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The world of prefab and modular homes. |
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| abc7news.com |
I'm at West Coast Green, and just wanted to link to a couple more pieces of coverage of the event and the 
mkLotus.
From ABC 7 News in San Francisco: a live report earlier this week showed the near-complete house.
It has to be the most stylish one on the planet. It's only 725 square feet -- that's part of the message -- to be green, you don't need to build so big. Since it's modular, you can buy other pieces and add on to it."
The home was dubbed the mkLotus house by its designer, Michelle Kaufman Designs. The exterior is smart and sleek, with double-paned, floor-to-ceiling windows surrounding the living room and sustainably grown red balau wood and slabs of fly-ash concrete siding the back half....
According to XtremeHome CEO Tim Schmidt, without all the extras, an mkLotus could cost as little as $64,000, and he can have one good to go in less than six months."
[The] house...'was designed as an oasis,' Kaufmann says. 'It can be perfect for a vacation home, or a home where you feel like you're on vacation.'
The popularity of the two- to four-bedroom Glidehouse brought countless inquiries for in-law units and cottages, said Rebecca Woelke, spokeswoman for Michelle Kaufmann Designs.
'We wanted to give clients a different type of design in a one-bedroom layout,' Woelke said, something that 'opens entire living spaces to the outdoors and brings the outdoors in.' To do that, mkLotus' signature feature is its NanaWalls, floor-to-ceiling glass doors in the living room that fold up like an accordion to welcome nature into the home. 'This house blurs the boundary between the interior and exterior.'"
$200 per square foot???? A regular modular house costs $100 per square foot, including the basic construction (See a price breakdown at http://www.altamonthomes.com/faq.html )
There is no way I could afford $200/square foot.
This frustrates me. Why do so many 'eco products' charge so much more then their conventional counterparts.
Michelle Kauffman's products are not aimed at the regular family looking to build a primary residence.
These kinds of eco-homes are trendy show-houses for the people who can afford them. For most of the buyers, a 800-square-foot is a one-bedrooom luxury SECOND HOME for wealthy people.
'Eco Houses' have recently become very trendy in the architecture world, and Michelle Kaufmann designs has gotten a lot of press lately.
I'm willing to pay a premium to buy ecological products. However, with these houses I have to wonder how much of this premium is due to increased costs of the ecological materials and construction, and how much of the premium is due to the 'trendy' factor. Do they charge more simply because the houses look 'modern'? If they were designed in some boring ranch style, the houses wouldn't command so much attention, and might be cheaper.
I want eco-houses for regular people!