Wikkelhouse: A Cardboard Housing Solution

Wikkelhouse: A Cardboard Housing Solution

As a robust and lightweight material, cardboard is the ideal home for your goods during storage and transportation, but could it be the ideal home for your family?

Fiction Factory, a Dutch design company think that it can. They have invested years of research into developing a viable modular construction, made largely from cardboard. Possibly the most fascinating claim is that their Wikkelhouse can last 100 years!

Corrugated cardboard is known as a durable material, but how can a paper-based material really stand the test of time?

The Wikkelhouse is made from24 layers of cardboard, which are adhered together with an eco-glue and wrapped around a core structure to form a section of 1.2meters in depth. These individual sections are attached to others in order to create the desired dimensions for the finished home.

The cardboard is coated with a waterproof, breathable film called Miotex and is finished with sustainably sources pine cladding. The interior is panelled with plywood to create a simple finish. Each end is fitted with glass doors and windows can also be cut into the structure. When completed to the customer’s specifications, the structure is transported and assembled in the chosen location within a day or two.

Cardboard Properties: Lightweight and Insulating

Each section of the Wikkelhouse is only 500kilos in weight, which means it can be installed without the need for foundations. This could make it the ideal garden house, office or off-grid rural hideaway. It also means that if you decide to up sticks, it can move with you.

Cardboard is a natural insulator, as air is trapped in the corrugated layers. This is one of the properties that make it suitable for protecting your goods. In the case of housing, it helps to keep the place warm and offers sound proofing. If a member of your family owns a drum kit or has just decided to learn the violin, it could be a fantastic investment!

A Sustainable Home

We all enjoy a happy ending and it doesn’t get much better than this. Not only is the Wikkelhouse made from sustainable materials; when you no longer need your Wikkelhouse, or it reaches the end of its life, the use of simple materials means that the building can be dismantled and fully recycled.

With a growing population and rapidly escalating housing market, could cardboard homes provide an affordable, sustainable solution for the future?