| The need for mobile living has been around for decades and it is nothing new to Americans. Until recently, the concept has been focusing on the recreational market and the concept of long-term mobile living is still relatively new. The birth of recreational vehicles (RV) is, as its name suggests, designed for short-term recreational use and is a good example of what we’ve invented in the past. It is literally putting wheels on a house. These vehicles are usually big and equipped with a diesel-powered generator for electricity. Although they provide great moving flexibility, they are not meant for long-time living and are not environmentally friendly.
Facts:
• Country wide: For the past 10 years, more than 35 million people moved each year within the states, according to the Annual Geographical Mobility Rates published by the U.S. Census Bureau in 2010. This number increased by 5.8% between the 2007-2008 and 2008-2009. More than 4.6 million people moved between states in the period of 2008-2009 Alone.
• Regional: Highway efficiency is reduced by 20%-50% during congestion and it is estimated that about 70 million vehicle-hours were wasted in 2001. Also, according to a Census study released in 2004, the national average commute time is 25.5 minutes each way. In highly spread out cities, such as Los Angeles, where mass public transportation networks are lacking, the situation is worse. In California, about 3.5% of commuters suffer an extreme 90 minute commute every day. Automobiles also come with a huge environmental cost. In 2004, U.S. cars and light trucks emitted 314 million metric tons of carbon equivalent. The amount of CO2 emitted from fuel used for transportation in the U.S. is similar to the amount from coal used to generate electricity.
The proposed design investigates the possibilities of housing mobility in both the country-wide and regional level. The concept combines the trailer park idea with mass transit system elements to create a new mass housing transit system. In lieu of the traditional horizontally-oriented mobile home park, vertically organized “station” buildings are proposed at strategic locations (such as city centers, center of bedroom communities, etc.). They provide utility services to house individual living units. These station buildings are interconnected with a subway/light rail transit system, which allows the residents to travel from building to building at a regional level in a way similar to the existing mass transit system. The goal is not to completely replace the existing transportation infrastructure, but rather levitate the pressure the current system is undertaking. It is also meant to reduce the air pollution generated by cars and provide more centralized and efficient energy consumption. On a much broader level, the standardized size of these living units also allows them to be transported to other out of county/state stations on a less frequent basis (for example, the summer traveling season or a new job opportunity) through traditional means of transportation.
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