The Elusive Dream of Vertical Urban Trailer Parks (2018) | Hacker News Reader

The Elusive Dream of Vertical Urban Trailer Parks (2018)

99percentinvisible.org

32 pointsChuckMcM16 comments

In the discussion of people living in there cars I mentioned the idea I had started exploring of a vertical RV park. Of course no idea is "original" :-) I found this as a pretty interesting discussion of previous efforts.

I hate to do this. You’re a YC icon. There is a place like here. Their is ownership like heir. I apologize, but I know you can do better.

Hey, that's a pretty neat mnemonic!

Noted. And it's true, I should work harder at it, I just get tired of fighting with my phone's keyboard. No excuse though.

This isn't quite my vision, but it is close. Something like a shipping container but wider and probably not as long. But yes a full apartment in a single unit, this is then hoisted and attached to a backbone structure, this structure has a permanent crane affixed to the top. Apartment buildings would no longer be normal buildings, but a place to rest your semi-nomadic structure in/on. Moving is easy because everything moves with you. But more importantly, you own the structure you are living in, so you have full control over your environment.

Apartment as docker container, as a service. I like it.

Near me a company is building a 44 and a 38 story building by building the core, then having the cranes lift themselves onto the core and now lift prefab units in place. Not the same, as the prefab units will be permanently connected, but quite fascinating to watch..

Oh wow, that sounds s cool. Could you post some pictures on imgur?

A blade server apartment that could also be put on a trailer, with an extra box of batteries and water tanks on the front or the towing vehicle.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nakagin_Capsule_Tower. In Japan, with really small containers:

”Each capsule measures 2.5 m (8.2 ft) by 4.0 m (13.1 ft) with a 1.3 metre diameter window at one end and functions as a small living or office space. Capsules can be connected and combined to create larger spaces. Each capsule is connected to one of the two main shafts only by four high-tension bolts and is designed to be replaceable.”

It also hasn’t been that successful:

”Although the capsules were designed with mass production in mind, none of the units has been replaced since the original construction.”

I have seen drawings of futuristic ideas where entire apartments are flown into high-rise buildings, but building those isn’t economical at the moment, and that’s an understatement.

I also doubt we would build them if we could. If we had free energy and safe cheap flying, I suspect urban sprawl would increase tremendously, as you wouldn’t even need a road leading to your home. Cosmequently, people would move their homes to currently unreachable beaches, into the wilderness, etc.

How is this any different than filling a parking garage with trailers? There's just so much impractical about this. Any kind of open air "stack" would fail fire code horrifically if nothing else. Accessibility... Each floor needs ramps or elevators. You need booster pumps and PRV's so you get usable water pressure.

The price per square foot of mobile home is far higher than traditional buildings. This alone means we're probably better off with the pre-fab we already have. I can't see how this is economically viable on any way.

The closest were going to get is prefab building segments. Disney tried this years ago with their Contemporary resort. The rooms were all slid in from the sides and designed to be removable for refurbishment in the future. But Disney never did it because it's economically unviable

All I can see is a tornado hitting a park of these.

Ten years from now millions of people will live in all electric mobile homes that allow them to move from place to place and bring their apartment with them.

IF there is a plug and play standard for such things.

This got me curious about existing solutions that might be technologically adjacent. From poking around a bit I see that refrigerated shipping containers have a standard known as "reefer socket" (yes, seriously) for which suitably large/rugged distribution units exist, but they seemingly only provide electricity and not connections that could be used for water/sewer (some containers are described as water-cooled, but it's not clear to me how that works).

Shipping containers would be a good starting point for standardization. RVs have standard fittings for evacuating the black water tanks and taking on water.

It seems like the parts are there for building a relatively cheap format for people being able to own their living unit and ( at some expense ) relocating it. I have thought that with the engineering flexibility of electric drivetrains we'd see some innovation in terms of vehicle arrangements.

I'm really surprised nobody makes a set of drive wheels that attach to the corners of a standard TEU and let someone pilot it with a game controller.

Not quite for a standard TEU, but remote controller here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GWNNMnDa82o

Reply on news.ycombinator.com