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Permanent Impermanence:
Trailer Homes of Central Appalachia

Fall 2024


Numerous Sites // Central Appalachia
Trailer homes rose to prominence in America in the 1950s marketed as an “affordable home.” Now 70 years later they are estimated to be as much as 6% of all housing stock in the US and near 40% of housing stock in Appalachia. Malleable by nature and designed for mobility, trailer homes are impermanent structures often modified for permanence overtime.

Pairing photographs of trailer homes, taken in Kentucky, West Virginia and Ohio, with each states respective code shows the legal strangeness around this vital housing stock and the varying degrees of regulation. Eachphoto highlights the original single family dwelling, to expose the additional acts of permance added to these legally temporal structures. All the photographs were taken within a 50 mile radius of one another on the Kentucky, Ohio, and West Virginia border.


Special thanks to Mary Rudmann and Mary Herrmann

Exhibited in ruralGSD 2024 Design Summit Kirkland Gallery

Southshore, Kentucky Southshore, Kentucky State Rt. 1, Kentucky Quincy, Kentucky State Rt. 1, Kentucky


Logan, Ohio Crown City, Ohio Logan, Ohio Portsmouth, Ohio Proctorville, Ohio
State Rt. 2, West Virginia State Rt. 2, West Virginia State Rt. 2, West Virginia State Rt. 10, West Virginia State Rt. 2, West Virginia
Please see my current selected works, while this website undergoes (re)development. Thanks!
                                                                                                                                                                    - Dylan


Dylan Herrmann-Holt

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Dylan is a designer from rural Appalachia. His work centers rural spaces, construction tectonics, community development and exploring visual representation. He did his BS in Architecture at Kent State University and M.Arch I at Harvard GSD. He typically finds inspiration in the architecture of his youth in Southern Ohio and whatever pop culture he is presently immersed in.