Biokabin: our modular eco-home to snap & build in backyard, Nature
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- Опубликовано: 30 мар 2024
- People have asked us over the years, "if you were to build a simple home, what would it look like?" So we decided to build one. Enter Biokabin, a modular eco-home made of wood.
At first we didn't know everything about it, but we were sure that house needed to belong to the place, to be healthy and to age well. But the real challenge was: could we build it ourselves without fancy tools, and to create a design that could work for other people as well?
Over the past couple years, with the help of architect and carpenter friends, we designed and built a modular home that can be as small as 100 square feet (one module) to as large as you'd like by simply adding modules. The components are cut in a factory and can be assembled with just a few people, and a wrench and a ladder (no need for a crane).
Living in small apartments and seeing very compact dwellings we also realized that it's not the layout, but the 3D-space that matters, so we wanted to design something high to allow for two-story setups. Style and quality were important, so we used our collective experience of Scandinavian, Mediterranean, and California design.
Soon we will be building the first three-module Biokabin Living as an ADU in our California backyard, but we would love to see it in other parts of California or Southern Europe (as a start). We can only produce ten the first year because we want to be able to focus on each one.
- Take a look: www.biokabin.com/
- Press release: docs.google.com/document/d/17...
- Models: www.biokabin.com/models/
On *faircompanies: faircompanies.com/videos/biok... 
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This is wonderful. My cabin is 12' x 16' and I often feel it's bigger than I need. I've lived here two years, with a large dog and two cats. I'm almost 70 years old. I plan on staying here the rest of my life.
Perfect size for a Persian rug. Sounds joyous. Happy Easter.
Watching the men putting the cabin together, it suddenly dawned on me “wow, it’s so quiet “. I love the shape and height of these cabin pods. The fact that so much head room in a loft is amazing plus the added bonus of being able to construct the roof from using existing interior supports as scaffolding. Very clever. It’s so neat to see your family’s journey through the years in old footage. I’m a huge fan of this show and I look forward to each and every one. Thanks for taking us along with you. ❤
Yes! It also dawned on me that in my area where I can only build 100sq meters without zoning approval, I could build several next to each other but not attached to each other to stay compliant.
and the bonus option of combining 2 or 3 pods and joining them to make a bigger house..3 conjoined will give you 18 ft x 12 ft..a better size..for long term living.
One summer in the mid-'60s, in NY, my family lived in a 2-room lean-to. The bedroom had 4 bunk beds there was enough room that a wall could have split that room in two. There were shelves for clothes. There was a screened window on each side. The was a toilet and a sink. The shower was private, but outside. The other room was the kitchen/😅all purpose room small not tiny refrigerator, 2-burner stove, sink big enough for a spaghetti pot. The entire short end of the cabin was 2 sets of French (folding) Doors that were screened. I am pretty sure there was a ceiling fan too. I would get up in the morning, have breakfast, run down to the lake, swim and read my books, only came back up for meals. After dinner we would read or play games, build a campfire and cook out and do campfire type stuff. If it rained, we would stay in the cabin, or go into town.
We were campers, and in all my years, I stll think that was one of the best vacations I ever experienced!
“Home became an investment, and we forgot the meaning of home. You want to have a home that improves over time, that she’s well. And you also want to participate in the beauty of a place”. “A dwelling is a soul - also”.
Love the flash backs in your family’s journey ! The growth of children depicts the passage of time better than any timepiece. Safe travels.🍁🤙
Your series have been a go to when I like to unwind and relax. Thank you for putting in all the work that made this possible!
Hi Kirsten and Family. I would be very interested in your ADU journey, including permits, process and cost. This looks like a wonderful cabin, a flat pack build process seems economical and diy-able.
I love the idea of a modular cabin made entirely of wood and able to assemble by 2 persons. In the Netherlands they developed the Wikihouse into a little village. Same idea of modularity and diy build. The components of the wikihouse are made of CNC cut standard plywood throughout, no steel fixings (but of course glue for the multiplex). A big jigsaw puzzle.
I'm actually building something remarkably similar to this right now but designed for colder climates. It's called pet house project on instragam
It's my architecture master thesis and uses the same philosophy. Modular, sustainable, assembly takes 2-4 days, similar shape and size. Just a lot more insulated and air tight which makes the manufacturing more complicated.
