simonthehuman

If you’ve ever pondered the idea of living on a houseboat but found the idea a little too “boaty” for your tastes, perhaps there’s a more fashionable alternative. Italian architect Giancarlo Zema, who has a reputation for dreaming up insanely extravagant mega-yachts and exotic underwater resorts, has teamed up with London-based EcoFloLife, a firm that specializes in “eco-friendly floating structures,” to create a 1,000 square foot energy-efficient floating home made from recycled wood and featuring a recycled aluminum hull. The overall design aesthetic: more house and less boat.

Waternest 100, as it’s called, stresses sustainability. As the company declares, “The world around us is becoming increasingly chaotic and conformist, requiring fully eco-friendly and recyclable housing units which allow us to live in complete independence and in harmony with nature while respecting and admiring it. The ongoing climate changes and the resulting sea- and river-level rises force us to ponder on the eco-sustainability of our housing choices.” In other words, one way to protect the Earth may be to step off it and reside instead on the 70 percent that isn’t dry land.

Waternest 100 is only about 36 feet across and 16 feet high, and its roof is covered in 60 square meters of solar panels that the company claims can generate 4 kilowatt peak (kWP), a sunny noon-time performance that outstrips most typical home solar installations. Skylights, balconies, and windows help to bring the outdoors in, under the assumption that wherever you choose to float your boat, you’ll have a very nice view. The interior can include a living room, dining area, bedroom, kitchen and bathroom-or other configurations based on need (such as office, bar, restaurant, shop and exhibition space).

As for logistics, the company says that, “WaterNest 100 does not require a boating license or complicated construction permits. Once you’ve chosen the perfect berthing place, it’s only necessary to request a simple authorization from the local maritime authorities for inland waters.” (At least in the UK.) It can be trucked to vicinity of its final location and then towed to its final destination. EcoFloLife does recommend a location with “calm waters” such as a river, lake, bay or atoll.

Skeptics note that any boat’s hull ultimately needs to be maintained, and it’s unclear if Waternest units would ever need to be pulled from the water for maintenance, and if so, how that would be accomplished. It may also not be quite so simple to just float your home wherever you feel like it. One can imagine some very interesting meetings with the local zoning board.

And with a starting asking price somewhere around $540,000, this kind of sustainability won’t come cheap, although low operating costs-and presumably the absence of property taxes-might make it affordable over the long haul.

Don Willmott is a New York-based journalist who writes about technology, travel, and the environment for a wide variety of publications and websites.

If you’ve just had it with taking the subway, or sitting in an office, or just generally being around other people, you may be in luck. Slovakian firm Nice Architects has built an egg-shaped “Ecocapsule” that runs entirely on solar and wind energy, allowing its dweller(s) to live both literally, and figuratively, off the grid.

The completely self-sustaining portable home contains a 9,744 watt-hour battery, a 750 watt wind turbine, and high-efficiency solar cells that can support you for about a year in pretty much any location in the world, provided there is some sunlight. (It probably wouldn’t work in a cave, for instance, should someone desire to live in one.)

The capsule also includes a rainwater collection and filtration system. Inside, there’s a kitchenette with running water, a flushable toilet, a shower, a bed, and work space. Nice Architects says the capsule, which is about 4.5 meters (14.7 feet) long and 2.4 meters (7.9 feet) wide, can comfortably fit two people.

The egg-home can be “easily transported” by trailer, according to the company, and can even charge the electric car that’s towing it.

But beyond just nomadic living, the Ecocapsule has plenty of other potential applications, from providing shelter in disaster areas to doubling as scientific research stations.

Nice Architects will unveil its prototype at the Pioneers festival in Vienna on May 28 before taking pre-orders at the end of 2015 for shipping in the first half of 2016. The company says the price will be released later this year, though there’s already a steep shipping cost. Sending the capsule from Slovakia to New York, for instance, will cost you €2,200 ($2,383) alone, and the capsule itself is likely to run to tens of thousands of dollars.

A Chinese construction firm based in Shanghai has succeeded in building 10 houses each measuring 200 square metres in 24 hours by using an enormous 3D printer.

The houses are all eco-friendly and constructed from 3D-printed building blocks made from layers of recycled construction waste and glass fibre and mixed with cement.

Each home costs less than £3,000 to build.

WinSun Decoration Design Engineering spent 20 million Yuan (£1.9m) and 12 years to develop a 3D printer 6.6 metres tall, 10 metres wide and 150 metres long.

Large 3D printers have been in existence for several years and have been used to make plane parts and prototypes.

“We purchased parts for the printer overseas, and assembled the machine in a factory in Suzhou. Such a new type of 3D-printed structure is environment-friendly and cost-effective,” said the 3D-printer’s inventor, Winsun CEO Ma Yihe.

Winsun used architectural design software AutoCAD Architecture to not only plan the building but also to calculate tracing paths that took into account plumbing, electrical lining, insulation materials and windows, that would be added once the main structure was built.

The company holds 77 national patents for its construction materials.

Ma’s office building, which covers an area of 10,000 square metres, was also constructed with 3D-printed walls and took a month to build from an assembly line of four 3D printers.

“Industrial waste from demolished buildings is damaging our environment, but with 3D-printing, we are able to recycle construction waste and turn it into new building materials,” said Ma.

“This would create a much safer environment for construction workers and greatly reduce construction costs.”