UB studio aims to improve manufactured housing for rural seniors

BUFFALO, N.Y. – A graduate studio in the University at Buffalo School of Architecture and Planning worked this spring to address an urgent and often overlooked challenge of housing in rural communities: ensuring that it is affordable, durable, energy efficient, and accessible.

The 12 graduate students worked in small teams, each tasked with tackling issues of energy efficiency, durability, climate resilience and universal design. The studio partnered with the Rural Housing Coalition of New York, which received a grant from AARP to help sponsor the studio led by Nicholas Rajkovich, PhD, associate professor of architecture at UB.

The students’ work very well could have an impact outside the studio walls. There is significant interest in expanding manufactured housing in the state given its affordability. And while manufactured homes make up only 2.4% of the total housing stock in New York State, 1 in 10 homes in the state’s rural communities is either a manufactured home or a pre-1976 mobile home.

Both types of housing carry lower construction and operating costs than a traditional built-on-site home, but older units can be unsafe, energy inefficient and lack accessibility features.

“We are very grateful for the collaboration with the University at Buffalo’s School of Architecture and Planning on this AARP funded initiative. Prof. Nick Rajkovich and his students did a tremendous job in creating new mobile home designs that were more energy efficient, climate change resilient and more conducive to the needs of senior residents,” says Rural Housing Coalition Executive Director Michael J. Borges. “We are hopeful that mobile home manufacturers and the state’s Housing and Community Renewal agency will utilize these designs in future projects.”

Earlier in the semester, the students toured a manufactured housing factory in Sangerfield, New York, along with visiting several manufactured housing communities. They then spent weeks developing detailed digital models, drawings and analyses that addressed access, constructability, cost and environmental performance. Each team also presented their designs and findings to a group of stakeholders in Albany earlier this month.

“Students took a critical look at the opportunities that exist for improving the designs of manufactured housing in the state and responded to different issues that we know are happening in New York State, like an aging population and climate change,” says Rajkovich.

Ofir Ben Shimon and his peers examined incorporating universal design principles into manufactured housing, leaning on the expertise of researchers in UB’s Center for Inclusive Design and Environmental Access (IDEA Center).

“Our project is very interior based, thinking about the little things,” Ben Shimon says. “We’re considering clearance spaces, wider doorways for wheelchair accessibility, the height of electrical outlets and light switches. And the bathroom is uniquely designed. There’s nothing under the sinks and countertops, so anyone who uses a wheelchair can easily roll in.”

Most manufactured homes are not built with these universal design principles in mind. The features the students described are typically either customizations or later add-ons, which add to the cost.

“But it makes sense to do these things because it’s almost like future-proofing the home for yourself,” adds Jamie Jiang, a master’s student on the universal design team along with Ben Shimon and Mikah Albro.

Looking ahead, Rajkovich says the studio shows how design as research can connect policy goals, industry practice and the everyday needs of rural residents. “Manufactured housing already plays an important role in rural New York, and it could play an even larger role in meeting the state’s housing needs,” he says. “The question is how we make these homes work better over the long term, especially for older adults who want to remain safely and comfortably in their communities.”

The studio also offers a model for how universities, housing advocates, public agencies and manufacturers can work together to improve housing, Rajkovich notes. As New York confronts an aging population, rising housing costs and a changing climate, the studio’s work points toward a future in which manufactured homes are not treated as a compromise, but as a platform for safer, healthier and more resilient rural housing.