Container Homes That Open In 90 Seconds. Push Button Houses by Adam Kalkin.

Architect Adam Kalkin's Push Button homes are fascinating. A shipping container that unfolds with the push of a button in 90 seconds to reveal a living space complete with a bedroom, a bathroom, kitchenette, and living area.

The first Push Button House was originally displayed at Art Basel Miami in 2005. Built in a standard shipping container, the home, by architect Adam Kalkin, expands like a flower blossoming to reveal a modern and minimal living space.











Kalkin’s concept uses hydraulic power to lift and lower the sides of the shipping container, expanding the usable living space.



photographs by Peter Aaron.

The Push Button House was adapted by Illy for use as a temporary café at the Venice Biennale in June of 2007, and at the Time-Warner Center later that year (images courtesy of Tree Hugger).






His Push Button House 2, a revised version of his Push button House 1 was documented in the 12 minute short, shown below, by Snag Films.

Push Button House 2:


Part performance piece and part sculpture, the Push Button is an engineering and artistic feat that captured the attention of both the artistic community and public as a bold, yet playful vision on the intersection of art and technology.

This award winning short film has been featured at over a dozen international festivals including AFI Dallas, Newport Beach Film Festival, Seattle International Film Festival, and featured preview footage at the Museum of Modern Art.

Adam is also the owner and designer of Quik House, a series of purchasable and customizable prefab shipping container homes.



Kalkin’s Push Button Houses are one of many shipping container concepts and homes that he has designed. See all his amazing work here.

Images courtesy of Adam Kalkin and Peter Aaron

IKEA Portland and Ideabox Launch Their First Collaborative Prefab Home, Aktiv.

Oregon-based Ideabox has collaborated with IKEA to create a new prefab collection which debuted this month at the Portland Home & Garden Show.





The collaboration introduces "Aktiv", the first in a new line of prefab houses designed by ideabox and appointed by IKEA.




Working with IKEA designers, ideabox designed aktiv around IKEA systems. In the kitchen, IKEA offers a lot of flexibility in kitchen cabinets. Ideabox designed the layout, and their clients can select the colors. IKEA appliances offer state-of-the-art cooking, so they included an induction cooktop and convection oven.




A counter depth refrigerator keeps food fresh, and cabinet faced dishwashers provide seamless functionality. Proven by millions walking on them in IKEA stores, aktiv offers IKEA flooring, a perfect match for active Northwest lifestyles.



For those IKEA fans, the pure delight of walking and imagining their way through an IKEA store quickly turns to the daunting task of assembly when they get home. However, when your ideabox aktiv arrives, all of the cabinets, countertops, and flooring are installed.




The bath features a “huge” two sink vanity and four drawers along with a storage cabinet. The bedroom features the amazingly functional IKEA built-in series of closet systems.




Think of it as your own personal euro designer flat -only where you want it. Every bit an ideabox, from the energy efficiency to the cool assembly of materials, aktiv by ideabox truly is modern living made remarkably easy.



Jim Russell (above), owner and principal at Ideabox, has a background in energy, having worked for Oregon's Department of Energy and Energy Trust at Oregon. He's passionate about delivering energy-efficient homes — as long as they have a design edge. "We want our homes to be so rockin' cool that people just want them," Russell said. "No Birkenstocks, no flannel, no granola."


above: Jim Russell, ideabox owner, stands in front of the Aktiv at the Portland Home and Garden Show

The home gets a boost in its quest for maximum energy efficiency in part due to its small footprint. Aktiv is compact at 745-square-feet and carries an all-inclusive price tag of about $86,000. From order to delivery, an Ideabox home takes about eight weeks, with two to three of that in building time.

The exterior of the Aktiv in Portland:




The landscaping for the project was done for Ikeabox by Schutlz and Long Landscape Architecture of Portland. Recycled asphalt replaces gravel and water-efficient dwarf plants are fed by a drip irrigation system.



images and info courtesy of ideabox, Sustainable Business Oregon and photographer Cathy Cheney

A Different Kind of California Roll. You Can Live In This One, A Cool Modern Prefab.

A pre-fabricated house designed for the desert by Christopher Daniel of Violent Volumes - The California Roll House, 2011.



The following text was written by the designer of the structure and is reprinted here:
At times, the simplest form with least manipulation from its original form can offer visual amenities and adapted solution to the context. California Roll prefabricated house takes this methodology to create its morphological adaptation to its environment : desert. Homogeneous exterior material which provides high grade of energy efficiency and reflects heat from the sun covers the entire surface except for glass panels which is electronically controlled to change its transparency.




Modularization of every structure members and finish materials are maximized to provide mobility with rapid assembly and disassembly on site.



To sustain its challenging structural stand, carbon fibre truss frame under neath the exterior material holds the entire architecture. Hydraulic powered automatic doors and security system is used for main entrance door which allows less spaces to operate the door mechanism. California Roll house features these latest technologies applied to architecture which breaks the boundary of product or vehicle design and architectural design which brings more mobility to living spaces.



Plain surface on the ground extended from exterior surface provides paved area for out door activities which requires flat and artificial surface different from desert sand surface. As well as surface on the ground, inside of exterior shell is covered with fibre reinforced plastic panels.




Modularized skylights and windows along the exterior surface can be placed at desired location to light its interior space to meet resident’s requirement from his own usage of the space.




Passive and subtle control of privacy of bedroom area is provided by curtain divider and bookshelf with translucent midpart.



These parts allows the residents to have sense of privacy by delicate visual hints over as well as providing lights through.



Overall, the privacy in California Roll is controlled rather passively with resident’s awareness than tight blocking of spaces in-between.




Main Entrance/ Front Door
Since the main entrance is on the sloped wall, the door mechanism should be designed in unconventional way. Adopting ideas from automotive design industry, hydraulic powered automatic door controlled by number lock panel is installed on the sloped wall as main entrance to minimize the space required for operation to avoid contact with user while in operation. When the door is fully open, the clearance height is up to 2 meters.




The door opens into two pieces, the upper piece lifts up over head, and the lower piece unfolds onto the floor for visitors to step on. When the door is completely closed, the material on the outside of door continues with the material of the exterior surface to achieve conformity and hide the entrance.

Automatic main door mechanism diagram:



Architectural plans:






Architect/ Designer Christopher Daniel:

images and info courtesy of Christopher Daniel and Violent Volumes