Park Model Prefabs Go Modern
by Lloyd Alter, Toronto 
on 08.21.08
New Sustain 12-wide
David Greene at Dwell notes that Americans have been living in prefabs for years- "they're called "Park Models," meaning they're wheel-less RVs designed to stay put in a trailer park. (Malibu is full of 'em.) The problem? Most are fugly. Outside, they look like a log cabin or faux colonial. Inside, they look like a set from The Golden Girls."
Greene writes that prefabs like Chris Deam's modern unit for Breckenridge have fallen off the radar, and wonders what has happened to the concept. In fact, I suspect that the concept will continue to take off. There is a vast infrastructure of trailer parks around North America that are due for change and upgrading, and a few visionary park operators are beginning to look at the market for modern.
Sustain 12-wide elevation
With park model trailers, there is an established pattern of owning your unit while renting a pad with service connections. It has been going on for decades, so no wheels are being re-invented; really it is just a matter of changing the cheap vinyl units for well-built, well insulated and well-designed units that are built to last.
Sustain 12-wide interior
The Sustain Minihome people introduced a 12 foot wide park model earlier this year and found that it cost the same to build as the smaller miniHome solo model shown on TreeHugger earlier- that is what the factories are set up to build, that is what the material suppliers produce for, so they were able to deliver 72% more space for the same $120,000. Suddenly they have a lot more interior space, a much lower cost per square foot, places to put the thing that don't involve a huge investment in land, all of which has translated into real sales. ::Sustain
With a fleet of different designs from different manufacturers, and the awakening of park owners to the possible size of this market, I suspect we will be seeing and hearing a lot more about park model modern prefab.
Other Park Model Modern Prefabs on TreeHugger or in production
BlueSkyMod Prefab Cabin
Blueskymod: First pictures
Breckenridge Perfect Cottage on Mocoloco
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I think that is obviously a great improvement on current models. It would be great to have modern communities, I think it would attract younger couples that my not be able to afford a house.
I have seen the Cavco Specialty Division's park model freedom series at the LA show. It was amazing. They hit it right on the money. WOW
The big problem that I can see is that the customers with the aesthetic sophistication to buy one of these are not going to want to live in a typical trailer park much less site it next to the more typical trailer park doublewide.
Unless you have a trailer park with some kind of equally elegant standards the market for these is going to be tiny. On top of that, until you have many of that style of parks, the number of appropriate sites is going to be tiny, and appropriate sites will never be developed until there is a proven demand, which is going to be hard to prove.
I am afraid this idea is doomed as far as integration into trailer parks. If it could be made off grid capable it would have a better chance.