This Space-Age Pod Is a Tiny Home, an Office, or an Off-Grid Retreat Wherever You Put It Down
The $107K Ecocapsule is equipped for the top of a mountain or your backyard.
The $107K Ecocapsule is equipped for the top of a mountain or your backyard.
Welcome to Prefab Profiles, an ongoing series of interviews with people transforming how we build houses. From prefab tiny houses and modular cabin kits to entire homes ready to ship, their projects represent some of the best ideas in the industry. Do you know a prefab brand that should be on our radar? Get in touch!
Ecocapsule began in 2009 with Soňa Pohlová and Tomáš Žáček’s entry into an architecture competition for mobile, energy-efficient housing. Their submission did not win, but it garnered enough interest that the pair chose to move forward with the idea they came up with anyway. By 2017, they had shrunk the design to a quarter of its original size to create a bean-shaped living space with off-grid capabilities. Here, Soňa tells us about how the Ecocapsule works and what’s next for the company.
The Ecocapsule tiny home features an extendable wind turbine that generates power, which is stored by an on-board battery. The unit can harvest rainwater, and a built-in filtration system can purify anything sourced from rivers or lakes.
Photo courtesy of Ecocapsule®
What qualities make the Ecocapsule stand apart from other prefabs?
The Ecocapsule is a smart, self-sustainable micro-unit, which utilizes solar and wind energy. It allows you to stay in remote places out of reach of infrastructure, with the luxury of a hotel room. We have engineered the product from scratch to be as self-sufficient, practical, and functional as possible. The Ecocapsule has the best possible shape for collecting rainwater and minimizing thermal losses. It’s also capable of efficient power generation (up to 1.35 kilowatts) and storage (a 9.7 kWh battery pack). In most locations these external sources of water and electricity will not be necessary—you can connect Ecocapsule to the grid as well.
Though the Ecocapsule is designed for sites without infrastructure, it can also connect to hookups for use as a backyard home or office.
Photo courtesy of Ecocapsule®
What does an Ecocapsule cost and what does that pricing include?
Our first generation Ecocapsule is priced at €99,900 before taxes. All features are included except the trailer.
The pod comes with a kitchenette, a half-bath, a stowable table, and fold-out bed. The unit also features a smart home system, water boiler, and an HVAC system.
Photo courtesy of Ecocapsule®
See the full story on Dwell.com: This Space-Age Pod Is a Tiny Home, an Office, or an Off-Grid Retreat Wherever You Put It Down
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