Pozie Eco Cabin
THE PROJECT
While this is not a house, it is featured here as an example of a somewhat unconventional building technique that could in theory, be scaled up to provide low cost shelter for those that need it. In this example the Pozie Eco Cabin functions as a holiday cabin in Marlborough, but the cabin can also function as an office or sleep-out bedroom. This prototype cabin is almost 10 years old as of 2020, and the owner notes that it continues to be warm and dry inside.
The cabin is made from 90% waste materials and is an example of turning waste into a comfortable habitable space at low cost. The most prominent waste material to mention in the cabin’s construction is the wooden shipping pallets. These form the actual structure of the floor, walls, and ceiling with no additional members. The pallets are infilled with off-cut wool insulation from conventional building sites or polystyrene packaging foam. The pallet panels are arranged to accommodate the doors and windows. The cabin has a recycled corrugated iron exterior finish and roof and the interior lining is recycled wool/hessian carpet fixed with the backing facing out, and finished in a home-made natural clay paint.
The walls, floor, and roof are all prefabricated off site for easy transportation, loaded onto a trailer, and then assembled quickly on site. The cabin unit can be wired for 240v or 12v power depending on your supply.
LOW COST
The reason the Pozie Eco Cabin is so cheap to build is that all the labour is done by the owner and most of the materials were free. This is the driving philosophy of the Pozie Eco Cabin; to be a DIY build solution using materials saved from going to the rubbish tip, making it not only free but a productive contribution to the community. Most of the costs are in new fastener hardware; a little in some second hand window joinery and the hire of tools such as a nail gun.
The building is also small – about 7.2m2 on the inside, which keeps the cost down as less labour and materials are needed in the construction (Fielding however notes that with more effort and more free material gathering, larger structures are possible).
As the building is less than 10m2 and being within the scope of Schedule 1 of the building code, it didn’t require any permits in Aotearoa; which meant there were no council costs. Transport costs are kept low due to this ‘flat-pack’ prefab building being able to be delivered to site using a car trailer.
ABOUT SOLABODE LTD.
Mark Fielding heads Solabode Ltd. and Ecotect Ltd (its parent company) and is a NZ licensed building practitioner designer with over 40 years’ experience. Since well before it was in vogue, Fielding has had a passion for sustainable and affordable housing, experimenting with simple passive solar house designs in the early 1980’s.
Fielding organizes and conducts workshops, teaching how to build structures using recycled materials such as pallets. He has authored the eBook “Building with Pallets and other Recycled Waste Materials”, which explains in detail the entire process of how to build with pallets and comes with a full set of plans.
Fielding works as an architectural designer and consultant through Ecotect Ltd, which specializes in affordable passive solar/energy efficient house designs. Ecotect also sells sets of plans and has a range of links to other useful resources on its website.
CONTACT
If you would like to contact Mark Fielding or check out his other designs or resources that he has made available you can do so at ecotect.co.nz
If you would like to build a structure out of pallets and want a good place to start check out Mark’s book on building with pallets at ecotect.co.nz/solabode-building-with-pallets.php
