Now we’re talking:
(via)
Something I’m definitely going to do when the finances improve is make a camper-van especially designed for tele-computer/digital-nomads like me. We need wifi, electricity, a view, and… surroundings that look a bit designery. Camper-van design at the moment is all itty bitty and not really the sort of thing you’d want to spend weeks on end slobbing about the place in, eating pizza and playing on the internets.
I haven’t the slightest idea what any of it actually says of course. What is that? Portuguese? The original designer is from Belgium I think… which is where they make chocolate, and… Belgians, mainly, and there’s nothing wrong with that. And chips. And beer. Belgians, chocolates, chips, beer and caravans that look like the Sydney Opera House. Utter genius.
ROFLcopter
Human Powered Helicopter
Excellent Car Ceiling
The End of Aptera: The difference between Open and Closed source
Guy makes own helicopter; Chops self into 150 million pieces.
Solar Cars
Gerbiling
At Night We'd Ride Through Mansions of Glory
Flywheel Batteries
On Addiction
And The Void Mooned Back...
The Spirit Of The World
A Machine to Steal Souls
More Anti Digital
Thync
Robotic Sensory Loops and Whatnot
Cartestian Robot Roundup.
Post-Scarcity Link-Dump
Servo Bender
Oh, my, God! Now we’re talking indeed! This looks a dream! I’ll have a Nick Taylor model with wifi and solar power, on a pretty plot of land with a view, a Vietnamese composting toilet system set up nearby, a solar heated outdoor shower nearby, and a large 2-car sized fabric yurt dome to house my workshop nearby. It has to be near a network of organic farmers and/or within range of picking up local farm fresh CSA’s for produce, dairy, and meats. And being within an hour’s drive of a world class medical facility would be a gracious touch.
Brother, that’s living.
He he – my needs are a little more basic – a good pizza place, a good sushi place etc etc.
For me at least, the point of this isn’t to go off into the wilderness, it’s to be able to afford to live in Stockholm, or London, or… um… Sydney – without having to go through the soul-selling that it requires just to rent a place now, and without being tied to any particular town.
Part of the reason I spend so much time up in the Baltics (or Eastern Europe) is that you can get a posh apartment for a month, right in the centre of the main cities for a fraction of what a tatty little box would cost for a week anywhere in um… old Europe.
But I’d like to spend more time in Scandinavia y’know?
I tend not to go places where there isn’t blanket wifi coverage – which tends to go hand in hand with good health infrastructure :) . I’m not about not paying taxes… just not paying rent, or interest.
Got’cha. I live in Los Angeles, which aside from glorious weather, I’m finding bleak these days; not pretty at least, very expensive and hard to navigate in all ways. I’ve not lived the places you have and so I might very well see what you mean if I were to know what they’re like.
As it is all I can dream of is a quiet, non-meth infested, quarry that’s comfortably near an interesting city center. I don’t go out at all at night, so a lifestyle circa 1864 would suit.
Yea – the first night I spent in LA I slept in the car funnily enough. “Such and such Sylvan Street” they said, “OK” quoth I, realising not, that LA for “street” is a slightly different concept from anywhere else in the world. By the time I got to number 23,500 everyone was gone. I once attempted to walk from Melrose to Century City as well, LOL. Mmm.. that took a long time. I gave up when I hit the pavement-free wilderness of the Beverly Hills foothills. Achieved minor notoriety for successfully flagging down a cab by waving my arms around. People don’t do that apparently.
But LA is exactly the sort of environment I’d have in mind… urban. That’s the other trouble with campers (and the thing above to be honest) is that “to just pull up anywhere” you need to have pretty good urban-camouflage, which means looking like a battered old transit van.
I lived in a van like this for a month or so in London back in the early 90s… so I’ve got a vague idea of what’s involved… but… I also have daftly expensive tastes. On the inside it’s got to be a beautifully designed zen-garden type thing. A 70s Shaggin-Waggin for the 00s geek, who’s internalised about 30 years of Australian House-and-Garden magazines.
The other minor problemette is that I’ve started selling those caliper things now, so I kindof need access to power-tools… and possibly a postal address. Physicality is so complicated.
The text on the acriacao.com site says something like this:
“Neither tent nor motor home, this new creation from award-winning Belgian architect Axel Enthoven is a luxurious mobile vacation home that resembles the Sydney Opera House. Dubbed ‘Opera’ this vacation house fabricated in canvas uncurls from a wee trailer and and includes two beds, a bathroom, hot and cold water, LED illumination, heated air, espresso coffee and a private veranda.
This nomadic tend for contemporary living offers the quality of a luxury yacht combined with the experience of the outdoors under canvas. Constructed in artisan style with fine materials, including wood, stainless steel and leather, it offers freedom in nature with one hundred percent luxury. The project will be in exposition at the Design at Work show in Kortrijk, Belgium, next month.”
As I don’t actually speak Portuguese (the only word I know for sure is liquidificador) this is an imperfect translation. I just used my Spanish and interpolated the rest. But it’s close enough for PR work.
Strike that last sentence. My wife says “It’s close enough for MARKETING work.” She’s in PR.