Land+Living: ZenKaya

Architecture — April 3, 2006 Posted by James

Ready-made living units from South Africa

OK prefab junkies, here is your exotic South African prefab fix. Though we saw a bunch of prefab at CA Boom, it was basically stuff we had seen before, but this wasn't there, and it is new to us.

Designed by architect Eric Bigot, the concept behind the company is to make building a house as simple as buying a car. The concept behind the design is simplified minimal mode of living in a space 3.4 meters wide. The design is expandable from a studio unit at 6 meters in length up to a 2 bed/2 bath sized home at 23.6 meters long as well as variations in between. Conceivably a double-wide configuration of units is possible as well.

Link: ZenKaya [Thanks, Dave!]

9 comments

Comments (9)

Kelly Riddle — April 6, 2006
loving the simplicity

I have been trying to find something similar to this, and the only thing I could find is a small advertisement from Ready Made magazine 2-3 years ago featured for a MO architecture fair (of the sort). I am a single young woman with two large dogs, and a love of nature. I would rather spend more time outdoors than in, and designs such as this and others similar to it pique my interest. Anything that I can build with reusable or recycled resources is what I have been looking for...for quite some time. I subscribe to Dwell magazine, Backwoods Home magazine and Organic Gardening magazine, so you know living off the land instead of on the grid is where I am heading. I sit, sometimes for hours designing my own homes. However, I am not familiar with building codes, etc., so I am a bit limited to how far things would progress without searching for a professional. In short, Thank you so much for your insight for those of us who know we do not need so much wasted space, thus using so much energy. If there is more buildings such as this, I would love to check them out, as well as to see their prices on building plans or the finished projects.

oscar navarro — April 23, 2006
inspiration of liberty

me encanta el consepto, enfrenta el medio tranformandose en esencia del mismo.

ariel — May 8, 2006
info

coud you please send me info on the mini house plan and the zen kaya house at dmalbin@fascets.org thank you

Sam Johnson — June 19, 2006
Incredible

Dear James, This architect is amazing, i have just started out in the building industry and have a very strong interest in design. the way that Mr Bigot uses the simplist of idears and turns them into the most amazing houses is just great. The house is beautiful and very practical and user friiendly.

biswajit dey — August 30, 2006
nice appealing simple and minimal design

i wanna be a member of ur site

One Lema — September 13, 2006
LOVE IT

Me encantaria ver el plano en detalle, este proyecto es estupendo.

azhar — January 1, 2007
brilliant

this is amazing and practical,if less is more than more is no more,

dildo — March 8, 2007
dildo says

if you have to worry about building codes, you're not living off the grid.

Anonymous — January 21, 2008

same like same