We all live in a white Igloo cooler.

Once, on a family camping trip to the beach, someone stole our food-packed styrofoam cooler off of the picnic table while we slept in the bed of the pickup. (This was a classy camping trip.) That cooler was huge and doubled as a bench because it was so sturdy. Which brings me to my "Well, yeah" moment.

ThermaPanel is expanded polystyrene in 4' panels intended to replace everything that normally fills a stud wall. It's an interesting concept that is probably very cheap and energy efficient.



But I have a couple of questions:

What about outgassing? Polystyrene wouldn't allow buildings to breathe, so any chemical fumes would be trapped inside unless the openings were left, um, open for a while.

Why are the existing structures so damn ugly? I mean, honestly.