Are We Thinking Inside the Wrong Box?

Fresh Eyes on Modular By Jorie Wisnefski

This week, Chad Crosby shared a post on LinkedIn showing a home built by Northstar Systembuilt making its way from the factory in South Dakota to its destination in Colorado. It made me pause.

I was trying to decide if this was unusual of modular construction or if the industry is doing things like this more often.

Chad’s post sent me down a bit of a rabbit hole, and I love that about having Fresh Eyes on an industry. One question leads to another, and before long, I’m understanding things a little differently.

Modular construction offers a different way to build. Instead of framing a house stick by stick on a jobsite, much of the work can happen in a controlled factory.

It’s a different way to think about building, but I wonder if we judge modular by how well it fits the conventional way of doing things, rather than considering what might be possible if we approached a project differently.

As I started investigating, I found examples of architects designing distinctive custom homes around modular construction, builders using it on challenging mountain sites, and designers combining modules in ways that create something more than a stack of standardized boxes.

I’m not suggesting every project should be modular, or that there aren’t constraints involving transportation, cost, and installation. There are.

I’m just curious about where those constraints end and our assumptions begin.

Fresh Eyes on Modular

Jorie Wisnefski

Chad, I’d love to hear your perspective. Was the Northstar shipment an unusual undertaking, or is it representative of what modular builders can do today? What about this project might surprise someone who is learning about modular construction and transportation?

And for those designing, manufacturing, or transporting modular buildings, what are you doing differently that the rest of us might not know about?

I’m still learning, and I know a lot is happening in this industry that I haven't seen yet. That's why I follow these questions wherever they lead.

That’s the point of Fresh Eyes. I notice something, get curious, and follow the thread to see what I learn.

Modular doesn’t have to compete with the conventional way of building.

But perhaps we’ve been thinking about the possibilities inside the wrong box all along.