Who wouldn’t want to live in a natural, quiet and almost isolated environment? That’s what many people who are moving from buildings to modular construction are looking for, and maybe you are one of them. That change you want in your life can come to you with this $150k prefab house that is a jungle retreat (yes, you read that right). It’s made of wood and watch what it does to your carbon footprint.
A prefab house with zero carbon footprint? This could be the first in the U.S.
The No Footprint House – NFH is a German architect Oliver Schütte prefabricated house that seeks to solve the dwellings problems facing contemporary societies. It is an energy efficient contemporary home, signed by the photorealistic renderer, that does not use any resources that has a negative impact on the environment.
The NFH was envisioned by Schütte as housing that was not only cheaper but also as an environmentally friendly housing model. Therefore, he aimed at building a home that would not negatively impact the environment through promoting destruction of the natural habitat or the effecting of climate change.
Wooden structures and solar panels and other naturally sourced elements were adopted by Schütte to make his point that it is possible to live in a chic modern age apartment while respecting nature’s creations (a shared basis between bioclimatic architecture and modular construction).
The secret is in the water: how to save in this prefab house with zero footprint
The No Footprint House employs a very smart way of preserving rainwater to help minimize its consumption of water. Storm-water from the roof is managed by two tanks holding 10,000 litres of water each which are well buried below the ground.
This rainwater is then purified and recirculated through the house for washing, rinsing and for use in washing the dishes as well as for washing the toilet. Any water that is in excess of the plants’ immediate needs is permitted to return to the ground surface as ordinary runoff.
The No Footprint House does not connect to municipal water supplies and harvests all its water from the roof, demanding minimal water usage and hence a small FP. Due to its climatic zone the house is preconditioned to a tropical area where there is constant rainfall resulting in rainwater collection tanks being full most of the time.
Through accurate calculations, a sufficient collection area is installed that is able to collect enough rainwater to supply all the necessary water needs of the house during a whole year without the need of external sources of water, with leads to a minimal strain on the environment.
This prefab house is made of wood, but not only for decoration: pay attention to this detail.
About the No Footprint House: An environmentally friendly house that greatly minimizes its effect on the environment; uses wood as a building material. The design of the home is such that the structure is constructed using timber sourced locally in order to reduce carbon emissions where possible.
It is a well-known fact that despite wood being an annual, it continues to sequester carbon dioxide upon being cut. This is why the utilization of wood in construction is not only effective in combating climate change since it has the capability of storing carbon. Instead of emitting carbon that was released during the cement production.
Still, its energy efficiency comes from woods ability to provide insulation to heat. The No Footprint House benefits from these attributes by utilizing timber for both the infrastructure support and the outer skin. The home is permanent and is constructed that way, but there are easy ways by which it can be altered or demolished.
The rise of the prefab house would not be understood without paying attention to its carbon neutral footprint, which has been one of the main interests among those looking for a modular home. This is not only a jungle retreat, it is also made of natural materials, with a greater emphasis on different types of wood and good insulation that eliminates air conditioning costs.
