2 Bed 1 Bath Courtyard Mobile Home Subdivision

As an exercise in demonstrating both the versatility of the courtyard based mobile home, and its feasibility in really delivering on the 'crossmod' hybrid concept, I designed a 2 bed 1 bath mobile home following out Frank Lloyd Wright's Usonian plan incorporating the standard mobile home format of one door on the left side of the building, one on the right. The most practical, functional solution turned out to be parking and storage placed on one side of the mobile home and the courtyard / outdoor living placed on the other. A supplemental storage shed is divided into two equal parts apportioned to the residences on either side - a configuration perhaps best explained in pictures rather than words:

In keeping with Wright's emphasis on the living room, the mobile home living room is as large as possible with an L shaped 'wraparound' couch looking onto a large format projector TV screen. The kitchen is part of this 'open plan' - to the extent that a 56 x 15, 840 sq ft home can feel open - as is the dining area. The bedrooms are long and narrow and make use of Thomas Jefferson's alcove concept for a pair of queen size beds, and are intended to also function as office space. Now where the tiny home resorts to a cramped loft to incorporate additional sleeping area, this design borrows from a strategy common to Europe where wraparound sofa banks double as beds - in this case 3 Twin XL's.

The outdoor courtyard space is landscaped with trees and flowers along with outdoor kitchen, living, and dining. Retractable awnings add color and charm and allow for the level of coverage to be dialed in depending on conditions. In the corner is a spa accessible by steps and permanently covered by a tin roof which also serves to brace the high wood privacy walls.

The somewhat irregularly shaped lots work out to be 86 ft deep, 50 ft wide i.e. 4,300 sq ft or right at ten units per acre exclusive of street and sidewalk. I believe that mobile home subdivisions outfitted with treelined streets, attractively landscaped sidewalks, paved parking , thoughtfully decorated storage sheds, and the old world charms of the courtyard will go a very long way toward fostering not merely the acceptance of the manufactured home, but the full on embrace of the manufactured home as the preferred choice for the majority of homebuyers.

Thorstein Veblen you will recall, points out that the status a purchase confers has come to predominate over whatever utility it might afford. Now I fear that the mobile home industry has failed to fully appreciate Veblen's keen insight which no doubt helps explain the fact that mobile homes make up only 5% of housing when one includes multi-family apartments. And while mobile homes will never win Veblen's 'conspicuous consumption' category - they have what it takes to carve out a large niche in Veblen's other category 'conspicuous leisure'. By reworking the mobile home by way of Wright's Usonian design - and by 'packaging' this reworked design in a festive, private courtyard garden conducive to cultivated leisure, the mobile home can become the preferred choice for a large segment of future homebuyers.