A Google search for the phrase "pet house project Instagram" does not result in your project, but rather link after link to dog and cat house building accounts!
Thank you for promoting such great, sustainable housing. Would be great if this was the norm instead of the exception. Going back to our pioneer days in a way- reminiscent of the log cabins. Happy Easter everyone. 🐇
I wish you could revisit the man living up in Mendocino in the redwoods again and see how he's doing. Maybe you could focus on the details of his gardening, irrigation and solar etc. if you return someday.
I look into the world - and feel so shut. Then I watch this, and feel normal.
Just what I've been looking for here in my little piece of land in the middle of nowhere.
I know that the inside of that cabin must smell wonderful. I also imagine that the children will quickly take over the cabin.
Absolutely! Such a great kid hideout!
I am currently building a hexagonal cabin in the woods in the UK because I can't afford rent while I am teaching. At the end of May, I am going to the Philippines to meet the woman who will hopefully become my wife. I will then build a house for us and her two boys. It will be constructed of the cheapest wood you can get coconut. It will be bolt together like meccano. I will use trees as the vertical structure. Think of a very large treehouse but only 8 feet off the ground. The idea is you slowly replace the wood peice by peice as you obtain or grow better wood.
After that, I will be going to Portugal 🇵🇹 to fix up my ruin house where I will be using eucalyptus wood. The problem, as you say, is getting straight wood. My solution is to take logs and machine them to roundwood. Roundwood is 1.5 times stronger than the equivalent square section wood. One day, I would love to have you film one of my projects. Sua casa e muito bom.
I’m excited for your building adventures. As for possibly meeting your future wife…🚩 …that’s a bit worrisome (speaking as a former victim). Please treat her & her children with 100% respect, dignity, compassion and love. Good luck on your journeys.
@adrianaloya Well, I raised my ex-wife's two daughters who are spectacularly successful so now I have my two boys and two grown-up daughters with the two new boys I will be a dad again and have six kids. As far as I am concerned, if God gives me them, they are mine. The projects will all be on my channel.
Very cool. I love the way they're using "wild" wood culled from local forests and the modular way that these can be fit together. It strikes me that something like this could provide disaster relief shelter or even temporary shelter for people experiencing homelessness that would be adequate and quick to erect. In that scenario, they could operate as living/sleeping rooms (with a toilet and sink) with things like a kitchen, laundry and bathing facilities being in a more centralize area, kind of like a camping area with small cabins where you go to the shower room to bathe, etc.
I have to wonder, with such close-fitting components, if warping due to rain and/or humidity will be an ongoing problem. I can't think of any finishes that will allow components to slide into place like a bare wood surface, but bare wood is likely to warp and thus also prevent proper fit. This is not such an overwhelming problem if assembly is intended to be permanent, but if you want to be able to reconfigure the basic components warping may be a problem.
This reminds me of a company in Rockwood Ontario called Bunkie Life. They make cabins called bunkies, made of wood, and are kits that are intended to be easy to assemble. Studios, bunk house, etc. in one's backyard or else where.
This is it!!!! This healthy, eco cabin is what the world is craving for! It's exactly the kind of build I would like to have. Always interesting and enjoyable videos, but this one was something else. Thank you guys for showing over and over how much is there outside the box. Congrats from Argentina
Thank you for covering the glues and formaldehyde, and off gassing. I was wondering about that very thing!
You truly have seen and chartered so many types of living and lifestyles. Sustainability is key to any community and living structure. Surely the take away is we need to do this together and learn from all those individuals on what designs and materials can be used but that the sum total- the community has to be functional toward all the aims of its individuals including all ages and needs?? Community Housing takes a lot longer to materialise but can also last longer than individual lifetimes??
Safe travels. We’ve been watching for years and we love you for what you brought to Building and living culture here in the US and around the world
I think I've been on this channel the longest. Like two minutes after I discovered RUclips I started watching Kirsten Dirksen (I think?) But I still like it as much as I did.
It’s a wonderful cabin! When they talk about the sections being joined, it makes me think of the rolling mechanical cabin. I can envision a glass section, between the two, that could be closed off by rolling the sections together. I love the placement of the windows.
Your architect the made it all very spacious feeling.
Can you incorporate the five principles of Passive House design and construction: 1) superinsulated envelopes, 2) airtight construction, 3) high-performance glazing, 4) thermal-bridge-free detailing, and 5) heat recovery ventilation into these homes?
