Originally published at: http://boingboing.net/2017/04/24/muji-is-selling-a-hut.html
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How much does the Muji outhouse cost?
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Muji hut is as cute as a button, but I bet you could knock one off (maybe with less nice materials) for half the price. Maybe including a nice set of curtains.
Is there a cabin-heating version of a rocket stove? Feed it sticks, and it heats the place and charges a battery to provide LED lighting.
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Not sure about Japanese construction costs, but doesn’t 28k seem a little steep?
For 4k this can be delivered to your door ready for assembly: http://www.solidbuildwood.com/brighton-10-x-10-garden-shed/ I doubt that a sub panel and a few outlets cost 22k.
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But, but…
What about style ?
Kidding aside, even considering the prices of house in Japan, this is crazy.
I expect their target to be people with too much cash on hand and too little sense (plenty of those to be found). For a single working person in their 30’s in Japan, that price tag is probably something they can pay upfront from their savings).
Had they put in a toilet as well, they could have also expected buyer from the recent retirees who find no place of their own at home.
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You can build something like that for 4K in the US. Really not that hard, a beginner could build that from scratch.
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BTW: Happy Anniversary!
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Oh look, more over-designed minimalist bullshit at a 1900% markup. I’m not falling for that again.
But this one’s Japanese.
Take my money!
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This reminds me of a project from Readymade magazine (anyone else remember that proto-Make magazine?) – http://media.diyprojectsworld.com/wp-content/uploads/shed-plans-for-md100-modern-shedguest.html
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There’s way more than just a little electrical separating the Muji hut from that shed though. First and foremost is a good concrete slab and actual framed and (presumably) insulated walls ie actual construction. Of course a prebuilt snap together shed with not framing is going to be much cheaper to build.
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Going even further back, the April 1968 Popular Mechanics featured an “expandable” vacation home, that could be built in three stages. Sadly, the plans are no longer available from the American Plywood Association (for 35 cents!)
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Includes all materials, insulated walls and concrete foundation, as well as contractors to build it.
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Might be insulated too. You’d need to look at the hut’s specs to really judge.
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Only if you perch the wee hut on chicken feet…
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I believe that’s an option. I’ll check.
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mmmmmmmmmm 
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As far as tiny living goes, this seems less than ideal, as mobility is one of the main selling points for the whole tiny-home phenomenon. Actually, it’s probably not even a phenomenon, just the natural progression of income inequality and the increase in destabilizing economic and political factors that make permanent housing mobility an attractive option, especially for foreword thinking, survival minded free-spirits, who have recognized that spending precious resources on life experiences, while simultaneously decreasing ones environmental footprint, has value that spending a lifetime accruing “stuff”, and the space to store it in, just can’t compare.
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Over the years, I have toyed with the idea of putting something similar in some of our pretty but remote spots, and renting them to artists and writers during the warm months. It is really the logistics of it that have kept me from doing it, and the question of potential income vs. the amount of work and expense involved.
But even so, that cost is pretty steep. For one thing, I hate the corrugated roof. Every one of those screw holes is a potential leak. There is no excuse for that in a country that already sells the best roofing in the world. http://www.kamisei.co.jp/
The stove just sitting on the floor like that is incompatible with the Japanese concept of clean floors. There is going to be ash everywhere. I guess that is why there is apparently a broom included.
But, I am sure they have a market for these.
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It’s just a tiny house? And here I thought it was going to be made of 22,400 of the $1.25 note pads. Disappointing.
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