Blueprint Bourgeoise: Getting The Middle Class Into Mobile

It may seem a bit jarring to recall that just some hundred years ago the mobile home was the plaything of the rich. No sooner did the automobile enter mass production than wealthy car owners took advantage of their car's ability to tow luxurious wheeled cabins, inaugurating an era of 'fifth wheel', drive-in glamping. And yet, soon enough, as Allan Wallis notes in his book 'Wheel Estate', the less affluent of the country realized that the mobile home could just as well be permanently parked and made to serve as inexpensive digs. Such is the riches to rags story of the mobile home.

Now in 1964's Mary Poppins, Burt tells us,

Winds in the east, mist coming in,

Like somethin’ is brewin’ and bout to begin.

Can’t put me finger on what lies in store,

But I fear what’s to happen all happened before.

Just so with the modern 'Tiny Home'. The brewing economic storm bearing down on the country is reflected in the re-embrace of the mobile home, a rekindled romance facing the same obstacles as a hundred years ago: Where to set up , what to do about the space between homes, how to organize mobile home communities to good aesthetic effect. Now much has already been done to improve the mobile home from within. Deluxe interiors are as pleasant and practical as those found in comparable site built homes. It is the space between homes and the arrangement of homes collectively which calls for a fresh, new approach.

Architectural theorist Christopher Alexander, in his book 'A Pattern Language', talked about the vital importance of creating 'positive' space while eliminating 'negative' space. In too many mobile home parks the space between trailers is a no man's land, devoid of privacy, and all too often becoming a refuse heap. The best solution for this between space is to refashion it as a private courtyard with outdoor seating and dining. Alexander also talked about the garden square and its vital role in both delimiting individual homes and establishing a unified whole. As well for Alexander, the small, individual private courtyard space should open onto the large, collective garden square. As for the house itself Alexander called for smaller bedrooms with alcove beds, the use of carports rather than garages, and sufficient space for bulk storage. Finally Alexander wrote favorably of America's most celebrated architect, Frank Lloyd Wright, especially in regard to Wright's open plan design with its expansive living room and sofa bank running along the long wall of the room.

I have tried to incorporate each of these elements into a design for a 5 bed, 3 bath, singlewide , its integral courtyard and supplemental storage, and the orientation of each such home around a central garden square. Drawings documenting this are viewable below.

Each of the 20 units sits on a lot of 130' x 40', or around 5,200 sq ft. The interior park is around 400' x 100'. All in, including streets and sidewalks, the 20 unit development measures 400' x 400'. This is around 3.66 acres or around 5.5 units per acre including streets, sidewalks, and interior park and paths.

Its interesting to note that Frank Lloyd Wright was among the early adopters of modular, factory produced housing seeing it as an expression of and solution for his faith in America as the place where everyone had a comfortable pleasant home. As well when Wright was coming of age there was in aesthetics the notion of the 'total work of art'. In the case of US domestic architecture this meant a house with everything taken care of for the homebuyer by the designer which for Wright was a house with built-in furniture within and carefully organized landscaping without. Across the pond, such London architects as Harold Peto and Ernest George made the landscaped interior garden square the center of their housing developments and around which their posh, lavish homes were set. Collingham Gardens exemplifies the housing development around the private garden square.

The drawings shown above are schematic taken straight from the CAD program. Below are AI rendered drawings better giving a sense of 'look and feel' both for outdoors and landscaping and for interior and furnishings.