House-in-a-Can Recycles Grain Silos Into Housing

by Lloyd Alter

All images via Austin-Mergold
Grain silos, made from corrugated and galvanized steel, are among the cheapest and most efficient enclosures one can buy; that's why Bucky Fuller played with them during World War II, with his Dymaxion Deployment Units.
Updating the idea, Geoff Manaugh of BLDGBLOG brings us Austin + Mergold's House-In-A-Can, recycling these grain silos into housing, from single family to condo.

The architects describe them with some marketing flair:

36-foot in diameter American grain dryer with 2000 SF single family starter home inside. Instantly assembled off-the-shelf 14 GA galvanized corrugated steel exterior a 2000 SF developer house inside. Optional greenhouse. Buy 5 get one free!!!

They can be arranged in a number of configurations.

Manaugh calls the models "delightfully absurd and inspiring" and suggests further iterations:

A thesis presentation performed as a series of metal cans extruded outward into models of inhabitable architecture... Cinema-In-A-Can. Library-In-A-Can. Gym-In-A-Can. Dome-In-A-Can Republic.

More at House-in-a-can via BLDGBLOG