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The Wikkelhouse: A Modern Cardboard Tiny Home


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This is the Wikkelhouse: The Cardboard Tiny Home by Fiction Factory.

It’s created by wrapping layers and layers of cardboard around a frame, and can be as long or short as you want.

Please enjoy, learn more and re-share below! Thanks!

The Wikkelhouse: The Cardboard Home by Fiction Factory

wikkelhouse-the-cardboard-home-by-fiction-factory

Images via Yvonne Witte/Wikkelhouse

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Wikkelhouse By Fiction Factory Picture & © Yvonne Witte
Images via Yvonne Witte

Images via Yvonne Witte/Wikkelhouse

Video: Wikkelhouse

Highlights: 

  • You can purchase an airframe Wikkelhouse from EUR 25,000 (~$26,500) (based on 3 segments and excluding transport and placement)
  • Made from cardboard
  • Each segment is 1.2 meters deep (about 4 ft.)
  • Can have as many as desired
  • Transports via truck
  • 3x more eco-friendly than traditional housing
  • No foundation needed

Resources:

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Natalie C. McKee

Natalie C. McKee is a contributor for Tiny House Talk and the Tiny House Newsletter. She's a wife, and mama of three little kids. She and her family are homesteaders with sheep, goats, chickens, ducks and quail on their happy little acre.

Latest posts by Natalie C. McKee (see all)

{ 24 comments… add one }
  • Bart Diks
    December 3, 2016, 2:50 pm

    Thanx for posting, this wikkelhouse is such a great invention

    • Natalie
      December 5, 2016, 8:20 am

      Our pleasure — I really loved it! — Tiny House Talk Team

  • Mimi
    December 3, 2016, 3:04 pm

    Wow!! Any information as to the insulating pro

    • Natalie
      December 5, 2016, 8:20 am

      I’m afraid I’ve given you most everything I know. You could always contact the builders for more details though! — Tiny House Talk Team

  • Mimi
    December 3, 2016, 3:06 pm

    Wow!! Any information as to the insulating properties of such a dwelling? And what kind of maintenance is required for weather proofing?

    • Simon Long
      December 3, 2016, 7:23 pm

      Cardboard is just barely insulation, Al foil, glass wool, and polyester wool are excellent, that’s why the building industry uses them.
      Cardboard as a building material should ideally use a waterproof bonding resin, and then it can be a strong wall product, rather than a bulk flammable.

      • Natalie
        December 5, 2016, 8:21 am

        In the video they explain that the house is wrapped in a weather-proofing substance 🙂 — Tiny House Talk Team

  • Kathy
    December 3, 2016, 3:34 pm

    Very innovative! It appears from the video and description that the cardboard component functions as much as the building’s insulation as its structure. The interior appears to be covered in plywood, and they do mention that the exterior is also wood. My immediate concern of having your house melt in the first rain was put to rest. LOL. However, I certainly would avoid building in earthquake zones, or tornado and hurricane prone areas of the US, as it only weighs 6000 kilos and has no foundation. That said, a 24′ (6 segments) house would be in the neighborhood of $50,000 USD, and nowhere that I could find indicated that this would include the minimalist kitchen and appliances, interior dividing wall(s), or a bathroom. Or assembly for that matter. So I am thinking I would stick with the tiny houses we are more familiar with. The Wikkelhouse is attractive, but very costly.

    • Natalie
      December 5, 2016, 8:23 am

      Kudos for doing the math on that! Ya it’s definitely not “inexpensive,” but it’s a cool new technology. We shall see where it leads! — Tiny House Talk Team

  • Linda Hodges
    December 3, 2016, 3:50 pm

    I LOVE the fact that you can customize it to your needs, more kitchen, more bedrooms, NO LOFT, make it handicap accessible, etc…..You could also put it on a foundation and bolt it into the concrete. Yes…expensive, but prices will come down over time. It is very innovative and I LOVE the concept.

    • Natalie
      December 5, 2016, 8:24 am

      Totally agree Linda. New technology is always pricier, but they have a great concept that I hope catches on — Tiny House Talk Team

  • Dug
    December 3, 2016, 6:18 pm

    @Natalie – I note from your bio that you reside in bonnie Scotland as do I, my question is have you ever even come close to sourcing any land suitable and available to site such a property upon prefer to lease anywhere in Scotland? As I have exhaustively searched for many years now considering any area of rural Scotland but with no joy, of course as Scotland section of Tiny Houses and/or a TH Scot group would help greatly but can’t seem to find one so any Info on my points above that might aid my search feel free to email me ….

    As for the property in this post, sorry as much as it’s cool, it’s adaptable and it’s very useable I think when it all boils down to it the base prices quoted at in excess of £50k usd it’s far from affordable by most, so probably quite rightly so remain one for the rather richer than I 😉 giving it the exclusivity it rightly deserves.
    I am sure that other builders will be watching this thread keenly and with great interest and it will not be to long before “copies” appear as seems to be the case with most good – amazing products hitting the market these days, they no longer do so than a copy appears so if like me your interested in this type of build but couldn’t afford it at present if at all this seems like our only hope ………. Undeniable attention however to detail, that kitchen is to die for, simple, functional with clean cut lines but as it is so adaptable you could have it with the kitchen at the rear, then the bathroom and a bedroom then a good sized lounging area, or really any way you were to choose, adaptability I totally champion as the way forward in THs I am especially interested in this line, but equally so with shipping container homes equally possibly more so for their adaptability too all in all a worthy build and post …….

