My father created a modular building called a Q'bik. (cubic) It was made of triangular sheet metal panels which formed a one room building. Even the door and the windows were triangular. The floor was plywood. It was supposedly quite easy to build. His advertising literature said that all you needed to put it up in an afternoon was "2 men and a pole".

I said to him, "You should add to that...or 1 man, a dog, and a Hungarian". He was NOT amused.

The sheet metal turned out to be the biggest problem. It got bloody hot on sunny days! You could've roasted a hog inside there. This necessitated putting insulation on the inside...lots of it. Then it would get very cold at night...and the extreme temperature changes would cause the thing to shrink and expand, which led to other problems.

Add to this that the door (which was actually a hinged double triangle) was a real bastard to open and shut.

The windows were okay, but you couldn't open them.

In damp weather the thing would sweat like mad on the inside and get like the black hole of Calcutta in no time flat. This was somewhat alleviated by providing small vents, but not enough to prevent mushrooms from growing inside the storage areas under the bunk bed/sofa.

After about 3 years the plywood floor began to rot out from the moisture condensing and running down and the insulation got too damp to function properly.

2 of the things were built. One served as a tourist information kiosk for the City of Orillia for a couple of years, and then vanished mysteriously. I lived in the other one for about 3 years. It was an experience not to be forgotten.

I am still alive, so the idea was not a total failure, but it has never gone into mass production. This story is 100% true. If I were better at blue clickies and stuff, I could probably find a picture of the Q'bik somewhere.

- LH