11.

2013

50k House
A high-performance, low-cost, sustainable, adaptable house for the UK

What is WikiHouse? WikiHouse is an Open Source

construction system. It uses digital manufacturing to make it
possible for anyone to download, customise and print lowcost, high-performance houses adapted to their needs, which
they can quickly assemble themselves, without conventional
construction skills.
It is a way of bringing the third industrial revolution to
housing: radically lowering the barriers of cost, time and skill
and giving users the power to create places which are
sustainable, sociable and resilient by investing their time and
effort instead of just taking on more debt.
Why now? Users and governments have actually known for a
long time what we want from housing: quality, sustainability,
affordability, flexibility, sociability, economic prosperity. Yet
the housing we are building in Britain today very often
frustrates those ambitions. It sees those things as costs;
resulting in homes that are small, unsustainable, unsociable
and unaffordable. Its time for an industrial revolution in how
we make housing in the UK, and that means a revolution in who
builds our homes.
Whats 50k house? Since we began prototyping and
developing WikiHouse in 2011, weve received incredible levels of
coverage and vocal support, and have been joined by a growing
community of WikiHouse teams around the world working in a
common direction. The 50k WikiHouseUK house is the next
milestone for us, working towards completing the first full,
high-performance, low-cost self-build house for the UK, with the
full designs, cutting files, instructions and costings shared
openly, so anyone can easily take it, adapt it and build it for
themselves.

0. DESIGNING & PRINTING

47, 000
80m

One size doesnt fit all

Each WikiHouse design can be customised. Over time we are developing simpler-to-use and more
sophisticated design software, eliminating the need for house to be one-size-fits all, but instead
making it economical for houses to adapt to different sites and individuals needs.

Standard materials
WikiHouse uses affordable materials that are
widely available, like standard 18mm thick plywood.
A house you can print
WikiHouse generates a set of cutting files, that can be
used to cut the parts using a CNC machine. Aside from
allowing local manufacturing, this gives organisations
and users potential to manufacture custom, new or
replacement parts for their house in future.

1. SITE PREPARATION
The layer of topsoil immediately beneath the building is scraped away. Three trench foundations are dug out, filled
with gravel and reinforced concrete. This stage is designed to be as simple as possible for self-builders and
local builders to do quickly; achieving a level footing for the house and minimising the footprint of the house on
the land.
If the site is sloped, trenches can be stepped. Alternatively almost any other form of approved structural
foundation can be used, such as screw piles or a concrete-free system such as SureFoot.
.

2. SERVICE JIG
Levelled-timber rails are bolted to the concrete foundations for the house to sit onto, positioned within a
tolerance of +/-10mm. The services (power, water, data, drainage possibly including water storage) are installed. A
jig is provided to give a location to fit these to. This means any builder can be asked to prepare the site in
advance, and the services will be in the right location to plug into the house, within workable tolerances.
.

3. CHASSIS ASSEMBLY
The WikiHouse frames are then laid out and assembled by hand. Each part is numbered, so the system goes
together like a large flatpack kit, without the need for traditional construction skills, and the lightweight frames
barn-raised into place one by one. There are no bolts, just wedge and peg connections, with the final panels held
into place using ordinary screws. A team of 4+ people should be able to build the house chassis in 1-2 days.
.

4. SAFE ASSEMBLY OF THE SECOND STOREY

Scaffolding is a source of cost and delay in house construction. The 50k WikiHouse is designed to be assembled
without the need for full scaffolding. Once the lower storey is assembled, a roof deck is created with inbuilt
handrails, allowing the pieces for the second storey to be carried or lifted onto the roof, and the process repeated,
raising frames along the length of the house.
.

5. INSULATION
The chassis is designed to accommodate a wide range of insulation types, from loose-fill recycled materials to
rigid panels. A downside of the CNC system is that the complex joints within the box of the chassis raise the risk
of air gaps. The most efficient solution therefore is to use, for example, a full-fill insulation such as cellulose
(recycled newspaper) blown into the chassis, filled by hand, or sprayed wet, which is simple and rapid.
.

6. WEATHERTIGHT
Woodfibre rigid insulation boards are simply screwed to the external face of the structure from a stepladder or
mobile scaff-tower. Interlocked and taped, these form a weathertight, breathable jacket around the building and
can be easily tailor-cut around windows and profiles. CNC Wikiwindows fit directly into the structure, providing
high-performance windows for a fraction of the cost and difficulty of the equivalent market products.
.

