This is cool. It’s not a house; it’s a hotel in Austria called dasparkhotel. Staying the night costs what you can afford, they are available at a “pay as you wish” nightly rate. All hotel services (Toilets, showers, minibar, cafe, etc) are supplied by the surrounding public space. So it’s a tiny room, with a simple bed and a locking door. For the free spirited minimalist traveler it sounds like an oasis.
With a little imagination you can see where this idea could take the minimalist tiny -concrete- home builder. For example what if you took a few of these, connected them at the center with some kind of custom concrete dome connector and then bury the whole thing. Add plumbing, power, and some sky lights and you’d be in business. I’m certain the thermal mass of the concrete would help regulate the interior temperatures and the surrounding soil would insulate you from the cold and heat. You could even ditch the custom dome idea and use standard conduit connectors.
If you’re interested in looking into concrete pipe you might start at The American Concrete Pipe Association, or maybe you’ll want to get a degree at the Concrete Pipe University. Just kidding, when I found these I just had to share for laughs. But in all seriousness it appears that concrete pipe is a carefully designed and engineered product making it all the more appropriate to be used as housing, for the innovative tiny house builder.
I’d be claustrophobic and would probably keep checking the door to make sure I wasn’t locked in. Too much like being in an MRI. Or a tomb.
Liz I agree. I think for this to work as a house windows and skylights would need to be plentiful. I was just looking on some concrete pipe manufacturing websites and they make pipe in much larger diameters too, like 12 feet, helping solve the tomb/MRI problem… maybe 🙂
Nice find Michael, it’s a neat idea and I think with a larger tube and skylights it could have potential for a tiny house.
Very Urban Hobbit.
> DJ
True! Very urban hobbit.
> Michael
I agree that windows would be needed, but they needn’t be skylights. It already has two open ends which could be all covered in glass if wanted, which would make it very open. Heavy curtains would give it privacy and make it cozy if needed. Painting it with a natural white paint would make it lighter too.
To use the space better, I’t take a japanses approach. Use a futon for bed at night, fold it into a seat during the day. To even the bottom, a floor could be installed, which had storage space in the arch under it.
A humanure toilet, a small basin and burner for kitchen. What would it be missing?
I don’t really like cement or concrete’s look, but painted inside and covered with earth and plants on the outer sides and top, it’d be very nice… and less urban! 😛
Hello!
Imagine these, maybe half or fully buried in poor hurricane prone areas. One as kitchen/living, one (or more) for sleeping the family in. I can’t imagine a hurricane shifting these in a hurry. Safe and secure living for ? not very much (though admittedly I have no idea what one concrete tube would cost – can’t be that much though).
Love it!
Yasmin 🙂
There are some public toilets in a local park near me made like this:-
Here shorter sections are used which makes it easier to break out into the section between the tubes that contains the cubicles.
Sorry, I’ll try that again….
There are some public toilets in a local park near me made like this:-
http://www.flickr.com/photos/cymro76/6838413901/
Here shorter sections are used which makes it easier to break out into the section between the tubes that contains the cubicles.
This is good idea for a pay as you wish and go thing. Interesting concept but the place here would be full of the guys that presently sleep under stairwells of apartment buildings. Yep, I wish to pay nothing As a crash spot for company within a hill on ones own land it would be neat and if company didn’t mind a port potty then its Aces. Good idea for burying containers into a hill or something would give more of the room effect but as is, to each their own.
I saw something like this on a spam email a while back, couldn’t find the exact same one, but this is close:
http://www.blessthisstuff.com/stuff/culture/travel/tubohotel-eco-friendly-hotel-in-mexico/
The other site I saw consisted of 1 or 2 bdrm pipes, with their own kitchen/dining/bathroom tubes as well. Will keep looking to see if I can find a pic.
How does one seal the glass in the skylights? How do I find out more about this concept?