Watch: Recycled Pallet House Self-Assembled for $500 to $3000

Manhattan-based architects Suzan Wines and Azin Valy were trying to come up with the ideal building material for refugee housing in Kosovo. It should be recycled, recyclable, affordable, and plentiful. They thought about bottles and tires. Then Wines tripped over a shipping pallet on the way home from work one night and something clicked.

Using only shipping pallets, or skids, the I-Beam architects created a tiny, modular home design. They also created "IKEA-style assembly instructions" so anyone- even those without building experience- could build their own home, using only hand tools (hammer, nails, "a crowbar is helpful"). "We've also used zip ties to build entire structures," adds Wines, "which is pretty quick, cheap and easy and doesn't require any tools."

With four to five people using power tools, it takes less than a week to build a 250-square-foot home out of 100 pallets. Wines and Valy -- both fairly petite -- have built a couple of pallet homes themselves with the assistance of a few helpers in locations like Prince Charles's Royal Gardens and for the Architecture Triennale in Milan.

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Follow Kirsten Dirksen on Twitter: www.twitter.com/kirstendirksen

Comments

[Farmgirl007]

08:15 AM on 03/13/2012

My brother builds beautiful benches from pallets he finds..many are made of oak. I gave him a Smith's -Hawkins catalog and he copied the English benches and making them w/o any screws or nails. They have lasted 10 years of everyday use so far. wouldn't it be nice for local schools to offer a building course using pallets?

[Mike Nemeth]

02:44 PM on 03/08/2012

Uncle Csaba built his summer house just outside Budapest with nothing but pallet wood. It was all the right price: free. He was no builder but we spent quite a few summer days there amongst the mature garden and fruit trees. My father, his brother, also saved pallet wood. It got so bad the entire back yard was full of it and nearly all had to be tossed because of Seattle's wet weather. Neither brother threw anything away. You may need it, they would say. Those lessons have merit today.

[yvonnekeijzers]

11:37 AM on 03/08/2012

Wow, that looks great! In the Netherlands we are building a house with pallets too, but it will cost absoluut nothting. It's called The House of Plenty (huis van overvloed), because it is going te be build with knowlegde, time and stuff people give away for free. We already received a location, building materials and an architect and building constuction company are helping, together with a lot of other people.
You can read more about this on http://www.huisvanovervloed.nl
or you can check out our Facebookpage https://www.facebook.com/HuisVanOvervloed

[artleads]

01:05 AM on 03/08/2012

Surprisingly beautiful. When I first heard about this idea, I didn't get this, but I hope It'll teach me to accept what others have to contribute (even if I didn't think of it first) and to be a bit more open minded.

[Deep Thinking Man]

04:31 PM on 03/07/2012

Kirsten...this doesn't look very green or eneergy efficient !!!!!!

Mart...they do !!!!!!...pallets are used until they're nothing more than splinters !!!!!!

[Kirsten Dirksen]

02:51 PM on 03/08/2012

Thanks for the feedback. I try to cover stories that have gotten attention for being green/efficient/simple/DIY, etc, but I'm not an expert so it's great to get feedback. The architects said in their interview that there are a lot of shipping pallets that are sent to disaster spots with relief supplies (medicine, etc) and that those pallets are often just burned as firewood afterwards and not reused (perhaps this is different than pallets used in the US?). So there idea is to take advantage of those pallets specifically.

[Deep Thinking Man]

12:20 AM on 03/09/2012

Kirsten...there may be some pallets sent from here...but the old pallets may have oil, gasoline, or some chemicals spilled on them...clean and freshly built pallets could be those that are sent !!!!!i'm going to fan you because i like your writing style !!!!!!!

[martman1]

12:58 PM on 03/07/2012

I'm surprised. I would think they would keep re-using the pallets for shipping until they start to fall apart.