The Modular Home Concept !

It is one of life's peculiarities that we are still building houses in much the same way as in the days of the Roman empire.  A vast range of trades come together to add their individual skills and the house rises slowly over a matter of weeks as each component is added.

Basically, we are still setting one brick on top of another  and consequently most new homes take many weeks to reach the finishing stage and building is considered a labour intensive industry.  It is one of the few that has not encompassed the speed and precision of automation of the factory produced product.

Basically, we are locked in to how the home we live in will look.  Appearance rates highly in making buying decisions and a modular home made in a factory will certainly lack the individuality that is possible with on site construction.

The modular concept is very flexible in the construction stage and can provide a wide range of room sizes to suit the owners needs, and they all fit together on site to form a finished house in a matter of hours rather than weeks.

The big advantage is that the wiring and plumbing is already built in and there is both temperature and noise insulation in place.  Heating and cooling can therefore be maintained at low cost without an adverse effect on the ecology.

The modular home of the future will become an inevitability.   The cost of these present labour intensive homes has sent the median price in Sydney to $ 1,211,488, which is a 4% increase on the December quarter.  Buying a home today involves a mortgage that the average person will take a lifetime to repay.

If that price continues to rise at the present rate wage inflation will certainly  follow.  In a few years the minimum wage will probably be set at fifty dollars an hour with a consequent blowout in the sum needed for a comfortable retirement.  In an age in which consumer goods are becoming cheaper, housing is fast moving in the opposite direction.

One of the big attractions of the modular home is that it can be purchased as needed, and added to as the family increases.  In old age, surplus rooms can be sold off and the entire modular structure replaced with a more modern design as needed.  The existing home can be relocated cheaply as a holiday home or form part our contribution to poor nations experiencing housing problems.

The population of Australia will continue to expand and we will need a lot more housing in the future. The modular concept is applicable to high rise as a means of fitting out modern structures, but it lends itself admirably to creating new suburbs quickly once the roads and their kerbs and gutters are in place.

The biggest challenge will be to convince home owners of the future to accept a move away from the look of conventional housing.   That will be the task of the clever design people.  In the past we have often seen function triumph over fashion. and usually it is the hip pocket nerve that makes the difference.

 

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