Prefabricated Modular Housing in the United States
Prefabricated modular housing in the United States has a unique development history, construction advantages, representative companies, and market application cases.
Development History: The concept of prefabricated modular housing originated from the "kit houses" in the mid-19th century. From 1908 to 1940, Sears sold over 100,000 home toolkits through mail order, promoting its popularity. In the 1920s and 1930s, architect Buckminster Fuller designed the "Dymaxion House," introducing prefabricated bathroom modules. During World War II, the U.S. government used the Cemesto system to build Oak Ridge Town. After the war, modular construction expanded to the suburbs, forming systems such as Lustron and Gunnison. In the 1960s and 1970s, influenced by futurism, iconic projects like Habitat 67 and the Nakagin Capsule Tower emerged. In the 1980s and 1990s, experimental residences such as the computer-aided designed Klip House appeared. After the 21st century, container housing (such as London's Container City I) and modular micro-apartments (such as My Micro New York) rose, continuously expanding the global application scenarios of the technology.
Construction Methods and Advantages: Modular housing is produced in factories with standardized processes for the building's main structure, enclosure, equipment pipelines, and interior decoration, forming prefabricated space modules that are then transported to the site for assembly. Its core characteristics are standardized design, factory-based production, and assembly-based construction, which can shorten the construction period by about 50% (e.g., building a farmhouse in 14 days), reduce construction waste by about 80%, and have excellent seismic performance. Prefabricated wooden houses, which are popular in North America, use precisely processed wooden structural components in factories and are assembled on-site as easily as "building blocks," widely used in residential, school, hospital, and other scenarios.
Representative Companies: Clayton Homes is the largest prefabricated housing manufacturer in the United States, founded in Tennessee in 1956. It adopts a "vertical integration" model covering manufacturing, sales, loans, and insurance services. Its core products include modular homes, CrossMod™ homes, etc. In 2014, it sold 30,871 housing units, accounting for 45% of the U.S. prefabricated housing market, mainly targeting middle- and low-income families and the demand-driven market.
Market Cases: In 2020, Asian homeowner Joyce Higashi built a 500-square-foot ADU (Accessory Dwelling Unit) in her backyard in San Jose through Abodu Company at a total cost of $230,000. It is now rented out for $3,000 per month, demonstrating the economic value of prefabricated modular housing in addressing housing needs and improving space utilization.