Enjoy your channel. You find the most interesting housing and property Happy Easter to you and all your friends and family.
Congratulations on a beautiful versatile aesthetic low impact construction! Very interesting!
That’s a Santa & Cole Cesta Lamp, if you are curious like I was. I found it on a Google image search just now. I cannot afford one, but it really appeals to me.
What about isolation.? The house looks as if it´s only habitable in summer, or in times when it´s not very cold. I think the idea is fabulous. I´m a big fan.
Hey Kirsten! Love the story of the making & building of the BioKabin prototype!
Personally not a fan of loft sleeping areas.....
would love to see more user friendly & safer loft access options for the BioKabin.
Look forward to seeing a small kitchen & small bathroom configuration in your build.
I think if you wanted a ground floor bedroom, you would just add another module. The lofts are only one option for how to use the floor/bench panels.
I love every single thing about this build. Three of them would probably be enough for me.
Gorgeous! I think this is my favorite prefabricated home yet in terms of elegance, simplicity, quality and adaptability. The Peabody Essex museum has a installation about future cities and the buildings are made of wood because it is a renewable resource and They are modular so that once a portion of the building wears out you can just replace that portion with a new flat pack building module. I think you would make an amazing video about the 300 year old Chinese house at the Peabody Essex museum.
I would buy this if it were in the US. I have the perfect place for this!
Freaking brilliant. America needs more innovation like this
Maybe you can use the earthquake technology that the Japanese use for the base of their structures where they use flexible, strong and vibration absorbing rubber dampers? They have designs for base isolation and also walking-sliding bases.
- [00:13] 🏡 The video explores the concept of cabins, showcasing how they blend with nature over time.
- [02:28] 🌲 The founders aimed to create affordable, healthy cabins, resulting in the BioCabin concept.
- [05:25] 🏗 BioCabins are modular, sustainable structures designed for easy assembly and disassembly.
- [08:42] 🛠 Construction of BioCabins requires minimal tools and can be completed by two people.
- [11:20] 🧱 The cabin's structural components are mechanically joined without the use of glue.
- [13:13] ⚙ The design allows for easy reconfiguration and adaptability to changing needs.
- [19:32] 🪑 BioCabin components serve multiple purposes, promoting versatility and efficient use of space.
- [22:53] 🌳 The cabins utilize sustainably sourced wood from public forests, promoting a circular economy.
- [31:33] 🏠 BioCabins can be compliant with local building regulations for accessory dwelling units (ADUs).
- [38:32] 🏘 Overcoming the stigma of prefabricated buildings remains a challenge, but BioCabins aim to offer a solution.
Ok I looked this up, the studio without glass is 39,000😮, the idea is great, but that is a bit too steep for the material being used. Unfortunately, while wood is an easy flexible build here in interior Portugal living in a wood cabin is dangerous with the fires. Also, not to mention the drastic temperature changes and wet winter conditions makes wood not feasible.
Looking forward to hearing more about this venture.
It's a shed
Here in the Americas we are very familiar with this concept... 🤔 A chicken coop.... 🐥🐤🐥🐣 😁
Interestingly, Aldo Leopold's homestead in Baraboo, Wisconsin (this is Aldo Leopold from "A Sand County Almanac") grew around a chicken coop that the Leopolds converted. Aldo Leopold's chicken coop actually shows up here, guess what 1:25. We aspire to be compared with such people, so thank you. www.nps.gov/articles/aldo-leopold-farm-and-shack-national-historic-landmark.htm
@@nicolasboullosa I actually built a cabin of similar dimensions in Wisconsin near the Mississippi.
Interesting. But would this work in cold climates?
The wood is beautiful. I would also like to see a prefab insulated home made with lighter materials.
The whole concept behind this is great, but the execution doesn't speak to me. It's proving a question of taste. Thank you Kirsten, you guys are amazing.
That last statement is beautiful!
Looking forward to seeing this all evolve
Innermost house still the dream to look up to. Nothing to disturb the mind.
Yes I love all your videos! I’ve also been watching for years!
Just love your videos. So thoughtful.
This is very cool design, thank 6ou for sharing 😀
Beautiful and environmentally friendly small houses
The Quest! ❤❤❤❤❤ Beautiful to see this insight into your shared process. Glad to be on the journey together (esp here in the SF Bay Area). Love from Petaluma!!
