#u-build

[bumblebeeappletree]

Nick Newman helped design a modular construction system so anyone with just a mallet and a drill can build their own home. Since co-founding U-Build in 2020, he has built— and watched others build— furniture, garden sheds, tiny homes, and full-sized houses, so it makes sense he’d use the flat-pack box system to turn the company work van into his full-time home.

[Watch our first video featuring Nick's U-Build universal home-build system, a CNC-cut flat-pack design anybody can assemble to make a home: • U-Build hands-on:... ]

According to Newman, "the U-Build construction system is something like if IKEA and LEGO had a baby. So, it's these big boxes that can be assembled with a mallet and a screwdriver. Effectively, you start out with your individual panels, which are cut with precision using a CNC machine, and it's designed with this kind of locking system so you can basically put the pieces together: it would always be on the 'right' configuration." Watch it at 25:45.

[Video timeline]

— Nick Newman out in London on his electric campervan: 00:10

— Explaining EV's lack of congestion charge in London: 00:20

— Charging the van in central London: 00:50

— Thunderstorm: 2:20

— Stealth setup: 03:00

— EV van conversion into vanlife camper: 3:30

— Conversion with U-Build boxes ("building blocks") timelapse: 3:42

— Explanation of a U-Build minimum unit of construction, the box: 03:50

— Kirsten interviews Nick Newman: 04:20

— U-Build's modularity put to the test inside a van: 05:10

— Locking system for drawers (inspired by the ones on commercial aircraft): 06:30 and 14:50

— Festival build out of U-Build blocks: 07:15

— Sink: 0832

— Current van living interior: 11:30

— Adapting working straps to vanlife: 12:00

— Folding clothes: 13:05

— Hammock setup: 19:28

— At Stroud, Gloucestershire: 20:45

— U-Build's workshop under construction on an old empty factory: 21:30

— Describing U-Build as a self-build system: 25:45

— On using empty buildings: 22:10

— "People could stay in a house like this for really cheap": 22:15

— Warehouse spaces to solve housing emergencies? 22:30

— Out in Herefordshire: 36:28

— Student-built house with U-Build: 36:35

He started using the fully-electric Sprinter van as a temporary home while on overnight work trips. The U-Build system involves assembling CNC-cut, formaldehyde-free plywood boxes as building blocks which then bolt together to create a rigid frame for a structure.

The conversion cost him less than £2,000 (about $2,400, or €2,300). The system is entirely demountable, so the boxes can be reused over and over: it was easy for Newman to take the boxes he was working with daily and rearrange them in the van to build a bed, kitchen (U-Scrub), storage, and toilet (U-Poo).

Newman left a shared warehouse where he was paying £800 for a tiny, windowless bedroom for vanlife in central London, and because the van is electric, he doesn’t pay congestion charges (£15/day). He has tricked out the van to appear in drive mode so he can use the vehicle’s battery and air conditioning and heating while parked.

The U-Build (and Studio Bark) team recently bought an abandoned warehouse in Stroud (Gloucestershire) for less than the price of a tiny studio in London. While they decide what to do with the space, they have installed U-Build dwellings (built in a half day) to use as bedrooms and private offices. It’s the same model as the SHED Project, where they worked with a London-based guardian company to provide quick-build homes from U-Build kits to provide housing for those in need in exchange for building surveillance.

https://u-build.org/

https://www.instagram.com/ubuild/

Nick's YouTube channel: / @electric.vanlife

Here's our story covered by Autoevolution: https://www.autoevolution.com/news/th...

On *faircompanies: https://faircompanies.com/videos/u-bu...

[happywebdesign]

u-build.org

[thoughtportal]

U-Build is a modular construction system even completely inexperienced builders can assemble with simple hand tools. The flat-pack kit is made from CNC-cut plywood; components are slotted together like puzzle pieces using only a mallet and a drill.

By following a simple set of instructions, one or two people can build a home, a backyard studio or ADU, or even furniture. To create a frame, pieces must be assembled to create hollow boxes that stack (and bolt together) to create walls and a roof. Natural-sheep-wool insulation is pre-cut to fit the boxes. On top of a weather-proof membrane, cladding completes the buildings; this can also be pre-fabbed in wood or cork panels.

The idea to create a pre-fab building kit using boxes as the modules began with clients who wanted to self-build a modular house using shipping containers. “But we said to them, 'although it sounds cool you can't really self-build using shipping containers because you'd need a crane license, you'd need a welding license, so while it seems modular, it's really just the illusion of modular.' We said, ‘what you really want is if we could get the modules small enough that you could be building them yourself’. So with some of our contacts in the CNC world, we basically tried to find a way of making repeatable, strong structural boxes which could be like that human modular element."

The kits are designed for easy assembly and disassembly so the pieces can be reused for a new home, cabin, or piece of furniture. U-Build offers plans for tiny houses or cabins (10- 30m2/ 107- 323 sq ft) for £1000 (~$1380) per square meter. There’s a full-size house (40-150 m2) at £900 per m2 and plenty of options for garden sheds under £12,000 ($16,600). The “Barn Owl” looks like it could serve as an ADU - the photo shows a bed, kitchenette, shower, and toilet setup; it requires building 57 boxes.

Nick Newman spent the last week on-site in Sussex where a team built two cabins in seven days atop simple ground screws (instead of a concrete foundation). He walks us through what it takes to build your own home with a screwdriver and mallet (and some shims and silicone to put in the window glass; frames are included in the kit). We also visit a young couple in Somerset who built a cord-clad tiny house on wheels using a U-Build kit. It took them three months with zero building experience.

https://u-build.org/​

[macromodernmaker]

Studio Bark’s Modular U-build System

[earthshiptrooper]

U-Build helps you design and build your own customisable modular buildings, including garden studios, garden rooms, garden offices, meeting pods, music rooms and recording studios. 1.) We deliver to your door 2.) You assemble with our sumpport 3.) You create your own beautiful spaces.

[earthshiptrooper]

Co-founder of U-build system (”If IKEA/LEGO had a baby!”) shows his adapted van and capsule rooms within a warehouse.

Very interesting !