So obviously we’ve all thought of moving to the middle of nowhere, right? You wouldn’t need much, just a place to sleep, a shelf for your things, somewhere to cook and a bathroom. A trailer home could provide that, even a classic Airstream on wheels. It’s the embodiment of simplicity, right?
While those solutions are cheap, they aren’t quite ideal. Do you want the luxury of central air, hardwood floors, insulated walls? While most solutions don’t offer those amenities, IQ Haus does:
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WChMIJ7y3TU]
This was taken at the Dwell on Design 2010 show in Los Angeles. It dominated the outdoors design area, as it’s roughly the size of a shipping container. There’s a good reason for this- it’s made from old shipping containers. Designers Jesper Pedersen and Lee Gilroy gut them, cut out window holes, insulate, panel, plaster and tile them until they resemble a compact, modern home. I added music because the noise from the crowd was too loud, but when I examine the bathroom, I noticed they had Moen fixtures installed. The man I interviewed at the end is the creator of IQ Haus, and his vision is incredible- affordable, prefab housing that can easily be placed anywhere. So while you lose the portability of a trailer, you gain the stylishness of a modern home with large windows and a strong sense of minimalism.
There are also monetary gains. The 320 square foot model I showed in the video cost just short of $40,000. They also make a home that’s 4 times as big, and the cost scales linearly- $120,000. For a small home that’s efficient, has tons of windows, has HDMI cables in the walls and looks vaguely like the future, this is an incredible win.
I’ll be finishing up my Dwell on Design 2010 observations this week. Stay tuned!