N55 walking house

This six-legged caravan gives new meaning to ‘walking home’… or to ‘bugging out’ for that matter. But wait, it gets better: not only does this mobile residence walk around for you, but it also powers itself, gathers water (then heats it as needed) and more. And that’s just one Walking House … imagine a whole village of these things.

Continue reading below
Our Featured Videos
N55 walking house inteiror

N55 put a little bit of everything into these bug-shaped structures – solar and rainwater collectors, composting toilets, wood-burning stoves and little windmills all add up to a surprisingly location-independent combination of vehicle and home.

Inspired by already-nomadic cultures past and present, this design was driven (no pun intended) by a desire to make a truly mobile home – not something that sits on owned land here or there, but something that conceivably stay in perpetual motion. In a way, it is the post-industrial-revolution (and fairly Steampunk) version of a carriage car, or the next generation of campers and caravans.

N55 walking house sink

Due to its dynamic system of variable-length legs, these buggers become able to stomp around in wild terrain as well as on streets, roads and (wide) sidewalks. Meanwhile, though, three leg stalks remain grounded at all times for a smooth, human-paced ride. Very basic built-in furniture along the edges lets you watch where you are going, or coming from, along the way.

N55 walking house from above

Flexibility is the key – the prototype is just one example. A slew of these machines could be constructed from available materials ranging from wood and aluminum to steel, and their hexagonal shape makes for various creative stacking possibilities (assuming some sort of hoist is present at one’s destination).

About Scandinavian art collective N55:

“N55 is a Danish art, architecture, and design collective consisting of Ion Sørvin, Till Wolfer, and Anne Romme. Founded in 1994, the group creates objects, buildings, and environments that cause us to question the ways we use public spaces. What are the different—even competing—functions of an urban street or a public park? Who has the right to use these spaces or claim ownership over them? Who constitutes ‘the public?'”

“N55 provokes consideration of these and other questions through works that encourage ‘the public’ to use communal spaces in different, often unorthodox, ways.”