Op-Ed: Zipblocks a build-anything modular building component concept

Charlotte - Talk about green building concepts. Somebody with a brain has come up with a beautiful idea -- fully modular components. You can build houses, walls, you name it. Typically, the manufacturing industry isn’t paying much attention. This is CAD paradise.

Zipblocks are interlinked components. At first sight, you’d say “LEGO” or Meccano, but this idea goes a long way further than either. At the building level, the quality potential is glaringly obvious. Instead of the typical cruddy prefab materials you see in “luxury” homes, you get a range of materials to work with. You can even do full concrete insulation walls. Have a look around the Zipblocks site, see if you can think of anything these things can’t do. The green credentials are very solid. Every component can be made of renewable materials and reused, and if you cut them in half, you just get two Zipblocks. There are even Zipblocks for flush setting of solar panels. If you’re not familiar with the design concepts, the beauty of this idea is a little subtle at times. There are things like steel reinforcing rods with offset bits, meaning greater resistance, and more actual reinforcement. The whole site is literally packed with ideas. The sheer number of ideas deserves a look, and respect as a very productive line of thought in an area of industrial design which isn’t exactly famous for innovation. (This is the only design site I’ve ever seen with a warning about the amount of content on the “New Parts” page. They’re not kidding, it’s huge.) Zipblocks hails from Charlotte, North Carolina. The company apparently hasn’t been getting the attention it deserves in the two years of its existence. Some sites in the invention and green building areas and one manufacturer have picked up on it. That’s strange, because the demand for green housing and affordable housing is huge. Zipblocks aren’t “kit homes”. They’re building and design components across the entire design spectrum. If you have the skills, however, you can see where these ideas can go in terms of concepts. In theory, you could literally build a palace out of these blocks, and do the landscaping. You could make retaining walls, pergolas, raised garden beds, even a fully scaped water garden like a Chinese garden, with the right Zipblocks... and the home theatre, the kids' go-kart, granny flats.. Ah, pick a Yellow Pages. These things are Useful. Important: If you’re a building materials manufacturer, you need to check this out. This is a concept which can be tooled to any production level in any domestic materials area easily, and can be just as easily mass produced. It’s a potential category killer, given the current comatose and highly expensive state of bricks, blocks, and other dino-construction materials.