After 5 short but exciting years in green prefab design, Michelle Kaufmann has regretfully announced that she is closing the doors of her progressive homebuilding business. In a May 27th blog entry, Kaufmann posted: “Despite our best efforts, the financial meltdown and plunging home values have caught up with us. The recent closing of a factory partner as well as the gridlocked lending faced by homeowners, has proved more than our small company can bear.”
Thanks to Clayton Homes, the “i” prefix has finally made its way into the small house market. After 75 years of mobile home manufacturing, the i-house is Clayton’s first big stab at green building. On the swankier end of things, the i-house is super stylish and slightly more expensive than some of the minimalist exemplars featured here at Small House Style, but Clayton’s new invention might yet be considered a steal.
Until June 13th, tiny house architect Jay Shafer is on a road trip of a different kind. By popular demand, Shafer has hitched up Fencl, a 130 square foot home on wheels (pictured below), and is trekking across the country. Shafer’s tour takes Fencl from San Francisco to New York City, with open houses and building and design workshops scattered along the way. At the end of its journey, having proved its durability, the charming little house will be delivered to a desiring tiny house occupant in the New York area.
Shipping containers are looking more and more viable for the small house and small living movement. Yearly, millions of shipping containers arrive in U.S. ports, but only a portion of these containers ever leave our consumptive shores. For many companies, the cost of shipping empty containers back across seas for reuse exceeds that of purchasing new ones. Add to that our negative balance of trade, and empty containers start piling up. Although the problem remains formidable, out of the box thinkers are coming up with great ways to make use of the hundreds of thousands of containers that are literally stacking up around the world. As it turns out, with a little spiffing-up, shipping containers are ideal building blocks for prefab homes, and their reuse can provide answers to environmental and social problems alike.
In London, Container City™ has constructed a jigsaw-like apartment complex of converted shipping containers. Check out the video below for the full scoop on these chic, recycled homes. Read the rest of this entry »