7. BATTENS
Battens are screwed directly into the external panels, gutters fitted, and all gaps and edges either taped or handpainted with liquid rubber, meaning there is no need for difficult, expensive metal flashings.
An external deck could be used to bed the floor level into the surrounding site and provide level access into the
dwelling.
.

8. CLADDING MATERIALS
Without modifying the structure a variety of different cladding materials can be used for the rainscreen, driven by
available materials, local vernacular, planning constraints or simply user preference. Depending on project
budget, these could also range from materials as conventional as brick slips or as unconventional as liquid
rubber.
.

9. SERVICES
An open zone runs through the walls, floor and ceiling, making it easy to install pre-certified plug and play
services, which run from a central service location (not unlike how wiring is run through a chassis in the car
manufacturing industry). This hugely increases the speed of assembly and reduces dependency on electricians,
plumbers and other servicemen during installation to get the house ready to live in. The system also maximises
access for professionals and the home owner to mend or adapt the services during the houses lifetime.
This open zone is also a frame for hackable services, creating the first house designed for
individuals to install their own (e.g. Arduino) sensors, off-grid energy, water systems and devices into the
house as amateurs. Companies can also be involved, by designing innovative products that can be used by home
owners chose to change or upgrade their home.

AN OPEN, MODULAR
HOME SYSTEM
First, the construction system is designed to be fast and simple to build, and far easier than most construction
systems to achieve high levels of insulation and air-tightness. The 385mm build-up is largely the same all the
way around the house, and gives an overall U-value of 0.14 W/m2K (suitable for PassivHaus construction).
Second, the construction is open and modular so the design is easily adapted or upgraded. Different materials
can be used for cladding, finishes or insulation. The system is designed for repair and upgrade. Key to this is the
open service zone running around the inside of the house, allowing users to quickly and messily install plug-andplay services (electricity, water, heating, data, security, lighting etc) during the lifetime of the house. The
instructions, paths and locations of services can even be milled into the panels, so the assembly team dont need
to work from drawings. In other words, this is the first truly user-hackable house system.

6
8

9
7

HIGH-PERFORMANCE FABRIC 0.14 W/m2K

1 External rainscreen in a material of choice.
2 Timber battens screw straight into insulation board.
3 60mm wood fibre rigid board insulation, acts as breather membrane 0.038 W/mK
4 18mm plywood wikihouse chassis 0.13W/mK
5 200mm deep box-void filled with 200mm full-fill
cellulose fibre (recycled newspapers, blown or sprayed-in) 0.039W/mK (9% bridging)
6 18mm plywood chassis 0.13W/m. Airtight vapour line created by taping and sealing joints and holes from the
inside.
7 32mm messy service void allowing plug and play pre-certified services to simply be wired-into the chassis.
Paths and locations can be milled into walls, so the building acts as its own instructions.
8 Internal finish in Magnesium Oxide board. Panels are moisture and fire resistant, can be painted and easily
removed to gain access to service zone. They simply slot onto the grips built into the chassis, no measuring or
cutting required.
9 Wall caps to conceal screw fixings and pull holes, resulting in a smooth, finished internal surface.
.

Bathroom
4m

Bedroom
14m+

Bedroom
11m+

First floor
82 m2 house

Kitchen
13m+

WC
3m

Living
24m+

Store
1.2m

Ground floor
82m2 house

UK Standards
As well as meeting UK building regulations, the UK 50k WikiHouse is designed to meet HCA space standards for
affordable housing, and can be extended by 1.2m to fulfil Lifetime Homes standard.
The fabric is designed to make it possible for the house to reach Passivhaus standard, or just be used a
naturally ventilated, high-energy performance house. Most of the heat requirements of the house come from
solar energy . The performance of the prototypes will be monitored during use to find ways to iterate and
improve the design.
Click here to download an outline SketchUp 3D model of this house.

Bedroom

Kitchen

Bedroom

Store

Living

Long section
82m2 house

Typical Elevation
A small 82m2 house is shown for comparison, but both size, roof profile, layout and elevations are indicative.
The location of doors, windows and the roof profile can be customised.

The factory of the future is everywhere Digital fabrication tools, such as CNC are increasingly affordable (Blackfoot 2.2k)
The team is everyone A WikiHouse chassis, completed in 1.5 days by amateurs.

Printable
The house can be downloaded, designed
and digitally manufactured locally, or even
within the house itself.

