The Manifesto House: A Pop-Up Book for Grown-Ups?
From Margaret on September 30th, 2010 in Green Remodeling
An energy-smart shipping crate home
In Curacavi, Chile, the reclaimed-shipping-pallet Manifesto House is an example of how beauty and social consciousness have merged to take us into the future of design.
Designed by architects Jaime Gaztelu and Mauricio Geleano of Infiniski in 2009, and stacked tall and proud beneath Chile’s electric blue skies, the place looks like a swanky, modern pop-up book.
The Manifesto House is based on a prefab design, allowing for cheaper and faster construction. It goes beyond the traditional modular system, however, with its bioclimatic architecture to allow the house to adapt to different energy needs through positioning. It uses three recycled maritime containers for such flexibility.
A divided container on the first level supports the second-level container, forming a bridge that creates extra space below, isolated with thermo glass panels. Reducing largely the need for building materials, this design also takes advantage of the natural climate, as well as extra light and an amazing view.
With two types of covers for this house, or “skin,” the exterior mobile pallets can shed like a snake’s skin to reveal wood panels from sustainable forests. In the winter, the open pallets allow the sun to heat the metal surface of the house. With 85-percent recycled materials and a second unique skin that can shed like a desert snake, this home is certainly one of a kind.
And coolest of all, the entire home boards back up again!
