The first time I became aware that pre-fab housing could be something other than disgusting was a number of years back when the magazine Dwell sponsored a pre-fab home design competition, then sold—through the magazine—the winning blueprints. Since then, the idea of mass-producing good design (think Apple tech design applied to architecture) has fascinated me. So naturally, the next free moment I have will be spent at “Home Delivery: Fabricating the Modern Dwelling,” the Museum of Modern Art’s new architecture exhibit, the centerpiece of which is six prefabricated homes commissioned by the museum and constructed in an adjacent lot.
But not everyone wants to make the trek to New York in the dead of summer. (Who can blame them?) And so, for all you design nerds out there who prefer to nerd out from the comfort of Charlottesville, I recommend a visit to the exhibit’s blog. The site includes a history of the modern American prefabricated home, archival footage of early prefab homes being constructed, and installation videos (in fast-forward time) for each of the six MoMA-commissioned houses. Even without stepping foot in these houses and strict time limits (10 weeks total for design and installation), it’s clear that each residence is a feat of architectural ingenuity. No cookie cutter megamansions to be found: These are houses that could, if we let them, change the way we house ourselves. Ah, if only our national taste in housing were as good as our taste in iPod design…