In Ernest Cline’s wildly popular novel, Ready Player One, people have been reduced to living in mobile homes stacked 10 and 20 high, bolted together with little more than rivets and bubble gum. Now, a new Canadian company called Honomobo is promising to bring the flexibility of a stackable home to consumers without the scary dystopian future.
Though it only recently entered the market for highly efficient, repurposed shipping containers, Honomobo’s stackables are a fresh addition to a budding industry. To its credit, the upgrades the company puts into each container go well beyond a simple resurfacing.
Founders Devon Siebenga and Daniel Engleman launched their product with durability, aesthetic grace, and environmental sustainability in mind. These glass houses use modern technology, highly efficient heating and cooling systems and high-grade insulation to squeeze the best possible energy consumption out of each home. The company also worked hard to make the build process quick and clean — Honomobo builds its products in 10 to 12 weeks, with 95 percent of the construction done in a controlled environment, cutting the construction time by months. Furthermore, each unit comes completely solar ready.
They’re also wildly diverse in their applications. Many Honomobo containers are now primary residences, getaway cabins, and even multi-family homes, as the containers boast the ability to stack and attach to others. Technically, you could build a multi-unit apartment complex out of Honomobo units (stackable up to nine high) for a fraction of the cost of a traditionally constructed home. The units range in size from 200 sq. ft. to 1,380 sq. ft. and are virtually move-in ready. All the company requires is a foundation and utility service through a community’s public works department, traditionally arranged via a local contractor.
With the addition of new digital technology, smart-home devices, and IoT-capable devices, a smart and capable tinkerer has the option to build a new life in a futuristic, dystopian-free aquarium of their very own.
