N55's Walking House Actually Walks!
by Lloyd Alter, Toronto 
on 10.22.08
When we previously presented Danish designer N55's walking house it was just a model, and we asked miniHome designer Andy Thomson what he thought of it; he suggested "You should tell them wheels will be cheaper!" I never thought it would get past the model stage. But if you watch the video you will see that, remarkably, it walks!
Andy has a point, it only goes sixty meters per hour (1/10 of a MPH) and certainly is not going to do it on the energy from that solar cell, but there are things to love about this, including Gizmodo's description of it as a "Lunar module, TIE fighter and Cockroach Crossbreed."
The designers write:
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.
Each leg works as an autonomous unit with its own accumulators and linear actuators. The concept is that six legs could be mounted on any kind of structure and make it walk. When it walks three legs are always on the ground to provide the necessary stability. The structure should move at a slow pace similar to the walking speed of the human body. It is a common fact that walking often helps a person concentrate their thoughts and creates a mental state that enforces mobility of the mind. The WALKING HOUSE is constructed to move at a pace similar to human speed exactly for this reason. By adding several modules together the system can provide dwellings that adapts to social needs for living as a single person, in a family, a collective or even in a WALKING VILLAGE. In this way the WALKING HOUSE adapts to persons instead of persons having to adapt to the house.
Walking house could easily be equipped with specialized modules for various forms of productions like greenhouses, small factories etc. A WALKING HOUSE or a WALKING VILLAGE could supply means for the inhabitants to make a living in this way while moving through the Landscapes and cityscapes. As an example a WALKING VILLAGE could be specialized in foodproduction or special modules for fishfarming, greenhouses and so on could be part of the construction.
Specs:
• Height: 3.5 meters
• Width: 3.5 meters
• Length: 3.72 meters
• Weight: 1200 kg
• Max speed: 60 meters/hour
• Component list:
• Plating and framework wood and plywood
• Legs made of steel and mechanical components
• 12 linear actuators
• solar panels
• micro windmills
• polycarbonate plates
• interior equipment
Preliminary Manual for Walking House via Gizmodo
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Nissan Airstream BaseCamp
Mobile Living: The Unicat
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I had to be negative, especially on my first post, but I'm afraid I can't see the point of this thing at all. First, it's not really a house. Second why does it walk? I can't think of a single reason you might want a hexagonal doghouse to walk itself at 0.1 mph somewhere. Wouldn't it make more sense to just get six people together and carry it?
N55 is DANISH not Dutch art/design collective.
la: thanks
And the project is conceptual art.
la: of course.
Hasn't the wheel been invented yet ?
This isn't green. Stick to the subject Treehugger writers!!!
why is this on treehugger? just because he slapped solar panels on top?
LA: Since we started TreeHugger has been showing:
1) creative use of small spaces
2) applications of alternative ways of living and land tenure
3) conceptual art relating to housing and the way we live.
4) things that I like and think others might.
This meets all of those criteria.
This concept is not new. During the last months of the URSS, Soviet enginers were working on walking houses. I remember reading that in a magazine named "Sputnik".
The reason supporting the development was to provide mobile housing, hospitals, and workshops for the workers in northern Siberia who needed to service the oil ducts every year.
The walking houses could move along with the works, so they could always be close to their temporary homes, health centers, and supplies. The idea was to improve the military-style camps to provide a more comfortable experience, and get rid of the lenghty and hazardous routes from and to the nearest town.
It's Baba Yaga's Hut!
It's too heavy & the horizontal hex is not the strongest known shape in a gravity field - the egg is.
Buckminster Fuller's Dymaxion House was a better use of resources.
Pure awesomeness...
I like your posts on this, Lloyd, particularly the previous one that shows the prototype. It's fun to see how the project evolved from inception until now.
I did want to point out that 1 meter per minute puts the house moving even slower than 0.1 mph -- it's actually closer to 0.04 mph.
LA: You are right, I did it in my head, thinking sixty meters per hour = sixty yards or a tenth of a mile, confusing yards with feet and being off by a factor of close to four. it is in fact .03728 miles per hour. how slow can you go!