
The Elusive Dream of Vertical Urban Trailer Parks (2018) - ChuckMcM
https://99percentinvisible.org/article/mobile-home-skyscrapers-elusive-dream-vertical-urban-trailer-parks/
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ChuckMcM
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.

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jfoutz
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.

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ChuckMcM
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.

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sitkack
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.

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vidarh
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..

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

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spricket
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

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timbit42
All I can see is a tornado hitting a park of these.

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olefoo
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.

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0xcde4c3db
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).

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olefoo
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.

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

