Lee Fu

WanderOff

Environmental Design

2023

The decentralized lifestyle as a choice is reflected in the mobility feature of this project. Today, we still do not have a definitive answer on which lifestyle is absolutely correct and healthy. However, we currently lack access to diverse choices, and changes always come with significant costs. Our cities are not a closed realm, but the systems they provide often exert a force that prevents people from leaving. In the process of evaluating feasible practical actions, a mobile living space can take people out of the city and bring them back, reducing sacrifices people may have to make for a lifestyle change.This project is on the Canadian context, based on box car and Bombardier Bi-Level Cab Car which is used in Toronto as GO Train, and transformed into a mobile living space. The project runs as a six-month program that anyone can participate to experience temporary off-grid living with the potential for permanent living. It utilizes data from Alberta province to calculate energy demand and production. While complete off-grid living is an ideal state, it's a known fact that humans cannot completely isolate themselves from group. Therefore, this project also takes on the form of a small-scale eco-village, aiming to create a friendly and sustainable mobile community with different individuals.On the other hand, daily labor and participation in resource collection and consumption have significant meaning for humanity. The project does not take an anti-technology stance but rather tries to maximize the use of technology for environmental conservation. It provides self-sustaining energy production, including solar and wind power generation based on calculated data, and multiple backup energy sources to ensure the livelihood of individuals.

“It is the movement as well as the sights going by that seems to make things happen in the mind and this is what makes walking ambiguous and endlessly fertile: it is both mean and end, travel and destination"(Adams)”