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Chicago Museum Exhibits Green Modular Home
By Building Systems Magazine and NAHB’s Building Systems Councils
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mkSolaire™, the three-story modular and sustainable "green" home, is on exhibit at the Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago. | A modular home currently on exhibit at the Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago is being used to demonstrate some of the latest innovations in smart energy consumption and healthy living.
The three-story, 2,500-square-foot home, built using seven factory-constructed modules and located in a park east of the museum, demonstrates some of the latest innovations in smart energy construction and healthy-living environments. Five modules were used to build the home. Two were used for the garage.
All seven modules were “test fit” at the factory to ensure accuracy in construction prior to being transported to the museum site where they were placed on a foundation.
Called the mkSolaire™, the home features family-friendly interior architecture and shows some of the possibilities and benefits of energy-efficient heating, ventilation and air-conditioning systems and earth-friendly building materials.
The “Smart Home: Green + Wired” exhibit and home tours run through Jan. 4. Some detailed information on the exhibit and home features is available on the museum’s Web site.
The home was manufactured and put in place by All American Homes of Decatur, Ill. and designed by Michelle Kaufmann Designs of Oakland, Calif.
The exhibit illustrates why many in the green building movement are embracing modular building systems. Modular construction, with its efficient use of materials, labor and energy, has been environmentally friendly almost since its inception.
In addition, modular construction can shorten the construction cycle by as much or more than two-thirds when compared to conventional site construction — reducing energy usage during construction and potentially saving on financing.
Quality control procedures in the factory assure energy efficiency during construction and many modular builders believe their homes are tighter than stick-built homes built on site. Some modular home owners reportedly have certified their turn-key homes as Energy Star-efficient. The homes used only standard insulation and window packages.
Homes using entirely modular construction receive seven points each under the NAHB Model Green Home Building Guidelines because of their efficient use of materials. (Visit www.nahbgreen.org to learn more.)
“This has been an exciting project in that many of the environmentally friendly materials and vendors specified by Michelle Kaufmann Designs to build this home were new to us,” said Dwight Martin, the quality assurance manager at All American Homes.
“From roofing to rain shield barriers to tile flooring materials composed of recycled goods and even uniquely-engineered floor joist systems, this project has provided us with a better understanding of what it really means to engineer and build an environmentally friendly home. Green building is the future for All American Homes and we’ll take this experience forward,” Martin said.
For more information about the “Smart Home: Green + Wired” exhibit, visit www.msichicago.org.
 BSC SHOWCASE Offers Solutions in a Challenging Market
Sales and marketing, business management and green building seminars that can help companies survive, or even thrive, in the current housing downturn will be featured at the 2008 Building Systems Councils’ SHOWCASE in Memphis, Tenn. on Nov. 16-19.
SHOWCASE 2008, by NAHB’s Building Systems Councils (BSC), will also feature breakout sessions on the growing influence of green building, sales and marketing techniques, business management tools and liability that emphasize the benefits systems-built technologies and strategies and how building systems can expand market share.
In addition, NAHB Chief Economist David Seiders will present NAHB’s latest economic and housing forecast and Doug Duncan, chief economist for Fannie Mae will discuss housing financing in “The Past, Present, and Future of Housing Finance ― How the Credit Crunch Has Changed the Guidelines.”
To register online, or for more information, visit www.nahb.org/showcase.
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