In a very fascinating second episode of Andrew Weinriech’s podcast series, “Predicting Our Future”, he delves deeper into what a lot of media and futurists agree is ahead for housing in America…modular and prefab.
He is dead on when it comes to transportation being one of the absolute biggest hindrances in modular’s acceptance as a price saving vehicle for future home building.
He is dead wrong when he holds up Blu Homes and other high priced, Architecturally designed homes as our future. They are not affordable and is not what the average new home buyer is looking for.
His push toward automation predicts us living in homes designed and built to look identical that can be produced by robots and automated machines. The picture above shows a Swedish modular home factory using automated machinery to build homes that don’t vary much from a preselected plan.
The only person he interviewed with a real understanding of what a modular factory is and can be was Pat Fricchione, President of Simplex Modular Homes. Pat explained very clearly that until America buys into cookie cutter homes, modular factories cannot afford to buy the expensive automated machinery required. Neither he nor the rest of the modular housing industry see a time in the near future where that will become a viable option.
Mr. Weinreich makes a lot of good points about modular housing in his second podcast and it is worth taking the 22 minutes to listen to his thoughts.
Listen and comment:
