Audio Options:
Listen | 41 mins. | 4.6 MB | Right-Click to Download

Text Options:
Read full interview text below or download PDF

What is the true definition of a manufactured house?
In the bottom line, what defines a manufactured house is a permanent chassis. This is a fundamental physical feature by which we know this house type that has gone under various names at other times - the travel trailer, the house trailer, and, for a long period of time, the mobile home. Ever since the HUD Code was put into effect in 1974, it has been called a manufactured house. The funny thing is, it doesn’t mean anything out of a factory; it means precisely a house that moves down the highway on its own permanent chassis. It’s a hybrid entity, having as much to do with travel trailers and transportation vehicles as it does with housing.

When did the notion of mobility enter the realm of housing?
Issues of mobility have influenced dwellings even perhaps before settlement - the nomads were mobile dwellers, of course. But in terms of industrialization, which is the more relevant epistemological era of considering this, the U.S. railroad system allowed prefabricated buildings to be shipped around the country. In the popular summer destination of Martha’s Vineyard, for example, there are Queen Anne gingerbread-style houses that were built just after the Civil War, originally ordered from the Sears catalogue. They weren’t aimed at the mobility of the people, but they were made available to this island by way of a transportation infrastructure.

When did the design of trailers change to reflect their new role as a dwelling space?
When the federal government had to move soldiers and their families around the country during WWII, the house trailer fit the bill. They required fast construction of large-scale settlements, and although the house trailer could be moved, it had more interest for its occupants in a set location. In the subsequent peacetime economy, there was such a pent-up demand for housing that trailers as permanent homes became more widely available and more acceptable.

Were there any significant housing initiatives that took advantage of the manufacturing technology immediately after WWII?
The story of Levittown is the best example of retooling factories for civilian purposes in postwar America - the “swords into ploughshares” idea. Levitt began to develop housing at a scale and in a way that had not been seen before. It’s the way that we understand the development of suburbs now, but at the time it was a radical idea. Levitt referred to it as a “factory under the sky.” (more…)

“Now that we can do anything, what will we do?”

Welcome to Massive Change Weekly, an electronic newsletter sharing news about groundbreaking achievements in global design.

Sorry for the brief hiatus. Here’s a round-up of massive changes in progress:

“Genetically modified foods have caused no end of anxiety and distrust. But not genetically modified shirts. Why?

“Readers may imagine the reason is that there is no such thing as a genetically modified shirt, and they would be half right. The shirt genome has yet to be mapped, and the heritability of sleeve length is not widely accepted in either the textile or molecular biology community.

“That doesn’t mean there are no genes being fiddled with in the making of that oxford cloth button down. Genetically modified cotton, also known as Bt, or transgenic, cotton, is grown all over the world and is present in unknown numbers and styles of garments. (more…)

“Now that we can do anything, what will we do?”

Welcome to Massive Change Weekly, an electronic newsletter sharing news about groundbreaking achievements in global design.

We will eradicate poverty.

It is not crazy for us to think about having within our power, uniquely for the first time in the history of the world, the chance to end extreme poverty within a generation. That is what the numbers show.

- Jeffrey Sachs, director of the Earth Institute

In Massive Change we argued, in unison with Sachs, that “when citizens of the one world we share - in Africa’s heartland, most poignantly - are starving and dying of curable diseases every day, it is our duty to direct our dollars to sustainable economic development, not already bloated military budgets. An integrated strategy will result in the deepening of global security and the alleviation of abject poverty and its indicators: violence, terror, and disease. It will depend on the formation of policies for the prevention of future conflict and partnerships between the world’s rich and the world’s poor. Countries in need can’t do this alone.”

The millennium development goals put in place by all UN member states in 2000 to reduce extreme poverty by 2015 required that poor countries pursue good governance and responsible economic and social stewardship, while rich countries helped “well-governed poor countries through expanded aid, trade, and technology transfer.” Many African countries - Ghana, Senegal, Mali, Benin, Ethiopia - have shown exceptional leadership and effort in the transformation of dire political scenarios into thriving democracies. They have the will, but they still lack the way.

Although the governance is admirably in place in many instances - in Africa and elsewhere - the means are sorely lacking to build the necessary infrastructure and social services that will help impoverished nations on the road to self-sustainability and eventual prosperity. Now that we can create a world of shared prosperity, what will we do? (more…)

“Now that we can do anything, what will we do?”

Welcome to Massive Change Weekly, an electronic newsletter sharing news about groundbreaking achievements in global design.

Project Management as a Change Agent.

I’m very excited to introduce our first guest author! Josh Polley has taken on the issue of the role of project management in delivering massive change.

Massive Change celebrates the innovative use of materials, science, and design to better the world and mankind. Inherent in every one of the examples are project management tools and techniques that steer the product through its life cycle. The subjective nature of how actual success of the project is measured, and who measures it, is often where the rub lies. The designer may see the creation of the product alone and deem it a success. The actual customer the product is made for probably expects some sort of reasonable return on investment. The project manager decides, organizes, plans, controls, and leads all aspects of the project; ultimately making this person responsible for the “success” of the project. Below are brief accounts on the profession and how designers can shape not only the projects, but the tools to help manage them as well.

Poor project management practices have been identified with the Transrapid Shanghai train (Massive Change example) and although technologically advanced, some consider this project a failure. No actual downtown station due to a change in project scope, limited hours of operation, and high cost of tickets all contribute to the fact that the train travels at only 15% capacity. These and other negative aspects of the project could have been avoided with proper project management, which would have resulted in greater use and therefore greater project success. (more…)