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.

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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