As fastcoexist.com informs MHProNews, a group of Stanford University students in Calif. have developed a modular home “Core” concept—the plumbing and most of the mechanicals are basically in a 12′ X 15′ X 10′ box, with wires and ducts fingering out. Start.Home has a kitchen on one face of the box, and the bathroom and laundry rooms on the other sides of the box, and then the house is built to customers’ wishes around this core, thus avoiding the cookie-cutter look. Derek Ouyang, leader of the project, says, “We’re making homes more like cars. We’re designing an engine for a home.” The finished product will be Stanford’s entry in the 2013 Department of Energy’s ‘Solar Decathlon” held biennially in Washington, D.C. At the end of the competition in October, the modular house will become home to a Palo Alto, Calif. couple who are expecting a child.
