Portable Shelters. Built in Montana - designed for the World.
There is a very nice article in the NY Times discussing low cost portable housing that is worth reading. It profiles a family construction business in Montana who, after the collapse of the high-end housing market decided to concentrate on building low cost shelters.
High-end home contractors in southwest Montana, near Yellowstone Park, have been as battered by the recession as those elsewhere in the country. Accustomed to putting up lavish mansions of native stone and logs for wealthy clients, many have folded, moved or gone down-market, remodeling homes or building ones costing $200,000 to $300,000.
For a time, the Leeps did a little of everything. “We were struggling to survive,” Bruce Leep said. “We traveled wherever we had to, concrete work for oil projects in North Dakota and even handyman projects.” When a storm with baseball-size hail walloped the region in June, they and other contractors got some welcome jobs putting in new roofs and siding.
All the while, however, the Leeps were hunting for a permanent line of business, something to sustain their 20-year-old family firm. Their choice was portable housing — still housing, but as far from their old work as could be. Instead of building homes with a labyrinth of rooms that cost $1,500 to $1,800 a square foot, they decided to construct one-room houses priced at about $2 a square foot. Such homes are basically shells to which owners can add baths and kitchens if they wish; some may even have lofts and high ceilings. Typically, the houses can be assembled with little labor in a few hours.
The Leeps and their partners have great hopes for their new work. The potential market, they say, includes the third world, where housing is scarce; disaster areas, where people may be displaced; and the homeless population. The recession and major events like the Haiti earthquake have bumped up interest in economical portable houses, which, they add, can also be used as ice fishing shacks, hunters’ shelters, temporary offices and the like.
This is exactly the opportunity that RanDome is looking to address. We think that our construction method simplifies this type of structure and greatly expands the possibilities of this market segment. Even Bruce Leep admits their current structure, while small and affordable, in not simple:
“The shape seems simple,” Bruce Leep said. “But very precise dimensioning is required. It was difficult to figure out how all of these angles come together.”
We need to get a prototype built - but we would very much like to partner with others who are looking to do the same thing.
Posted
by Michael Liss
1 comment
Aug 26, 2010
Richard Fischbeck said...
The Times correct the error in the article. It is $20, not $2, per square foot. Our plan is to get this cost reduced to $2 per square foot for RanDome housing. It can be done, I am sure.
