Living in a recyclable, adorable cardboard box

A design firm in Amsterdam has come up with the Wikkelhouse – a recyclable mini home made from cardboard, and designed to last half a century.

It’s made using a house-shaped mould, with 24 layers of strengthened, recycled and corrugated cardboard wrapped around the outside. The frame is rotated mechanically – see below – with an eco-friendly adhesive used to stick it together.

Then, there’s a bit of waterproofing and wood panelling thrown in to finish it off. And it’s good to go! Ready to pop on the beach, riverside, backyard, rooftop, flatbed truck, picturesque desert scene, photogenic lookout point above a waterfall or whatever suits your Instagram aesthetic.

The Wikkelhouse in production. Photo: Wikkelhouse

The completed Wikkelhouse. Photo: Wikkelhouse

The company, Fiction Factory, claims that it’s easily transportable and can be customised and extended. There are added modules equipped with toilet, bathroom and kitchen, which might come in handy if you’re actually planning to use it as a house. 

And better yet, it can be installed in a day – and they definitely exist in the flesh (well, cardboard).

Two Wikkelhouses are featured as part of the FabCity Europe event, a “temporary and freely accessible campus” in Amsterdam – one used to house student start-ups, the other to test different kinds of facades designed by students. The event runs until June 26. 

Curbed reports that a finished Wikkelhouse will cost about $US80,000 ($103,000). Which might be more expensive than your standard backyard shed, but it’s also a lot cuter and bit more wood-panelled. 

All the better to set off your low profile well-designed Scandinavian furniture and little pops of feature colour?

The interior is customisable and very cute. Photo: Wikkelhouse

More:

• Construction company selling tiny houses for under $10,000
• Australians love tiny houses, so why aren’t more of us living in them?