change makes life interesting

Monday, May 19, 2008

Urban Loft Cube Addon


As urban-living becomes more sacred and living space more valuable, the city dweller and country nomads alike look for alternatives to expand and parcel out life. Loftcube is a pre-fab personal mobile home modular structure consisting of 420 sq. ft. of living space conceived by German furniture designer Werner Aisslinger.

The unit sells in Great Britain for roughly between 65 and 80 thousand pounds ($125,000 to $150,000) depending on the kitchen and bathroom configurations (plus shipping unless perhaps you can get Amazon to throw in free shipping on orders over $25).

The modular unit could be used as an rooftop add-on to an urban industrial loft, a weekend cabin in the country, a bunk house at a ski lodge, or a backyard studio and guesthouse in the suburbs.

The various window spaces can be custom designed during prefabrication for transparent, translucent, and louvred coverings to match with its placement, room arrangements and lighting environments. Floor coverings can also be customized and an unique stone floor in the bathroom evaporates water quickly while messaging the feet.

The interior structure also uses a number of innovations to maximize floor and wall space. For instance, wall panels separating the kitchen and bathroom feature integrated waterspouts or facets that can be maneuvered to each side of the panel. Likewise, a shower-head flips down into the bath space for bathing while it turns out over plants in the living-room to water them. Water, lighting, and electricity runs up through narrow hi-tech fabricated panels minimizing wasted space.

Fixtures and appliances recede into their panels or fold into cabinets so that they are not openly visible during the day or at times when not in use, clearing space and clutter for alternative uses of the wide open living space.

Overall, the modular mobile loft space itself can be custom configured to match a variety of uses: disconnected office space, guest house, elderly apartment, relaxing retreat, crafts studio, or private apartment for returning parents or unemployable bounce-back children. The minimalist domicile makes use of flat rooftop urban space often wasted or left used in the conversion from industrial warehouse to residential living and accomodating backyard. We can only expect the demand for these structures to increase as urban living space and transportation demands intensify.

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