5/3/09 update: Clayton Homes launched the i-house!

When a friend first shot me a link to an article about this i-house, I knew we had to feature it. This is a new, modern, green home designed and soon-to-be offered by Clayton Homes, the largest manufacturer of manufactured housing in the U.S. Clayton Homes started in 1934, smack dab in the tough years of the Great Depression, and since that time, they've sold ~1.5 million homes. If everything goes as planned with the i-house, Clayton Homes would like to be selling 2000 i-houses per year within 18 months of launching sales in May or so of this year.

The i-house gets its name from its footprint. The core portion of the home is 992 square feet with bedroom, living room, kitchen, and bathroom. The core is then dotted by an extended flex room and bathroom quarters, which also features an exciting rooftop deck. The configuration of the core and flex room forms an "i," but the flex portion of the home can be placed in other locations in proximity to the main part of the house, too.

Rumor has it that i-house will be sold for +/- $100,000, depending on the purchase of the flex room, but Clayton Homes is doing research still on how to price it.

The butterfly roof was designed for a rainwater catchment system, as well as to carry the optional $8,000 solar pv system (depending on the orientation of house). Amenities include IKEA fixtures, dual-flush toilets, bamboo flooring, recycled content decking material, Japanese-style climate control in each room, and low E efficient windows. Plus, with Clayton Homes’ manufacturing prowess, they’ve found that construction waste is kept to a couple garbage cans or less per home.

[=] Virtual Tour i-house

Another home design we’ve featured previously, the GreenMobile®, has received widespread attention, but according to our last followup with the designer, they’re still trying to get the prototype into production. So, from this vantage point, building and selling green, affordable manufactured housing is more difficult than it seems, and Clayton Homes’ i-House endeavor is good industry news. We can’t wait to step inside one …

[=] The Clayton i-House

[+] Clayton's i-House on Display [Knoxville News Sentinel]

[+] Knoxville's Green House Effect [Metro Pulse]

Photo credits: Clayton Homes.