I love this, so clever...well done.
Cant wait to see the full 3 module house. Too bad it cant be for colder climates.
Actually the panels were made to hold plenty of insulation so it can be tailored to different climates depending on how much insulation you install and what type of windows you choose.
Like that blue building and its features. Thx
This is a nice concept but I am not sure how well it would hold up in a damp and cold climate. I would worry the struts would rot eventually without treatment
It's very similar to the concepts that Walter Segal pioneered. There's a couple of neighbourhoods in London's Lewisham which were self-built by the residents with the cooperation of the council in the late 70s.
Woww! Beautiful wood house!! Increíble 😍😍love it!
Great concept !
WINNER. Wood is so comforting.
Amazing ❤❤❤
Great stuff. A ladder, would be a nice addition inside, rather than sliding points to the top and getting there from floor level being clearly a bit of a young person climb.
It's an intelligent piece of design. I like cabins, timber construction and modern methods of construction (modular and offsite manufacture) however I can't see people buying based on the ability to reconfigure...we are creatures of habit, I think people like to set and forget. I also think that cabin builds often carry a particular emotional significance for many and people will want to construct as to the design in their mind's eye. Despite that I'm sure it will be popular due to the buildability and green credentials (ecowood and no offgassing) etc but it feels above all else like an architect's clever design exercise rather than a beautiful expression of the romantic notion of a cabin.
Love the idea. Would like to see this used for a "permitted" house with electrical and plumbing. Are there plans to build one of these for the parents?
That's the idea. Currently Gerard and his team are building the components in their workshop and then we'll assemble it in our backyard. We'll be making a video on the process.
@@kirstendirksen Looking forward to both build and living-in videos.
Brilliant men
Enjoyable video. I'll need more time to formulate an opinion of the 'model' as it lacks several key elements. The extra high step over at the entrance stairs is a huge safety issue. A good Tuff shed with a higher than normal pointy roof might be a better approach once custom windows were installed.
The best aspect of the model is that if you move you can take it with you and if you don't move you can sell it so someone who can move it away.
I have 3 acres of land and these cabins would be amazing to build on it. I'd like to buy. Prefabricated bunker system with two exits and use it to connect the houses, and use it as a shared movie theater.
The further north you go, the loner wood lasts. Fungus requries heat.
I understand that an exact price is difficult at this time but a rough idea per unit in its basic form would be nice. Last time I found something I like they where bankrupt by the time I found it.
Or even the cost of just the plans. Seeing I would love to build this in northern sweden.
you can check the website for prices. each module is 40k Think of it as a modular tiny house
@@segundacuenta726
So, another solution just for the rich, then...
You can get a rural house made of stone for the price of 2 or 3 of those modules, and that includes the land.
Well checked and this is not for me at all. 40’ dollar per unit!!
I can build a brand new house with brick and mortar all inclusive of electric, water etc everything for less per sq meter. Hope it goes well for you.
Price? I saw “fraction of price of adu” but no actual price.
I love the idea, but I do not see any insulation so I guess it is not for a place with cold winters. Is that right? Hemp insulation would be something to think about.
The architects talk about modifications, such as additional insultation, in the final third of the video.
Cool design, only thing that wouldn’t fly in California is the floor to ceiling window. Toddlers were breaking them and falling out/glass falling on them. Needs to be like 30 off ground and tempered
At 37:00 , I’d do 3 sections with 2 joined and the 3rd a short distance away with outdoor decking between. Single section the kitchen pod.
I built a modular 5m × 2.5m tiny house with lots of optimization in mind. Living in it for 5 years now. Very happy. Interested?
Reminds of the shrine at Ise.
Great! But how insulated are these cabins?
what about in -40 climates?
I'm curious to know what is used to keep the wood fiber insulation together since the architect said there is no glue. Thanks! ❤
High ceilings require a lot more energy to heat in the winter.
i would go with basic atomic ranch - very very easy to build
I look forward to your own experience placing one (or three!) of these soulful units in your backyard!
Are there enough rich people around to buy that? It's designed for a very high budget.
