The picture in the article is the same picture as every article I've googled for (thanks Web for the homogeneous content </snark>), is the wrong picture. The article correctly notes that it is for another project.
But what irks me is that, if a company comes out and says that they have a revolutionary idea, please supply a picture of a prototype or something. Google Image search isn't bringing anything up.
The attribution text (partially visible) suggests the source to be CarAdvice.com. Interestingly, the image on attributed caradvice.com article has same image as the one in the linked article. CarAdvice in turn seems to have taken image from another blog[1] (as linked in the article) and added the attribution.
This is great. I think that in general home construction should be more modular.
The really hard part though is buying the land.
Are there any municipalities in the world where the space above the ground and below the ground are subdivided for private property? I.E., two people may own land in the same area but at different elevations, or maybe one person underground and other above ground.
Not sure exactly what a condo is, but appartments do in New Zealand. Also, there are plenty of buildings above roads (like bridges kind of) here, so I guess that's sort of similar.
Concerning 2/2a: Many places in the US enforce a minimum square footage for real/permanent homes, some places 1500-ft^2 for new construction (appalling, I know). I imagine this might be useful/legal for people wanting to drop a temp shelter to occupy while building on-site (often with time limits imposed -- one county I personally inquired with was 6 or 12 months). For really remote or lax places, a wink and a nod to your county inspector/engineer might result in near-indefinite time for your construction project, but in very few places this will be a legal permanent, full-time residence.
Oh, I know. However, it seems that whenever one of these super-cheap technologies from abroad are announced, many folks from the US wonder if it would be available/legal here.
Part of the problem we face is that local gov't uses real-estate as a tax base. So these awesome $750 dollar houses would be a huge monkey wrench for municipalities unless usa pass amendment allowing financnial wealth tax.
But what irks me is that, if a company comes out and says that they have a revolutionary idea, please supply a picture of a prototype or something. Google Image search isn't bringing anything up.