Houses are built to last. Well, almost. The houses and buildings that the British built in India still stand tall. New technology hasn’t lived up well to the natural elements, and their longevity is yet to be seen.
Meanwhile, Dutch firm Fiction Factory has been actively designing houses made entirely from cardboard. Yes, you read that right, cardboard. And they’re called Wikkelhouses.
These houses are not made of ordinary cardboard, they’re made by wrapping paperboard of high quality 24 times around a frame resembling a house.
The segments of the Wikkelhouse can be joined together to make a larger house and it can be used as per the user’s preferences: As office space, or residential, or even retail.
It’s no coincidence that the Dutch verb ‘wikkelen’ means ‘to wrap.’ The cardboard comes from the highest quality wood sourced from the forests of The Netherlands, and they make sure to plant a tree in exchange of each tree cut down.
The layers are wrapped around a single segment of the house, they’re bonded, and wrapped with a foil which is waterproof and Fiction Factory claims can withstand extreme weather conditions.
Fiction Factory says that their method of construction is three times more reliable than the traditional methods used for construction of houses around the world.
The cardboard is lined with wood so even the exterior looks premium. It is eco-friendly, and one segment measures only 1.2 metres deep and weighs only 6,000 kg, hence there is no need for a foundation to be dug up.
At present, Wikkelhouse is only available in The Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg, France, Germany, the United Kingdom, and Denmark. Three segments of Wikkelhouse are currently on sale for $ 29,000 or ₹ 19.3 lakh.
This innovation is unheard of even in the construction sector and will revolutionise the way people live.
All images source: Fiction Factory – Wikkelhouse
H/t: Tech Insider