Technology Roadmap: Whole House and Building
Process Redesign - 2003 Progress Report (May 2004, 36p.)
This interim report, Whole House and Building Process
Redesign Roadmap, documents progress in the development
of a technology roadmap that addresses the "whole house"
perspective on home building, and the entirety of the home
building process. Roadmap development was initiated in 2001,
and a status report on year one activities was published in
2002. This interim roadmap report incorporates the results
of activities and work performed since early 2002.
The subject matter defined in the Year One progress report
for this roadmap is broad, loosely defined and largely conceptual,
resting on broad mandates such as "Change the Home Building
Paradigm." This may be appropriate or even necessary
at early stages in the process, but it defers the difficult
task of creating a final, operational roadmap from the first
year's report. Thus, it has been challenging to balance the
desire for an overarching vision and lofty goals with the
practical realities of a large and diverse industry that is
reluctant to change, and a small annual budget with which
to bring about change. To solve this dilemma we have gathered
input from a wide range of interests in creating this document,
which is part "roadmap" and part strategy for working
towards a comprehensive, integrated whole house roadmap that
is relevant to the segments of the industry which produce
industrialized housing, both modular and manufactured, as
well as to site built housing. Our priority was to produce
a useful document delineating necessary activities and projects
by which the industry could measure progress rather than to
put out a final document resting on unachievable or overly-broad
strategies.
New technologies and processes as described in this document
offer promise to the building industry in many ways. The adoption
of innovative business practices from other industries and
the integration of various subsystems of the home into a systems-based
approach will offer further improvements in durability, cost
effectiveness, and cycle time. We invite manufacturers, builders,
trade contractors, researchers, and others to examine this
roadmap, request information on ongoing or potential research
projects, and actively participate as it is further expanded
and implemented.
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