Not really new. I've seen many companies creating similar homes - it's been popular for a few years at least. The more interesting ones (in my opinion) are the ones optimized to be highly efficient for living off-the-grid and self-sustainably.

It's scary at the same time. Humans are getting smaller and smaller and more irrelevant and powerless and less individual. In the future we'll probably all live in little pods under some kind of gigantic government that controls our lives. Maybe we'll be happy, but we'll be shadows of the diverse and complex beings we once were.