Re:A house that costs $20k
by raggiskula on Thursday February 04, 2016 @04:31AM
(#11032858)
Icelander here, I'm more concerned how well does this house work in icelandic conditions? Does it handle earthquakes well? What about regular storms? Being wet for months end? Constant freezing and thawing? Can you put it in an active volcano? Does if float on magma? There are lot of questions here!
While I'm not really concerned about it, I doubt that it would live up to Danish building regulations. I'm mean we pressure test our homes... then install ventilation systems because living in a house that can parse the pressure test would be unhealthy. We then continue to get headaches and stuffed noses because the ventilation systems aren't any good either.
Anyway, it doesn't look like this house would fit the required amount of isolation.
Re:A house that costs $20k
by luisramalho on Thursday February 04, 2016 @04:36AM
(#11032884)
Does it float on magma?
Do houses in Iceland really do that?
Re:A house that costs $20k
by david-given on Thursday February 04, 2016 @04:44AM
(#11032908)
Only briefly.
Re:A house that costs $20k
by logfromblammo on Thursday February 04, 2016 @03:17PM
(#11036854)
If you built a boat from SiC attached to enormous heat sinks radiating into empty space, it would float for longer.
But air-conditioning expense makes it cost-prohibitive.
Magma is pretty dense (it's molten rocks, after all), so many things float on magma.
Very interesting discussion on the subject :
http://www.wired.com/2012/01/can-you-walk-on-lava-falling-in...
I see this as an opportunity for existing land owners to replace a house.
Every summer, somewhere in Australia, we have whole rural communities razed by bushfire. Rebuilding is costly and time consuming and there's a threat that fire may return within decades.
Constructing something that is quick and cheap and with low insurance premiums in case of natural disaster may benefit communities where the expected lifespan of a dwelling may only be 40 years.
Indeed. My house is 20 minutes away from the centre of one of the financial capitals of the world. You couldn't buy enough land to build one of those houses on for half a million. You wouldn't get planning permission anyway, and I doubt it meets the local building regulations.
The founder of WikiHouse (open source housing system, similar build cost) wrote a book on the topic: https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/1850356/ARighttoBuild_CC...
Even on Iceland which has vast amounts of space and tiny population, house prices are high because the areas where people want to live is in high demand.
Now if you could just build your house at any arbitrary location on Iceland then that would not be a problem. But people needs schools for children, hospitals, jobs etc. That limits the options.
The US has fairly cheap land because it is flat, it is easy to build infrastructure and there are a lot of roads everywhere which you can connect to. The city planning also space out things a lot leaving a lot of land for building.