The Cork Hut – A Flexible Housing Alternative

Houses have long gone beyond the conventional limits and, in a world in which each of us look for the authentic freedom, in any form it may come, design gets ever bolder shapes, while keeping those simple and practical lines. Tiny houses, which make us take little money out of our pockets, are the latest trend across the world, with more and more people indulging in the simple pleasure of staying in these modest homes, but radiating charm and beauty. Home is where one feels good after all.

London designer Jasper Morrison kept the pace with this universal trend which we will definitely write about so often from now on. And since Morrison wanted to leave his mark, he built a tiny house made from cork and timber. The choice he made is not random: cork is all natural, fire resistant, insulating and long-lasting. It is not only totally renewable, but the cork industry in Portugal actually preserves the environment from the usual predator, holiday housing, and saves it for the Iberian Lynx and the short toed eagle. The cork forests are also a vital carbon sink, storing as many as 10m tones of CO2 every year, according to Treehugger.com.

Here is what Jasper Morrison says about his creation. “Whenever I think about going to the country for the weekend, I start imagining a small house with everything needed for a short stay. The dream usually collapses when I think of the complexity of building a new house, but with this project I realized there was a chance to design such a house as a product rather than a one-off”, he said.

Product because the tiny house is now part of a project Japanese minimal retailer MUJI has come up with: MUJI HUT, under the slogan enjoy simple pleasures. Morrison’s cork hut is one of the three tiny abodes MUJI will sell for prices ranging from 25,000 to 40,000 USD. You can see the other two small houses in the pictures below.