Every surface, from the Siemens kitchen to the Conran furniture, is pure white, while the living room/ kitchen has floor-to-ceiling sliding glass doors that open onto wooden decking. A short walk down the corridors is the Jasper Morrison bathroom, with a high-tech shower you can switch on as you lie in your bed.

The latest designer London pad, perhaps? No, this steel, wood and glass structure is the latest in static caravans — but make sure you don’t use the dreaded “c” word in the presence of Dick Shone, the man who designed it.

“It is a state-of-the art, 21st-century, multifunctional living space,” says Shone, 48, as he takes me on a tour of his prototype, known as the Indy house, which stands somewhat incongruously in the corner of a field in East Sussex.

“The moveable living space is a great basic concept. It meets so many needs, as a holiday home, a starter home, a retirement home. The list of possibilities is endless. What I have done is to bring a cleaner, harder aesthetic to the static caravan.”

Viewed from outside, Shone’s creation, which he has spent more than three years and £100,000 on developing, is more Mies van der Rohe than Margaret Beckett. It also has green credentials to match its stylish design. Shone claims the walls, comprising two pieces of hardboard outside a 5in slab of eco-neutral urethane foam, insulate the house efficiently. There is a ventilation system that involves stale air being sucked out and fresh air from outside being warmed, then circulated; the hot-water tank has a heat-exchange coil that could be linked to a full solar water-heating system on the roof. Shone reckons the 3kW of heat generated by the lights and the fridge should be enough to keep the place warm most of the year. In winter, you simply switch on the underfloor heating.

Will the Indy house catch on, or will it remain a designer’s prototype? Shone certainly has form when it comes to launching new ideas. His business career took off in the 1980s when he wrote to Richard Branson to suggest that he should sell posters in Virgin stores. He set up a company distributing artwork to the likes of John Lewis and Ikea.

Shone has yet to attract big-name investors to back this project — although he has sold two slight variations of the Indy house to a buyer in Scotland. One deterrent may be the £85,000 price tag — several times more than the average mobile home.

“People on a tight budget will be attracted by the cheaper fuel costs and the minimal maintenance,” Shone says. “Wouldn’t you prefer to live in one of these, on a pleasant open site, than in a tower block?”

That is Shone’s dream — to have landscaped fields full of Indy houses populated by downsizing retirees, short-term contract workers and young people starting out.

“They aren’t rocket science,” he admits. “When you think of the uses for it — as a ski shack, a surf pod, overspill rooms for a hotel, for example — it is mind-boggling.”

Only the planners stand in his way. “The authorities will let existing park developments expand in size, but when I suggest setting up a new park, they don’t want to know,” Shone says. “As for single units, you are not likely to get planning permission to put one in your garden in a city. In the countryside, there’s a better chance.” if you buy a plot of land by the sea for your Indy house, make sure it has planning permission for a mobile home — or you may have to move to a caravan park.

Two-bedroom furnished homes start at £85,000; call Dick Shone on 07507 835373 or visit boutiquecaravans.co.uk

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