The Cellophane House

And for their next trick. The environmentalists and green design folks will probably try to foist this one on us, which truly exceeds the awful boxes that the USSR threw up in the mid-20th century to demonstrate their political theory, pizzazz, and how much they cared.

“The Cellophane House is a dwelling designed for mass-customization and minimal environmental impact, modular on a room-to-room basis and as an entire unit. It’s composed of 85-90 percent recycled material and its component parts are largely assembled off-site. It may be the tightest synthesis yet of Modernism’s dreams of orderly and egalitarian dwellings with the sustainable ideals of the current era.” Photo and story from AIArchitect This Week.

And what happens when you convince the general population to not be wasteful and the price of "recycled materials" soars? Or when bio-fuel hybrid efficient cars cause the government to lose gas taxes? Or when there are fewer dump trucks going to the landfill (a story in our local papers)? Well, guess what? The price of whatever you have left--materials, fees and taxes--just goes up.