Source: NYT

In our obsession with housing, an approach to design as discussed in the article [Heavy Metal Jacket With a Luxe Lining [NYT]](http://www.nytimes.com/2005/12/01/garden/01kalkin.html) comes in the form of a shipping container with walls that unfold.

His is not a new idea, but he pushes it to the extreme.

“Adam Kalkin, an architect and artist who is unveiling his Push Button House, a shipping container with motorized walls that unfold like an elaborate Murphy bed to reveal an unexpectedly muted interior with the refined furnishings one might find in a Park Avenue apartment of patrician taste, complete with a couch from George Smith and a lacquer chandelier.

“It works like a flower – you push a button and the thing transforms itself,” Mr. Kalkin said last week as he puttered in the 8,000-square-foot factory he rents in Kenvil, N.J., while welders and electricians finished up the Push Button House before loading it onto a flatbed truck for the trip to Miami. “All the finishes inside are milky and human and delicate,” he added, “all trapped inside this heavy mechanical box.”

There is a whole cottage industry for this type of housing. Here are some other designs:

[Jennifer Siegal [NPR]](http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=1776574)[Lot-ek](http://www.lot-ek.com/main.htm)[Container City](http://www.containercity.com/)[Treehugger Blog](http://www.treehugger.com/files/2005/01/shipping_contai.php)

A tongue-in-cheek comment posted on Treehugger:

>Fabulous idea but what happens when you wake
>up to find you and your bedroom in Singapore?

[Heavy Metal Jacket With a Luxe Lining [NYT]](http://www.nytimes.com/2005/12/01/garden/01kalkin.html?pagewanted=print)


One Comment

  1. pcampbell December 3, 2005 at 9:19 am

    Some other new concepts in housing are the “smart house” which cleans itself and cooks your meals and not TV dinners but many courses. Also, homes and apartments which rotate to follow the sun and capture different views. In the garage would be your new “car” traveling through the air via lazer beams, light waves or the like. The Jetsons would feel right at home.

Comments are closed.