Katrina Cottages to be sold at Lowe's

Affordable prefab housing in the vernacular style of the New Orleans Creole cottage, Katrina Cottages are designed to be put up for the cost of the much-hated FEMA trailer.

(link thanks to Wet Bank Guide via Think New Orleans)

UPDATE: According to Treehugger, these Katrina Cottages will be sold at Lowe's. More at the Wall Street Journal:

Lowe's Cos., the second-largest U.S. home-improvement retailer after Home Depot Inc., will sell the plans and materials for a neotraditional Katrina Cottage at about 30 stores in Louisiana and Mississippi beginning in November. The announcement comes after Marianne Cusato, a New York designer, struck a deal with the Mooresville, N.C., company to market her concept.

Though not exactly a kit, the Lowe's product will provide just about everything short of a foundation and heating and cooling. The cottages, in four floor plans ranging from 544 square feet to 936 square feet, are made to withstand heavy rains and winds as high as 140 miles an hour. Though Lowe's has yet to put a price tag on the houses, company officials say packages will sell for about $45 to $55 a square foot, or from about $25,000 to more than $50,000.

More at Veritas et Venustas:

AT ONE OF TODAY'S EVENTS commemorating Hurricane Katrina's strike, Governor Barbour cut the ribbon for a small square with twenty Katrina Cottages in Ocean Springs, Mississippi. The concept was born at the Mississippi Renewal charrette last October, and the cottages are now produced and sold by Lowe's. The architectural establishment criticizes New Urbanism, falsely calling it an elitist movement for the rich, but it is the New Urbanists who have produced more than paper schemes since Katrina. (And who other than a small, esoteric elite wants those neo-modern paper schemes?)

and at the Raleigh News and Observer:

Lowe's plans to offer blueprints for the homes at its stores nationwide in November, but initially, the complete home packages will be available at only 30 stores in the Gulf Coast area. The company would eventually like to offer the complete package at all of its stores.

"Our goal is to get those stores [in Louisiana and Mississippi] up and running," Wilson said. "We are in talks about the second phase to have them move across the country."

Four floor plans will be offered, ranging from 544 square feet to 936 square feet. On average, the cottages will take four to six weeks to build. They were all designed to allow for future expansion.

The homes were developed by New York designer Marianne Cusato, along with several leading architects. Shortly after the storm struck the Gulf Coast, Cusato began campaigning for weather resistant, low-cost housing to help rebuilding efforts in the affected areas. In January, she displayed a prototype of the cottage at the International Builders Show in Orlando, Fla

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