The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1935-10-16
A PROSPERITY INDUSTRY

DROPHETS of new order in building say factory
made houses will do for the United States, in
the next few years, what the automobile industry
did earlier in the century
They predict production of houses at costs
SO low that almost every wage-earning family can
buy one
They foresee steady, decently paid employment of
building trades workers in the factory instead of
sporadic employment on the site of construction If
their prophecies are valid, the sum problem with its
ugly social and moral implications should vanish
All this can be done only if the American people
come to like modern houses with fiat roofs plain
surfaces practical materials; houses functonay de-
signed for healthful, convenient living rather than
houses that bow architectural precedent and ira
dition of many outmoded ages
Modern architecture lends itself to pre-fabrcation
and old-fashioned architecture does not.
There are only so residences in the United States
constructed in accordance with modernism the maya
zine Fortune says To test whether there is substan-
tal hope of immediate revolution in building de-
sign, this magazine conducted a cross-section poll
of public sentiment Forty-one per cent of the per-
sons interviewed said they would prefer a modern
home to colonial if they were able to choose
between two models at the same price. In the
Southwest Sal per cent of the people preferred mod
added inducement in favor of revolutonized homes
it is easy to believe that America is due for a face
lifting.
Steel. concrete and plywood the materials in
which most of the experimenting il pre-fabrication
is being done.
A few fabricators are trying out construction of
boX-like rooms, to be combined into houses accord
ing to the number of rooms needed and the shape
of the site. Most of the fabricators are using the
wall as the unit. however, building standard types
of walls with one window, some with two
some with one or two doors, some plain. These can
be bought according to the design of the house.
joined together with few hours work. finished with
pre-fabricated floor and pre-fabricated roof and
be ready for occupancy few days after construction
has started
Nearly SO industrial concerns, including some of
the largest, are trying to perfect Fabricated
homes Three-fourths of them have not yet sold
any of their products They realize prices are not
yet low enough to tap the vast low-inconle market
Most of the pre-fabricated homes still sell at from
$4,000 to $4,000, though this amount of course will
buy fairly good-sized house perhaps even with
second story.
One firm has four-room cottage for sale at $780,
erected Another has three-room, year round home
for Sl375 to which be added freight and cost of
erection bringing to at least $1,000 OF course the
site must be purchased, and sidewalks, sewers and
landScaping add to the cost of all these houses
Mass rehousng will not start until the total cost of
a home-everything included-ranges between $500
and s3o0o economists believe.
They think mass production will make this pos
sible once the technique is perfected Automobiles
have become less expensive each year. while steadily
improving. and there seems to be no reason why
building, the last industry to get in step with
the machine age. can not follow this example once
it casts of the handaid- upon-brick tradition