Tomas Zacek, Sona Pohlova and Igor Zack from Nice Architects in Bratislava, Slovakia have designed and developed Ecocapsule and expect to start preorders late this year. Ecocapsules are low-energy compact houses intended to be used in off grid conditions. The hope was to bring hotel level comfort and quality of life to the outdoors.
A 750 Watt wind turbine and 600 Watts of solar cells provide energy for the capsule. Battery system for the capsule holds 9744 Watt-hours. The domed design is shaped to collect optimal amounts of rainwater that will be filtered and repurposed. The company says that any water source can be used after filtering.
The full capsule was designed to fit into a standard shipping container without any special preparation or disassembly – this, of course, means that the turbine pole is not extended. A full system weighs 1500 kilograms and requires 2.55 x 4.45 x 2.25 meters of space.
Ecocapsule was unveiled at the Pioneers Festival in Vienna in May 2015, and was next featured at the Slovak’s pavilion at the EXPO Milano in June. There’s been a lot of buzz this summer but the designers have been gone mostly quiet, keeping themselves busy prepping for capsule production. Delivery of units is expected to hit during early 2016 and a towable version with integrated trailer chassis is expected to be available in late 2016.
Design of the capsule is incredibly stylized and looks great to hold one person comfortably for extended periods of time. But there are several question marks about structure and durability. The manufacturing is a huge concern – without knowing how many units to produce how is the company in the beginning stages of production? I’m hoping that Nice Architects have these questions answered and are going to successfully launch production units soon.