Floating House That Can be Divided Down the Middle

Splitting up with your significant other is usually stressful enough without the added problem of having to divide up a house. The so-called Prenuptial Housing (still in the concept stage) makes something of a non-issue out of that. It's a floating home that can be physically divided up when the couple decide to go their separate ways. The home is the brainchild of PR specialist Omar Kbiri and was designed by Studio OBA of Holland.

The home will be easy to divide up, at which point each co-owner would just float away with their half of the house. Should they find love again, it would also be easy to attach the missing half of the floating home back onto the house. There's no denying that there is poetry in the idea, though buying a home like this does come with the built in premise that the relationship might not work out.

They are planning to build the first prototype and begin selling the home soon, though for the time being it's still only in the concept stage. The reason is that they have not yet fully figured out how to construct a floating home, which can be split in two. They have also not yet resolved the issue of how to power such a home, or the fact that it would need two of everything, namely the kitchen, bathroom, bedroom and even the front door.

According to Studio OBA the home would be held afloat by pontoons and would have a modular interlocking design that could be separated easily. The size of the home and number of rooms would be left up to the occupant to decide on. The home would be prefabricated and made primarily out of lightweight carbon fiber and timber.

I suppose the power issue could be solved by installing solar panels (or another form of sustainable energy harvesting/generation) and two battery banks, or simply having two electrical hookups. And perhaps just having all the kitchen hookups in place would even preclude having to have two kitchens in the first place, provided one could easily be installed at a short notice.

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Dignified Disaster Relief Housing

There is always need for disaster relief housing, and the recently introduced Hex House is certainly one of the more dignified ones. It was created by a non-profit design practice Architects For Society, which is a joint effort of professionals from the US, Europe and the Middle East. Their aim is provide easy to deploy housing, which is both affordable and provides a dignified way to live to refugees, and those displaced by natural disasters.

Hex House is hexagonal in shape and features a number of amenities more typical for a home than a temporary shelter. These include electricity and manually-pumped running water. The electricity is provided by rooftop-mounted solar panels. These can be placed at three different angles onto the roof, due to the hexagonal shape of the home, which means more solar power can be harvested.

The home also features a rainwater collection system, which consists of an integrated gutter, a downpipe, and a storage tank from which rainwater can be manually pumped into the shelter, providing the residents with running water. There is another tank that contains potable water, which can also be pumped into the house.

The shelter is designed to be used for 15-20 years. It is easy to transport, and three disassembled shelters fit onto a truck trailer. They can be erected by a single person using only simple tools and minimal training. The shelter features a galvanized tube steel for the base, while the walls, floor and roof are made of structural insulated panels (SIPs). The supports are height-adjustable and have to be anchored to concrete pier foundations, while the walls are supported by a steel frame.

The panels which make up the exterior wall all measure 9.8 x 13.1-ft (3 x 4-m), while they lock together easily via in-built grooves. The wall and roof panels lock together in the same way. The roof and floor panels are also of a standard size, which makes for efficient production, packing, transportation and construction.

The designers opted for a hexagonal shape due to its inherent structural stability. The latter is further bolstered by the rigid, self-supporting shell, which is created when the wall and roof panels are locked together. One Hex House creates a small two-bedroom home for small families, and more of them can be joined together to house larger families, or to create other types of facilities.

Architects for Society are currently trying to raise money to building a prototype of the Hex House via a GoFundMe crowdfunding campaign.

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Spacious and Open Tiny Home

With the summer in full swing in the Western hemisphere, tiny homes are gaining in popularity again. Especially since such homes make great off- or on-grid vacation cabins. And an excellent example is the new creation by the company New Frontier Tiny Homes of Nashville. It's small, but opens up on both sides, which lets in plenty of fresh air and brings the occupants closer to nature.

The tiny home is called The Alpha and measures 240 sq ft. It is built atop double-axle trailer that was custom made to accommodate it. It's clad with cedar siding, some of which was treated with the so-called shou sugi ban method, which is an all-natural process of pre-charring the wood to make it resistant to pests and fire. The home also features a sloping roof.

Along one side of the home they placed a large sliding glass door, which measures 8 feet by 9 feet and was custom built. There is also a drop-down deck with an awning, which creates a lovely outdoor space.

The interior is also very well planned out. The kitchen is located on one side of the home, and features a 33-inch farmhouse stainless steel sink, a dishwasher and even a 5-burner induction stove. The kitchen is placed atop a platform, under which an 8-person dining table, a bench and seats are stored.

The center part of the home is taken up by the living area, which, as already mentioned, can be extended outwards and is therefore quite spacious and comfortable. The bathroom is located on the other end of the house opposite the kitchen. It's quite large for such a tiny home and is fitted with a bathtub, toilet and sink, and even an all-in-one washing machine. To save space, they separated it off from the rest of the house with a sliding door that also features a large mirror.

The bedroom is located in the loft above the bathroom, and features a king-size bed. It's accessible via a ladder that can be stored under the kitchen platform when not in use.

Overall, The Alpha represents tiny home building at it's best. The basic version, which doesn't include appliances and furnishings, costs $79,000, while the fully equipped version costs $95,000, which is still quite affordable given all you're getting.

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Wooden Tower Planned in Holland

Building wooden skyscrapers seems to be gaining in popularity, and now one is going up in Amsterdam. The so-called Haut tower was designed by the Dutch firm Team V Architecture and they plan to begin construction in the later part of 2017.

