GreenMobile: Eco Prefab

Image by Michael Berk (double click image for higher resolution)


In response to the Katrina toxic trailer debacle, the federal government appropriated $400 million for alternative temporary housing.

Mississippi's Katrina Cottage concept got the lion's share of the money, but a respectable thin sliver - almost $6 million - went to fund the production of a lesser known concept - Michael Berk's GreenMobile.

The GreenMobile, pronounced like the oil company, not the auto-, is a factory-produced, transportable, expandable, affordable green home that can serve as a "port after the storm" or as permanent domicile. This prototype ties into existing infrastructure or can be equipped to go it alone as self-sustaining living quarters.

Though Katrina Cottages are in abundance - the State of Mississippi is now selling off the excess units - I have to say I'm having some trouble finding a constructed GreenMobile anywhere in Mississippi. (Can somebody help me out here?)

I asked Michael Berk recently about the status of the funded GreenMobile and he said he didn't know. Seems that after consulting early on, he's out of the loop on any resulting construction. Sounding like someone talking about an estranged former lover, Berk commented about the design : "It's changed." I could hear him shaking his head over the phone.

Nevertheless, the final proposal for funding that I saw two years ago was far deeper shade of green than anything else out there. The wording in the appropriation announcement contained the disclaimer "up to" before funding amounts. It would be a shame if this progressive prototype died a premature death with money on the table.

Check out Professor/Architect Michael Berk's website for more images of the GreenMobile.

Top 5 Blog Posts

Sambo Mockbee tops the list of "most read" posts on the NAV blog for good reason; he changed the way many people, including me, look at so-called ordinary materials. He was as much artist and sociologist as Architect. For ultimate inspiration, click on "Shelter for the Soul."

http://newamericanvillage.blogspot.com/2008/02/sambo-mockbees-shelter-for-soul.html

The next most clicked essay - What's Your Walk Score? - links you to a site that scores your (or any) neighborhood for walkability. See how you rank.

http://newamericanvillage.blogspot.com/2008/03/what-is-your-walk-score.html

Architect and professor Michael Berk takes the bronze with his design for the Green Mobile - an affordable, portable, and very green alternative to the modern-day McMansion.

Berk recently illustrated the power of truth and integrity. Forced by an aggressive and arrogant administration at Mississippi State University to "dumb-down and hide" the educational aspects of his design class, and under the threat of the Dean of the School of Architecture being fired, he stood up to the power structure with truth and integrity as his only defense. Long painful story made short, Berk and the Dean remain and the president of the University resigned. This deserves a more detailed post and is, I promise, forthcoming.

http://newamericanvillage.blogspot.com/2008/02/micheal-berks-greenmobile.html

Coming in right behind Berk is America's first green Architect, Frank Lloyd Wright. At the age of 89, he made the claim that "If I had 15 more years, I could rebuild this country." Although prone to hyperbole for the sake of drama, he may have been right. Wright is responsible for more of our built environment than you think, including the open plan. He called it "exploding the box."


http://newamericanvillage.blogspot.com/2008/02/frank-lloyd-wrights-organic.html


Rounding out the top 5 is Michelle Kaufmann. She's doing some very interesting things in the area of pre-fab design and building. All very contemporary. Check her out at:

http://newamericanvillage.blogspot.com/2008/02/michelle-kaufmanns-glidehouse.html

Micheal Berk's GreenMobile

Professor Michael Berk has some innovative ideas.

His GreenMobile concept combines sustainability, energy efficiency, affordability, and mobility for a fresh take on green housing. In one clean stroke, this Architect shatters the myth that green costs more. With prices starting at about $50,000, this green home is affordable by most of the American population.

The GreenMobile draws on modular and manufactured home technologies in to create a handsome structure that can be easily transported and set up on-site in short order. Berk’s design is perfect for emergency housing, and even more perfect for the green-conscious, budget-savvy homeowner.

Designed with solar panels and a rainwater collection system, this new breed of home is no slave to the "grid." The GreenMobile can work independently of infrastructure, or as a hybrid-house attached to local utilities. Homebuyers need not depend on the availability of utilities to dictate their choice of home sites.

And keeping the footprint small (a two-bedroom model is 890 square feet, a one-bedroom is 560 square feet) keeps costs in check; the McMansion may have been the fad in the recent past, but modern-day economics is sending too-big houses the way of the dinosaur.

GreenMobile was awarded an almost $6 million grant recently from FEMA's Alternative Housing Pilot Program (part of Congress' post-Katrina relief funding) in an effort to develop a new generation of disaster-relief housing - a good use of taxpayer money, in my opinion. A prototype is currently under development to replace some of the FEMA trailers on the Mississippi Gulf Coast. Approximately 80 units are expected to be produced later on this year.

Check out the poster of the GreenMobile’s winning entry in last year’s Lifecycle Building Challenge:

http://www.lifecyclebuilding.org/files/poster-GreenMobile.pdf

And for more information on Professor Michael Berk and GreenMobile development, go to his web site:

http://www.caad.msstate.edu/mberk