Ordering tenets in architecture are based on geometric compositions. Regulating lines and guides generate shapes and their interaction. Guilds and master builders shared knowledge and rules for modulating building and structural components. These ruling lineaments developed master works and their geometric indications: the golden section in classic architecture, the tatami grid as the datum of traditional Japanese dwellings or the Fibonacci series as the basis for subdividing wholes into smaller parts. Industrialization introduced manufacturing methods as rules for defining and normalizing precise measurements. A notable example of an organizing principle in industrial architecture was the standardization of shipping dimensions from rail to truck and to international naval shipping.
The containerization of shipping has been a regulating force in dimensioning parts and components for building. The Iso standard shipping container and the standardized shipping pallet coordinate and optimize intermodal transport. Determined by the evolution of railroad dimensions and later by the regulation of truck transport the 2.4-meter wide by 4.4-meter high (including wheel height) and 10-meter long standard circumscribed the mobile home industry. This towing capacity and limitation informed the industry’s early development until Elmer Frey challenged this norm with his 10-foot singlewide (3 meters) in 1954. Its transport was subsequently permitted as an oversized-load requiring special permits. The 10-foot singlewides and later the 12-foot models (3.6 meters) Frey produced were more flexible and made it easier to arrange and define day and night spaces.
Both early mobile homes and today’s shipping container homes share the common history of shipping’s dimensional standardization. If the hand regulated the modular brick as many have written, then road widths and possible wheelbase structures shaped the modern mobile home. The industry’s progress in truck transport both in terms of towing capacity and highway breadths made it possible for mobile homes to become wider, 14-foot and 20-foot models became possible in the 1970s and 80s. While the early mobile home was a definite result of transport efficacy, today’s manufactured house continues to be determined by shipping concerns - less to do with width and more to do with weight, structure and manufacturing details and parameters.
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| An example of a 2.4-meter singlewide (late 1930s - early 1940s Shult Trailers) |
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