Reboot is a conceptual house designed by Victor Vetterlein to be completely self-sufficient.
The pod-like house makes use of solar cell paint, wind turbines and rainwater collection to harvest energy.
The internal environment is digitally controlled and operated by voice activated sensors, remote controls and touch pads or remotely from a mobile phone or computer.
More from Victor Vetterlein on Dezeen:
Meeraboo FL-1
Meeraboo ST-1 and G-Force
Here’s some more information about Reboot from Vetterlein:
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Introducing ‘Reboot’, a POD house by Victor Vetterlein.
Reboot is designed to be self-sufficient, wired, and fluid in form.
RPOD050108_Self-Sufficient
Reboot is self-sufficient and eco-friendly. The building is constructed with a space frame, and the outer skin increases structural strength through double curvature. The skin system consists of a vapor barrier, dense foam insulation, and metal sheathing where the exterior face is glazed in solar cell paint. The surface of the building serves as a solar energy collector.
Supplemental electricity is provided by on-site wind turbines and energy is stored in batteries on Deck 1. Wind power is also used to pressurize a large canister to operate the hydraulic elevator and the water treatment system. The smooth outer skin of the building acts as a foil against adverse weather conditions, and the rooftop serves as a water collection surface where rainwater runs into a drain located above the resin laminated glass windows. The water is stored in holding tanks positioned below the Main Deck and managed by an in-house water treatment system on Deck 2.
Natural ventilation is provided by operable vents located at the top and the bottom of the structure. Lastly, the building’s mechanical systems are stacked on two floors above the Ground level eliminating the need for massive ground penetrations and a large site footprint.
RPOD050108_Wired
Reboot is computer operated, fully automated, and wired to the max. The household living environment is managed by a direct digital control (DDC) system that oversees support networks such as lighting, heating, cooling, music, entertainment, and security. The user operates this system through voice activated sensors, remote controls, and touch pads.
The DDC system is accessed and controlled any distance from the dwelling via a laptop computer or a cell phone. Skylight covers, fresh air vents, retractable media screens, and retractable partition walls are also operated by the DDC system. Doors throughout the building are pocket doors and operated with motion or voice sensors. A main computer room on Deck 1 directs the DDC system, and an on-site satellite dish connects the house with the outside world.
RPOD050108_Fluid Form
Reboot’s floor plan is void of hard edges and fluid in form. Upon entering the building at the Ground level, one sees an elliptical glass elevator shaft that refracts natural light from the skylight above. A white stairway with a glass handrail encircles the elevator, winds upwards through two support service decks, and arrives at the primary living area on the Main Deck.
A hallway with walls covered in a white acoustical meshing leads to the Bridge with a panoramic exterior view as its terminus. The high gloss white floors and arched ceiling of the Bridge reflects light from the exterior scenery and amplifies the radiance of colors.
Public functions are in the front of the building, moderately public functions in the middle and private activities in the rear where there are two sleeping cabins. A panelized floor and wall system allows for a changeable floor plan for future living adjustments.
Reboot is more than a proposal for a private residence. The design of Reboot incorporates twenty-first century advancements in computer aided design and construction, building science and technology, and environmental awareness and energy independence.
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Posted by Rose Etherington
May 13th, 2008 at 1:27 pm
beam me up
May 13th, 2008 at 1:55 pm
is this a joke?? WHY DOES IT HAVE A LOO - SHAPED VOLUME?
May 13th, 2008 at 2:03 pm
The Enterprise was self sustaining too the last I checked. Star Trek meets a mountain loo…
May 13th, 2008 at 2:18 pm
Quite funny!
‘New Ross Lovegrove design for Vitra’ can’t escape my mind… in lack of more ‘graphic’ descriptions…
May 13th, 2008 at 2:25 pm
how come no one sees that looks like a toilet?
May 13th, 2008 at 2:28 pm
Daft Punk are rumoured to be ordering one each.
May 13th, 2008 at 5:24 pm
This is the work of a first year design student, so please give them some slack - we were all young and naive once.
May 13th, 2008 at 7:43 pm
I just want them to install a laser beam cannon to the top, some tires and then fear the mobile death (but enviromentaly friendly) house!
May 13th, 2008 at 9:08 pm
why is everything justified by being eco-friendly nowadays? no matter what you do, as long as you say something about protecting mother nature you’re sure to get it published somewhere… I’m not saying it’s a bad thing people finally start to get preoccupied by ecology but the market is turning ecology into just another selling argument…
Why not pump the produced energy back onto the electricity network, energy storage in batteries is probably the worst thing you can imagine if you’re concerned about ecology. These batteries are real pollution timebombs.
Besides that, I would just like to say that we still have something pretty fascinating called ‘hands’, that, among many other things, allow you to open doors without any hypercybergadgets. I like to use my ‘hands’ once in a while actually. Not just to push on a button.
May 13th, 2008 at 10:26 pm
this is the coolest thing really!! so funny even looking like a toilet!
