MoMA Gets 'Home Delivery' For Vacant Lot

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By Gillian Reagan

January 8, 2008 | 1:03 p.m

Probably not what MoMA has in mind: prefab houses await Katrina-victim occupants.

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Have you ever seen those house houses sitting atop a flatbed truck on the highway, looking all shiny and new (but also weirdly sad because they're not a "home" yet and there is a "wide load" sign attached to their back sides)? They're called "prefab housing" — built at one location and transported to another. Apparently these houses are becoming trendy not just in trailer parks and housing developments but in architecture schools. The Museum of Modern Art has commissioned five architects, including Douglas Gauthier and Jeremy Edmiston of Manhattan, to erect their own prefab dwellings in a vacant lot next to the museum on West 53rd Street. An exhibition, “Home Delivery: Fabricating the Modern Dwelling,” will open in July.

The New York Times reports:

“I wanted a mix of existing buildings and prototypes,” said Barry Bergdoll, the chief curator of architecture and design at the museum, who is organizing the exhibition with Peter Christensen, a curatorial assistant. Mr. Bergdoll said he didn’t want to perpetuate what he called a prevailing myth that prefab housing can’t work in practice. Several architects have had considerable success, including Wes Jones, who in 1994 made homes from shipping containers, and Namba Kazuhiko, who in 2004 created his Muji Infill House.

Mr. Bergdoll wants to counter other misconceptions about prefab housing, like the notion that the reason to build them is to save money. While they can be economical, he said, they also have potential environmental benefits. The goal for Mr. Gauthier and Mr. Edmiston, for example, is to cut the most complex prefab pieces with the least waste.