There are many marvelous ideas for turning old buildings into new habitable structures, but unless the existing units are modular the plans can rarely apply to multiple similar structures over time. A creative variant on the now-classic cargo container home concept, this rather brilliant design idea by Aristede Antonas not only can be used and reused like a standardized sea shipping container, but suggests a possible upcycling strategy for what may well be another (even-more) quickly-dying breed of land vehicle.
Every piece is in place to convert these giant cylinders into cozy mobile homes without too much trouble. For starters, each unit comes in two pieces – the truck front could be detached while the back bed is parked somewhere, perhaps even within a community of similar conversions. Also, these spaces are already by necessity structurally stable, completely waterproof and well-insulated.
Of course, it would not hurt to add some skylights and windows – nor would it be possible to avoid cutting into the hulls to create doorways. However, all in all, fitting an old oil tank with built-in bedroom, bathroom and minimalist living room furniture would obviously be much easier than trying outfit a more typical mid-sized truck or extra-large car for residential purposes.
The typology of a gas-carrying truck is most directly tied to our use of fossil fuels, but if you take the green theme to a further extreme: one could imagine that by using more local liquids (milk, etc… ) the need for long-term transit vehicles to ship these would also diminish. In short, sustainability and eco-friendly living calls for less transportation in general … which would make a massive number of these trucks available for this kind of awesome adaptive reuse project.
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