Build This House in Four Days With a Screwdriver

frank12

Gold
Sep 6, 2011
11,847
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You Can Build This House in Four Days With a Screwdriver - Reviewed.com Refrigerators

This could be good for the DR:

Rome might not have been built in a day, but if MultiPod Studio has its way, you could be able to build yourself a new home in just four.

The Marseille-based design firm has come up with a prototype called the Pop-Up House?made out of wood, foam, and screws?that you can supposedly assemble with just a basic screw gun.

According to the designers, the whole shebang should cost about ?200 per square meter, or roughly $26 per square foot. Right now, the MultiPod website showcases two different styles of the Pop-Up House: a single-room, 70-square-meter rectangular cube and a 150-square-meter prototype with two wings (think bedrooms) on either side of a larger connecting room.


Before you get too excited and rush out to your local Home Depot with a new shopping list, let?s get a bit more specific: The exact materials consist of sheets of Laminate Veneer Lumber, basic wood screws, and precut foot-thick blocks of EPS (expanded polystyrene). The EPS is gray because it contains graphite, which both reflects thermal radiation and provides superior insulation compared to standard white EPS.

The materials were selected for convenience and eco-friendliness. They?re relatively light, which makes them easy to move and assemble, and the entire structure can be taken down and recycled. Despite the low-tech approach, MultiPod claims that the house has been designed to meet Passivhaus energy standards.



What exactly is a Passivhaus?or Passive House? It?s essentially a building with an incredibly low level of energy consumption. While Passivhaus is primarily popular in the milder climates of Europe, it?s also starting to gain traction stateside. There are numerous sites on the web with more detailed information, including the page for the Passive House Institute US.

Per MultiPod?s website, three of the design tenets that qualify the company's prototype as a Passive House are that it?s airtight, offers strong thermal insulation without thermal bridges, and can capture the maximum amount of solar energy.

It?s not all perfect, but prototypes rarely are. While some folks may point to the EPS foam as a rather unsafe material that requires a lot of fossil fuels to make, the designers indicate that any low-density insulation panel can be used instead: rock wool, wood fiberboard, expanded cork, etc.


The stated price is also a bit misleading?$26 per square foot is only the price for the materials and assembly. You'll pay extra for wall or ceiling finishes, plumbing, heating, electricity?all the components that would actually turn the shell from a low-tech cabin into a livable house. The wall and roof finishes are also separate, though the designers have several ideas on their website. Walls can be done with a rain screen and wood siding, for instance; any regular roofing finish can be used?PVC, for instance, which can then be decked out with a green roof or fitted with solar panels.


In light of the seeming rise of natural disasters over the past couple decades, it?s easy to see why low-cost, low-energy, easy-assembly housing like MultiPod?s prototype would be so popular. Unfortunately, that?s all the Pop-Up House is at the moment?a prototype. However, the designers are looking for manufacturers to develop and market their concept, so it may not be too long before we witness a new wave of green living in Passive Houses.

In the meantime, check out the Pop-Up House website. MultiPod Studios has a lot of good information, including more details about the specific components of the house and how well it can withstand earthquakes and fires.
 
Aug 6, 2006
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Europe has "milder climates"? This is said to be a prototype, but then it says it is more popular in the "milder climates of Europe". Although it might come to be popular in such a place, if it is a prototype it is pretty much unavailable everywhere. Europe does not have any climates milder than Miami. The same parallel that passes through NYC passes through Madrid. I was in Paris at the end of 2003 and damned near froze my ass off.

Still $3900 for a 15o Mt? house is not bad at all.

I am fond of those houses made from old car tires and adobe. It is too bad that zoning prevents people from building such houses on their own.
 

HUG

Silver
Feb 3, 2009
3,940
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They just put up a panel church in my street in 2 days. Foundations using Haitians took 2 weeks.
 

skynet

Bronze
Aug 25, 2013
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No idea how those haitians do it bro...i watched them for a few days from my old place, i would die doing that within an hour...foundations are all wrong anyways, just wait for a little shake and bake and down they all will go


they just put up a panel church in my street in 2 days. Foundations using haitians took 2 weeks.
 

cobraboy

Pro-Bono Demolition Hobbyist
Jul 24, 2004
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Interesting.

Maybe I missed it but I didn't see any electric or plumbing.
 
May 29, 2006
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Hey cool, I used to live on that island:

Three Story Waffle-Crete Apartment Building in Majuro, Marshall Islands

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X0ovlZvex8g


I built a 20x40 ft storage unit with my dad about five years back. A couple of wrenches and a portable drill with back-up batteries was all we really needed after the slab was poured. It all went together with self tapping screws.
 

Criss Colon

Platinum
Jan 2, 2002
21,843
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yahoomail.com
Eaten by termites in two years, maybe LESS!
I like the "Shipping Container" ideas much better!
They should last 100 years, or MORE!
CCCCCCCCCCCCC
 
May 29, 2006
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I think it will be another 50 years before cinder blocks and tin roofs go out of style in the DR. They're cheap and there's no lack of semi-skilled and DIY labor. But I wouldn't want to be in Santo Domingo if they ever got hit with a 6.0 or greater earthquake.

Shipping containers have potential simply because there's so damn many of them they can be had used for cheap. Still some hurdles there in cost to finish and simply seeing the potential.

