British engineers have developed a flat-packed house that can be unfolded in 10 minutes. The adaptable unit can also be packed up with all its furnishings and transported on a truck. The creators of Ten Fold hope to revolutionise the property market by mass-producing the stackable homes. Their aim is to create a product that can be unpacked and packed up again using nothing more than a hand crank. That vision is still a few years away but they have succeeded in creating a system that unfolds using an 18V handheld drill.At a cost of £100,000 (about R1.7-million), inventor David Martyn said the home's built-in folding partitions and storage space allowed it to be used as a home, classroom, business space, shop, operating theatre and emergency shelter for refugees. Martyn said: "We've just had a project come in for 3,000 houses in South Africa ... What we want is to get people to build these for themselves and for the people in need. We can help by licensing the clever engineering."
Furnishing such as sofas, beds, chairs and tables can be tucked away in storage spaces and the whole unit is folded away. The Ten Folds can be fitted with solar panels or connected to the electrical grid. - magazinefeatures.co.za
Visit tenfoldengineering.com..