Affordable paper house for refugees

Swiss inventor Gerd Niemoeller has designed a new low-cost house made from recycled cardboard and newspapers.

Costing £3,500, the Universal World House is aimed at shanty-town dwellers and long-term refugees.

Weighing just 800kg, the paper house is lightweight and easily assembled.

Made from resin-soaked cellulose recovered from used cardboard and newspapers, it’s both waterproof and environmentally friendly.

A honeycomb structure in the walls – similar to that used in aircraft and high-speed yachts – keeps the house well insulated.

Plumbing is built in, and even food concerns have been well thought out: “It has been designed so that a family can slaughter an animal on the veranda, wash it in the shower and hang it, along with fish, on an integrated washing line,” said Niemoeller.

German aid organisation World Vision has already ordered a batch of houses to build a settlement in Zimbabwe.

Pictures of the house are published on Gizmodo.