Prefabricated Mini Homes

The little house on the picture above, called the m-ch, has a price of no more than 50.000 euros and has the measures: 266cm x 266cm x 266cm and a weight of only 2,2 tons. With this microscopic size, this little mobile structure is able to support two people with every element a normal-sized home would have; elements such as a bathroom, a kitchen, bedroom, living room, etc. As a matter of fact, the home itself has all of the neccessary everyday installations fixed at fabrication; fridge, waterheater, microwave, airconditioner, shower, flat screen tv, sink, toilet, etc. As a matter of fact, a compact table can be expanded to a 105cm x 65cm table that can support up to five people! Impressive isn't it? Considering the size of the structure of course. These small "cubes" can even be stacked on a vertical plan, creating a dense high rise residential building, perhaps even entire complexes of such buildings. The vertical plan complex is illustrated below.

This little dwelling is just one of various such prefabricated structures. There are many other types and sizes of such small buildings and even though it is no new news, they seem to be growing in popularity throughout the world. One has reasons to believe that this is due to modern-day environmental campaigns, since these little homes are generally more sustainable than homes of larger sizes. 

As practical as these buildings are, some architects have even taken these these mobile prefabricated buildings to further levels by integrating them with natural environments. This is in certain designes achieved by creating treehouse structures that are elevated from ground level and built with the support of trees. More treehouse designs can be seen at Baumraum.

Other ideas are similiar structures built on poles, thus being able to be built on aquatic areas. Why would anyone want to elevate a house when the terrain allows for it to be built on ground level? Well with all the global warming activity in these times, who knows what flooding activites our planet will experience in the future. These small dwellings might in distant futures even become our only refuge from great floods. Who knows? Only the future can tell. 

This illustration is of the Single Hauz project, designed by the Polish architectural bureau Front Architects. The project is so elegant, practical and its own way revolutionary, that I might be writing a little article about it all alone in the near future. 

Andy