Indian Company Produces Flat-Pack, $700 Houses

[Purveyor]

The Indian company that launched the world's cheapest car has unveiled its latest product for the fast-growing nation: a flat-pack house that costs just $700 and can be built in a week.

The Tata group, maker of the $2,500 Nano car, said that the 20-square-metre (215-square-foot) home comes from a pre-fabricated kit that includes doors, windows and a roof.

"We have already prepared two-three different designs based on discussions with users and are gathering more feedback," Sumitesh Das, the head of the project at Tata, told reporters in Hyderabad.

"Hopefully, in the next six-eight months we should be able to roll it out in the market nationally."

MORE...

http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2011/07/17/indian-company-produces-flat-pack-700-houses/

[KittyWampus]

1. Life expectancy is 20 years. That said, it's a solution to a serious problem.

[Shandris]

4. 30 square meters...anyone know right offhand roughly how big that is?

I agree it's a good thing though...better than being homeless (needless to say!).

...on a more humorous note, I wonder what those last 6 months look like. Do the walls fall in and create a dome, or...? :silly:

[Fearless]

5. 18ft by 18ft- About the size of a two car garage.

30sq meters = 322.917312501292 sq ft

Square root of 322.917312501292 is about 17.9ft.

[OmmmSweetOmmm]

14. The article said, roughly 215 sq.ft.

[FreakinDJ]

2. Most Americans today don't understand what a "Shanti-Town" is

our parents did

[hunter]

3. They're still around, but people who don't walk don't see it.

Here in the U.S.A. we hide our poverty and unemployment very well.

[Dappleganger]

8. They're all over Costa Rica...

spending time down there really opened up my eyes. Although there are some places in West VA that I've been which aren't that much better.

[humblebum]

9. Actually they do exist here in America today. They're just going by a different name.

And they have taken the form of cardboard boxes, shopping carts, living under bridges. It is a national disgrace. Stop the wars and help the people at home.

[originalpckelly]

6. We need the same thing here in America.

If Americans could buy a less expensive house, they might not need to rely on credit as much to get it. It would be a step in moving us away from the use of so much credit in our economy.

Obviously, it would be best to make it in America, with Americans, being paid a decent wage, but it would be a good idea.

Just not as small, though.

[Vehl]

7. laudable project

There are many in India who cannot afford homes. These might serve as the fallback for those who do not have a home and/or the means to buy one. Apparently the homes will also be available in larger sizes (30 sq meters, 40 sq meters and 50 sq meters etc) and with optional solar lighting. I hope it tends to be environmentally friendly.

[mfcorey1]

10. Immediately tap into all the money that was raised for Haiti and get some orders. nt

[wundermaus]

11. I think shipping container modular homes is a good low cost option...

There is a glut of these containers in almost all US ports...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UvcUe_yPHdg

and if partially buried, could provide safe shelter in tornado prone areas.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A3EAJex1RVo

If zoning laws allowed there use in low cost housing areas,
I think they would be a great entry point for home ownership.

[FreakinDJ]

12. That is Middle Class housing in India

you might be grappling with the concept of "Impoverished"

[wundermaus]

16. Wasn't thinking of India per se... was thinking of US

Having never been to India, I am completely ignorant of their situation.
From a distance, though, India seems to have a population problem more than a housing problem.
Throwing dog kennel size homes (slums) at it won't solve their (oceans of poverty) "problem".

In my reply, I was addressing the housing issue in the US where thousands (millions?) of home are vacant while thousands (millions?) of people are homeless.
Low cost entry level homes seem to be a forgotten market here in the US because the money (profit) seems to be focused on ridiculously over-sized (and over priced) homes.

If I was living in India, my first concern would be access to clean drinking water and a regular food supply.
A home (four walls and a roof) would be a luxury in and of itself in such a place.
Seven hundred dollar might as well be a million dollars to the vast majority of people living in India.
Sure, a prefab 2 car garage (that's a house?) is better than living out in the open but even I can come up with a better concept than that.

http://www.ferncometal.com/

http://architecture.about.com/od/construction/ss/earthblock.htm

http://www.lowcostgreenhome.com/

[Safetykitten]

13. HP cutomer support comes with them.

[Posteritatis]

18. Stay classy, buddy. (nt)

[LiberalEsto]

15. Hey, why not? The Tata Co. has been putting up their

H1-B workers in the U.S. in cheap dormitories for years. They send their people over here to take American IT jobs, and they've been very successful at it. The "Tatas", as the Indian H1-B visa It workers are sometimes called, live very cheaply in the dorms for 5 years, then return to India with all the money they've saved.

[Cleita]

17. There was a company in Spokane that did something

similar. I don't know if they still do, but what happened to "Buy American"?