You could receive delivery of your brand new home on the back of a truck, watch as they plop it down on the building site, press a button and allow it to self-deploy within minutes. That kind of instantaneous residential building process is now a reality thanks to a recent proliferation of pop-up prefab housing, built off-site and then assembled in a tiny fraction of the time it takes to build a conventional structure. Energy-efficient, modern and often surprisingly stylish, some of these homes are even designed specifically for cash-strapped millennials who can’t afford market-rate apartments.
LaunchPod Solar-Powered Prefabs for Millennials
The idea of the LauchPod is to fill the gap between people with low enough income to quality for social housing in the United Kingdom and people who can afford standard housing. In fact, it was designed with millennials in mind. Each 280-square-foot modular home rents for less than the average cost of a one-bedroom apartment (which is $1,300) and can be set up in a single day. They’re energy efficient, made of cross-laminated timber and can be stacked into apartments 20 stories high. Each one includes a kitchen and lounge, bedroom, bathroom and verandah with higher than average ceilings and storage under the built-in beds. Since they have underfloor heating and are solar-powered, residents pay just about $13 a year in electricity. The first houses were installed at a site in Richmond, a town southwest of London by housing association RHP and law firm Legal & General.
M.A.Di: Folding Modular Living Unit by Renato Vidal
Ever heard of a folding house before? The M.A.Di House by Renato Vidal features an A-frame envelope that can pop up from its flat, folded shipping configuration with help from a crane, taking less than a day to install. It doesn’t need a foundation and its modular form makes it possible to expand it from its individual 290-square-foot size all the way up to 904 square feet. Its signature opening and closing movement is enabled by massive steel hinges on the inside. And if you ever need to, you can literally pack up the home and store it for a while before assembling it in a new place.
Wikkelhouse: Cardboard Home Can Be Built in One Day
The Wikkelhouse is made of 24 layers of pressed cardboard finished in waterproof foil and wood paneling, with individual 54-square-foot segments snapping together on the building site. Construction for the standard-sized Wikkelhouse, which is finished with plywood on the inside, can be completed in just one day, and the individual modules are customizable, so you can add interior walls, built-in counters and various other elements. The company has assembled the Wikkelhouse in all sorts of environments, including on a floating platform in Rotterdam’s Red Apple Marina.
Ten Fold Engineering House Self-Deploys in Mere Minutes
Press a button, and these structures by Ten Fold Engineering will self-assemble from a portable container to a standard house within just eight minutes. The process is pretty fun to watch, too; the company just released footage of ‘the real thing’ in action on April 22nd, 2018. The only requirement to install one of these structures is stable ground. The units can be stacked for more space, and all of the partitions, doors and windows are modular, and can be arranged according to the user’s preference. They can be connected to the grid or equipped with clean energy tech like solar power and self-contained water treatment.
