Designers Use Recycled Cardboard to Create Eco-Friendly Modular Homes

A house made of cardboard seems like it'd be a temporary structure at best, but Dutch designers Fiction Factory have managed to create a sustainable dwelling out of the heavy-duty paper. They spent the past four years perfecting Wikkelhouse (translated, it means “Wrapping House”), which uses large rolls of recycled corrugated cardboard to form its walls and roof.

The production of Wikkelhouse starts on a giant machine, where a coating of eco-friendly adhesive is applied to the long roll of cardboard. Afterwards, the material is wrapped and rotated 24 times around a frame to ensure its strength, durability, and that it has the correct shape. Once the initial structure is assembled, it's covered with a waterproofing material and finished with exterior wood panelling.

Wikkelhouse is a modular design and fully customizable to a resident's preferences. A larger building, for instance, can be created by simply adding more sections onto the frame. It's seen here as a beach bungalow or work space in the woods, but Wikkelhouse can accommodate a kitchen and bathroom for permanent living. Learn more about this dwelling in the video, below.

Fiction Factory: Website
Wikkelhouse: Website

via [Contemporist]

Sara Barnes

Sara Barnes is a Staff Editor at My Modern Met, Manager of My Modern Met Store, and co-host of the My Modern Met Top Artist Podcast. As an illustrator and writer living in Seattle, she chronicles illustration, embroidery, and beyond through her blog Brown Paper Bag and Instagram @brwnpaperbag. She wrote a book about embroidery artist Sarah K. Benning titled 'Embroidered Life' that was published by Chronicle Books in 2019. Sara is a graduate of the Maryland Institute College of Art. She earned her BFA in Illustration in 2008 and MFA in Illustration Practice in 2013.
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