Slumtube: Affordable Housing Made From Shipping Pallets!

http://inhabitat.com/slumtube-affordable-housing-made-from-shipping-pallets/


Schnetzer and Gregor built upon what they learned from constructing modular pallet houses, improving upon their original design to make it even more affordable. In previous designs, the pallets were used as floors, walls, ceilings and cladding, but they required sturdy wood beams, which were the most expensive part of the home. The new round design eliminates some of these expensive beams, but it’s still designed and built to European standards for structural soundness.

In Johannesburg, temperatures can fluctuate from 45 degrees C in the summer to -2 degrees in the winter, and many homes are not equipped to keep residents comfortable. Most shelters are made out of metal sheets and wooden beams — these serve well to keep the rain out, but provide no insulation, so they are sweltering in the summer and freezing in the winter. Residents usually burn whatever they can find to provide heat — even discarded pallets that they find at nearby factories.

Two thumbs up for these people.  After reading the article, you appreciate what you have.

Wow! Cool design. We use pallets a lot in our farm construction but none of the structures look that cool. Our pallets aren't that nice either - they are salvage. Thanks for posting this.

Cheers

-Walter
Sugar Mountain Farm
Pastured Pigs, Sheep & Kids
in the mountains of Vermont
Read about our on-farm butcher shop project:
http://SugarMtnFarm.com/butchershop
http://SugarMtnFarm.com/csa

This building cost nothing to build. Well, nearly nothing. It is built of mostly pallets. Used pallets. Pallets that would have been thrown in the garbage. Karen Biondo of La Biondo Farm and Kitchen tells us the story and shows us around.

It's a sturdy shed that is used for an honor system farm stand in the front and the "No Trash Bash Stash" in the back.

The "No Trash Bash Stash" is where folks in the Vashon Island community can come and borrow plates, forks, cups and all the fixins for a party without having to resort to plastic forks and the like.

Wow, what a barn!  My sheep would be very happy with that.

Sort of like this?

I'm really liking that 'refugee tube' idea in the video. The thing I like best about it is the way it seems easy to erect section by section. Throw a plastic sheet over it and you have a strong waterproof structure as a good starting point for various buildings.
The fact it effectively has no fastenings means it can be taken down again too...

I'd like to do a little reality checking here.

1. Both these designs are in danger of being wind tunnels. The both show the "tunnel", but in many ways that's the easy part to build. The amount of material, and the challenge of filling in the open ends of the tunnel, to actually create a warm, dry place to sleep, I suspect will be much harder than the roof, which as Nancy points out, simply needs a tarp to make it waterproof.

2. The Refugee tube is only made of two widths of pallets. To do so, took 12 identical pallets. Every extra layer - which would make the inside safer from driving rain, or make the effort of enclosing the ends more worthwhile - will take another 6 identical skids. In my neck of the woods, most of the "free pallets" are all slightly different sizes and designs.

Personally, the octagonal pallet shed that Nancy built and used flexible branches to form a domed roof would be more practical.  

To make a warm/cool structure as you say Jay, will take a bit more thought (and insulation). It depends what you have available and what you need it for. We're contemplating a low profile shelter for vehicles, so insulation will be less of an issue.
Both of the tunnel design info skip over the ends a bit.  I suspect we'd just go with the plastic sheet covering one, (maybe both?) ends. Trenched in like a polytunnel they are quite wind resistant, although we'd need some sort of door....
To make the second structure you need 6 identical pallets to make a 1m section, so 36 to make a 36m square building. I've found in the past that the courier drivers are often happy to drop off spare pallets, so could probably get quite a few fairly easily. The nice dimensioned timber for the bracing is the most important part as it give the building the strength for the people to stand on (or snow/wind loading).