C.U. architecture students examine MMHP site plan

students_examine_site, originally uploaded by elfhaiku.

Bill Windsor of Thistle Community Housing shows University of Colorado architecture students the site plan for Mapleton Mobile Home Park on January 31. The students are proposing a strawbale retrofit of a mobile home on the Mapleton Mobile home site as a test bed for creating a prototype affordable and efficient home 'wraps' that would both insulate an existing mobile home and possibly allow the footprint to be expanded. (Although this last item would not be possible at Mapleton). Bill Windsor of Thistle looks at the future Challenges of a project like this:

Hurtle #1 is the requirement that Mobile Home units cannot have foundations and/or be permanently attached to one. This can be addressed either through design engineering or negotiation. In both cases, the students should
contact the City of Boulder to get hold of the exact terms of the code.

Hurtle #2 is $$$ - it looks like there are some grant opportunities to address costs. MHA may have a 'free' unit to use as a skeleton.