Now You Can Build Your Own Off-Grid ZeroCabin and Never Pay Utility Bills Again
ZeroCabin offers DIY kits for building off-grid dwellings that run entirely on sunshine and rainwater.
Sustainable living just got easier and more accessible. ZeroCabin, a company based in Frutillar, Chile, is offering zero-impact cabin kits that are tailored to your locale. Constructed out of a simple palette of wood and metal, the cozy cabins harvest sunlight and rainwater to operate 100% off the grid.
The two-story cabin runs solely off of solar power and rainwater.
Courtesy of ZeroCabin
"ZeroCabin started from the desire to become free. For us, that freedom entails not paying any utility bills," says founder Felipe Lüer. "To get this freedom, you have to use free energy and water—which exist all around the world thanks to the sun and rain. We have to use only these main elements—and nothing else."
The cabins can be customized for different locations.
Courtesy of ZeroCabin
To bring his self-sustaining cabins to life, Lüer gathered a team of scientists—a biologist, a chemist and a physicist. Their first off-grid home runs on photovoltaic solar panels, and it features a Becker wood stove for heating, rainwater capture and gray water reuse systems, and earthworm composters.
ZeroCabins are constructed from a simple palette of wood and metal.
Courtesy of ZeroCabin
The cabins can be constructed with minimal impact on the surrounding land, as builders can transport materials by foot and using 4x4s.
Courtesy of ZeroCabin
The biologist on the ZeroCabin team designed and built a sewage system that uses earthworms to compost waste. "It is the best natural fertilizer that exists," Lüer says.
To maximize solar power, the biologist also embraced the concept of phyllotaxis—how plant leaves arrange themselves in a spiral pattern to optimize photosynthesis. "It gave us the best way to use the sun," Lüer says.
The cabin has a sleek silhouette and an A-frame roof.
Courtesy of ZeroCabin
Shop the Look
Àplat Re-Usable Cotton Food Storage Bags
Pick a pocket. Weaning yourself off plastic? Go green with these food storage bags made of 100% organic cotton. You’ll want the large bags by your side when you hit the bulk bins, the small ones when you’re packing snacks or sandwiches for a long day, and all of the sizes when sorting food in your fridge and pantry. They’re super easy to wash, and the cotton is preshrunk, too—they’ll hold the same amount of bulk grains, herbs and fresh produce before and after your wash ‘em.
ShopWhy Materials Matter: Responsible Design for a Better World
This visually stunning investigation of natural and man-made materials will change the way you look at the world around you, while offering hope for the future of our planet. What does it mean to live in a material world, and how do materials of the past and present hold the keys to our future? This book tackles these questions by focusing on various issues that human beings face and by discussing potential materials-related solutions. Through the lens of intriguing projects by designers, artists, makers, and scientists, it presents a colorful panoply of ideas, technologies, and creative efforts that focus on the earth's most basic elements, while also showing how these elements can be transformed into entirely new materials. It explores, for example, how ancient practices such as dyeing fabric and making glue may hold the secret to renewable and earth-friendly consumer products, as well as how recycling plastics can tackle food waste, and how a type of light metal being developed may one day make air travel less fuel-reliant. This book also investigates the potential of the digital experience, suggesting how this most ephemeral type of matter can be used to improve our world. Eye-catching and provocative, Why Materials Matter serves as both a stimulating catalog of possibilities and a timely manifesto on how to consume, manufacture, and design for a better future.
ShopEpica Kitchen Compost Bin
The Epica Kitchen Compost Bin is specially designed to make composting an easily implemented part of your day. The bin sits unobtrusively on your countertop, helping you do your part while keeping smells and messes contained.
ShopThe ZeroCabin physicist installed a Becker stove that allows the owners to cook and warm water using a third of the amount of wood that it would take normally.
The cabin also incorporates eco-friendly insulation by Rootman. The Chilean company creates a biodegradable and totally natural insulation out of oak roots in a process that uses little fossil fuel.
A trap door provides access to the cabin from underneath.
Courtesy of ZeroCabin
The main living space includes a futon and kitchen area, with a washroom tucked in the corner.
Courtesy of ZeroCabin
"The chemist [on the ZeroCabin team] was sure that people would be able to change though epigenetics, being happy would be and internal change into them, our next challenge, was to make a happy and relax living space," Lüer says.
A simple yet effective sewage system uses worms to compost waste.
Courtesy of ZeroCabin
The ZeroCabin DIY kit is available for purchase and shipping worldwide, and each kit is customized based on location. The cabins are carefully designed with topography, rain, and sun metrics in mind. Price is dictated by the size and materials selected by the client.
So far, three ZeroCabins have been built in Chile—one on a puma reserve in Puerto Varas, another on an island near Chiloé, and the final in the city of Panguipulli.
A dining bar is tucked into the cozy kitchen.
Courtesy of ZeroCabin
A Becker wood stove heats water and cooks food.
Courtesy of ZeroCabin
During the construction process, the company looks to do as little damage as possible. With the three current builds, they constructed the cabins near forests and transported materials on trail by foot and using 4x4s.
"ZeroCabin was created with the goal of achieving zero utility bills, zero environmental impact, and happy customers that are better consumers so that we can have a better world," Lüer says. "We do not want sad faces, or to make sustainability a chore."
A stair system leads to the second-floor lookout.
Courtesy of ZeroCabin
Published
Last Updated