New Urban Modular Housing Units Are Called Mobile Homes in the Country
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The Seattle Post Intelligencer has a nearly breathless article on the the benefits of modular apartments. These apartments will provide fast low cost housing in cities and reduce the time to build by half. And the image that accompanies the article shows a sleek stylish building that stacks on themselves.
But when Country Mouse looked at City Mouse’s new invention he started laughing. That is because Country Mouse had seen this before. In fact, whenever City Mouse had come to visit he sneered and made rude comments about why anyone would live in 
such a building. That is because for the last 50 years mobile homes have dotted the countryside, just not in the urban core of the cities with some fancy marketing attached.
Call it an iHome or maybe a really big Lego.
In any case, the modular apartments Unico Properties plans to build — make that, install — in Seattle are different.
“This is the iPhone equivalent for housing,” Unico Vice President Jonas Sylvester said Wednesday afternoon, while standing in one of two stacked homes the company built at a Burlington factory, trucked to downtown Seattle and lifted by crane onto the rooftop park at Rainier Square.
But a new coat of paint, a little updating of the interior, and talking to a reporter in terms of iHome or Lego Buildings and the lowly mobile home now became something new and sexy for the sophisticated Starbucks swilling city dwellers. Ah, the power of marketing and buzzwords.
Unico’s target market for the Inhabit apartments are young professionals who are mobile, educated, adept with technology and like something environmentally responsible with design flair. The model units feature modern lines and fixtures, accented with touches such as a porcelain dog resting on a lime shag rug under a glass-and-chrome coffee table in front of a white vinyl couch.
There’s an integrated computer system that controls the lights, heating and cooling, and audio and video systems. Green features include energy-efficient windows and systems, sustainable wood floors and framing, recycled decking and a green roof system.
The units are 15 feet wide and 45 feet long, although they can be coupled side by side to create apartments with up to three bedrooms; some also sacrifice indoor length for outdoor decks. They can be stacked up to five high and arranged lengthwise or widthwise in rows to create apartment buildings with up to 100 units. via Seattle Post Intelligencer
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Comment by JKB on 12 October 2007:
Why these modular homes are to trailers as polenta is to grits. It’s all in the marketing and pricing.
Comment by Sundream Estate on 13 October 2007:
Way not, I like the model and they can be mass-produce in fabrics to low cost and easy transport and set up in necessary areas after natural catastrophes like the Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans.