Saw some cool stuff today.

This post will contain a ton of links, 10 to be exact, as I have been all over the internet chasing after this one... To make your experience as easy as possible, I strongly suggest that you hold your CTRL key and click them, so as to not lose your spot here...

Toying around in my RSS feeds the other day, I came upon an article where some students at the Frank Lloyd Wright School of Architecture, which struck me as a brilliant piece of work with what it provides and what it uses to get there. Panelized construction makes for ease of assembly -- which can take place on site or in a factory. "In a factory?" you say? The thing is only 600 Square feet, which makes it simply transportable on normal roadways, and we have ALL seen "WIDE LOAD" towing a whole damned house that probably shouldn't be, no?
By the appearances of things, they have this thing situated in a desert. It can apparently be engineered to either plug into utilities, or be powered by solar and get plumbing in from rainwater harvesting and greywater (dishwashing, bathing, laundry -- everything except the toilet for those of you too lazy to click a link) recycling.

Seriously, click on "article" up there, read about it and come back here...

Now, as I think about this, I think of how damned backwards we are sometimes. The way I see it, one of those things can be built with materials costing not much more than a damned car, manufatured in big numbers on or off-site, could sleep 2 people with relative ease and, in such would be perfect as a pad for people in SEVERAL stations of life, even those not in the fucking desert...

-Fresh out of college (hell or even still in), need somewhere to live?
-Starter home for newlyweds who aren't quite in position to own a "house," but shun apartment living.
-Older people who don't want or particularly need to be in a home?
-"In-laws" or company cottage to take up residence behind a larger house. (hey, that same couple could have it moved to their house when they ARE ready)
-Bachelor/ette who wants a "bachelor/ette pad" without having to resort to apartment living?
-Trendy hipster nerd who has fullu ensconced themselves in this "green" movement?

The possibilities to this could be endless, available to be taken advantage of by those honestly from all walks/stations of life, as above described. A better question would be why hadn't anyone thought of this sooner? I mean, I SERIOUSLY can't imagine these things costing a boatload, technology allows them to damn near sustain themselves, and they don't take up a lot of space. Beats the holy hell out of subsidized housing, foreclosure, delinquent bills and everything else this economy continues to serve us, no?
I am having a hard time imagining the world where one of (or a community of) these is not a decent idea. I know for fact that I could DEFINITELY go for one of these as an alternative to a small or studio apartment or even a trailer ("mobile home" if you wanna get your ass on your shoulders about it).

Anyway, shared the ideas with the homies on Sunday afternoon and the first 2 responses in the disussion were from Priest and Sean, who offered...

"That's as sick as the companies recycling shipping containers into multiple level pre fab homes.The dopeness of the designs are amazing"

What's this? I have more fodder or some ideas for terms with which to approach the Googles with (yes, those were 3 separate links to my searches used)? Apparently, in the UK, they're approaching their housing problem. Shipping containers! They're huge enough to be used to move the entire contents of soldiers' homes back from overseas, not to mention other unmentionably enormous items, all of which would make any one item (hell, or even 5 items) in our houses look tiny in comparison. My understanding, also, is that one can be had for about $900 bucks used, that they're modular, they bolt together and can be stacked to do so in any number of directions/configurations (as shown here, here and here), can be easily outfitted with simple utilities such as electricity and plumbing and did I mention that they're abundant and inexpensive? For tips, reasons and pointers -- instructions even -- on building or buying a shipping container-built home, look no further than here, which has made a new nerd out of me somehow.
Funny things abound, here... We have a group of students in the states in the middle of nowhere making inexpensive self-sustainable housing and a market for 8x8.5x40 containers that could be easily converted into modular housing sitting under our noses -- and let us not forget that it is less expensive for the shipping companies to BUY new containers than it is to ship them back and reuse them -- and there is a housing crisis?

I guess I just know entirely too much to say I know anything at all, huh?