    • Natalie
      December 5, 2016, 8:28 am

      Hi Dug! It’s true, I’m living in Scotland right now, but I’m afraid I’m from the States. I’m here for a year and living in a flat, so I don’t have much to say about tiny house living here. That being said, you might want to Google/contact the folks at Tiny House Scotland. They build tiny homes and may have the details you need about getting land.

      And yes, this build is a beauty 🙂 — Tiny House Talk Team

  • Michael
    December 3, 2016, 6:38 pm

    Interesting concept which is another way of modular building especially for a tiny house. It’s green sustainable but expensive and shipping isn’t cheap either.
    I like it but can’t get their price.

    • Natalie
      December 5, 2016, 8:45 am

      The price is largely based on it being such a new technology. They have all the start-up costs of creating this with no guarentee even that it will “stick.” Plus when you watch the video you can see a very unconventional building method with new “tools.” — Tiny House Talk Team

  • jm
    December 3, 2016, 6:59 pm

    I like it but they will have to come up with many more details before people shell out their cash–hard-earned or otherwise…

  • Bigfoot
    December 3, 2016, 8:57 pm

    I watched the 10 minute Discovery video on this which is much more informative than the vid posted here. While I love the idea of factory built sectional homes using easily manageable sections, I am not sold on the longevity aspect of this unit. The exterior wood slats do not overlap & there is only 1 thin moisture barrier covering the cardboard.– Ever had a roof leak? — If the moisture barrier is breached, can you imagine what will happen inside the walls? The cardboard is applied using a continuous sheet/roll so the water would be able to spread easily & then you get mold growing in the walls. There would be no way (due to the construction methods used) to restore the walls to a factory build. I also noticed there were few electrical outlets in the pictures & virtually no info given regarding electrical or plumbing installations nor any mention of how these units would be secured to the ground or concrete supports. — The builders suggest a lifespan of 50 years with the moisture barrier having to be replaced at 25 years. Cool concept but flawed design IMHO. Rather expensive to boot. I hope we see similar concepts put forth in the future but using different construction criteria.

    • Dug
      December 3, 2016, 9:17 pm

      Yip look at caravans until quite recently when water entered the inner walls of these rendering a great deal of mould, damp and a rather expensive, delicate, time consuming task.
      I suppose though the idea would be to purchase new units to replace the failed ones as and when?? Possibly !
      But agree with you why can’t they be built with Sips panels as they do not sectional houses (fullsized) surely that would be the answer with build techniques being identical for the builder (almost) and I doubt would be near as expensive, it seems to be that some of the builders of this type of homes just think of a number, treble it and take away 10, certainly in the UK for that kind of money you quite easily get a full 2 or 3 bed bungalow sips panelled unit complete ex exterior finishing and for that sort of cost very likely one with all interior wiring and plumbing fully included ready for connection ?

      • Bigfoot
        December 3, 2016, 10:00 pm

        Hi Dug, At least with the caravan you could actually rebuild to original or better specs. Not possible with the unit featured here. I agree that some form of SIP would probably be the ticket & you could have a variety of exterior cladding choices. I’m in the US in Florida. There is a company in Rockledge Florida that has been supplying dome kits for decades. I think these are fantastic. Here’s a link in case you are interested.
        http://aidomes.com/
        Anyone using this concept in your area?

        • Dug
          December 3, 2016, 11:56 pm

          Hi Bigfoot
          No sadly not the Uks planning laws make it very difficult to have anything other than garden sheds and summer houses I’m afraid it seems with a scattered handful of THs only that I know of in Sco as I said above Ive been looking for a piece of land for 3.5 yrs now with no joy……………. (And I’m looking in the whole of Scotland which is a mighty big place, with I reckon easily 85% of it’s landmass not built on particularly in the Highlands and Islands where I’m looking which is a great shame given our homeless problems (I’m my local area it’s 21 yr wait to possibly be offered an local authority house)

    • oxide
      December 4, 2016, 7:42 am

      If the house falls apart after 50 years, I hesitate to call is “sustainable.” It’s better to buy a house which is half as sustainable and lasts twice as long, so to speak.

      If you’re building with modules, you obviously can’t tow the house anywhere, which is one of the main features of a tiny house. And it’s very very easy to say “I want one of those, and one of those, and one of those” and before you know it, you have a 750 square ft house anyway. At that point you may as well build a regular cute cottage on a slab. Or, buy an existing cottage. That’s something these greenie architects don’t like to admit: the most environmentally friendly house is the one that’s already built.

      • Natalie
        December 5, 2016, 8:48 am

        All of these are worthwhile concerns! I think it’s a really cool concept, but we’ll see if it takes off 🙂 — Tiny House Talk Team

  • ROSEE
    December 4, 2016, 5:01 pm

    Very nice! But when you say cardboard, do you mean really cardboard or is it pressed board? Otherwise, well done!

    • Natalie
      December 5, 2016, 8:48 am

      Really cardboard — covered in a waterproof coating! — Tiny House Talk Team

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