Cube One Is the Next-Gen Tiny House: Smart, Green and Incredibly Cheap

Cube One is to tiny houses what a MINI is to personal vehicles, if one is allowed the comparison. Everything about it really puts the “tiny” in tiny house, but there seems to be no compromise in terms of comfort. Indeed, every creature comfort is even more scaled down, but in return, you get a house that’s mobile (just not on wheels) and, more importantly, that can withstand earthquakes and natural disasters, while helping you minimize your footprint.

Cube One is the creation of Singapore- and China-based Nestron, which is currently selling a variety of tiny homes under the Cube and the Legend series. They vary in size and amenities, but what they all have in common is the fact that they’re pre-fab.

Cube One is the smallest of the bunch, which means you can move it around according to your liking with relative ease. It doesn’t have wheels, but you can arrange transport in a variety of ways, considering it weighs just 7 tons and its diminutive size: it measures 5.5 x 2.9 x 2.85 meters (18 x 9.5 x 9.35 feet) for a living area of 14.5 square meters (156 square feet).

However, the hottest selling point of the Cube One is not the size, but rather how smart it is. This single-room house comes with built-in AI, meaning you can control every aspect of it by voice: LED lights, air temperature, electric appliances and the entertainment system. It can also be fitted with solar panels and compost toilet, and thus be rendered almost completely self-sufficient.

Just as important for today’s rushed world, the Cube One comes ready-to-live-in. Nestron says it will soon start shipping these houses all over the world and, the moment you plop it at your location of choice, you can move in.

“[Cube One] is a new generation of Tiny Living,” Nestron explains. “Each house is fully prefabricated, delivered in ready-to-live formula [and] comes with built in AI assistants and green-energy sources.”

Made of a galvanized single-piece steel pod with complete isolation in the walls, the Cube One is made to withstand earthquakes and natural disasters, and less catastrophic stuff like mold and termites. It’s made of 90 percent recycled materials, and comes with tempered glass, drop-lock floors and is built in accordance to fireproof standards. It is constructed by methods that imply using 99 percent less water than traditional building techniques, which should be another bonus point for the more eco-conscious future (tiny) house owners.

That said, Cube One is minuscule. Inside, you have a full bathroom, a complete kitchen, a living room with sofa, and a bedroom, but everything is reduced to the smallest size possible. This is a one-person home or, at the very best, a good place for a couple with no qualms about seeing each other use the toilet, since the wet bathroom is pretty much inside the kitchen, which is inside the living, which, in turn, is inside the bedroom. You get the idea.

On the plus side, Nestron says that the layout is customizable on all their tiny houses, and extra options can be added to the base model. You can probably get some type of frosted glass for the bathroom "wall," is what we’re saying.

“From single youths to large families, there is a constant high demand for small-sized, low-cost, flexible and simple houses,” Nestron says. “This is where the idea for C1 came to be. Smooth lines and modern design make the Cube series suitable for large-scale use in modern urban environments. With interiors, exteriors and colors that can be personalized, the Cube series is dynamic and unique – just like a Rubik’s Cube.”

Speaking of costs, the Cube One starts at just $30,000 for the base model, with extra options including rooftop solar panels, a compost toilet and underfloor electric heating. Shipping out of China will add to this price but, even so, this is cheap compared to other, similar tiny houses.