Upward Mobile-ity (continued)
Photo: Michael Deleon
In what Hughes refers to as the team’s big design move, they maximized the trailer’s 25- by-75-foot lot by including a deck that could be disassembled if mobility became an issue. “We oriented the interiors toward this outdoor living room, which has a covered roof and feels like part of the house,” says Hughes. “In a small space, if you can increase your view and access to the outdoors, your place feels larger.”
Keeping sustainability and budget constraints in mind, Hughes and his students utilized salvaged materials whenever possible—redwood for the deck came from a resale source, and interior partitions were created from old solidcore doors and scrap veneer plywood donated by a local cabinetmaker. Readily available and affordable materials filled in the rest, including butcher-block kitchen counters and utility-grade oak flooring.
Hughes says his class spent about $36,000 from grants. Donations of supplies and time plus the students’ free labor made it possible to accomplish the rehab. He estimates that a similar project with no funding could run as high as $140,000.
“It’s the trailer component that jacks up the costs,” says Hughes. “Without that, building a small-scale structure like this would be about 40 percent less expensive.” But until cities update their zoning codes to allow permanent affordable homes to be put in the place of mobile units, he notes, this issue will continue to exist.
In the meantime, he’s comfortable with the fact that he and his students carried out their vision of what a trailer could become. “Instead of making the argument verbally,” says Hughes, “we thought we’d show them what’s possible.”
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