In 1971, AA devoted issue 157 to the United States of America. The issue featured an article by author Paul-Henri David wrote an article on mobile homes and the way they challenged Americans’ relationship with housing.
This article looks back at an alternative housing solution that at the time accounted for a quarter of all housing built in the United States.

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‘This new type of housing did not call on the inventiveness of the engineer, and even less on the genius of the architect, but on the simplicity and naivety of managers who were unprejudiced because they had no particular qualifications. This anti-housing campaign was the triumph of the anti-expert. That’s probably why it could only have seen the light of day in the United States’, writes Paul-Henri David in conclusion, summing up his thoughts on this innovation. Resolutely American, mobile homes are the opening theme of a week that the AA editorial team has decided to devote to the United States of America.

‘In a country where industry was routinely entrusted with new tasks, and in a society where traditional ties were losing their hold, it was conceivable that original solutions to the housing problem would be sought in the dual direction of industrialisation and mobility’, adds the author in this article published in issue 157 of Architecture d’Aujourd’hui, which presented these mobile homes as a solution to facilitate access to that symbol of “American dream” embodied by the detached house.

 

An alternative form of housing that is still relevant today: as well as being home to 16 million people, mobile homes have a resonance in the current US context on the eve of the presidential elections. With the country in the midst of a real estate crisis, access to housing has become one of the issues at stake in the electoral battle between Kamala Harris and Donald Trump.

Read the full 1971 article by clicking on the scan above.

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Issue 157 of AA, devoted to the United States of America, is still available in our online shop.

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