Designed by engineer Warrick Weber as a solution to better utilization of steep land for housing, the SmartPod’s steel structure allows not only for pods to be stacked on top of one another but for a cantilevered floor twice the length/area of the ground floor slab, thus reducing the amount of expensive ground retaining required to achieve a flat floor area.
This Smart Pod was built at Arthur’s Point, near Queenstown, and is the first of its kind. The steel structure of the Pod was fabricated off-site and then transported to the site, and craned into place. Within a few hours, the floor area of the house trebled in size. With the exposed steel Pod framework providing all the necessary building structure, the exterior of the building is left free to be constructed of anything desired, including full perimeter glazing. Internal glass balustrades over bi-folding doors, truly allow the outside in.
