This is a minimalist, mobile, floating micro shelter that you can tow by bicycle.
It’s called the Water Bed and was created by a Royal College of Art graduate named Daniel Durnin.
Designed to be a nomadic structure, it offers you a mobile hostel where you can camp in urban rivers or use at campsites. It features large windows and is lightweight so you can easily tow it with your bicycle.
Would you ever use something like this for your own adventures and explorations? Or do you think it’s a possible solution to help homeless people? Let’s talk about it in the comments. Please enjoy, learn more, and re-share below. Thank you!
SEE ALSO: Water Tank Tiny House You Can Tow with Your Bicycle!
Minimalist, Mobile, Floating Micro Shelter You Can Tow by Bike
Images © Daniel Durnin via Inhabitat.com
SEE ALSO: Man Builds a 24 Sq. Ft. Cheap, DIY Micro Day Camper
SEE ALSO: Slipstream Micro Camper for Cars and Motorcycle
Images © Daniel Durnin via Inhabitat.com
Water Bed, Mobile Architecture
The luxury of simplicity. The urban landscape is ever growing and ever more pressured. The Water Bed reconnects us to nature using the existing waterways within and beyond the urban environment. Allowing time to escape, reflect and enjoy the environment in which it is placed.
Learn more using the resources below. Thanks!
Resources
- http://inhabitat.com/nomadic-water-bed-on-wheels-lets-you-camp-on-urban-rivers/
- http://www.rca.ac.uk/students/daniel-durnin/
Discussion: Would you ever use something like this for adventures and exploration? Do you think it’s a possible solution to help homeless people? Let’s talk about it in the comments.
You can share this nomadic bicycle micro house with your friends and family for free using the e-mail and social media re-share buttons below. Thanks.
If you enjoyed this amphibious micro shelter you’ll absolutely LOVE our Free Daily Tiny House Newsletter with even more! Thank you!
Alex
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What he has done is take a “PD RACER” class sail boat hull and attached wheels and added a tent instead of a sail.
You can find free plans by Googlen
PD RACER SAIL BOAT plans . It’s very cheap and easy to build.
This does look very similar to a Puddleduck Racer. Looks like he went with the basic idea (either copied or came up with it on his own – that’s entirely possible) – but you’ll notice the stern is at an angle similar to the bow instead of being perpendicular, so I doubt it was an exact copy (with the same curvature of the hull, etc.) I’ve tried to come up with a good way to mount detachable wheels somewhere on the side and keep it class legal — never considered putting them back there. Then again, mine is probably a lot heavier.
What it is, is a bad joke technically. First the aft wheels and for the purpose, heavy weight all bare on the bike rear wheel, busting it.
Also side winds riding will make bike handling hard and in the water, could flip it over with a good side wind.
Unless one always rides downhill and with the wind at ones back, this is going to be very hard to pedal over a mile.
Design it far lighter in epoxy/ply, lower the roof to only 42” above the floorboards as no reason for more, you only need sitting headroom.
Basically this was designed by someone without a clue about bike trailers or boats.
While the idea certainly has merit as I’ve designed some for the homeless.
In the US it is legal to anchor most anywhere as long as you have an anchor light and not blocking channels, etc was one of the first US laws made, the right to the waterways for all.
Another is a wheelchair RV that folds into a bed with a canvas tent, 20 mph and 50 mile range.
I am always on the lookout to pull a trailer behind my bike but this is absolutely rediculous.
How about adding an opening top, bracket to hold bike in boat, and fins on the back wheels to make a stern wheel paddle boat? Then you could travel without returning to the starting point to get hooked up again.
I am trying to understand the end game here. Is the author’s point just to stay mobile without any ultimate goal of being somewhere in particular? Also, this nomadic lifestyle brings up some security issues for me….both material and personal. While sleeping, when one is most vulnerable, you are not really locked up safely. We live in the nasty here and now….not the sweet by and by. Then your possessions. Granted, they would by virtue of this lifestyle be few. But when you run into the nearby Piggly Wiggly, what will stop a thief from helping himself to your things? But hey, what do I know? I was only a cop in Miami for 28 years. This step-up is for the all-too-typical idealist, not the muddy-boots realist. There are a plethora of wolves (bad people) out there looking for opportunities to ply their evil on the sheep of this world. ¡Cuidado!
Neat concept! Where do you put the wheels when in the water? Would there be a way to lock it and completely cover the windows so that thieves wouldn’t be so quick to steal it? I can see removing the wheels and hiding them so a thief would be less interested, but where and how?
I agree that it doesn’t look very protected, and some sort of insulation would be needed, but i think it’s a great idea to use for homeless camps of some sort.
Whether it’s perfect or all purposes or not, I love his thinking outside the box. I’m excited by the growth of alternative structure ideas–mostly tiny, portable, easy and economical–sprouting around the world. Thank you, Alex for sharing this one.
Definitely better than living in a homeless shelter or on the streets. You would have to be careful where you parked it for the night as it could be vulnerable to thieves getting in there. For those traveling by bicycle this could be an excellent choice. It’s not for pulling with a car or motorcycle with those bicycle wheels. You’d need heavier duty wheels for driving at highway speeds. It would be fun to float in it for the night. Get away from the shore and you could thwart most thievery or other unwanted visitors.
Another backyard project for a very rare, specific use. There aren’t many places this would be legal, practical, or desirable. So many of the shortcomings are listed above, and I’d add that it would be too heavy to tow up a hill, unless you’re Lance Armstrong, and the homeless idea is ludicrous. A tent on a platform is better than that. If you’re really homeless, there are things you can’t just leave behind safely, and you really don’t want to drag it around on a bike that screams “Steal me.”
That said, if there was a place where I could use it frequently, safely and easily, it might be cool. I just can’t imagine where that would be. Not where I live, for sure. If the idea is travel, I just can’t imagine where you’d be able to go with it. Any suggestions or enlightenment?
It just seems that there are already too many other better solutions for more likely situations.
Ah, on rereading, I see this is a British idea. My total unfamiliarity with the country’s waterway laws, this might be cool for there. I just can’t remember anywhere in the US that would be convenient for this.
FYI, this is a perfectly practical and legal, for any state in the Union – and probably just about any country. It’s just a small, covered canoe. As it’s not mechanically powered, you don’t need to register it, or apply for a USCG issued Hull ID. Life jackets and normal navigation lighting are not required equipment. A white lantern is needed to navigate at night, though. To my knowledge, no one requires bicycle trailers to be registered either.
I guess it’s safer to assume there’s a law against anything fun or creative you might consider doing – but it’s not the case. As overly-busy as our lawmakers are, they haven’t managed to outlaw everything just yet.
Put that in the water without having life jackets on board for all people on board and you can get a citation that will cost money.
I guess it depends a lot on your local law, but in my locale, what I said is true.
I believe I said ‘convenient’ not ‘legal’ or anything close. The Brits have different lanes and canals that we don’t have here. In no way did I suggest that it would be illegal anywhere.
How do you see this as ‘perfectly practical’? To my mind, it’s anything but. I won’t bother to repeat all of the comments that went before that echo this. Please, elaborate.
If you have access to a navigable river, and favorable laws, it’s a perfectly practical alternative to sleeping on a park bench – or at least it would offer a choice.
Considering how damnably upset the majority get about having homeless in their public parks, it wouldn’t take much imagination to predict what would happen when a flotilla of homeless-canoes begin to ruin the appeal of upper-class waterfront homes. So, maybe it’s not practical in the long term.
Yup. the poor folks trying to live on crummy houseboats are already learning that lesson in the Portland OR area.
Um, no. Just no. There is nothing good that can come of this.