4 ms·

These are all nice, but the prices of them are, frankly, ridiculous. "This green, sustainable house starts at JUST nearly a million dollars." Are you freakin'

These are all nice, but the prices of them are, frankly, ridiculous. "This green, sustainable house starts at JUST nearly a million dollars." Are you freakin' kidding me? Let me know when you can start cranking these babies out in five figures. Then it'll be worth something.

rsheridan6 18y ago
The Rocio Romera is about $23,000. But I am surprised that these are so expensive. You'd think that a factory would have advantages over having guys come to a lot and building a house (imagine if we built cars that way). Maybe the volumes are too low to get much in the way of economies of scale.
- kingkongrevenge 18y ago
  Modern subdivision house construction is basically a moving assembly line. I don't think prefab makes any sense for a premium modern house. You want to use materials like steel reinforced and chemically sealed concrete, stucco, stone, and perhaps solid hard wood. You can't feasibly transport this stuff from a factory to a building site pre-assembled. Prefab only potentially makes sense for light chintzy crap made out of wood and fiberglass, and even then on-site construction teams are very efficient at nailing together stick-wood houses on a concrete foundation so you're not going to save anything.
  - rsheridan6 18y ago
    There are modern alternatives to concrete and wood which are cheaper. A house built of expanded polystyrene - basically a denser version of styrofoam with a hard shell over it - can be had for a materials cost of about $30K http://manolohome.com/2008/08/11/the-habitat-for-the-21st-century/ http://manolohome.com/2008/08/11/the-habitat-for-the-21st-ce... I could easily see something like this becoming ultra-cheap with economies of scale. Make them in a factory and ship them in a few truckloads, then snap them together almost like legos. This is not the only alternative to wood and concrete. If you look around, a lot of people are working on modern (or not so modern) alternatives.

rsheridan6 18y ago

The Rocio Romera is about $23,000. But I am surprised that these are so expensive. You'd think that a factory would have advantages over having guys come to a lot and building a house (imagine if we built cars that way). Maybe the volumes are too low to get much in the way of economies of scale.

kingkongrevenge 18y ago
Modern subdivision house construction is basically a moving assembly line. I don't think prefab makes any sense for a premium modern house. You want to use materials like steel reinforced and chemically sealed concrete, stucco, stone, and perhaps solid hard wood. You can't feasibly transport this stuff from a factory to a building site pre-assembled. Prefab only potentially makes sense for light chintzy crap made out of wood and fiberglass, and even then on-site construction teams are very efficient at nailing together stick-wood houses on a concrete foundation so you're not going to save anything.
- rsheridan6 18y ago
  There are modern alternatives to concrete and wood which are cheaper. A house built of expanded polystyrene - basically a denser version of styrofoam with a hard shell over it - can be had for a materials cost of about $30K http://manolohome.com/2008/08/11/the-habitat-for-the-21st-century/ http://manolohome.com/2008/08/11/the-habitat-for-the-21st-ce... I could easily see something like this becoming ultra-cheap with economies of scale. Make them in a factory and ship them in a few truckloads, then snap them together almost like legos. This is not the only alternative to wood and concrete. If you look around, a lot of people are working on modern (or not so modern) alternatives.