Generous
Designed to maximise rather than
minimise space, daylight etc.

Affordable
By making it possible for users to do much
of the work themselves or with friends, the
82m2 house can be made for 50k (610/
m2)

Resilient
Equip users with the capacity to
safely mend and hack the house for
themselves.

Faster & easier

The system lowers thresholds of time and
skill, aiming for a house which can be
assembled by non-professionals within
2 weeks.
Sustainable
As well as building-in excellent energy
performance, the house includes off-grid
energy, water harvesting systems.

Solar
Almost all the houses heating
requirements come from solar energy,
dramatically lowering energy bills.

Low carbon
Almost all materials and components are
from recycled / FSB certified sources, and
can, in turn, be recycled or reused.
Homes for life
As well as seeking to comply with key HCA
and Lifetime homes standards, the house
is designed to be easily customised to
different (and changing) family units.
Customisable + extendable
The house type is designed to be customised
and extended by the user, blurring the
artificial divide between design and use.

Locally adaptable
The house is capable of adapting to different
sites, climates and local vernaculars (within
the UK).

+1
Some of the worlds biggest
companies began in garages. Rather
than treating users as consumers,
the system is designed to encourage
addition (either initially or in future)
of hobby or work spaces.
If you could add a room to your
house, what would it be for?

Sustainable neighbourhoods
Aimed to maximise capacity for
users to shape their own
neighbourhoods for shared
transport amenities, passive
supervision, play, care etc.
Modular
The house uses standard
dimensions and parts that are
widely available, and all parts are as
replaceable and interoperable as
possible.
Open Source
All models, files, costings and
instructions are shared in commons
under a CCO license, allowing others
to easily download, replicate and
adapt it for free.

COST BREAKDOWN
TOOLS NEEDED
CNC Machine kit (Blackfoot) 2135
CNC End mills 120
Scaffold tower rent (2 days) 75
10ft stepladder 80
2 x Electric drill & screwdriver 180
2,590
SITE WORKS
Clearing topsoil 252
Excavating trenches 455
Services install 1000
Rainwater storage tank plus pump header tank 1000
Gravel infill 261
2,968
FOUNDATIONS & FOOTINGS
Reinforced concrete trench 315
Timber rail beams 223
Angle brackets 119
657
CHASSIS
Structural spruce plywood 2440x1220x18mm 490 sheets 9800
Screws 4920 No. 49
9,849
INSULATION
Woodfibre rigid panels 5450
Full fill cellulose insulation 1090
Silicon sealant
6,968
SKIN
Onduline / timber cladding 10/m2 2180
Fixings for cladding 50
Battens 323
Liquid rubber 200
2,553
DOORS & WINDOWS
Windows CNC 4425
External doors CNC 200
All ironmongery 500
Internal doors CNC 630
5,755
INTERNAL FINISHES & FITTINGS
Magnesium oxide panels 1875
Bathroom liner 600
Bathroom set 700
WC set 450
Tiling or rubber paint 300
Paint (optional) 66
Floor finish (optional) 20/m2 1,500
5,755
FIREPLACE & CHIMNEY
Wood burning stove (optional) 400
400
KITCHEN
Kitchen units CNC 1400
Appliances 1200
Kitchen fittings 200
2,800
SERVICES
Electrical connection & manifold 1150
Electrical plug and play loom 900
Plumbing plug and play loom 100
Water header tank 100
Mechanical ventilation with air heating & heat exchange 800
Solar hot water store 860
Solar thermal array 1400
Backup electric boiler 500
Photovoltaic array and handler 1400
7,210
FOOD & DRINK FOR FRIENDS

TOTAL HOUSE COST

500

47,342

Contingency fund 2658

Click here to view the detailed specification and costings doc for this house. Please note all costings are indicative and work in-progress.

Rural farmyard
1-10 dwellings per hectare

NEIGHBOURHOOD
DESIGN

Suburban village
35-40 dwellings per hectare

The 50k WikiHouse is only one of many

possible designs using the WikiHouse
system, but is intended as a base
component (think lego bricks) which can
easily adapt to multiple neighbourhood
densities and layouts.
As such it can be used as a helpful tool for
users to more easily co-design
neighbourhoods. Giving citizens more
power in planning has immediate
practical benefits, since they are able to
invest in costs and take risks that
speculative developers arent able to. Who
else is going to invest in better energy
efficiency if not the person paying the
heating bills? Who else can decide to opt
for non-standard street layouts, including
shared green space or community
amenities, except the people who will be
living there.

