ABSTRACT

The work of many of the individuals and organizations touted clearly predates the current economic crisis but their relevance is made increasingly apparent as a result of it. Much of their work is supported through government funding programs, some through public and private partnerships, and many focus, rightly so, on the betterment of specific communities. Modular design and construction in the United States has progressed in fits and starts. Its earliest iterations in the US were packaged houses and churches shipped from England to the colonies. In the US, mass-production is, for the most part, reserved for the lowest common denominator in home provision. Manufactured mobile and modular homes are the bottom of the barrel when it comes to quality, design and comfort, so much so that to live in one is to be stigmatized. In Europe, prefab and modular construction seems to have captured some of the spirit of architects of the modernist, utopian movements.