The skyscraper will measure 240 ft (73 m) in height and have 21 floors. It will be a luxury apartment complex, and Haut actually stands for Haute Couture. Occupants will have lots of options to choose from for their apartments, including the layout, number of balconies (if any) placement of double-height spaces and more. The tower will have 55 units, as well as an underground garage, a bicycle storage area, and a garden, which will also be open to the public. The tower is actually part of a larger housing development project in Amstelkwartier, which will feature around 4,000 new residential units, as well as commercial and retail areas.

Judging from the renders, the apartments will be open plan, with lots of windows to let in plenty of light and offer great views. It will be built out of prefabricated cross-laminated timber panels, which were chosen for their strength, durability, and ease of assembly. They're also very fire resistant.

The tower will also boast of a number of sustainable features, such as a wastewater purification system and something the designers call “energy-generating facades”. These will either feature solar panels or wind turbines. They are aiming for a BREEAM Outstanding rating, which is the top rating when it comes to green building.

The Haut tower will certainly be the tallest timber skyscraper in the Netherlands and quite possibly the world, for the time being. Though others could steal that title, since it won't be completed until 2019.

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Off-Grid Foot-Powered Washing Machine

Washing machines use up a lot of energy and water, so having one when you're striving for off-grid living is not a convenient option. But the so-called Yirego Drumi washing machine solves this problem. It is powered by a foot pedal and needs no electricity to operate. As such it would make a great addition to any sustainable home.

The Yirego Drumi measures 22 inches in height and has a ball drum, which accommodates about five pounds of clothing or other linen at a time. This drum is moved by pumping the foot pedal. And while it might not be a great solution for a family, but for camping trips, students or a couple living in a tiny house it would come in quite handy.

According to the makers of this washing machine, it uses 80 percent less water and detergent than a regular washing machine. One load needs 10 liters of water (five for washing and five for rinsing), which is actually quite comparable to hand washing. If you're worried about how much foot pumping the machine needs, don't be. It only takes about six minutes to wash one load. That's three minutes for the washing (though you might want to repeat this stage a couple of time, depending on how dirty the clothes are), two minutes for rinsing and one minute for the centrifuge process.

The lid of the washing machine is used to measure out the correct amount of water, and this water can be drained with the press of a button at the end of the cycle. The water is drained through the bottom, so the Drumi can be used over a tub or shower, and even outside.

The washer can be pre-ordered for $129 and the first units will be available in early 2017. If there's enough interest they might even start making larger units, which would be great.

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Rooftop Cabins to Solve the Problem of Affordable Urban Living

Finding an affordable place to live in most large cities across the world is becoming more of a problem everyday. Now a company from Germany has come up with an innovative solution. They would build prefab cabins, called Cabin Spacey (which is also the name of the firm), on top of existing buildings. These homes would be small, but functional and they wouldn't break the bank.

They are proposing to build them on the rooftops of Berlin, and they estimate that there is room for about 50,000 apartments there. The cabins can also be installed in other suitable locations, such as parks, and so forth. Each Cabin Spacy measures just 215 sq ft (20 sq m) but it can accommodate two people comfortably due to a number of space saving solutions. They are also easy to transport, install and connect to the existing infrastructure.

The cabins are made in a factory, and it only takes about two days to erect them. The outer shell is made of timber and each structure features a kitchenette/dining area with a foldable table and chairs, a bed and a storage unit. It is powered by solar panels, which are installed into the roof of each cabin, while there is also a battery for storing surplus energy built into the floor. Surplus electricity can also be given off to a nearby building, presumably the one on top of which the cabin is installed. The cabins also feature a smart home system, as well as an efficient heating and cooling system.

They have recently raised enough funds via an IndieGoGo campaign to build the first prototype, which will serve to gain interest for future commercialization of the cabins. They plan to build the prototype by the end of this year. Lets hope this is true, since it is an interesting concept. Though I can't quite picture myself weathering out a NYC winter in one of these cabins, so this housing solution might not exactly be universally applicable.

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Mother of Two Builds Tiny Family Home in Alaska

Ana White, a stay at home mom and blogger, recently built a great tiny home in Alaska. She blogs about creating DIY furniture, so she has some experience designing and building things. Yet she still had to learn a lot about carpentry to complete this project. With the help of her husband Jacob, they designed and constructed this lovely home and they are now offering the plans for it for free.

The home is called Quartz and it is refreshingly uncluttered for such a small space. It was built on a 24-foot long and 8.5-foot wide PJ Super Wide Channel B6 trailer, so it can be moved around when needed. It doesn't feature a water hookup, but apparently that's not an uncommon thing in Alaska, where temperatures get very low in winter. As a result, there's also no bathroom, but since it's not the family's full time home, that doesn't pose such a problem. They are only using it as a temporary home to stay in while they build their permanent residence nearby. A variation of the plans they offer does, however, have a bathroom included.

What sets this home apart from many of the other tiny homes we've seen are a wide range of innovative and interesting features. Much of the interior was left open to add to the spaciousness, and painted in grey and white. There is a sitting area with a trundle sofa bed that also has a storage compartment. The whole thing rolls out from under a second bed that rests atop a platform. The home also has a loft, and the ladder leading up to it is actually a part of the shelving unit.

The home also features a kitchen, which is basic but functional. It is fitted with a counter that can be pulled out to form a dining table, or even a worktable. The cabinetry only cost about $200 to build and there's a clever wooden panel built into it that can be used to cover the sink to create more counter space.

Overall, this is a great example of tiny home design done right. And the best part is that you can get the plans for it for free at www.ana-white.com.

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