The team, which has developed a prototype, now hopes to set up a startup to commercialise this project.
How would you like it if you could simply fold your house and move it whenever you required? Especially a home that can house up to 20 people?
Well, civil engineering students from IIT Madras, have developed a prototype for a foldable two-storey house made out of metal frames.
This ‘house’, they say, will be especially useful when natural disasters render many homeless.
Photo source: Facebook
The house, is 52ft in length and breadth and close to 40ft tall, and its walls are interchangeable. It can set anywhere; all one has to do is unfold its metal frames and start fixing panels. These panels will be the walls for the house. They have also been built it in such a way that there are provisions for electricity and water supply as well.
And while, the rest of the rooms can be dismantled and folded away, the one exception to the house is the toilet. It is 13m and comes in a separate box, which gets fitted to the one end of the main house’s frame. It also features all the faucets that will make it functional for the occupants.
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A total of eight engineering students built this prototype. Shreeram, a third year civil engineering student, told the Times of India, “Hundreds of people were displaced and had no shelter after the floods in the city last year. It was then we decided to come up a foldable house. Wooden panels can be used as walls. Any material can be used.”
While, the project is still in the prototype stage, the students are looking to set up a startup to make this a reality. They are hoping to sell each unit for ₹3 lakh when the house is ready for commercial use.
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