Walking House

by **houndsoflove13** Wed Oct 22, 2008 10:45 am

Walking house can escape floods or unruly neighbours
It is the ultimate house for beating floods or unfriendly neighbours - a home built on six hydraulic legs that can walk.

The 10ft high home is solar and wind powered and can stroll at walking pace across all terrains.

It has a living room, kitchen, toilet, bed, wood stove and mainframe computer which controls the legs.

The pod will take its maiden stroll around rural Cambridgeshire at the Wysing Arts Centre in Bourn on Thursday.

It was built by art collective N55 in Copenhagen, Denmark, who worked in conjunction with engineers at MIT in Massachusetts, USA.

Designers say it provides a solution to the problem of rising water levels as the house can simply walk away from floods.

The prototype cost £30,000 to build, including materials and time, but the designers believe it could be constructed for a lot less.

The artists in the N55 collective are Ion Sørvin, and Øivind Slaatto. Sam Kronick, from MIT designed the legs.

Mr Slaatto plans to live in the house when it returns to Copenhagen. He has been working on his pet project for two years and was inspired by his meetings with Romani travellers in Cambridgeshire.

He said: "This house is not just for travellers but also for anyone interested in a more general way of nomadic living.

Each leg is powered and works independently and is designed to always have three on the ground at any one time to ensure stability.

The makers hope the legs could be eventually mounted on any kind of structure and make it walk and several pods could be linked together for bigger houses.