New Republic Asks: Why Are We Stuck on Site Construction in the U.S. Vs. Modern Building Systems?

In a most excellent article in the New Republic entitled "Stick Stuck," Sarah Williams Goldhagen examines the history of home building in the United States and bemoans that fact that industrialized housing (aka Building Systems) has failed to become the dominant form of construction.

"Technologically, there is no reason why houses, like cars, cannot be mass-produced, and in other countries they are constructed that way. Prefabricated, mass-produced homes, like mass-produced cars, offer myriad advantages. Fewer resources, material and labor, are wasted. Weather does not dictate construction schedules. Higher and consistent quality is more easily and reliably achieved, because the product is fabricated in the controlled setting of a manufacturing plant, with all the attendant cost advantages. The Swedish residential building industry has long been dominated by prefabricated construction: nationally uniform building systems made possible an abundance of companies manufacturing high quality kit and modular homes and prefabricated housing components. By the 1980s, prefabrication was used in 85 percent of new residential construction. (Not surprisingly, Sweden-based Ikea offers its own prefabricated house.)"

"So what is our problem? Several hulking obstacles block our path to a more rational system of house construction. Building codes, which are municipally controlled, vary enormously, and not just from state to state but also from town to neighboring town. Currently, this system makes it nearly impossible for builders to employ standardization on a large enough scale for manufacturers of prefab houses to recoup their initial investment in prototypes. Ditto zoning codes. Mortgage lenders tend to reward the familiar and look askance at the new. Labor unions, which dominate most of the trades in the construction industry, will likely do what they can to block a re-organization of their industry that ushers many of their members onto unemployment lines.

This is a long read, but certainly worth your time. For the full story, click here.