Get Your Life on Track
I’ve covered more than my fair share of compact, mobile homes. More often than not, the mobility is expressed on pavement, whether the home is affixed to a bicycle, a truck chassis or being towed around by an automobile. Very rarely–as in never–have I featured homes that move on old shipyard railway tracks. But that’s exactly what I’m doing today with the aptly named “Small House on Tracks” project by Polish architecture students Tomasz Zablotny and Paweł Maszota.
SMoT (my acronym, not theirs) is actually not meant as a universal housing solution, but rather a site-specific one for the Gdańsk Shipyard, a decaying industrial center that the project’s creators want to help revitalize into an artist colony.
The “houses” are actually expandable housing units, each fulfilling a different role. The units only measures 5’ W x 6.5 L x 8’ H, all the easier for moving on a truck bed or storing when not needed. They are filled with flat packing furniture that folds into the wall.
Zablotny told Dezeen that they are not necessarily meant for full time residency, but rather to provide “comfortable space[s] for artists, interns, workers or simply those to whom the unique atmosphere of the site would appeal.”
I’m not exactly sure how SMoT would have appeal beyond temporary housing in old, disused industrial complexes–of which there are a few, particularly in Europe and the US, which are no longer manufacturing powerhouses. But I’m a sucker for housing that can be expanded and contracted according to the needs of the day.
See and read more on Dezeen