Modular cottage designed to be cute

Why do factory-built houses tend to look ugly? Why can’t they be cute, like a cottage that would fit into a walkable neighborhood? New urbanists have been wrestling with that question for many years.

Bruce Tolar, an architect based in Ocean Springs, Mississippi, asks: “Would you rather have a little manufactured house with the wrong-sloped roof and no porch, or would you like one that's very similar in square footage but has a great roof and a little bit of nice detailing on the porch?”

The assumption is that many home buyers would prefer the attractive cottage, and such a modular house recently won an Urban Guild Award. Built in the Franklin Homes factory in North Alabama, the house prototype was placed in Tolar’s development of cottages in Ocean Springs, Mississippi. “We have a tenant who’s very happy with it,” he says. “Now that we’ve done it, we can do it again under the right conditions. We hope to make that happen.”