Word: modularness
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That goal now seems out of sight Indeed, the modular-housing industry is in a state of shock, a victim of bad luck and slipshod planning. Sales, it is true have been climbing-to 120,000 homes last year, from 81,000 in 1971- but they still constitute only about 5% of all housing starts. Profits on this low volume have been so thin that modular housing is now being abandoned by many of its would-be pioneers
...weeks ago Fruehauf Corp the producer of truck trailers, threw in the hammer and joined a long parade of big companies out of the modular-housing field. In the last year or so ITT Levitt, Florida Gas Co., Potlatch Forests Inc., Hercules Inc. and Wickes Corp along with a score of smaller firms, also pulled put of the industry. Last year Florida's Behring Corp. cut its losses and closed down the nation's largest house-building plant. Beset by production and marketing troubles, another industry leader, Stirling Homex, crashed into bankruptcy seven months...
...sales of many builders of modular houses are effectively restricted to a 300-mile radius of their plants because of the prohibitively high rates of shipping modules, which range up to $1 a mile Also, community zoning and building codes round the country vary wildly, making genuine mass production for a nationwide market all but impossible. In an effort to overcome this problem, 26 states have agreed to uniform codes: yet to protect the highly paid jobs of craft union members, many codes are still fussy in demanding a certain gauge of wire for electric circuits a particular type...
...Boston shuttle. It not only gives the pilot the required altitude for his flight path but also displays his plane's position on a moving map or TV-type cathode-ray tube throughout the trip. Finally, there are more sophisticated systems like the Arma-Decca Mona system (for modular navigation) and Collins' ANS-70, which can store and read out voluminous information, including navigational data on an airline's entire route structure. These advanced systems are also adaptable to such future navigation aids as satellite systems and the Navy's low-frequency, long-range Omega network...
...this parade of exquisitely designed objects, from lamps to ashtrays to such inviting modular sofas as Mario Bellini's "Chameleon" cushion system (see color page), it is apparent that the functionalist concerns of the Bauhaus are receding. Some emphasis has shifted to furniture as dream or fetish or ikon. Thus Gae Aulenti designs a variable bookcase/shelf/sleeping-platform unit that, glittering in vermilion fiber glass, resembles a Mayan sacrificial altar; while Sottsass's red ceramic vase has the archaic look of a ziggurat...