controversial topic for architects,” says Christof Rose, the spokesman for a German chamber of architects.
On the one hand, they see the advantages of standardised construction. The prefabrication of the construction parts in the factory is not weather reliant, and so cuts down on the time spent on the construction site, while the quality of the construction parts is high and the costs are low.
That makes it possible to build more homes more quickly. On the other hand, the professionals fear that construction using prefabricated parts or modules leads to boring architecture, buildings that are reminiscent of high-rise blocks or container villages.
“The challenge is to capitalise on the advantages of serial construction but leave behind the disadvantages,” Rose argues. Standardised elements should be used to create individual houses that also blend into their urban environment. – dpa