Mobile Living: The Unicat
by Lloyd Alter, Toronto 
on 01.16.08
There is great appeal to the idea living in efficient small spaces and to not being tied down to real estate; that is why we like the minihome or the portabach or container housing. But just as there is as Mercedes can make a Smart Car and a Maybach, there can be a range in mobile living from the light and green to the extreme. This may well be the Hummer of mobile living, the Unicat.
This baby is built on a Mercedes Unimog chassis, monster trucks designed for offroad use and for military vehicles. (it was the chassis for the living.be)
Get to your destination and pop up the roof:
and make yourself at home.
I love the integration of the electronics into the spiral stair.
The kitchen is nicer in the Minihome but this isn't bad.
The bath is tiny and boat/rv style with the whole room being the shower, but it has the luxury of a heated towel bar.
It is nice in blue too, but it is not very green, it is the hummer of mobile living. However there are lots of interesting ideas for living in small space. ::Unicat via ::Snopes See also the Terracross
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errr... um... yeah. OK. Yes this is a rich kids toy shown here, but what you fail to mention is that this same company makes mobile hospitals and communication centers the same way. These are the HUMMERS of the RV world in that they are able to go just about anywhere and you are still able to enjoy the luxuries of life. These things are also insanely expensive ($500,000-$2,000,000) depending on options (armor is an option BTW).
Personally I say let these be made and let the rich pay for the R&D for better, more durable, energy efficient appliances. We, the general public, will eventually benefit from it. Much in the same way that we have benefitted from military technology (GPS, plastics, medicines, etc).
-Lego
I already own an Airstream travel trailer, and love the open road. The Unicat instills confidence is the ability to take mobile living to rugged environments, which I like.
I'm just a little surprised to see a vehicle that gets 8 MPG featured on Tree Hugger. But then again, it is a very cool RV. awesome.
I think there's only one way this can be green, and that's if it's your only home.
8 mpg beats the pants off most RVs. Some of them are actually measured the other way around: gallons per mile. (at least uphill)
Too expensive for the size to ever be bought in numbers, but we drive by huge lots of regular RV's every day.
Big Picture
Help me out here... This article is showing this mobile home as a good thing, while comparing it to the hummer? If so, someone needs to bring the writer of the article how environmentalists feel about hummers... (and about useless products that have terrible fuel efficiency) If not, the article should be a little more precise about what it's trying to say...
like someone said, uni mogs are pretty useful as ambulances etc so if selling a few of these to rich people supports the more useful stuff, cool
lets face it, the ubiquitous land rover can only really keep going and producing vehicles which get aid across continents by selling range rovers to rap stars
I actually worked for Unicat in Germany.... I'm kind of surprised that Treehugger is featuring them, as this type of transportation is not what I call sustainable, although they are build to last! The quality is outstanding. I met many happy clients that traveled the world for several years with Unicats, I believe that traveling the world will give you a better understanding on how nice our planet is and why we have to protect it.
Just some thoughts .....
Cheers,
I actually worked for Unicat in Germany.... I'm kind of surprised that Treehugger is featuring them, as this type of transportation is not what I call sustainable, although they are build to last! The quality is outstanding. I met many happy clients that traveled the world for several years with Unicats, I believe that traveling the world will give you a better understanding on how nice our planet is and why we have to protect it.
Just some thoughts .....
Cheers,
I think a lot of the reason that Treehugger features this and similar vehicles is because the constraints inherent in creating one practically guarantee space-efficient design. A lot of innovation does actually come from this kind of thing, although the mpg are kind of disgusting.
While I'll never own a Hummer, or any similar vehicle, I like the ideas for space arrangement presented here, if I ever get around to building a guest cabin or something like that. I like the idea of stair steps rather than a ladder to get to the loft.