patricia beharry to each his own.

Sharon Gottula Photography I love the idea but unaffordable for most people.

Casart Coverings All for the concept, but practicality of form over comfort and esthetics will have to be addressed before I am a believer. For instance, I wouldn't want to have to pull down that Murphy bed every night at my age. The toilet is too high and awkward visually. I would have to replace those stools at the table for chairs to encourage enjoyable dining. On the other hand, I love the idea of the desk and the ottoman that separates into 5 seats

Premier Property Group Price is insane. Its a waste of time and resources if its unaffordable. Who in gods name would want to live this small if they can afford 250k for a house. Its ridiculous!

patricia beharry It took me awhile,but I finally got it. Toilet reminds me of getting your shoe shined at Grand Central Station.

alexsnini You nailed it. I was trying to put my finger on it.

Perkins + Will Until prefab can be as affordable as main line builder new construction, it will remain outside the norm

creyn I appreciate the effort to be green. Now make it cozy. Tiny Tumbleweed houses are so much more inviting design-wise. I see no practical storage: brooms and mops for instance.

miles2gob4isleep I was intrigued until I saw the price. No way.

juliec Pre-fab should cost LESS than the builder norm, not 3-4x. Even with the solar panels, et. al., it is still very overpriced.

Elyn's Library I agree, price is high, but will adjust as more and more people accept the concept. We WILL have to learn to adapt our living spaces and create more sustainable life styles.

It will happen faster than you can imagine. Remember when computers required an entire room, constant refrigeration and cost hundreds of thousands of dollars? Now, you have a gadget the size of a playing card, goes hours without being plugged in, has many times the computing power of that room-size behemoth, costs at most a few hundred dollars, and it fits in the palm of your hand.

In our future housing, we will insist on comfortable, economical, comfortable, practical, comfortable, efficient, comfortable, beautiful, comfortable and sustainable solutions to our housing needs. It will happen, it will be interesting, and we will look back at this concept house, laugh and say, "Can you believe....."

oja319 Have my doubts that pre-fab is upward trending - on the surface it looks nice, should be affordable, etc. This particular one as a demonstration shows off pre-fab's best side except for the price which is where the benefits begin to fall apart. This temporary structure seems to not have a foundation, probably no utility hook-ups except for electricity (extension cord), no relationship to a site or property and is all about style and looking good. Inside it's dressed up nicely but still looks like a designer got hold of a trailer home. Once you add in the cost of land, site development such as driveways, foundations, trenching utilities to the house, digging sewer lines to the street, etc. the economics start to resemble building a custom home the old-fashioned way. Plus then you could get (if you wanted them): soaring double-height spaces, curving walls, windows that took in the best views or turns it's back on things you didn't want to see, worked with the topography and trees of the site. As an economic concept pre-fab was meant to be a factory built, many multiple unit business model creating whole communities of similar structures on level flat lots thus keeping costs lower through buying power and repetition. Instead it is trying to be a one-at-a-time solution with few of the benefits that were promised.

Gabrielle Dumas I'd really like to be able to view the closet and storage areas as this poses an enormous problem in small spaces. Storage would make or break the concept.

Ruth Tekell I think they can do better with the esthetics. And the price. I'm definitely not a fan of the grossly oversized "throne."

Greenstone Design UK Ltd Small can be beautiful - we champion Susan Susanka's approach with her Not So Big House. This example shows how to design to live more sustainably, more lightly on the earth - I like it. The relatively high entry cost should pay off quickly, with reduced energy, food and water bills. - The toilet does look high :-) There are other eco-friendly options available that look far more 'conventional'. In all, 8/10

kareliada Do you have a floor plan? This space looks a lot smaller than 772sf. I live in 550sf and my space looks bigger than this. Also, why would the toilet connect to a grey water system - it's a composting toilet...or is it a hybrid?

midmodfan I think prefabs like this are just not meant for everyone. Most people

-don't care about saving resources
-don't want a modern home
-choose space over quality
-don't have much money anyway (well, who of the 99% has ...)

