Could You Turn This $30k Cardboard Box into a Home?

Wikkelhouse is the weatherproof anti-shanty of the future

May 18, 2016 9:00 am
Could You Turn This $30k Cardboard Box into a Home?
Dennis Bouman

The cardboard box has long played trusty second home to every kid who ever wanted a clubhouse but lacked a tree/father with satisfactory carpentry skills.

Biggest downside? Durability issues.

Addressing those and then some: the Wikkelhouse from Dutch design firm Fiction Factory, a modular home that can be built in a day or less using almost entirely cardboard components.

The structures — which are recyclable and can last for decades —  are built by wrapping 24 layers of top-grade cardboard around a house-shaped mold and then covering the exterior with waterproof coating before installing wood paneling on the interior. That process is where the Wikkelhouse (Dutch for “wrap house”) gets its name.

Since the foundationless homes are built out of identical modular segments, they can easily be expanded by simply adding more pieces. “You’re human, which means your needs will change throughout time,” the designers say. “Wrap House adapts to whatever you want it to be, it grows with you.”

The homes start at $29,000, and are currently available in the Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg, Germany, Denmark and the UK.

And remember: no girls allowed.

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