Whether you fall in love with the nightlife, neon or 24-hour pizza access, once you’ve tasted life in the big city, returning to the suburbs can be a bitter pill to swallow — just ask Mrs. Fan.
Born and raised in the center of Beijing, Mrs. Fan made it her mission to return to life in her old neighborhood after her family moved to the suburbs, but she ran into a problem: the rent.
That’s where People’s Architecture Office — the same firm that designed a line of prefab Plugin Towers to help with the housing crisis in China — stepped in to give Mrs. Fan some assistance.
To help her return whence she came and cut down her commute time from four hours to one, PAO custom designed a 300-square-foot Plugin House for Mrs. Fan that’s equipped with an off-the-grid sewage system, high ceilings and the firm’s patented all-in-one paneling system.
The home — which also has a roof deck, multiple skylights and a compact kitchen — was assembled in just a few hours thanks to its prefab panels and the whole thing cost just $10k.
“As an expression of intersecting social forces, the Plugin House is a new urban vernacular born from local conditions,” PAO says. “By improving living standards for an affordable price within given social constraints, the Plugin House attempts to breathe new life into old neighborhoods.”
Couldn’t have happened to a nicer gal.
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