“Take your underwear out and then put your plates in I don’t know “On one hand, it was brilliant, and on the other hand, it was a completely ridiculous idea,” says Mintz. A combination clothes washer and dishwasher came pre-installed in every unit, though that didn’t always work out well. Heated by means of a radiant heating system in the ceiling, they featured sleek exteriors steel walls with baked-on porcelain enamel finishes that were nearly impossible to drill through, requiring homeowners to hang shelving and artwork via magnets (long-lasting and durable, they could also be cleaned with a quick wash and wax). Lustron homes, designed in a handful of styles by Chicago architect Morris Beckman, came with plenty of quirks and futuristic touches. With built-in shelves and pre-installed appliances, these dwellings, ranging from about 700 to 1,140 square feet, were symbols of modern living, delivered as a kit of more than 3,000 pieces on the backs of specially outfitted trucks. To fulfill his goal of creating homes that would “defy weather, wear, and time,” just as the postwar housing boom was reaching a boil, he took over an old airplane manufacturing plant in Columbus, Ohio, and in 1947, began cranking out prefab home that could be shipped and assembled across the country. Lustron was the brainchild of Carl Strandlund, an industrialist and inventor with the Chicago Vitreous Enamel Corporation who had previously worked on buildingprefab gas stations. “Here you have a stunning example of how it actually worked.” “When you think about prefab modern homes, you often think of East German apartment buildings,” says Mintz, who has been working on the project since 2011. ![]() Photographer Charles Mintz, who just recently released a book, Lustron Stories, that tells the stories of modern owners of these midcentury oddities, argues that this unorthodox design may have realized the prefab dream decades ago. But right after WWII, a Chicago businessman fashioned his home of the future from wartime technologies and an old airplane factory, creating a line of ceramic-and-steel prefabs called Lustron Homes that are still used by hundreds of homeowners nationwide. As the numerous companies chasing the idea of affordable mass-manufactured housing suggests, the dream of prefab homes still attracts innovators, bold ideas, and creative design.
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