Gizmos & Gadgets: The Ecocapsule Pod House

June 3, 2015 – When is a house a gadget? When it comes in a self-powered pod with 8 square meters (86 square feet) of living space. If you thought that some Paris apartments are small (see picture below), you haven’t seen this creation by Nice Architects, from Bratislava, Slovakia.

It is called the Ecocapsule.  You cannot get a more compact, feature-filled home than this. Not your average camping experience, Ecocapsule is designed for those who don’t want to rough it where you would normally rough it.

From the outside it has the appearance of giant silver jelly bean. Dimensions are:

• height: 248.7 centimeters (97.9 inches)
• width: 240.7 centimeters (94.7 inches)
• length: 446.8 centimeters (175.9 inches)
• internal volume: 14.8 cubic meters (523 cubic feet)

The floor plan seen below shows the layout:

There’s a window you can open, and generous exterior and interior storage space. From the outside it looks like a giant silver jelly bean, but the interior seen in the two images below shows the living space is well appointed. Plenty of light and the wood finishes are a nice touch.

Self sustainability features include:

• 2.6 square meters (28 square feet) 600 watt high efficiency solar cells built into the roof
• 750 watt wind turbine with 4.5 meter (14.7 feet) extended mast
• 9.7 Kilowatt hour battery capacity back up storage system
• rainwater collection system that channels precipitation from the roof to an internal tank lying under the living area floor.

The architects designed Ecocapsule to comfortably house two adults for off grid locations up to a year. It can easily be shipped using standard containers or hauled to a location on a trailer. No special precautions required.

The price is to be announced in the last quarter of 2015. At that time pre-orders will be accepted. If all goes according to plan the first Ecocapsules will ship early in 2016. And in case you want to know shipping costs from Slovakia to New York, the price is estimated to be 2,200 Euros (currently around $2,500 US).