Modular homes look like any other home. Modern building technology has allowed manufacturers of modular homes to build almost any style, including a simple ranch, a highly customized contemporary, Victorian, Southern and log homes. Modular manufacturers also build banks, schools, office buildings, motels and hotels.

The 2004 NextGen Demonstration Home, displayed at the International Builders’ Show in January, showed visitors some of the many options possible. Built at the All American Homes factory in Milliken, Colo., the 2,400-square-foot home was constructed in modules that integrated many PATH-profiled products and technologies, from bamboo flooring to spray foam insulation to high-efficiency HVAC and home-run plumbing systems. On-site crews installed other technologies, including fiber-cement siding and photovoltaic panels, after the home arrived and was assembled in the parking lot of the Las Vegas Convention Center.

PATH also worked with project producer iShow and home design firm Design Basics, among others, to ensure a whole-house approach — a systems-oriented view of housing construction that yields methods of building faster, at lower cost and with higher quality.