iHouse: Mobile Digs for the Recession

6:49 am, May 7th, 2009, Nicole Martinelli

Clayton i House
Welcome iHome: doors recently opened on a solar-powered, energy efficient prefab house that creators hope has the design cachet of Apple products.

Miles away from the usual trailer park digs, the homes feature v-shaped rooflines, bamboo floors and rooftop decks.

The name’s a hat tip to Apple — much like the iApartment building or the iHotel we’ve written about before.
“We love what it represents,” Kevin Clayton of Clayton Homes told the AP. “We are fans of Apple and all that they have done. But the ‘I’ stands for innovation, inspiration, intelligence and integration.”

The recession-friendly iHouse goes for $100 to $130 a square foot, depending on extras in what’s billed as “a moderately-priced plug and play dwelling” for the eco-conscious.Ã‚Â The ribbon was cut on the iHouse in the US a few days ago at the annual shareholders’ meeting of investor Warren Buffett’s Berkshire-Hathaway Inc. in Omaha, Neb.
Via AP

Posted by Nicole Martinelli in Cult of Mac | Comment on this article

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About the author

Nicole Martinelli was born in San Francisco and has lived in Milan and Florence, Italy. Cultish tendencies and love for DIY increased while living on the Old Continent, where tech came late and cost more in Big Mac index terms. She's written for Wired.com, The New York Times and Newsweek. Since 1999, she's been tapping away at zoomata. You can also find her on Facebook, Linked in and Twitter.

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3 comments

Hmm, I don’t get it. I have a 1600 sq foot home with a basement (not included in sq footage) that at $100/sq ft would be $160K. That doesn’t include the lot. The house cost maybe double that but I live in an expensive city. Certainly when it was built it had a higher carbon footprint, but when I bought it and started living in it was a completely green transaction, meaning it had no environmental impact at all to buy an existing home.

If I stuck a solar panel on my roof or a wind turbine I could get awfully close to being just as energy efficient.

What I’m saying is new construction is never as green as an existing home.

razmaspaz, on May 7th, 2009 at 11:22 am

I tried to pitch both a popular Apple print magazine and a green design publication on a story about Clayton Homes eight or nine months ago; both of the passed. I’m glad you posted this Nicole – it’s really a great concept.

Lonnie Lazar, on May 7th, 2009 at 11:33 am

Razmaspaz, it was not a completely green transaction. As you are now in a house that could have been used by someone else, while you lived in a eco friendly location. Now that person who is not eco friendly is building or buying a different house that is having the same effect. You are thinking, just not enough to be green…

DrifterInc, on May 20th, 2009 at 12:16 pm