So why should anyone who is used to the average cheaply built traditional style home that is considered old after 20 years want a small, resource saving, modern and expensive house that will probably last for generations? It's like trying to sell fridges to Eskimos.

Alex Amend Photography I should also add, the toilet used for the show (as seen in the photo here) is not as nice as the model that would come with the home. Apparently they couldn't get one in time.

Hugh Wolfe Ok, enough negativity... I'll be different and say I like it. I'm not saying I'm a fan of the price, but the idea / execution is appealing. And yes I also feel out of place where I live... I drive a Mini Cooper in Dallas... land of the 6000 lb. 4WD off road pick me up trucks that never ventures further than the shopping mall. Learn to live with less stuff and start enjoying life outside the home.

Cathy Minard__OShea I love the idea too but a much more affordable option is really NEEDED. People have got to try and design for the real world. A large percentage of Americans cannot afford this option, although it is beautiful.

3gardens3 atrailer is a trailer is a trailer.

Kitchen Liberty Rocio Romero put this design to shame 5 years ago: the LV is 10 x the house this is.

Ruth Tekell Agree with kitchenliberty2012! Romero's prefab is a classic and will be timeless. But kind of pricey by the time you get it looking that good. I don't know how the prices compare per sq foot. Haven't done the math. But I notice Habitat for Humanity is starting to use some "fab prefabs" rebuilding hurricane disaster areas I think. This is really good news because the more pre-fabs are sold, the less expensive they should be. I am hoping it means that truly affordable TASTEFUL modern homes are on the horizon. It's great that people are trying new stuff, even if they need to tweak a few things to get it perfect. Also the more nice looking prefabs are installed in neighborhoods, the more they will get exposed to the public, and maybe someday people will STOP equating the words prefab with trashy trailer/mobile homes! It amazes me that so many people still just tune me out when they hear the word prefab! I hope it catches on and the prices come down before I'm too old to enjoy one.

davisbj We had a partially prefab years ago. It was much larger than the one here. The price seems a little high for this house, but consider the water system. Who knows what the cistern costs. All energy saving devices are expensive, too.

Joanna Zygo Love it...

johnfoley I agree with most of these comments and would add:

1) Some of us (actually, about 1/2 of us) sometimes use a toilet by standing in front of it. Are we to stand on that little step, like 4-year-olds, or stand back and hope our aim is true?

2) Did anyone else notice the water tank about 1/3 the size of the house sitting next to it? Seriously? What happens if this home is in one of the many, many, parts of the US where where water in such a tank would be frozen half the year? Does it capture and melt snow? Do we only get water in the summer? This would definitely conserve water.

This house illustrates a useful exercise in taking good, green principles to the extreme to push the envelope in a particular direction. It is not a space in which anyone would actually want to live.

Ruth Tekell John Foley, you don't HAVE to stand up to pee....

alicepaige so Houzz................. please feature some ideas like this that are actually affordable -- and have comparative market prices.... like 1200 sq ft for 125,000 or so .............. that's our price range in the south. I think there are MANY of us out here who would LOVE to do some of these but have limited budgets............. so HELP ................. do a feature where these companies show us their competitive sq ft prices.............. for my region i need about 100$/sq ft!

Rose Necor too expensive... i could buy a single detached home in the east bay for much less than that with five times or more square footage...they have to come up with something better than that to entice people.

Pauline S Considering what I pay for water and sewer, the unattractive water treatment tank is acceptable. And I'm guessing this home is designed for it's environment--San Diego, CA.
Otherwise, I like the multi-purposeness of the living room, yet can't see living so minimalistically. Where would I store my clothes?

Ruth Tekell Excellent question Vow31267! Where does one store ones clothes?

GreenFx an absolute dream when it comes to green homes, sustainable small space living...better for OUR PLANET and the future!