As cities are becoming more crowded, there is a growing urge to develop new ways to provide easy and affordable housing solutions to city dwellers. Tiny houses are all good, but they have drawbacks when it comes to having multi-story housing to make more space in limited area. Finland-based architecture firm Casagrande Laboratory has designed Tikku, a parking space-sized prefab micro house to take into account the situation. Most interestingly, it can be installed on site in just one night. It is among the major urban installations by Finnish and international designers and architects presented during the Helsinki Design Week.
This three-story prefab house constructed in a single parking space seems to be a great urban housing solution for densely-populated cities. It is mostly made out of CLT cross-laminated timber modules which keep the structure strong enough to withstand cold winters without using any additional insulation measures. Two separate Tikku’s can be combined in need of even larger living space. It generates its own energy with solar panels and has dry toilets, while fresh water is sourced from the outside. There is no bathroom inside, so people have to move around the surrounding city to take shower, wash clothes, or arrange food.
Its second floor is built in cooperation with Finnish property investment company Sponda, and Norway-based Company Plantagen is responsible for plants and other arrangements in the third-floor greenroom. As of the house decoration, it is done in cooperation with BoConcept. Karim Rashid’s multifunctional Ottawa sofa is also included in the house.
Tikku was prefabricated at Woodpolis in Kuhmo, a training and product development organization for wood construction. All wood materials used in the project are sourced from PEFC certified, sustainably grown forests. It needs no foundation and can be assembled on the street while there is a sand-box in the bottom to balance the structure.
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Tikku prefab micro house is a manifestation of urban residential development as well as Finnish woodworking. With endless functions and combinations of the spatial modules, it can be used to serve multiple purposes like a room, greenhouse, office, shop, kitchen, yoga room, sauna, workshop, hotel-room, etc. The idea to utilize parking spaces or any other open space to cope with evolving housing needs can prove out to be a great housing solution for the future.