May 14th, 2008 at 1:40 am
eco-gadget architecture.
does the future have to look fluid, seamless and sinuous?
May 14th, 2008 at 9:15 am
Cool enough to take my breath away! Victor’s work is sure to gain the respect and admiration it deserves on innovation alone. Keep an eye out for this guy in the future.
May 14th, 2008 at 9:46 am
this is awesome… i love daft punk!!!
May 14th, 2008 at 10:27 am
WILL THIS EPIDEMIC OF ‘ORGANIC SHAPED’ ARCHITECTURE EVER END?
I am sorry to say, this seems realy ugly. It looks like a bad futuristic TV set of the 60s’. It also looks like a toilet. I can not imagine this anywere on the planet, looking nice.
The ecological approach could be applied to ANY other building. So please stop using this as an excuse for any weird looking proposal.
Ecological issues are not just a trendy ‘must’.
May 14th, 2008 at 10:47 am
frightening, and a quick look at the website shows some amusing furniture designs . . . . presented in cotton wool . . . !
yeah, you wouldn’t have to gather so much natural energy, solar, wind, water . . . if you didn’t have the ‘internal environment’ controlled by computers in the first place; and if you could manage to WALK up the stairs rather than use an elevator, you would use even LESS energy . . . amazingly wasteful.
This looks like a ‘futuristic’ design of 50 years ago, and a bad one at that.
May 14th, 2008 at 2:16 pm
Is this a doll house
May 14th, 2008 at 3:41 pm
Jek, i don’t think it’s enough to stop using energy to save the environment.
It’s like to stop breathing to save the air.
What we need is a new source, and not to go back to stone age.
You can decide if you want to walk now a days, did you notice that?
Besides, Veterlein’s design ‘can’ be dated, but not a waste.
Look at Niemeyer’s museum at Niteroi (Brazil)
http://www.travel-earth.com/brazil/niteroi.jpg
I think Vetterlein remarks that transgression is innovative just by pointing out one’s interpretation as long as we pay respect to each others individuality.
We came to a turning point in history where references overlap one another continuously.
With internet you can be comparing old and new, reality and fantasy without fear, and Vetterlein looks for its meaning. And synthesizes it.
Even the shapes and forms we were used to are no longer represented by their usual images.
Look deeper…
May 14th, 2008 at 7:51 pm
really nice!
May 14th, 2008 at 11:38 pm
the only eco-friendly thing about this is that no one is ever going to waste resources by building it.
May 15th, 2008 at 9:38 am
phuture
May 15th, 2008 at 12:40 pm
Is this a joke. ugly, insensitive, how much energy is required to make it look like a gravity defying toilet/alarm clock? has this moron ever opened a book on passsive or low energy design?
May 15th, 2008 at 2:41 pm
i see a futuristic version of a jousting or gladiator’s helmet with the antenna as the plumage. very cool.
May 16th, 2008 at 11:05 pm
It looks like naval architecture to me.
“What a fun ship, holy cow/They’d never believe it if your friends could see you now!”
May 16th, 2008 at 11:22 pm
Can you make it out of somethiing sustanable like wood.
May 26th, 2008 at 8:21 pm
Great and strange…
May 29th, 2008 at 12:30 pm
Interesting, but too strange… It looks like for aliens
June 13th, 2008 at 9:41 pm
Interesting? No. Sensible, responsible, logical, workable, innovative, alternative? No. In what possible way environmentally aware, organic? How much energy used for a “simple” single-family dwelling? Walk through the centre of the house to get to any other room on the same floor? How is waste disposed of? How much sustained hurricane-force winds to power both an elevator and a water treatment facility? First-year student? Hardly; practicing architect,which is scarier. Handy it looks and works like a toilet – if it were truly environmentally-aware, it could just flush itself down the drain.
June 20th, 2008 at 6:37 pm
the photoshop work is, for lack of a better word, bad
the detailing on the renders just made it seem too cartoonish; there was really no need for the buttons, grills and gosh, that hideous antenna
sections and plans look like a first year’s work
and all that talk on solar panels, wind turbines and rainwater collection is just claptrap. they’ve become superficial mainstays in every presentation that tries to be sustainable.
there should be less hype on ‘eco friendly’ additions and more considerations for embodied constructional energies please
June 24th, 2008 at 2:26 pm
This proposal is a provocative design to say the least.
Might I remind everyone that it has been proven in history that the best ideas are usually perceived by the general public (closed minds) as crackpot ideas.
June 26th, 2008 at 6:32 am
it’s cute, that could be the future. haters aren’t welcome in the future.
what’s the deal witht he galleys though?
July 1st, 2008 at 3:22 pm
looks like an oversized toilet and a space alien combined, its a great concept but poorly rendered
July 11th, 2008 at 8:45 am
ORGANIC mesh house springs
July 6th, 2009 at 2:59 pm
If this is a professional working on a serious project i can only be sorry
I just saw ‘another’ one from you…
What you’re showing around makes one think you’re a joker.
If this is the case…, well, good luck…