Welcome to the Wikkelhouse, a building that’s made not from concrete, brick or wood—but cardboard.
The building is made from a series of modular pieces that stack next to each other like the slices of a loaf of bread. In profile it looks like the kind of stereotypical house a child might draw on paper, but each 4-foot portion is actually a continuous loop made from 24 layers of corrugated cardboard. Its outer surface has waterproof membrane to keep it from getting soggy, while the interior has a thin layer of wood to make it durable.
Each section is made by shaping the materials around a specially designed mould. The final modules each weigh around 1,100 pounds, and can be chosen to include a kitchen or bathroom section, to create a customized living space like the one you can see below.
The structures are built on a chassis rather than foundations, so they can be moved if need be, and they’re designed to last for around 50 years. It’s the kind of semi-permanent structure that many architects have been experimenting with in recent years, but it’s a more polished final product than, say, WikiHouse.
It’s not perfect, of course: It only comes in one width and if the outer surface becomes damaged then you could find yourself in a whole world of crumbling, soggy pain. But it’s a neat idea nonetheless.
You can contact Wikkelhouse directly if you want to try and build one yourself.
[Wikkelhouse via Dezeen]
