Off the grid: Find peace in a pod

16 July 2015 - 02:01 By Yolisa Mkele

In these dark and uncertain days of load-shedding and electricity tariff increases, going off the grid and living in an eco-friendly home has immense appeal. While hardly a new development, green design, especially for residential purposes, has been plagued by misconceptions. Chief among them is that eco-friendly houses should look like a laboratory from The Matrix."From an aesthetic point of view, you can design [an eco-friendly house] to look however you want it. Contemporary green designing techniques tend to look rather mechanical but it just depends on what you want," said Gavin Rooke of Stand 47, a house built entirely out of environmentally friendly material that has no need for heaters and that "breathes".The house is part of a project by Saint-Gobain, a construction company focused on forward-thinking design using sustainable and innovative materials.Stand 47 is able to maintain an inside temperature of about 22°C without heaters or, in summer, fans, and is equipped with solar panels to help it generate its own power.Walls within the structure are purpose- built to suit the rooms they will outline. Bedroom walls trap sound, while the bathroom walls are water-repellent. The "breathing" walls act like indoor trees, filtering airborne toxins and releasing cleaner air into the home.If, however, you are into something a little more mobile then the Pod-Idladla is worth a look.Made entirely of sustainable bits and bobs, this tiny pre-fabricated home can be taken wherever you need it to go and live off the grid.It is fully decked out by world renowned local design team Adriaan Hugo and Katy Taplin of Dokter and Misses.Eschewing the idea of traditional rooms each pod is two storeys and 17.2m² of compact living.Should you want more space, you can combine multiple pods in varying configurations to create your own sustainable six-room Lego mansion.At this point cost becomes a major factor. Sure, snubbing your nose at Eskom will reap long-term electricity bill benefits but what kind of short-term capital outlay is required? Depending on who one speaks to, sustainable design is either cheaper than its non-sustainable counterpart or, unhelpfully, much more expensive."We did some costing exercises and found that the truth is that it is no more or less expensive," said Rooke.The pod has no final price yet, but expect each one to fall into a first homeowner's price range.Both structures are open for public viewing and Stand 47 is conducting a winter live-in test offering the curious an opportunity to spend an evening or two in the house.See the Pod at the Nirox Sculpture Park.For more information about Stand 47 and Pod Idladla visit www.stand47.co.za or www.pod-idladla.com..

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