Future Housing Concepts

There are three companies looking to redefine what houses are, how they are powered, how they’re built, and how they fit within the environment.
The first company is Blokable, founded in 2016 by former Amazon Product Manager, Aaron Holm.
And the idea was born after Holm’s visit to a shipping container community in Detroit, he was fascinated by the architecture.
Blokable is based out of Vancouver WA and their mission is make quality housing available and affordable for everyone.
And Blokable is looking to solve Seattle’s housing crisis.
On a side note, I grew up in Bremerton WA, which is an hour ferry ride away from Seattle, and I know firsthand that Seattle is one of the most beautiful metropolitan cities in the world.
The most captivating view of the city is from the north looking south, where the iconic space needle anchors the city’s skyline while Mount Rainier hulks in the distances.
Anyway, people and businesses have been gravitating towards Seattle’s beauty over the past decade and it has been one of the fastest growing cities in the country.
This is a video from Geek Wire illustrating how the city will grow in the near future.
You see, city’s housing supply has not been able to keep up with this growth.
Seattle’s median home value is close to $700,000 in September, according to Zillow, while about half of Seattle residents have an annual salary of less than $50,000.
Blokable wants to solve the problem by integrating construction, software and services into a single framework, called The MicroBlok, which has interior dimensions of over 10 meters long, over 2 meters wide and about 2.5 meters high.
MicroBlok is constructed using a structural steel frame, with a shell that is water resistant, energy efficient, and includes sound reduction elements.
The refreshingly unique aspect of Blokable’s building system is that it is designed to be scaled up and fit together in different arrangements.
The MicroBlok can be stacked up to 5 units high, compared to most modular housing that can’t build past a 2nd floor.
Another innovative aspect of the MicroBlok is that it is integrated with modern technology. The Blok units include a smart-home platform called BlokSense which enables residents to control electricity, water, climate, lighting and security, additionally, the platform can easily switch from various modes, such as home, away, sleep or vacation.
The price per square foot is expected to range from $150 to $300. The typical finished units are estimated to cost between $25,000 and $100,000, depending on size.
Blokable’s building system will allow housing complexes in months that would normally take years.
At the moment, the company is actively looking for potential projects within 1,000 miles of its Vancouver production facility, but they are working on potential projects in Portland Oregon and Palo Alto California.
The next futuristic dwelling is the Ecocapsule, designed by Nice Architects, based out of Slovakia.
The Ecocapsule is a cozy self-sustainable, mobile micro-home that allows you to stay completely off the grid.
The capsule measures 4.6 meters long, 2.2 meters wide and 2.5 meters high.
It’s like a mobile luxurty hotel room with a hot shower, bed, mini fridge, mini washing machine and mini kitchenette featuring two burners and a sink.

It has a simple minimalist design, with a bright and sleek interior with furniture made out of lightweight honeycomb panels with wood veneer finish.
It’s designed to maximize the space of the interior with a desk, cabinets and racks, along with the bed that pulls out to full size.
The Ecocapsule is powered by its own solar panels that generates 600-watts of power along with its own wind turbine that generates 750-watts of power that is neatly embedded into the design.
The power from the solar panels and wind turbine is fed into a 10 kWh capacity battery which can power the capsule for 5 to 6 days.

Sources:
https://www.ecocapsule.sk/#product-info
http://www.arkup.com/page/home
http://www.blokable.com/
https://www.thestar.com/life/homes/2016/03/19/ecocapsule-is-a-home-completely-off-the-energy-grid.html

Видео Future Housing Concepts канала NeoScribe