A Small Osprey Eco-Cottage Has Landed

These little homes are great, and I agree that we need to look at smaller homes both for building efficiency and for the low income housing market. However the buzz surrounding them makes me wonder whether we have lost site of ideas like flat packing and other efficient shipping methods. Also who is buying these. Are they being marketed to Haiti or New Orleans. Can we build them with locally sourced materials or is it just another string of vacation homes and more excess that we don’t need. I would like to see some of this innovation going to a technology that helps further the cause of sustainable buildings. Vacation homes are not sustainable don’t encourage the market. I will be happy to see this fad go the way of the pet rock.

I agree, benjaca. But a small, factory built home made with little to no waste that can be taken off grid is a step in the right direction. Unfortunately the way our society works requires that innovation starts at the top and filters down to those who need it most…. If homes like this become popular enough, the prices will come down and become available to more people.

Incidentally, Michael Reynolds (of earthship fame) is always one of the first to go into places like Haiti and following the tsunami to build locally sustainable homes for the victims, teaching them how to do it.

I like the green and yellow house. I hope they really are economical. Everyone should really go back to the basics and live life as simply as we can. Less pollution, less dangers to the planet, less stress.

These houses look great, but they are no better adapted to local conditions than the average tract house. That porch with the center post is a bad idea in an area that is subject to high winds (which is anywhere on the coast). The owner may not mind losing the porch in a storm – but what about the neighbor whose house it crashes into? Ditto for putting this thing out in the desert – as is shown in one of the photos. Solar heat gain is a major problem. High tech glass can help but what you really want is shading.

Would love to see a larger floorplan that could accommodate a family.