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December 13, 2004
In an effort to keep low-quality manufactured
houses from being built in Dallas neighborhoods, the Dallas
City Council approved a policy prohibiting the placement of
prefabricated housing on properties sold by the city of Dallas
for deed-restricted affordable housing.
According to Doug Dykman, assistant director
of housing for the City of Dallas, the measure passed without
opposition. “It was brought to the floor, everyone agreed,
and it passed,” he says.
At a time when the design media, along
with a growing group of architects and design enthusiasts
have been looking towards modular housing as a way to offer
modern homes to a clientele who appreciate modern design but
can’t typically afford an architect-built home, this
new policy has generated waves.
“It’s ironic that Dallas would
do this at the same time other cities are embracing quality
prefab as a solution to affordable housing,” says Michael
Sylvester, editor of fabprefab.com, a Web site dedicated to
promoting modern modular design. Sylvester cites the University
of Kansas’s design/build studio, Studio804, and its latest
project, Modular1, as a case where a group worked with the
city and accomplished a prefab program that offers an inexpensive,
well-designed modular housing option.
According to Studio804’s leader,
Dan Rockhill, the Modular1 project could never have been accomplished
without an advocate at City Hall. In Rockhill’s case
it was Scott Murray, an urban planner in Kansas City, Kansas.
Murray convinced several city groups that the Modular1 project
was a unique solution. He agrees that it wasn’t easy,
and having access to the internal departments was crucial.
“Without someone working from inside the city to promote
these types of projects,” says Murray, “it’s
like pushing a rope uphill. Most people think prefab housing
means cheap mobile homes. It takes something as thought-out
and high-quality as the Modular1 project to change their minds.”
Ingrid Spencer
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