I'd look at the current construction standards in Chile for what the DR can hope for. They just had an 8.0 earthquake with fewer than 100 deaths. That's no coincidence.
 
Aug 6, 2006
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Any wood can be treated with something that will make termites ill if eaten. Not that Dominican houses made with what appear to be slats chopped out of a coconut tree with a machete are ever treated. In a previous century I met Lidia in Santiago, who hailed from a hamlet way back in the hills behind Imbert. To get there, you took a guagua to a junction with a gravel road along the highway, then took a pickup to the river and rented a burro to travel the last three hours. Lidia had her own house, next to her parents and sisters and brothers. It had a cement floor and was made of coconut logs and painted a cheerful shade of turquoise. There was no electricity and water was by bucket brigade from a pool under a waterfall, which served as everyone's daily bath.

I visited with her every August for several years. She wrote me that she had moved to Santiago and would meet me at the Puerto Plata Airport. There had been a flood the previous year and the city had opened up a tobacco field for urbanizaci?n, not only for the damnificados who had been moved from the banks of the Rio Yaqui, but anyone who paid what amounted to $100 US or so for a lot. When we got to her house in Santiago, it was the same identical house she had lived in back in the hills. She and a couple of brothers and cousins had taken it apart, brought it down the mountain on burros and into town in a truck and reassembled it in three days. Imagina, nom?s.
 

frank12

Gold
Sep 6, 2011
11,847
29
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Eaten by termites in two years, maybe LESS!
I like the "Shipping Container" ideas much better!
They should last 100 years, or MORE!
CCCCCCCCCCCCC

I would think that the shipping containers are susceptible to oxidation and rust, not to mention the sun heating them up all day, and hence, the inside becoming like a pizza furnace. No thanks.

Wood, foam, cork, or anything that does not absorb heat, and is resistant to rusting, would be a much better alternative.

I think these types of homes are going to be the future.

Frank
 
Aug 6, 2006
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My Puerto Rican neighbor actually bought a shipping container and put it in his back yard in Miami. His father came to live with him, but the AC for the container tripled his AC bill. Eventually the old guy died and they use it for storage. It is hotter than the proverbial hinges of Hell inside that thing except for in winter (which is the word Miamians use for "February".
 

greydread

Platinum
Jan 3, 2007
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Interesting articles on the houses of the 2011 Solar Decathlon which was held at West Potomac Park by the FDR Memorial in DC. I've got pictures somewhere. The Team China entry was created using 6 cargo containers in a "Y" configuration and was very impressive but the U of MD. house won the competition based upon the 10 criteria of the competition.

All of the houses built since the beginning of this biennial competition since 2002 were either sold or donated and presently house real families. Over the yers there has been a higher trend to employ rooftop gardens as insulation and a source of food supply. Pretty interesting stuff. This initiative has spread to Latin America, adding to its success in the USA, Europe and China.

Solar Decathlon Latin America and Caribbean
Solar Decathlon Latin America and Caribbean is the newest addition to the international family of Solar Decathlon competitions.

On March 10, 2014, representatives of the U.S. Department of Energy and the government of Colombia signed a memorandum of understanding to collaborate on the development of Solar Decathlon Latin America and Caribbean. Under the agreement, the countries will exchange information regarding rules, scoring, judging, safety, and site and team selection.

The first Solar Decathlon Latin America and Caribbean is anticipated to take place in late 2015 or early 2016 in Santiago de Cali, Colombia. In addition to educating students, the competition is intended to encourage private sector participation in the energy sector and to promote sustainable development and land use planning.


Stunning Net-Zero Energy Homes of 2011

DOE Solar Decathlon: News Blog ? Blog Archive ? Team China Transforms Shipping Containers Into a Solar-Powered House

Solar Decathlon Builds Green Jobs and Green Homes | Rachel Fried's Blog | Switchboard, from NRDC
 

Criss Colon

Platinum
Jan 2, 2002
21,843
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yahoomail.com
Fish, they,(Termites) don't eat styrofoam, OR screws, but they DO eat wood!
If it's WOOD, and in the DR, It Will Be Eaten, termite protection or NOT!!!!!
Just like a flat roof, if it's in the DR, no mater how you treat it, it Will Leak!
Notice that the house is made from wood, styrofoam, and screws!
The shipping containers are made to resist rust, they travel on the ocean and are bathed in SALT!
Paint them with rust preventive paint, then white paint, silver roof,and put them in the shade!
No shade ??????
Put a tin roof a foot over it!
They put roofs over house trailers where there is a lot of snow,to protect them, same principle!
CCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCC
 

ctrob

Silver
Nov 9, 2006
5,591
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Not going to happen ever. You use what you have locally for the most economical and practical construction. And that's exactly what they do. Concrete, masonry, rebar, water, sand, all easily and cheaply obtainable.

And cheap and plentiful labor in a 3rd world country.

Why change to something some 2nd year architect dreamed up to save the world with?
 

greydread

Platinum
Jan 3, 2007
17,477
488
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THere is a church group that my brother is part of and they make the claim that they can build a church in one day!! Whata crock. They have the foundation poured ahead of time with all the plumbing in place and the electricity in the slab and they do the "shell in one day. and then the rest of the electric and plumbing is done after the one day excursion goes home.

Praise littlebabyjesus!