DEFINITION
The practice of building housing with 3D off-site building products. Specifically, by fabricating and assembling large parts of repeating elements (i.e. kitchens, bathroom, etc.) in a manufacturing facility to speed building assembly on site.
EXAMPLES
LOGIC fabricates kitchens and bathroom modules in New England, and installing them in Albany apartment buildings. Or, FullStack fabricates complete one-bedroom apartments in two modules, then stacks them to make apartment complexes.
USAGE
“It’s easy to generalize of any apartment building as a stack of dwelling units, but when designers plan the use of modular kitchens and bathrooms, they engage in modular housing practices.”
ISSUES
The scope of off site practices in Modular Housing can confuse the term’s usage, because Modular products come in a spectrum of 3D shapes, sizes, and purposes. The smallest Modular Housing scope can see technical modules inserted into larger traditional stud-framed buildings. The largest scope can see complete dwelling units stacked into 95% of the building’s volume. This variety of modular applications can be customized according to individual economic pressures, but the inconsistency of scope quickly confuses new practitioners.