Designers from N55 in Copenhagen, Denmark come up with this idea that I think is quite stupid. The idea is called the Walking House, and they say it provides a solution to the problem of rising water levels as the house can simply walk away from floods. Now when I’ve saw that the six legs attached to the frame of this house enable it to move at a maximum speed of 60 meters per hour, I was convinced that this is a really stupid idea, and a caravan is 100 times better than the Walking House. What do you think ?
Here are a few words about this project from the designers : “WALKING HOUSE is a modular dwelling system that enables persons to live a peaceful nomadic life, moving slowly through the landscape or cityscape with minimal impact on the environment. It collects energy from its surroundings using solar cells and small windmills. There is a system for collecting rain water and a system for solar heated hot water. A small greenhouse unit can be added to the basic living module, to provide a substantial part of the food needed by the Inhabitants. A composting toilet system allows sewage produced by the inhabitants to be disposed of. A small wood burning stove could be added to provide CO2 neutral heating. WALKING HOUSE forms various sizes of communities or WALKING VILLAGES when more units are added together. WALKING HOUSE is not dependent on existing infrastructure like roads, but moves on all sorts of terrain.” – Via – Dailymail
And finally here is a video with the Walking House moving for those of you who are curious.
- Posted in Architecture
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By Mihai
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I think this design deserves a little more credit. At first glance it may seem like a stupid idea. Sure a caravan could do the job fine; however, housing is more than a place to sleep, eat, etc. Housing comes a long with many cultural issues. I would imagine living in a caravan provides a different culture than living in a slow moving crawling insect. “[imagine] a peaceful nomadic life, moving slowly through the landscape or cityscape.” That idea alone justifies it enough for me.
entirely stupid
very interesting and congratulations to them for designing and implementing such a thing, however as a “solution to the problem of rising water levels as the house can simply walk away from floods” – totally stupid.
it’s really useless, jaja
Just because you can doesn’t mean you should. Dumb idea. If the goal was to make the slowest moving house then I would say they did a great job. It’s all in how you pitch it.
It totally reminds me of the carriages that walk in Beauty and the Beast!
its art – and is definitely stupid in terms of a any real world application.
as art though, its really awesome
I agree with Chris’s comments. “Just because you can doesn’t mean you should,” states it perfectly. In response to a school assignment this is interesting. Practically, though, of what benefit is it??
Can you turn it on and have it creep down the highway without hitting anything/anyone or screwing up traffic? Is it merely intended to just walk around the yard?? Does all of this save energy for any useful purpose?
The French has a wonderful phrase that indicates the value of something. It is called “raison d’etre”, in English it means “reason to be”. This doesn’t have one.
Phil Payne
If you’re living in a slum/caRDBOARD BOX, THIs wud be palatial
further to palaces for slum dweelers… perhaps they can be mass produced for areas like the delta region of bangladesh where the UN can program them all to start moving inland at first sign of a flood, tsunami or rising sea levels.
This thing looks pretty cool to me. I can see it walking over Martian terrain, it would be fabulously useful in a place like that. Six legs mean it’s always on a steady tripod base when moving. If it’s uber slow I chalk it up to being the first version, I imagine later prototypes would be faster and more agile. They’d have to be a lot bigger too, it’s a bit cramped for a family in there. But definitely a great idea to develop. They ought to have rural and suburban versions, aka one with wheels that enables the legs to tuck away.
I don’t know if it is stupid but rather interesting. Maybe it would work for Nasa on a Mars journey?
1st this so call house is smaller than a room. Unless its a dog house.
2nd By the speed of it moving out from the flood is totally project fail.
3th The thing looks more like a coffin than a house.
But still have to giv credits to the technology they try to put in to create the 1st generation transformer…
Hey we have these all over the poor south, US, they’re called mobile homes, tornados just love them, good eats.
too slow
This is actually a tongue and cheek reference to Archigram’s walking city.
http://www.archigram.net/projects_pages/walking_city.html
I doubt that it is to be taken for anything other than commentary on the ability of today’s technology and the increasingly nomadic lifestyle we are forced to deal with. When criticized in it’s greater architectural and cultural context it’s actually a very successful work.