How Offsite Displaces Site Built In The Suburban Subdivision

The first murmurs of discontent with suburban housing in the US were heard in the 1970s in California. The positive idea of the suburbs fulfilling the American dream of homeownership was reworked, giving way to the negative idea of suburban sprawl. By the 1980s and again starting in California, the large suburban house was pilloried as the 'McMansion'. California, in reaction to the notion of suburban sprawl, began to restrict how land could be used for housing. The subdividing of large acreage parcels into small lots was banned. Even 20 acre parcel owners were permitted to build only a single house on their property. Now the cost to develop land remained the same whether many homes or only a few were built. This gave rise to the McMansion, incentivizing builders to build massive homes with high margins. The endpoint toward which this trend tends is seen in the Los Angeles housing market where in neighborhoods like Bel Air, new home starts average around $ 25,000,000.00. This phenomenon has captivated the public with YouTube channels springing up dedicated to giving their audiences tours of these homes. One such channel, called 'Enes', has 3,000,000 subscribers and has generated 500,000,000 views. The point is simply that it is a raft of government interventions against the free market in housing which is at the root of this 'deformation', which has caused a 'saturation' toward the high end of the housing market. In more typical markets what one sees is the ever larger home being built on the ever smaller lot. Now these ever larger homes grow not by expanding the size of a single living room or single dining room. Rather one now often finds two living rooms in a new house and is not surprised to find a third in the form of a 'loft' upstairs. Likewise he finds one dining room in the kitchen, another 'formal' dining room nearby, and a third in the form of bar seating at the counter. In this way the house is bulked up, serves to present a picture of the mini mansion from the street. YouTube channels documenting the upper end of this 'bulkinization' phenomenon only serve to reinforce the trend at the lesser levels. Nowadays one can easily pay $ 700,000.00 for a 3,000 sq ft house of 3 modest living rooms, 3 modest dining rooms and 3 or 4 bedrooms perched on a lot so small that outdoor living is all but ruled out.

In the subdivision shown to the left, while the side yards have been eliminated, there is still something of a backyard for the homes. However the sightlines are such the backyards are largely devoid of privacy and so in practice will be little used.

Now it is with these limitations, deficiencies, and excesses in mind that the Manufactured Revolution must chart its path forward, must plot its strategy, must draw up its battle plans for challenging site built's stranglehold over suburban housing. First manufactured must consolidate diminutive, multiple dining areas and living areas into just a single large living room and a single large dining room. The living room must feature wraparound seating whose focal point is the large format TV projection screen. Space devouring walk-in closets must be replaced with built-in wardrobes. Garages, which often serve as repositories for things not used must give way to simple carports combined with spacious storage / work sheds. Side yards must be brought back to life and along with backyards given very high privacy walls sturdy enough to accommodate large format retractable awnings. See sketch below:

As seen above, the high walls create a spacious private garden courtyard with outdoor kitchen and dining, outdoor living, spa, and optional pool. Spacious indoor and outdoor living and dining create an atmosphere of cultivated leisure. By fostering a finer, cultivated atmosphere of elegant, opulent leisure manufactured is made to appeal to the homebuyer's sensibilities at a deeper, more moving level than the typical showy, bulky builder's home can ever hope to.