Luis de Garrido’s Prefab Green Box

Posted on Apr 21 2009 by Richard Defendorf

A wedge of sustainable construction Creator of the R4House, a sustainable-materials dwelling featured at the 2007 Construmat building show in Europe, Barcelona architect Luis de Garrido has designed Green Box, shown above, as a transportable home constructed of prefabricated, sustainable materials. A prototype was assembled for display at the 2009 Construmat, which is taking place this week.

One of the featured displays at the Construmat building showcase in Barcelona is the Spanish architect’s transportable garden house

Green Box, a “garden” house billed as the latest in sustainable design from Spanish architect Luis de Garrido, is a big wedge of green prefab whose midsection is flipped upward to create a right-triangle tower.

A prototype of the dwelling, constructed from April 4 through 19, is getting a close look this week at Construmat, the biennial building show whose 30th edition is underway this week in Garrido’s hometown, Barcelona.

The home’s modular construction features a variety of prefabricated panels – some cement-wood sandwiches, some reinforced concrete, some metal – “to show in one building the three most suitable systems of modular construction,” according to a Green Box press release.

Garrido, whose R4House (built from six recycled shipping containers) attracted plenty of attention at the 2007 Construmat, went with all recycled and recovered materials for this project, which is designed to be efficiently constructed, repaired, and dismantled by a team of only five people. (Click here for a PDF of the press release on the project as well as additional photos of the structure.)

The Green Box gardens – the carpets of vegetation on the sloping roof and the vertical surface of the tower – consist of hardy, drought-tolerant Mediterranean plants.