If anyone is interested in prefab, they should do a little research on prefab house companies. See how many are in business right now. Not many. Look to see how long they have remained in business. The ones in business today are probably pretty new. After looking those things up, see how many companies started in the prefab house business in the last 100 years and compare the two. You will see that the failure rate is almost 100%. The theory is that building a house in a factory is more efficient, and that will lower the costs. It sounds very reasonable, and you would think that almost all houses would be made in factories by now. But they are not, in fact, nearly zero are. The math doesn't work out the way everyone assumes it should. The reality is that factory-made houses cost more money than site-built houses. The reality is that the only "low cost", factory made, houses are mobile homes. They do sell for less money, but not as much less than you might think, especially since they are made from low quality materials, and meet a lower standard. It makes a person wonder what a site-built house would cost that used the same materials and followed the same, relaxed, building code. My guess is that it would cost less than a factory built mobile home.
The design of the "cabin" shown in this video is just one more that has been proposed by a slew of geniuses who have invented a "better way of building" in the last 100 plus years. Thomas Edison, Frank Lloyd Wright, and Buckminster Fuller are just a few of the geniuses who have applied their brains to the problem and failed. Those guys couldn't figure it out, and all of the hundreds of other people who have tried couldn't make it work either.
After you see so many failed attempts you start to believe that the problems the geniuses struggled so hard to solve are either, not the real problems that need to be solved, or else the problems that come with factory-built house construction are unsolvable.
For every person who has ever been involved with prefab construction, there are ten thousand who have worked on site-built houses. The brain power of that mass of humanity has not just been solely tied up with chewing tobacco and listening to country music. They think about how they can do their work faster and easier so they can make more money. Houses built today are not built the same way they were built 10 years ago. Builders have thought of faster ways to do things in ten years. And that trend toward improvement has been like that since thatched huts. If you want a solid house for a decent price, go with experienced builders, and a plan that has been built many times before. The problems will have been worked out before they begin on yours. Don't be a laboratory rat.
Most homes built in the last 10 years by builders are crap, though. They do not last. They are built to the barest code with the cheapest materials permitted in order to eke out as much profit as possible. This is commonly known, surely.
@@tamcon72
That is not true at all. Houses built in the U.S. will last for more than 100 years if provided with normal maintenance.
As for highest profit, the cost and value of the real estate a house is built on determines the profit margin more than any other factor. And builders who make the most per house, use premium products, not cheap ones, because their clients want the best. But those are houses for rich people. Typical houses are built to code, and code today provides for many more levels of safety and durability than building codes did decades ago.
@@deezynar I assume you're a builder or in that trade, and that is why you deny the lowest common denominator level of quality the average "quick" builder housing project is. I owned a midcentury home in the Upper Midwest until a few years ago that featured high quality structural and finish materials though it was a typical middle class home, I knew people who purchased new homes built since the 1990s designed and constructed by bulders--rather than designed by architects and constructed by skilled contractors working for their firms, like mine was--and spent three years in architecture school at the end of the last builder boom of the late 1990s, and know your concluding statment is not accurate, at least for that market. The idea that a builder home of today will last for a century is absurd: Just roofing and ventilation issues are so common with builder homes as to have become an industry cliché, so I'll ignore it.
Congrats on the cabin progress! Excited to follow along as it spreads.
how will it perform in cold climates? And would it be available in US?
Nice, but is there a version that would make it wheelchair accessable. The door step down is a big problem for someone like myself who is wheelchair bound. Just asking?
I think I just Saw Sir David Attenborough's distant cousin 2:29😂😂😂
Floor could use more insulation ???
Very cool guys! How much will it cost?
Could it be configured with insulation?
What are the prices?
How are the joints sealed? What about leaks and drafts?
Good principles. But needs LOTS more work, revisions and refinement for practical deployment.
How is it insulated for a wet/cooler climate
💛💛💛
It is echoing 20:35.
Muy bonito pero si das vueltas durmiendo te puedes pegar una buena...!
❤
I love the design and would love to have one but this is wildly over priced.
That looks top heavy WHAT ABOUT WIND STORMS ?😢😮
I am a bit concerned about wind shear effects, I must confess.
whats the cost? could not find any of the info on the web site.
If you go to the site, click on Models, then you have to select any of the models and click on “reserve,” then you’ll see prices. Cheers
The price of the studio seems quite high
Es resistente a huracanes?
Hay muchas lugares no hay huracanes
I find this idea very interesting. Im asking because where I live, there are hurricanes
@@axananda vale, entiendo