The obstacle to pre-fab going mainstream is local municipal zoning codes, as enforced by the local housing inpectors. Its not only the literal requirement of code, but the fact that job security of the inpector is threatened. This is amplified by folks who aare thinking that keeping out pre-fab means keeping out the "undsireables". No I won't define that. Everone knows what's inferred. For these reasons, I think that the high end market segment will have to come first for prefab. Money talks and overcomes bureaucracy.

It is true that the main obstacles for true pre-assembled prefab housing is lack of local inspections throughout the building process and acquiring a traditional mortgage. It seems that the flatpack method is the best way around this and may just be able get the prefab movement further than it did last time around. A flatpack system simply ships all/or most of the materials (some slightly assembled, some not so) to the site where it is constructed via a traditional contractor. This system allows for local inspections and many mortgage companies consider this a traditional building method which allows the masses to actually get loans for these houses (see the LV HOME). With those two obstacles overcome this "quality design for all" might just make it off the ground. Also consider that many large development companies are already using the flatpack technique to construct their McMansions in suburbia. All the frames and other components are basically built in a factory and shipped to the site to be erected. I've seen some of these houses go up in two weeks. This trend alone shows that so called "traditional" building methods have more in common with "prefab." Maybe the name prefab has to go to make it more acceptable. Call it progressive design, intuitive design, etc. Prefab, I feel, elicits too many ill feelings of trailer parks and "undesirables."

Sorry John, for the first time you are wrong. There are, in the States HUD code mobile homes that are in fact half the American housing industry and are federally and state regulated, so housing inspectors do not even get a look in at those. Legally other kinds of modular homes, and Charlie's fabulous Flatpack homes, are built like conventional homes and are sometimes regulated by the states and sometimes treated like normal homes, which is what they are, just built in pieces in the factory.

The point of all the modernist prefab happening right now is not only the higher quality, but also the interest in making good design available at a reasonable price, without having to go and hire an architect, because it has already been done.

Prefab is all around you- it is modern prefab that is new.

In the States there is a lot of association of prefab with trailer park trash, but in fact there are lots of nice trailer parks in nice areas with nice homes in them. As a method of getting reasonable density at lower cost and as a way of creating communities where people share resources and rent others,it should be looked at seriously as an alternative to suburban sprawl. Read Kevin's posting from April 4 to see what can be done with the so-called trailer.In fact, developers in areas like Napa are buying trailer parks and installing very high end residences that look like country houses but are built on trailer frames to comply with the zoning.

There is too much state regulation, and too many boards that have to approve every design- it could be simpler. But it has nothing to do with the local building inspectors. It has everything to do with the American lack of interest in design and quality vs big and cheap.

I fully agree with most of what you say. But as ex-Chairman of a local planning commission in a high per-capita income area, I got to see it from the ground view and there's more going on than meets the eye when it comes to zoning. The excuding starts by specifying maximum densities and minimum lot sizes. By keeping lot size high, the high costs of land excludes the affordable housing crowed from any "infill" projects. At some point, I realize, traditions fall as the realities of home pricing prevail, tastes change, and old guard thinking falls away. The faster the better in my view. One day the McMansions will be subdivided: converted into quad units. On the way to this, the design, material choices, and fabrication methods will have radically changed. Lets hope there's enough green space and trails in place by then to allow a sense of community to develop.

Modular homes are subject to local and state inspections. Mobile homes, now called manufactured homes, are under the HUD regulations. Any home that is on a trailer for its foundation is a manufactured home. A modular is built on a permanent foundation. Loan companies have a favorable view of modulars and in a location like Napa, modulars appreciate in value.