$1,500 flat pack house
Gary Peare says: "Award-winning small space design: Abod, envisioned as a low-cost, prefabricated solution to South Africa’s housing shortage. Packs flat; is assembled by 4 people with a screwdriver and an awl!" Link
Gary Peare says: "Award-winning small space design: Abod, envisioned as a low-cost, prefabricated solution to South Africa’s housing shortage. Packs flat; is assembled by 4 people with a screwdriver and an awl!" Link
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This isn't the most attractive dwelling, but for the cost and the fact its flat pack I almost want a few of these. Just would need the space to put it.
Looks better than a lot of faux-craft townhouses I've seen going up in my city. Blah!
Better gallery and info available at the abod site http://myabod.com/ .
the only issue I see is this: $1500 is still well outside the price range of the average SA township dweller.
Of course if the government bought a bunch... it's certainly a step up from some of the stuff they have. Though bullets would go right through it (a genuine danger I hear)
An how much for the air conditioning? That think looks like it would act as a greenhouse -- especially in Africa.
“Every family deserves to live in a home designed by an architect.”
...says the Abōd design page.
Even if it's only an "architect-designed" quonset hut?
Am I missing something here?
do want!
I think I'd buy that for camping!
Momma, you camp like my mother.
@4 - perhaps they could have some sort of micro-mortgage?
This sounds questionable
1- $1500 is quite pricey for developing nations.
2- this is made of metal. i'm not sure what the temp is in south africa. i spent a lot of time in near-equatorial kenya, and there is no way in hell i'd live in a metal building. you see people making grass huts and mud walls for a reason - they're good at regulating temperature.
it would be nice to see projects like this happen with recyclable materials.
maybe someone in the US will start making pre-fab McMansions out of our surplus of empty shipping containers.
I thought metal was recyclable?
You dont need to ship anything in to build a better structure than this for that price. So Flat packing is irrelevant.
Metal is a good building material for hot climates. Wood doesn't hold up well at all. Metal will allow the space to heat up faster than something like rammed earth, but it will also dump the heat almost immediately when the sun goes down. Assuming that the residents leave early in the morning and return late in the day, the metal would be an advantage. In terms of daytime livability, ventilation is the biggest issue. It appears that it can be customized with windows, etc. Also, South Africa isn't hot. It has a Mediterranean climate. The average daily high in Johannesburg is 75°/24°, and Cape Town is 78°/26° in the summer.
When I think HOUSE I normally think of things like, uhm, insulation??? These are nothing more than pretty shacks, they won't hold up, they will be hot in the sun and will cool off very rapidly anyplace where it gets uncomfortably cool.
Seriously, a shipping container with windows and some foam on the walls would be vastly preferable (I have seen a couple). Where I live the really poor people build better shacks for cheaper- though I suppose it takes more than just a screw driver and four men a day to do it. I've seen better "houses" built with some old pallets, plastic sheeting and assorted refuse... seriously.
A Hexayurt is also "flat-pack." It can be constructed in a few hours with just a cutting knife. Materials cost just $200. Yet they are about as well insulated as a modern house.
South Africa has some fairly big ports, right? You'd think they'd be awash in shipping containers. I can get a 40 foot by 8 foot metal shipping container for roughly $1500 here, and I'm 600 miles from the ocean. I understand they are much cheaper in Houston. Cut out some windows and bam, you've got a very well built structure. Also it's more secure. And I imagine more bullet resistant than the corrugated sheet metal used in the Abod. And refrigerated containers are already insulated. Although those are usually more than the uninsulated ones.
I'm seriously considering using four or five to build my house. The fifth one would be for a 40 foot tower, because everyone needs a 40 foot tower, right? :) And another four for a workshop. Or I might use six for the house, and make it three stories of two containers each. Or maybe...half the fun is playing with the various combinations. It's like LEGO for adults!
No, they ain't the prettiest things ever, but have you ever seen a housing project?
My favorite architecture blog covered this a month or two ago, really just wanted to give them some exposure. http://materialicio.us/
Considering that most township shacks are built of scraps of corrugated iron and plastic tarps, this is a considerable improvement. The government housing here is shoddily built as they use the cheapest contractors that still charge far more than this for a little one-or two-roomed place.
they have made use of shipping containers as classrooms for rural schools, but not for housing- shipping containers are expensive!