how to build a polycarbonate house. (16 square meters. kitchen/living, patio, sleeping room, toilet.)
step1:
finding a good occasion.
to do this you need:
step1:
finding a good occasion.
to do this you need:
1.1 - one week.
1.2 - some nice and collaborative friends.
1.3 - a proper place: an empty lot of convenient size (not too far from a department store that sells everything you may need), with some form of water and electricity supply.
1.4 - some money.
based on our experience,
six people can build, in a week, a very comfortable 16 sqm e polycarbonate house in japan with 3500 us$. they may find some very kind neighbour who may provide water and electricity, or who may let them borrow some big granite stones (construction site leftovers) for the floor . in the rest of the world, the price would be probably lower anyway.
step2:
finding the material.
to set up the basic structure of the house, you need at least:
2.1 - 15 alveolar opaque lexan-polycarbonate sheets (size: 200x200cm, thickness: 1cm), for walls and ceiling.
2.2 - stones, for the floor.
2.3 - concrete blocks, also for the floor
2.4 - thin wood rafters for the foundations.
2.5 - various tools.
please note:
you don't need any structural system to sustain the polycarbonate panels. they can be used freestanding. that helps to save a lot of money. see step3 to find out how to .
step3:
to build the house.
3.1 - lay a floor of stones and concrete blocks on the ground.
3.2 - build a wood frame and just lay it on the ground; this is where the lower side of the wall will attach.
you want to transform the section of the edges of the panels in a male/female joint section. this allows you to join together two panels by their edges, vertically or horizontally, in either an L, I or T junction. junctions made in this fashion will prove quite stiff.
3.3.1A - "L" junction:
make one cut along the edge of panel #1 (sideA) and another along the border pin (point B) of panel #2.
3.3.1B - "T" junction:
make two parallel cuts on side A of the side wall panel #1 and one single cut along the border pin (point B) of the transversal panel #2.
3.3.1C - "I" junction:
make three parallel cuts along the edge of panel #1 (side A) and other three on panel #2 (side B).
step4: refining the house.
once you got the rough builiding up, you can move further:
4.1 - design the details.
in the house we built in tokyo,
we simply used a couple of bolts as pivots to make doors (4.1.1.) and windows (4.1.2) rotate.
our sleeping room (4.2.1) was a futon bed laid upon a thick transparent plastic carpet, under a hanging mosquito net. we placed a toilet and a shower in the bathroom (4.2.2), and a little camp kitchen in the covered corner of the living room (4.2.3). we had water and electricity (4.3.1) coming from the neighbour's house through two colourful lines, a little orchard (4.4.1) along the kitchen wall, and some flowers (4.4.2) in the gravel here and there.
here we go,
the house is almost ready now....
Jonhnson Frederic Merchadou Emilia Lambert Jacques & Co
