This Beautiful Passive House Can Be Built in Just Four Days
An inexpensive sustainable home that you can build yourself over the course of a long weekend might seem like a pipe dream, but French architectural firm Multipod Studio is making it a reality. Their Pop-Up House is made primarily of polystyrene blocks and, according to Multipod Studio, can be built with nothing more than an electric screwdriver, even by someone with no previous construction experience.
The finished house is an impressive 1,614 square feet and includes three bedrooms, two bathrooms, a kitchen, living area, office, and terrace. Besides the polystyrene blocks, the home is composed of a spruce wood frame and laminate wooden floor.
The home has an airtight thermal envelope and, in sunny climates, requires no heating system at all. In areas that do require a heating system, the Pop-Up House is inexpensive to heat thanks to its excellent insulation. Everything about the house is removable and recyclable, so even at the end of its useful life it won’t create an environmental burden.
The Pop-Up House, in addition to meeting the rigorous specifications to be designated a passive house, is expected to cost only a smidge over $40,000. That price is just for the house and labor, however, and doesn’t include the installation of plumbing and electrical systems.
“PopUp House is a start-up created by Corentin Thiercelin in 2014 to meet a need. Seeking to expand the offices of his company Virtual-Expo , and not finding an ecological, design and rapid solution , he developed his own construction system.”
“The video made during the assembly of the first building immediately made the buzz on the internet. The demand exists: more than 5 million views and many individuals and professionals seduced by this innovative concept. The constructive system was then patented and marked the creation of PopUp House. In 2016, PopUp House invested € 4 million in a 15,000 m² production plant in Rousset: the PopUp Factory. In May 2020, aware of environmental issues, PopUp House is stepping up its ecological approach and changing its insulation by offering buildings that are now 100% biobased.”
