Imagine building a small house out of waste cardboard and local timber materials for about $12,000.
The sustainable cardboard homed are a resource-efficient building design that could give people quicker access to high-quality temporary homes after disasters like the 2022 floods.
Southern Cross University’s Professor Andrew Rose said one of the biggest issues at the time of the disaster was a lack of potential housing and shelter.
Not only is this a bio-based housing product, it also provides low-cost, high-quality shelter for people who have been adversely affected by disasters, he said.
University of Queensland’s Associate Professor Joe Gattas said the project showed a new class of structural composite product: timber-cardboard sandwich panels.
“In the current design system, the structural components consist of cardboard, which is fully recycled or sourced as a waste product, bonded to plywood skins,” he said.
With seed funding from the NSW Decarbonisation Hub’s Land and Primary Industries Network, the research team has added a complete range of detailing features to make a full-scale prototype that is weatherproof, safe and comfortable.
The $12,000 price tag reflects the retail price if you were to buy the individual pieces off the shelf. The price of a kit (containing all the components) is unknown at this time.
The house was on display at Southern Cross University Lismore campus last week.
Project partners include the University of Queensland and the NSW Department of Primary Industries and Regional Development, as well as eight industry partners – Hurford’s, Big River, Forestry Corporation, Weathertex, Australian Panels, Visy, Jowat and Ausco Modular.
The information in this report was provided by Southern Cross University.