the Universal World House is a $5,000, 390 square foot modular home, outfitted with plumbing and boarding facilities to support up to eight residents each. The secret of its construction is its "paper" shell; the resin-soaked cellulose, made from recycled paper, is shaped into honeycomb walls, which provide structural integrity and insulation to the houses. timesonline
12 Comments
"he house is supposed to brighten up Third World shantytowns and provide quick shelter for long-term refugees."
Oh for the love of...does anyone ELSE find this statement terribly factual and terribly disgusting?
i find it bad... but i am interested in this highly manufactured relatively in-expensive result...
not in terms of aesthetics - but that knee-jerk subtext about how any architectural product is simply going to turn the world into paradise for anyone regardless of all considerable contextual dimensions.
if you multiple 390 sq. ft by 3, @1200 sq. ft. and 15k, you can have a reasonable house on a lot. that is a good solution to many people. i don't know if they are making 1200 sq. ft trailer homes at that price?
it is a potentially good product and a step closer to my support of factories printing homes.
most journalists accompanying writes on matters relating to architecture are pretty weak in front of us profesionals anyway.
like most writers relating mike davis to planet of slums. slums are the big buzz these days. specially to people grown up in spic and span western cities transversed by shiny municipal roads.
i think your criticism should be taken to larger context instead of beating up on a poor write up.
"slums are the big buzz these days. specially to people grown up in spic and span western cities transversed by shiny municipal roads.
i think your criticism should be taken to larger context instead of beating up on a poor write up."
Alright then - how will a thing like that ever land on, let say, US soil, considering it won't be making any money for anyone? I am sure its similar in the UK. This 'solution' to the problem overlooks the impotence of the this thinking as evidenced by the Modernists.
Its an emotional reaction to that point of view, and I am not entirely certain of why I have that reaction. Part of my reaction is disgust at what appears to be a blatantly condescending 'agenda' to 'fix up' the lives of people who need stable things other than architecture first - whats the point in having these houses if the people would use them live in such a politically volatile place they would be burnt down (a terrifying thought, considering) as soon as they were unloaded?
While the statement may come off as condescending i love the house.
Would like to see more interior shots/floorplan though.
well, lets start with an earlier question;
"how will a thing like that ever land on, let say, US soil, considering it won't be making any money for anyone?"
it can make money for the manufacturer, distributer, installer and the end user (savings).affordable does not cancel out profitable.
later, regarding fix job;
we as ex and present colonialists are hugely responsible for problems that need to be fixed.
we have the resources and we should also have the urgency to make these resources available to those people who would have better lives if we didn't rip them off, hunted them and brought to strange lands to serve our tea when we were discussing the enchanted land management with our aristocratic accent in the fully accomodated safari clubs, for example...
we should 'fix' what we have destroyed. you might have a reactionary reflex. i understand. nobody wants to inherit problems, just the diamonds... hehhe...
anyway, i don't think this can hardly be a fix for shanty problems. slums as we call, have their own sophisticated rules, methods and programs and this doesn't come that close to be a viable product for slum builders. they can do better with 1/3 of the 5k, possibly. they are much more creative than this... if you want to see, give them the insulated and hardened paper panels to build and some money to secure the land.
i see this manufactured home more like a peace and disaster time type of aid.
insulation from chilling weather in the winter time after an earthquake is a big problem. there are other possibilities including the cheaper alternative to resource deplating wood frame houses we are accustom to built for many times the cost.
so you have a way to think about the product as an alternative housing type. if you give a dwell mag augmented consideration to prefab housing at much higher price range, why not cheaper and better affordable poor cousins?
i also think, you might be reacting to the fact, each time we build something affordable, we think about those people in shanty towns. i agree that is condenscending. given the little lot, many of us would love to live in one of these and walk to work in dubai designing architectural office, i am certain...
just 2 more cents...
i agree the write-up is unfortunate. "brighten up shanty towns" is completely condescending. it's like: i have no job, no prospects, no access to food, no plumbing, but i have a bright paper house...
but i also think the technology is quite intriguing. i'd like to see the interior close up too.
i do think that we, as as citizens and benefactors of ex and present colonialist still-powers, have an obligation to think harder than this about the raging inequalities that create such slums, and how, on average, we still live like we don't care while saying now and then that we do. giving slum-dwellers a number of nicer little houses is not going to change the global dynamic.
i'm curious why the nigerian oil developers are the first in line. perhaps they have some displaced people they have to stuff somewhere?
oops. i meant "beneficiaries," of course.
there is good potential in this, and how it could be developed as a module, shipped, moved, installed, multiplied...
also, although i absolutely hate the recent romanticizing of poverty with the view of slums as exotic manifestations, I believe that when it comes to its built environment, it's the infrastructure rather than the lving units themselves to be truly troubling.
baby and bathwater...good potential here...
A somewhat interior shot..
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