House-in-a-Box!

Photos by Gerald Herbert

I think this house-in-a-box is the most useful, innovative, (not to mention cute) house ever. I read about it this weekend on Yahoo news. Designed for disaster relief, all the pieces fit in a single shipping container and it functions completely off the grid. Plus, it's affordable; it costs about $100,000. The house has solor panels on the sloping-overhang-part of the roof to provide the house's electricity, and the other roof slopes to collect rainwater. It can also be fitted up with a wind turbine.

The house has 2 bedrooms, a bathroom, kitchen and great room, and it can be added on to in better times. Once the house is in place, it is a permanant structure. I mean, it is a real, permanent house that is designed to withstand hurricaine winds and disaster-type weather.  The idea is to have 1000's of these, packed up in containers and ready to go. This house is a prototype, but the plan for its deployment is all worked out by the manufacturer...and there was a tantalizing bit at the end of the article about being able to buy one under normal conditions. 

I do not love a disaster, but I do love this house. Whada you think? Love this self-sufficient house-in-a-box?