When one designs a boat, trailer, mobile home or RV, it can be fabulous test-beds for designers to show how one can live with less space, how to squeeze every cubic inch out. They also have to deal with many restrictions in weight, shape and dimension. They can also challenge our assumption that we have to live in a fixed location, when one might have a smaller footprint if we lived in smaller spaces and were not so tied down.

The "two-storey campingcar" built by three Japanese students is full of clever ideas, and a great demonstration of how to get more out of less.

They have solved a number of very complex problems of fitting different shapes together, making them move and still keeping dry and comfortable inside.

It is not the greenest trailer we have seen,(that would be the miniHome or the Portabach) and is full of the usual RV stuff like waste tanks, generators and propane. But then, it was built eight years ago when these issues were not so high on the radar. In the RV industry they still matter for little.

But unfolded, it really does feel like a traditional Japanese house, most of which are pretty small.

The kitchen looks workable;

The bathroom is tight but no worse than many I have seen on boats or RV's;

And it has a storage stair!

The lifting mechanism is ingenious, more information here.

By the side of the road it looks quite normal;

Unfolded it is another story.

Watch it in Action! Lots more information at their website, found via dornob.

Other Mobile Living Experiments



Living Is .Be Whatever That Means



Mobile Living: The Unicat