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If we're going to live in our homes longer, they'll need to be more flexible. The Partnership for Advancing Technology in Housing (PATH), a public-private initiative, is working on houses that can be easily reconfigured. "As a family changes, we want to accommodate that, so an older couple isn't stuck with a house for four kids," says PATH engineer Glen Salas.One PATH idea is to separate pipes and wires from the walls, so walls can be readily moved. Another idea: to cover walls with electronic fabric, eliminating the need for wires.
Future homes will likely be manufactured in factories, then assembled on-site. And we're not talking about trailer parks. Already, some homes are made out of pre-fab walls called structural insulated panels (SIPs). These boards wrapped around a foam core eliminate the need for conventional stud framing. The hefty wall panels are then lowered into place by a crane.
Factory housing makes sense, says Vermont architect John Connell, who started the Yestermorrow school, where adult students learn to design homes. It offers lower labor costs, better quality control, less waste and less soil disturbance on the site. "We don't build cars in our backyard," says Connell. "Why build houses there?"
Like cars, houses will come with tools to monitor and adjust everything from furnace efficiency to ventilation. And today's computer-aided design (CAD) programs make it easier to match the design to the specifics of the site and the homeowner's lifestyle.
In a factory near Detroit, workers at Insulspan translate CADs into codes that generate custom wall panels down to a fraction of an inch.
Besides offering speed, strength and accuracy, panelized construction is extremely airtight because the foam core completely seals the home. Insulspan president Frank Baker calls it "a total energy envelope." He ought to know: His own 5,000-square-foot panelized home costs less than $500 a year to heat.
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