The Eco-Wagon
The Eco-Wagon is a showcase for sustainable living and brings together all the knowledge gained throughout the history of Casita Verde under one (green) roof. It's made almost entirely from pallet wood and up-cycled materials and has been designed and built by Dorus Rijkers.
The Wagon is a completely self sufficient dwelling - with solar panels to supply electricity, a rainwater collection system and composting toilet. Inside you'll find a functional bathroom and shower, kitchen, living area and bedroom - and the most beautiful views across the valley to the sea.
Dorus, a carpenter and building contractor in New Zealand and Amsterdam for over 20 years, designed and constructed the Eco Wagon. He was inspired by the transportable cabins he worked on and by living in vans, houseboats and small apartments and became disillusioned with the wastefulness of the commercial building trade.
The Eco Wagon is a transportable, sustainable, comfortable, tiny house made primarily from up-cycled materials. Gathering energy from the sun, water from the rain and recycling waste to the garden, this ecological tiny house is a way to live in harmony with nature, free to live your passion, minimizing your footprint and maximizing your potential.
Through efficient use of space, the wagon provides all the necessities of a comfortable life in a 15m2 area. On the side is a covered terrace of another 15m2. The advantages of such a compact design are many; less materials means a smaller ecological footprint and less expense. A width of just 2.4m means the wagon can be transported on the back of a tow truck. It also makes it much cheaper to heat and furnish. The low cost and sustainability are further achieved by using an absolute minimum of processed and manufactured materials and using up-/re-cycled materials where ever possible.
But not only the economic and ecological footprint of the construction have been taken into consideration. The expense to the occupant and to the environment of actually living in the wagon have also been minimised, by harnessing the sun to provide 2 kilowatts of solar electrical power as well as hot water. All the rainwater is harvested and flows via filters to two 5000 litre tanks that drop down from inside the frame underneath the wagon. The wagon is also equipped with a dry eco toilet and a small pump supplies the shower, hand-basin and kitchen with water from the tanks. Cooking is by induction when the sun is plentiful and when the weather starts to cool from a super-efficient rocket stove that provides heat for cooking and heating as well as hot water. The grey water and the humanure from the toilet are re-cycled to the adjoining garden.
With this small sustainable home, Dorus wants to demonstrate a way to free himself from mortgages and utility bills and free himself to live his passion. For Dorus, this means growing food and developing easy-to-follow instructions for others to build their own sustainable little house from pallets. Together with the members of The Green Gorillas in Mallorca, they are working on supplying drawings, videos, workshops and possibly kit sets, so that you too can build an inexpensive / ecological Tiny house quickly and easily. Check out their website at www.greengorillas.eco!