Steampunk House on Wheels, Anyone?

Weary of the high-tech digital age? Nostalgic for a world of brass, wood, iron and steam? For the dials, rivets, cogs and pistons of classic Victorian design?

Well, you’re not alone. The Steampunk movement, which filters the modern world through late Victorian science fiction (H.G. Wells, Jules Verne) and Victorian technology and design, is just as keen on all that boiler plated vintage stuff as you are.

Here’s a frankly fantastic Steampunk house on wheels built by members of the Academy of Unnatural Sciences in Berkeley, California (a “DIY group of tinkerers, gearheads, and steam bohemians who fabricate steam-powered art pieces out of repurposed industrial detritus”).

Image: Christopher Michel

They describe it thus:

Neverwas Haul, a self-propelled 3-storey Victorian House, is made from 75 per cent recycled equipment and materials, with interiors, operating system, and collections from its travels around the world (i.e., oddities of the Jules Verne era including a Camera Obscura).

The Haul measures 24 feet long by 24 feet high and 12 feet wide and is built on the base of a 5th wheel travel trailer.

They sound a bit like steampunk estate agents, and it is, I fear, only a matter of time before someone suggests this as a low-cost alternative for first-time buyers … though I can’t see the Halifax being too keen to lend on one.

For more Steampunk lunacy get yourself over to the Oxford Museum of the History of Science - they’re currently running the first ever museum exhibition of Steampunk art and design.

Via: Apartment Therapy.