Portable Houses Of Steel

Environmentally-friendly, modernist-designed pre-fab housing is growing in popularity.

1 minute read

June 13, 2005, 7:00 AM PDT

By Chris Steins @planetizen


Jennifer Siegal's grand "scheme for plopping $99,000 Modernist homes onto vacant lots most anywhere is making the phone ring—and not just with calls from extremists in the shelter media subculture. Publications from Esquire to the New York Times want to hear about her plan to bring a historically upscale design aesthetic to the eco-attuned masses.

Prefabrication is hardly novel. For many decades architects and designers have tried to emulate the auto industry by making houses on assembly lines. What's new, or rather newly in vogue, is the high design/environmentally conscious/prefab combo. Siegal's concept illustrates the potential for housing, particularly on modest parcels in the urban cores of Southern California."

Thanks to Chris Steins

Sunday, June 12, 2005 in The Los Angeles Times

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