Are Modular Homes the Future?
The modular home isn't a new concept. Look at any long-term construction site, military complex, or industrial space, and you are likely to find a few. Could they also serve as the future homes for the rapidly growing urban populations?
FUTURE PROOF – BLOG BY FUTURES PLATFORM
As the world population grows, the housing supply often seems to fall short of demand. This often causes housing prices to rise over time, or to be too high at times of short supply and exceptional demand. The term "housing crisis" has become all too familiar in news channels and newspapers.
ADVANTAGES OF MODULAR HOMES
Modular homes offer several advantages that address the challenges faced by traditional construction methods.
Speed and Standardization
Modular homes can be built quickly due to the streamlined processes and standardized units used in their construction. This eliminates construction delays and budget overruns, making them a cost-effective option.
Flexibility and Customization
With modular homes, you have the flexibility to assemble the built-in "modules" in different configurations to suit your design preferences. Whether it's adding or reducing modules or choosing from various standard designs, modular homes can be customized to meet individual needs. Of course, this is assuming the end-user is the one purchasing them directly. But even if they’re not, municipalities, companies, and governments can still make use of this flexibility.
Reduced Local Disturbances
Modular homes also minimize the impact of construction on daily life, as most of the work is done in a factory. This significantly reduces the time required for on-site construction and minimizes disturbances to local communities. Say goodbye to constant construction sites disrupting your neighbourhood.
THE FUTURE OF MODULAR HOMES: OPPORTUNITIES AND LIMITATIONS
According to Interesting Engineering, modular homes are built in indoor factories, but not in manufacturing lines. Instead, you have modules that are made separately and then just assembled to make a complete home (imagine a kitchen module, a living room module, and so on). Theoretically, you would be able to on to a website, look at different standard modules, choose configurations that you like best, and order it.
This sounds great. But, of course, modular homes also have several shortcomings. For one, there are state transportation rules in most countries, which means there will be a maximum size that can be transported by trucks. As reported in The Washington Post, it can be challenging to get delivery trucks past trees and power lines to reach the building site. On top of that, figuring out where to store these prefab modules overnight can be tricky too.
And moreover, building modules for large, open spaces and transporting them to the site can be very difficult. In such a scenario, the solution may be hybrid homes, where some modules are built in factories while larger open spaces are constructed on-site.
THE GROWING MARKET FOR MODULAR HOMES
Nevertheless, there is definitely substantial interest in modular homes. In fact, the market size for modular construction currently sits at 82.3 billion US dollars and is expected to reach 139.03 billion dollars by 2029, with a compound annual growth rate of 6.2%.
According to MarketsandMarkets, the main drivers of this growth include increasing demand for complex structures at affordable rates, rapid urbanization, and industrialization. Especially in emerging economies, there is a higher need for sustainable construction methods – a need that could very well be fulfilled by modular homes.
But all this is only one side of the coin. Going forward, human beings could very well have different plans for modular homes.
One such plan is, you might have guessed it, the use of modular homes in space colonies. With the constraints that exist around construction in space or on planets like Mars, it seems reasonable to expect that a lot of housing units would be built in modules, and then transported to desired sites.
In the end, while we might be seeing less modular construction than we previously thought would exist by now, this is still a growing trend. Often cheaper, more affordable, and quicker to build, modular homes could very well be, not only the foundation of residential spaces in developed and emerging markets alike in the future but also of the space-colonizing ambitions of the human race.
Discover insights on 40+ more construction and urban living trends with our in-depth foresight report Futures of Urban Living & Construction 2040.
With over one million people moving to cities every week globally, the world is currently undergoing the biggest wave of urbanisation in human history . As urban populations increase, future cities will also face an array of new challenges.