Mid-urban street
55-65 dwellings per hectare

SCALING-UP CUSTOM-BUILD
The UK housing crisis is now widely felt
across society. It is not just a short-term
crisis of supply, but also a long-term crisis
of inflation, affordability, debt, quality,
sustainability, community resilience, health
& care and economic prosperity.
Underpinning that crisis are two things:
first, land supply and second, the
industrial-age assumption that the only
people who can develop housing at scale
are state organisations or speculative
property developers, dependent on financial
capital and consumer debt. That
assumption is no longer correct.

COMMUNITY FACTORY

Custom-build (broadly, allowing users to

buy plots and procure their own houses) is
increasingly recognised by government,
industry and the public as having radical
potential to practically address this crisis,
and produce housing which is genuinely
affordable, generous, sustainable, and
sociable. However, it is still largely perceived
as expensive, time-consuming and too
damn difficult for everyone involved.
OpenBuild
Learning from other models particularly in
Europe 00 are developing UK
neighbourhood development models
designed to make custom-build much
simpler, leaner, more accessible, lower-risk
and realistically scalable. The OpenBuild
process is an open source template for
neighbourhood development, taking in
legal, financial, planning, design and
construction phases, the aim being to share
the strategy, contracts and costings openly
for others to replicate and adapt.
Community factories
A key part of this process is seeding the
neighbourhood with a community factory
a walk-in resource where prospective
custom-builders can buy a plot, co-design
their neighbourhood rules, get support and
access shared tools. The community factory
is itself a kind of prototype which goes on to
become a shared long-term community
amenity.
It is suggested that the first WikiHouseUK
house might double as a community
factory, perhaps with a live-in-host to
support others as they custom-build their
homes; starting a chain reaction.
Click here to download a copy of
A Right to Build

NEIGHBOURHOOD PERMITTED
DEVELOPMENT RULES

A GLOBAL COMMONS
As well as a growing set of open software design tools, we (along with the WikiHouse and wider OS
Hardware community) are developing a sharing platform for hardware, a new kind of global
commons; owned by everyone and accessible to anyone. This includes not just solutions to house
structure, but high-performance, low-cost, sustainable, modular solutions to problems like off-grid
infrastructure, design tools etc. In a rapidly urbanising world, this seems like a pretty necessary
step.
To support this, we are collaborating with others to build a global web platform, making it possible
to share Open Hardware simply and clearly. A Wikipedia for stuff.

Who? WikiHouse was started by 00 (zero zero) in

collaboration with Espians, Momentum & Beatrice Galilee.
WikiHouseUK is now just one of a growing number of teams
collaborating globally, including WikiHouseNZ , WikiHouseFR,
WikiHouseESP, WikiHouseNL, WikiHouseDET, WikiHouseRIO
and other projects in the open source hardware community.
What next? We are working on completing the first UK
houses. If you would like to contribute to the project, fund our
R&D, commission a house or a neighbourhood project, or
fund the development of the WikiHouse platform, please get
in touch.
Some useful links:
WikiHouse website.
TED talk by WikiHouse co-founder Alastair Parvin.
View our research project, A Right to Build.
Spacecraft (WikiHouseNZ) website
TED Prize City 2.
Some friends worth checking out
The National Self Build Association
The Open Source Ecology project
The Open Tech Forever Project
SketchUp
MatterMachine

00
Coverage including

This document
is shared under a CC-BY license. Which means you may freely use and distribute it
but must attribute 00.
WikiHouse Hardware License
WikiHouse hardware (design files and any associated content) are published and
shared under Creative Commons CC0 license. Which means anyone is free to take it
and use it. More >
WikiHouse Software License
WikiHouse software is published in the Public Domain under the Ampify
Unlicense. This means there are no restrictions limiting its use. More >
WikiHouse Trademark
The WikiHouse name and logo is shared under the WikiHouse
trademark license which forms part of our constitution. Any two
people may sign and publish this constitution and found a regional
WikiHouse team using a chapter name (e.g WikiHouseNZ). View the
constitution here.

00 (zero zero) is a collaborative design studio of architects, programmers,

technologists, social scientists and urban designers practicing design beyond
its traditional borders.
We work with individuals, governments, corporations and communities to solve
problems, anticipate change, and design deeply successful products,
processes, platforms and places.

Click here to contact us

Click here to donate

www. wikihouse.cc
www. architecture00.net

Click here to join the community