Rendering of model used in Antigua and Ghana
A hurricane and earthquake-ready, earth-friendly house can be built in a day. A Canadian manufacturer will be producing up to 5,000 of these of year to be shipped worldwide, from South Carolina.
Today in Orangeburg, Innovative Composites International (ICI) will show off its brand new plant and show off its product: a house that can be built, start to finish, in a few hours with a team of five builders.
ICI makes half of the home with recycled consumer plastics and fabric.
“Some competing technologies can withstand high winds, but not an earthquake,” says company CEO Terry Ball. “Our technology does both and it does it at less than half the price of a typical conventionally built home (about $120/sq. foot). There’s nothing like it anywhere in the world, which is why we believe that this home building system will soon be used around the world.”
Ball says they chose the location for the port access first, then workforce training and incentives offered by the state. Gov. Nikki Haley says the announcement is “another win for one of our rural areas.”
The homes will be sold through contractors around the world who can build this kind of home.
AUDIO: CEO Terry Ball explained to Ashley Byrd how the homes are produced (5:56)
The Toronto-based company also has a plant in Sault St. Marie, Michigan.
Governor Haley and local officials will attend the plant’s grand opening this afternoon.
