It’s a *WIN* for SMI! Structural Modular Innovations Wins MHBA’s January Home of the Month!!! “The Picket Fence Idea Home, built by EcoCraft Homes and manufactured by Structural Modular Innovations, LLC, is a standout example of how modular construction is advancing to meet modern housing needs.”  Read the full article: https://www.modularhome.org/home-of-the-month-january-2025/

  • The home’s completion date: August 2024
  • The home’s location: Pittsburgh, PA
  • The home’s builder: EcoCraft Homes
  • The home’s manufacturer: Structural Modular Innovations, LLC
  • Square Footage: 2007 sq. ft. home over a 660 sq. ft. ADU (ground floor)
  • Number of Stories: 3
  • Number of Bedrooms: home (2 bedrooms), ADU (1 bedroom)
  • Number of Bathrooms: home (2 ½ baths), ADE (1 bath)

More about The Pickett Fence

The Picket Fence Idea Home in a charming Pittsburgh neighborhood set a new benchmark for the building industry. Its design, construction coordination, and focus on both homebuyer preferences and environmental considerations were guided by insights from Wave 3 of the America at Home Study. This study is a nationally representative survey of U.S. adults aged 25-74, with household incomes of $50,000 or more per year, conducted online in October 2022 with 3,000 participants following the COVID-19 pandemic yielding repeatable consumer insights into the changing lifestyle preferences that will impact home and community going forward.

“A collaborative effort from the start, the home’s creation engaged a wide range of stakeholders, from consumer researchers and home designers to a housing innovation think tank and an off-site home building operation—all with a singular goal: “… to design a home that is future-proof; one that meets people where they are today while seamlessly adapting to their future needs,” says Ryan White, director of design at Dahlin Architecture | Planning | Interiors in Pleasanton, Calif., the project’s architect.” From ProBuilder, The Picket Fence: A New Urban Legend.

Wave 3 of the America at Home Study offered unique insight into consumer preferences and evolving definitions of “home” after the pandemic. The study highlighted that wellness features are particularly valued by millennial “Trail Blazers.” Three main goals emerged from the findings: the home needed to be high-performance (striving for and achieving net-zero certifications), minimize waste, and reduce carbon emissions.

Thus, the Picket Fence Idea Home project was born, a collaboration among Pro Builder Media, Dahlin Architecture | Planning | Interiors, the Housing Innovation Alliance, and The America at Home Study, presents a captivating solution that caters to the Trail Blazers while solving some of today’s housing market’s most pressing dilemmas.

Derived from the data to create a long-lasting market change, the project team established a trio of lofty but attainable goals for The Picket Fence, each requiring a comprehensive and integrated approach to design, construction, sustainability, and livability.

The Picket Fence is a framework for builders to take measured risks in delivering housing solutions that exceed consumer expectations, align with household financial realities, and are easier to construct.

Using data-driven design to tackle wellness, sustainability, and affordability head-on, this modular concept home is a blueprint for a new standard of living.

The project team swiftly integrated into the factory production process at Structural Modular Innovations (smihomes.com) to help achieve its three goals, resulting in a roadmap for the housing industry at large, regardless of market or price point.

“This was an incredible opportunity to collaborate with a world-class team of designers, systems-built housing experts, product development leaders, building performance experts, and researchers,” says Dennis Steigerwalt, President of Housing Innovation Alliance, LLC.

Three sustainability goals were set for The Picket Fence, with measurements verified by various collaborators.

The Picket Fence Idea Home was completed in August and announced its worldwide debut.

Goal 1 — High-Performance Home: Built following the spirit of the Zero Energy Ready Home (ZERH) program. Though not fully certified, the home successfully exceeded DOE’s ZERH standard.

Goal 2 — 90% Less Waste Generation: Monitoring the construction process we observed the project generated less than 0.5 pounds of waste per square foot, a stark contrast to the 4.4 pounds per square foot typical of site-built homes.

Goal 3 — Carbon Emissions Reduction: Compared to traditional new home construction, The Picket Fence was able to achieve a 58% reduction in carbon emissions.

The Pickett Fence home was highlighted at the MHBA’s National Housing Conference in Pittsburgh on October 28-30, 2024.

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