Housing Crunch Solution?

   The Dutch structuralist, Piet Blom, designed cubic houses in response to a request from the city of Rotterdam, completing the project in 1984. Ben Kutner, an Ottawa architect, bought the rights to Blom's design and then fought for ten years to get the right to build cubes on a site in Toronto, at 1 Sumach Street. The site is a small lot, part of a flood plain, flanked on two side by highways, and judged unsuitable for any other use. The "cube condos" were built to demonstrate that an affordable form of housing could be built in hard-to-develop spaces in the city core. They each offer 1200 square feet floor space that is NOT on an angle, with 9 ft. ceilings, and a thermal chimney concept that means no AC is required. The cubes can be sold in kits with features that would allow their construction to result in totally energy-self-sufficient neighbourhoods. Not everyone would able to make the adjustment to such a non-traditional space, obviously, and Kutner says that the believers in Feng Shui are the ones who have the most problem with his creations. Apparently, they are often totally disoriented by the modular cubes, much to Kutner's amusement. Feng Shui practitioners aside, these cubic houses could offer a very real and affordable alternative in the housing market. Why aren't we seeing more of these around?