Golden-area groups collaborate to design first-of-its-kind modular home

Lot No. 7 of the Golden Hills mobile home park is empty right now, but a year from now, it will be the site of a unique modular home.

And, longer-term, locals hope Lot No. 7 will be the beginning of a larger trend that could help hundreds of others across Colorado and beyond.

Golden Hills residents have been working with the Neighborhood Rehab Project, Colorado School of Mines students and staff, and a local housing development company to design a first-of-its-kind modular home that’s affordable, sustainable and scalable.

The 12 Mines students — now Class of 2025 graduates — designed it during the academic year as part of the Capstone Design Program. They worked with Golden Hills residents and NRP on how to make it livable, while Golden-based Addazu offered insight on how to make it affordable and buildable on a large scale.

One Mines team worked on designing the home itself, while the other team focused on concepts for powering it via geothermal energy. Both teams won first place in their respective categories at the April 24 Capstone Design Showcase.

The graduates stopped by Lot No. 7 on May 10 to show their families the project they’d been working on and celebrate their graduation together with their Lot No. 7 partners.

“For a student team to do something like this, it’s great experience,” said environmental engineering graduate Jake Wright, who was on the design team. “Everyone got something out of it.”

Now, the stakeholders are planning to break ground in August and have the modular home fully built and in place by next May. They hoped it would act as a pilot project that, if successful, could be produced on a larger scale.

Joyce Tanner, who lives next to Lot No. 7 and is president of the neighborhood co-op, said working with the Mines students has been a highlight for her over the last year. Overall, she said the project “has been a beautiful example of partners working together for the common good.”

A unique housing solution

Dave Clingman, who represents the Neighborhood Rehab Project and lives in Golden Hills, said NRP started in Golden Hills with the goal of keeping everyone “warm, safe and dry.”

When Golden Hills became a resident-owned park in summer 2023, he said it opened up new opportunities for NRP to help the residents.

Lot No. 7 has been empty for some time, after the previous home was demolished, and the community suffered from the loss of revenue. So, Clingman and Tanner said they approached Mines about a Capstone Design project that would allow Mines students to gain hands-on experience while helping Golden Hills.

The two teams of Mines students met with Clingman, Tanner and others throughout the academic year.

The Orediggers described how most Capstone Design projects are proof of concept, but this one was more tangible. It also required a large interdisciplinary group to tackle all the project’s facets, from the site’s hydrology to the modules’ dimensions.

Weston Gary, an environmental engineering graduate who was on the energy team, said he didn’t have a lot of experience in geothermal energy before the project. Plus, the other stakeholders were great clients who were engaged and collaborative throughout the entire process, he continued.

“It exceeded my expectations,” Gary said of the entire experience.

Matthew Waters, a mechanical engineering graduate who was on the design team, likewise appreciated “having local clients and getting real-world experience.” Waters said he hadn’t worked much on designing and building homes before, but he spent the last eight months helping to ensure this new modular home would not only be affordable but livable.

“It was such a cool experience,” he continued.

With the modular home designed and the site prepped and ready, Addazu founder Kelly Pickering said the next step is building and installing it.

NRP is helping fund the foundation installation, and the stakeholders have received grant funding for a geothermal sustainability study, he explained.

Pickering said the stakeholders are trying to find funding sources for the pilot home, and once it’s finished and installed, it would be sold on the open market.

If the Lot No. 7 project goes well, Pickering expected these modular homes would be installed in communities like Golden Hills around the state, saying it would be a solution to the “missing middle housing” problem.

Tanner believed this type of project was a great way to support resident-owned communities like Golden Hills, describing how manufactured housing makes up a large piece of the affordable housing picture.

The Orediggers felt similarly, with Gary hoping that communities beyond Golden Hills would adopt solutions like this.

He described how geothermal or other renewable energy sources would give homeowners more energy independence. Plus, Gary added, building and installing modular homes like this would be faster, cheaper and more sustainable than many other traditional types of housing.

“It has great potential to fill that gap (between housing supply and demand),” he said.