The Walking House

Forget about haunted houses this Halloween. This year is marked by the arrival of a much more awesome structure: the walking house.

A few days ago, I read about this amazing-looking construction designed by architects and engineers from Copenhagen and Cambridge, Massachusetts. Beyond the fact that a prototype of the residence, with its cobweb-like black frame, looks slightly like the lair of an evildoer, the newly-designed concept really has nothing to do with Halloween. But it's such a wonderful concept that I just had to blog about it.

Built on six hydraulic legs that can walk, the house is perfect for evading floods. 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 took its maiden perambulation around rural Cambridgeshire at the Wysing Arts Centre in Bourn in the UK last week. Here's a piece about the house from the UK's Daily Telegraph. I wonder if the concept could one day be applied to concert halls, cinemas, galleries and theatres? That would be a real coup.

In other news, I'm traveling to Europe on Monday and will be gone for a few weeks. I'll be writing again upon return. Until then, dear readers, I'll wish you a happy Halloween and a misty and mellowly fruitful fall.