A recent Boston Globe article sums up the state of play with modular homes like those from IKEA pictured to the right.Traditional housing follows the formula of price, quality, time -- pick any two! In renewable/ecological terms, they tend to fail in every category, outside of showcase homes for governments, universities and the wealthy, where quality is achieved but at high prices.
Houses are traditionally built on site with little thought to the quality of materials, no thought for recycling/eco systems, and are done in 3 - 9 months (much more in Europe) with most of the effort going into having high margins and maximizing those features easily understood by buyers like eye catching staircases or light fixtures.
In principle, modular homes can be built in factories for much less, with higher quality materials, built-in ecological systems, in just a few weeks and then shipped inexpensively to site.
Historically this approach tended to be used only at the absolute bottom of the market with the idea of mobile homes or trailers associated with the problems of poverty in the US, much as say Council Housing in the UK or HLMs in France. The trailers used by FEMA after hurricane Katrina highlight the issues of toxic building materials wrongly used to keep prices low.
It is a very Dwapara idea to look to comfortably and healthily house people rapidly and inexpensively without making compromises that hurt the environment. Tradition and its built-in Kali mindset will take a while to embrace what is a logical progression.
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