North Berkeley neighbors David Wilson and Michael Kozel may be the only Home Depot customers in history to buy six tons of ready-mix concrete, use it as they'd intended, and then return it for a full refund. The pair needed to test the durability of a 25-foot structure they'd built to ensure that it wouldn't collapse under the weight of scores of Burning Man revelers. So they lined the floors and roof of the open-air two-story box they later nicknamed "The SugarCube House" with bags of concrete equal to three times the weight capacity required by the local building code. It held.
In early September, fifty people watched from the Cube's roof as the forty-foot wooden effigy went up in flames. Afterward, many more clambered up the ladder to the roof or stayed below to check out artwork that "burners" had painted on its white walls. "We were a little nervous that night," admitted Wilson, an engineer. "But we came back the next morning, and there it stood."
He and architect pal Kozel, along with a handful of volunteers, had thrown up the Cube in just four days, and not merely to provide a stellar fire view. They were debuting an eco-friendly architectural model they hope will soon be used far and wide in applications from disaster relief to permanent housing.
Their patent-pending interlocking design uses only recycled wood and doesn't require a foundation, so there's no concrete to emit climate-warming carbon dioxide. The structure features thick, energy-preserving walls and floors, and it's both light and cheap, Wilson said. It can be built on hillsides or in flood zones, and doesn't require sophisticated carpentry skills to erect. Best of all, it's 100 percent reusable. The 16,000 pounds of materials used to build SugarCube, which took three days to deconstruct, now reside in a Sacramento barn, awaiting their next incarnation.
Wilson and Kozel say they are in talks with a major lumber manufacturer, and hope to soon have a local project under way. "We're approaching this whole thing from the vantage point of hope instead of fear," Wilson explained, echoing this year's Burning Man theme. "Here's a potential solution to global warming."