23 October — 30 November 2008

N55 is a collective of artists based in Denmark who see art as part of everyday life and who are particularly interested in architecture and design. It is a non-commercial platform and they document their works and interventions in the form of manuals, so they can be developed by third parties.


 

Their vision of a democratically organised collaborating body of self-reliant individuals is described in their writing and embodied in their designs. Most of their writing takes the form of manuals, and for Wysing Arts Centre they produced a Walking House manual. The manual was developed into a fully functioning object following Interact, an Arts Council funded placement.

Working closely with specialists at MIT Institute of Engineering in Massachusetts they built a fully functioning Walking House – the house walks using adapted linear actuators. The design allows the structure to move slowly at the same pace as a human can walk, about 5km an hour in real terms.


 

The Walking House was at Wysing throughout 2009 andtravelled to the Ruhr region of Germany for the International Capital of Culture 2010. It continues to travel to different communities across northern Europe.

Click here to visit N55 on You Tube and see the Walking House take its first steps.