Inhabitat

THE CARDBOARD HOUSE

If you’re a fan of prefab homes, you’ll love this fabbest-of-prefab Cardboard House. The $35,000, all-cardboard structure comes flat-packed and can be erected on site in under 6 hours. It is both made of recycled materials, and is completely recyclable. It also comes with a composting toilet and condenses its own water!

The architects Stutchbury and Pape, working in association with the Ian Buchan Fell Housing Research Unit at University of Sydney, wanted to make a statement about the reduction of technology and the simplification of needs:

“By demonstrating that we are able to recycle 100% of the building components at extremely low cost, the Cardboard House is a direct challenge to the housing industry to reduce housing and environmental costs.”

While the Cardboard house may have started as a symbolic concept design, the success of the prototypes have made it a viable temporary housing option. The lightweight, movable structures can be used for emergency shelter or for other short-term accommodation needs.

+ Available for $35,000 from HousesOfTheFuture.com

11 Responses to “THE CARDBOARD HOUSE”

seabasstin Says:

August 27th, 2005 at 11:04 pm

hi
ok this is not meant to be rude or anything, but why would anyone want a $35000 cardboard house.
If there is one thing that prefab has to compete with is cheap mobile homes.
this seems like a really interesting set up, but the price leaces a lot to be desired.
it needs to be up to $15000 not more then that.
at least that is my perception.

betz Says:

August 28th, 2005 at 4:22 pm

What about rain and moisture?

Jill Says:

August 28th, 2005 at 6:22 pm

Sorry I didn’t mention this in the post (I was trying to keep it short and sweet), but of coure the architects of this project have considered how this house will stand up to rain and moisture. The exterior of the house (the roof) is coated in HDPE plastic.

There are plenty of other specific details I haven’t mentioned in this post as well ? if you have questions, please check out the project website at: http://www.housesofthefuture.com.au/hof_houses04.html

The website should answer any detailed questions along the lines of “why doesn’t this house blow away?”, “How does the structure deal with moisture?”, etc

kris Says:

August 29th, 2005 at 6:10 pm

I love it. I think it’s genius.

brandon Says:

August 31st, 2005 at 12:53 am

this is remarkable- I agree it’s absolutely brilliant- the Buddhists around the world are rejoicing right now because of this….

Ellen Says:

September 20th, 2005 at 3:11 pm

$35,000? What’s the cardboard made out of – Sequoia pulp?

Leo Says:

October 19th, 2005 at 7:58 pm

$35.000 that could have been spent on a cure for cancer… all hail the miserable failure called humanity.

steve loken Says:

October 20th, 2005 at 11:40 pm

Been looking for you folks for a long time! I’ve researched the paper school at Westborough on Thames in UK, and got some original reasearch that the allies pulled together approx 140,000 collapsible cardboard houses that were shipped to Europe after WWII. Phenols for waterproofing were in short supply, so they dipped the cardboard into molten sulfur, with some Borate. This reduced the flammability of the paper, and sufficiently waterproofed the structure, so that one stood at the U of Wisconsin Madison for over 12 years. Bacterial Cellulose(BC), as pioneered by Dr Malcolm Brown at the Univ. of Texas@ Austin can revolutionize the way we (bacteria) make paper without trees, and shorter fibered structures like your pioneering will become more mainstream. I hope this will help expand links of comment. I’m a builder, and building technologist in Montana with a need to network with others on this very worthwhile endeavor, Thanks for your good work, Steve

barbara wall Says:

October 31st, 2005 at 10:22 am

Looking for comment on the future of house design to appear in the International Herald Tribune. I would like to speak with individuals who have bought flat pack houses/architects who have a view on this construction method/building materials firms. Also interested on building designs for disaster-prone areas of the world.

Many thanks,
barbara wall

john daniel Says:

January 23rd, 2006 at 2:23 pm

Paper machier (not to sure about spelling) has been used to build housing around 1900s. when paper products are mixed with glues, for example, and compressed into sheets very strong long lasting products can be made. build your own boards from waste paper?