Gilding the Lily

Designers Peter Stutchbury and Richard Smith have created an eco-friendly, temporary housing unit capable of many uses, one of which being temporary housing for disaster relief.

By demonstrating that a living structure that is 100% recycled in its building construction and its components, as well as capable of being 100% recyclable after use, and to do so at an extremely low cost, the Cardboard House is a direct challenge to the housing industry to reduce housing and environmental costs.

While being constructed of cardboard, the innovative bonding, cutting, and structural techniques used give stability to this temporary construction. Waterproofing the exterior with HDPE plastic makes the House an environmentally sustainable option; the recyclable plastic is also used for the construction of the flexible under-floor water tanks, as well as the kitchen and bathroom ‘pods’. A series of repetitive portal frames are both spaced and stabilized by a secondary structure similar to the interlocking spacers used in wine boxes, and, overall, creates a pleasing aesthetic to the house.

Conceived as a kit of parts comprising of frames, infill floor, and wall panels and put together with the minimal fixings of nylon wing nuts, hand-tightened polyester tape stays, and Velcro fasteners, the Cardboard House can be put together by two people over a six hour period.

Though the building is
constructed of lightweight
materials (making it both
transportable as well as easily
assembled), the roof’s fabric
assists in holding down the
House (similar to a tent fly) while
also diffusing light in the day and
turning the structure into a ‘glow-box’ at night. Water collected in the ‘bladders’ underneath the floor double as ballasts to further hold down the lightweight building.

A composting toilet system produces nutrient-rich water for gardening, or at the very least, leaving no harmful impact on the environment.

Low-voltage lighting can be powered using a 12-volt car battery or small photovoltaic cells mounted in the roof framing.

Meant to be only temporary housing, the Cardboard House can be used for any variety of reasons, from camping without necessarily roughin’-it to being used as living quarters while permanent housing is being built, but certainly the most beneficial is the use as a temporary housing option during disaster relief efforts. It may be made of cardboard, but environmentally the impact is beneficial, low-impact, and a huge improvement formaldehyde lined mobile homes given to survivors of Hurricane Katrina.

Link: IDasia.org