Home from Home - Wysing's Walking House

Wysing Arts Centre in Cambridgeshire has been the focus of worldwide media attention thanks to a unique new contribution to the long history of nomadic culture – the Walking House.

Created by Danish artist collective N55 http://www.n55.dk, the ten-foot high structure can move across different terrains at 60 metres per hour on its six legs. Powered by wind and solar power, the hexagonally shaped pod has facilities to accommodate up to four people including a living room, kitchen, toilet, bed and wood stove.

The Walking House is a result of a project in which N55 worked with a travelling community in Cambridgeshire to understand more about both its current situation and the long tradition of mobile housing solutions within the Romani culture.

In the  manual  for the Walking House, N55 write: “After an initial meeting with one of the groups, it was clear that the traditional nomadic culture was disappearing fast and the Romani people were settling down and living as a marginal group with all the problems that goes with this situation.

“What was left appeared to be a brutalized culture fighting to survive in a hostile environment becoming increasingly hostile itself. So we decided to see if it would be possible simply to keep a distance to the current situation and maintain an overview of the benefits of a nomadic culture and try to suggest new means that would enable a nomadic life in a symbiotic way with the surroundings.”

Taking two years to design and manufacture, the Walking House is a versatile model that could be adapted to meet different needs. Specialised modules could be created to house different forms of production such as greenhouses, fish farming or mini-factories. By joining a number of modules together, N55 even envisage the creation of a Walking Village which could sustain a small community.

Alongside its environmentally sustainable credentials, the Walking House also asserts a strong ideological challenge to mainstream thinking in relation to land and property. The manual reads: “The Walking House requires no permanent use of land and thereby challenges ownership of land and suggests that all land should be accessible for all persons.”

Donna Lynas, Director of Wysing Arts Centre, said: ““The Walking House is an artwork that Wysing commissioned. We have been working with N55 for the last two years. They originally applied to do an artists’ residency in a programme that was funded by the Paul Hamlyn Foundation. The programme was designed to help us get to know our neighbours better around Wysing – which is located in a rural area some eight miles from Cambridge.

“As artists, N55 simply want to propose ideas for an alternative future that can be taken up by anyone who wants to use them. And as artists all their work is also concerned with aesthetics and each piece is an individual artwork.

“We are delighted with the outcome of the project both with the public response to the Walking House on site here at Wysing and the phenomenal press response worldwide from China to Australia and beyond.”

This innovative new take on the travelling lifestyle has captured the imagination of people worldwide, having been featured in publications including  the Guardian, Times, Daily Mail, Daily Telegraph, the Sun, over 200,000 You Tube hits, ITV, BBC, Chris Evans Drive Time, Good Morning America, ABC, and China Daily.

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