How an American Dream of (modular construction) Housing Became a Reality in Sweden

[BlueWaveNeverEnd]

building houses like a Volvo

paywall free link. LOOOONG article

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/06/08/headway/how-an-american-dream-of-housing-became-a-reality-in-sweden.html?unlocked_article_code=1.yk0.BZS-.vMAdDrTbopjp&smid=url-share



How an American Dream of Housing Became a Reality in Sweden
The U.S. once looked to modular construction as an efficient way to build lots of housing at scale, but Sweden picked up the idea and put it into practice

As an architect, Ivan Rupnik thinks the solution to America’s affordable housing shortage is obvious: Build more houses. Start today. But the way homes are built in the United States makes speed impossible.

Years ago, Rupnik’s Croatian grandmother, an architect herself, pointed him to an intriguing answer to this conundrum: modular housing projects built in Europe in the 1950s and ’60s. Rupnik was awed. Sure, prefab complexes, and especially Soviet bloc housing, could be ugly and too homogenous, but the process created millions of housing units in a flash.

Hooked, Rupnik started researching modular housing for his doctoral dissertation. In the archives of the Harvard Graduate School of Design, he stumbled upon a reference in an old journal article that took him by surprise: an industrialized housing initiative called Operation Breakthrough that built nearly 3,000 units between 1971 and 1973 — in the United States. How had he never heard about it?

It turned out few people had. Unable to find much more information, Rupnik turned to the Department of Housing and Urban Development, which created the program. In 1969, when Operation Breakthrough was announced, HUD was less than four years old and affordable housing was still a bipartisan issue. The plan’s visionary, HUD Secretary George Romney, a former Republican governor and Nixon appointee (and, yes, Mitt’s father) pitched it as Economics 101: If you quickly increase the supply of housing, you drive down the price for all.

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In June 2023, I joined one of the firm’s research trips. The team wanted to see what housing in the United States might be like if Congress hadn’t canceled Operation Breakthrough. We flew to Sweden to find out.

[Old Crank]

1. I have read that one big problem with modular construction

has nothing to do with the actual construction. It is the huge number of building codes in the US.
Sure some are the same but there are a lot of small differences even in states.
That makes it hard to deal with in a large output situation.

[NJCher]

4. I'm betting

You would be right on this. I have a friend who is an attorney and who deals with this kind of thing in his day to day work in nyc. He often talks about the frustration of getting things done because of these regulations.

[Old Crank]

5. It is why we have national standards for many manufactured products.

Businesses want national standards, not standards for each and every state.

[duncang]

8. City regulations also.

The small town I live in requires #12 wire minimum for all receptacles and lights. Normally it would be sized to load (stove, dryer, etc.) and #14 for most lights or receptacles. #12 for kitchen and dining room only.

[JanMichael]

9. That was the interesting part of the article

In America we tell you what to do get a result. In Sweden they tell you what the legal result is and then you have to do it. That leads to innovation.

Also interesting was the HUD program that started off great and got canceled by Congress. I wonder if Mitts daddy would still be a Republican nowadays?

[localroger]

12. Also, codes are often more about profit than necessity

Codes are passed by relatively small boards that can be bought off to include features that are unnecessary, but which increase profits for suppliers who will be called on to supply more expensive details (larger vent pipes, heavier wiring, etc.) than are really needed.

[Celerity]

2. The Twenty Storey Tower Built With Sustainable Wood Sara Kulturhus RE:TV

The Sara Kulturhus in Skellefteå, northern Sweden is one of the world's tallest wooden buildings, and will be carbon negative within 50 years, setting a new benchmark for sustainable construction.

Designed by White Arkitekter, the building was constructed in wood sourced from the surrounding forests and processed at local sawmills. Its timber structure sequesters more than twice the carbon emissions that were involved in its construction, and it is powered by renewable energy from solar panels and district heating generated by a nearby river, which compensate for the building’s CO2 emissions.

The cultural centre has several theatre stages, two art galleries, a town library, hotel and conference centre, and as well as attracting plaudits for its innovative design and community engagement, the Sara Kulturhus has helped workers and investment to Skellefteå, which is developing a reputation as a hub for eco-innovation. RE:TV was founded by His Majesty King Charles III to highlight the innovations and ideas that are emerging in response to the climate and biodiversity crisis.

Inspired by The King’s long-standing commitment to nature, we provide a platform for the growing community of change-makers around the world, raising awareness of the wide variety of technological and nature-based climate solutions that point the way to a better future for us all. As our founder put it when RE:TV launched in 2020; "there is real hope, but we've got to come together as a world on this."

https://www.visitskelleftea.se/sv/sara-kulturhus/

[NJCher]

3. Fascinating article + pics

HUD Secretary George Romney, a former Republican governor and Nixon appointee (and, yes, Mitt’s father) pitched it as Economics 101: If you quickly increase the supply of housing, you drive down the price for all.

Can you, in the farthest stretches of your imagination, conceive of a Republican behaving like this today?

Too busy dreaming up phony congressional hearings today.

[Sanity Claws]

6. Montreal had a very visible modular apartment construction for its 1967 World's Fair

That was the one and only time I recall hearing anything about it.
As for the problem with the lack of national standards, some states with housing issues are large enough (I imagine) that it would probably pay to construct the modules for those particular states. I'm thinking of NY and California.

[FBaggins]

7. There are hundreds of modular home builders in the US

And Operation Breakthrough failed not due to a lack of Congressional will, but because the products were inferior to traditionally constructed homes.

There are tens of millions of homes built in the 70s or earlier that are still perfectly serviceable. Few OB homes remain and even fewer are desired housing.

[mitch96]

10. I always thought using older steel shipping containers as a base and build something along those lines,

https://www.hgtv.com/design/decorating/design-101/11-inspiring-shipping-container-homes-around-the-u-s-pictures

https://www.architecturaldigest.com/story/shipping-container-homes-most-beautiful-around-world

[localroger]

11. Two big problems with shipping container construction...

1. Eight foot basic width really limits architectural possibilities. Also ceilings are a bit low, and while you can find taller containers they are more rare and therefore more expensive.
2. If you were to really get shipping container construction rolling, you would eventually exhaust the supply, which is large but finite.
For these reasons shipping containers are really better geared to applications which leverage their original strength for standalone portability. The Swedish project is making more general purpose buildings that, once finished, are much more like normal construction.

[mitch96]

13. I don't see it as a problem, I see it as a opportunity for creativity. A box is a good place to start.nt

[FBaggins]

15. It's a bit of both

It certainly involves a fair bit of creativity…

But the real problem is that the part of the construction process that it simplifies really isn’t as large a portion of the total cost as most assume.

[mitch96]

16. I think it's a great place to start. I've seen some creative "boxes" nt

[Vinca]

14. I've seen a couple of articles lately about 3-d printed homes. Apparently, a little house

can be churned out every 48 hours. Very strange, but interesting.