Friday, January 16, 2009

January 2009 articles about the iHouse:

Clayton Homes modern green i-House from Jetson Green by Preston Koerner

Two articles/discussion threads about the iHouse, from Treehugger:

Trade in 250 iPods, get yourself a 1,000 sq. ft. iHouse? by Brian Merchant of Brooklyn.

Thoughts on Clayton's iHouse by Lloyd Alter of Toronto, a former worker in prefab design.

After reading the latter article, might be a good time to remind people that the Brits and Canadians use the term "Park Model" to mean any manufactured home that will be placed in a park. Here in the U.S. "park model" is a specific term used to refer to a home of 400 sq. ft. or less that has a special classification as an RV, and can can be placed in an RV park, a special park for "park models," or on private land if zoning allows a person to live in an RV. While zoning allows doublewide manufactured homes in many areas, most of the areas zoned for manufactured homes will not allow "park model" RVs.

Clayton's I-House: Prefab Green Homes Get Affordable from Popular Mechanics, by Glenn Reynolds

This Popular Mechanics article presents some new information; that the house will be offered as a basic unit, with an option of rooms that can be added on -- like the "flex" room -- and can even be configured to go on a hillside with the extra rooms on different levels. I also like the photo of the kitchen/living room, with this article, as it looks very natural, with sunlight coming in. Also mentioned is the innovative marketing Clayton will do, through Ikea.

Saturday, January 10, 2009

Take a virtual tour of the Clayton iHouse

Click HERE FOR A VIRTUAL TOUR, of the iHouse, from Clayton media.

As far as these 360 degree home tours go, they don't get much better. This is very nice. In its pan, the camera "fisheyes" here and there, making a doorway look twice as wide as it is, but at least it quickly reverts to a view of what is real. Considering there are many manufactured home models, which are in production, for which there are NO photographs, this shows Clayton is taking their new green home seriously and are proud of it.