$50K Expandable Home Triples in Size at Camp, Can Be Towed with an SUV

This is Octopouse, a not very creative mix between "octopus" and "house" because this home can make itself small when it needs to be, much like an octopus. It's a container-like unit that rolls on its own wheels, so it can be towed from location to location with a daily driver like a 4x4 SUV. Then, once it arrives at its destination, it blows up in size and becomes a full-fledged family home.

The idea of pods that expand in size in camp mode isn't new. Recent years have seen a proliferation of alternative homes, mostly of them mobile and a few of them incorporating expanding features. Prefabricated homes or repurposed container units have also grown more popular.

What makes the Octopouse truly special is that it's able to combine features from many other alternative housing solutions and, perhaps more importantly, a price tag that gives it the upper hand over competitors. The bad news is that it's not in production just yet, so all this talk about affordability is purely hypothetical for the time being.

Octopouse was designed and built by Kamal Kadhar in his village in India, with help from locals with no experience whatsoever. He doesn't have a background in engineering or construction either, but he tells content creator Kirsten Dirksen that he grew up on his father's scrap metal yard and always played with discarded items, trying to give them new functionality.

He worked for ten full years on the Octopouse, investing eight years' worth of Ubering in London, UK, and other European cities into the project that spanned two prototypes. He doesn't put an exact figure on the work he's done so far, but he does say that, over the years, even his family started begging him to stop. He's happy he didn't.

The basis of the Octopouse is a container-like unit measuring 24 feet by 7.5 feet (7.3 meters by 2.2 meters), from which you fold out various sections until it triples its size. Though made of metal, each section can be opened by hand thanks to stainless steel hinges and a manually-activated winch, with no need for cranes or any other type of heavy machinery. The base unit is relatively lightweight even though it packs everything you need in a home, so you can tow it with an SUV.

Kadhar explains that he deliberately avoided hydraulics or electronic components in the build because he wants future owners to be able to fix whatever's wrong with the house without requiring additional support. They wouldn't get any if the home was in a remote location either way.

At camp, before expansion, the home sits on leveling jacks, so it doesn't require a foundation or even an even surface. The expansion itself takes under one hour, at the end of which you get a proper home, including an equipped kitchen and a full dry bathroom. Everything from plumbing to wiring is built-in, even in the fold-out kitchen.

Features include a main bedroom with a Murphy bed and an ironing station, an office that can double as a guest room, a sizable bathroom with walk-in shower and glossy tiles, and the kitchen, which comes with a laundry station and all the necessary appliances. Finishes are a bit on the flashy side, with plenty of mirrored surfaces and overworked wood details, but we reckon these would be optional in a mass-produced unit.

In camp mode, the Octopouse offers 300 square feet (28 square meters) of living space and could be rendered fully off-grid. The entire expanded roof is covered in solar panels to that end, but there's no mention of whether any kind of tank for water is included. The downside is that the home is not livable in travel mode.

Kadhar says that he'd like to take the Octopouse into production and offer assistance to first buyers so they'd be able to lead less stressful lives. He imagines a house like this could sell for prices upwards of $50,000, but he doesn't go into details – details that, in this context, would make all the difference.

As an idea, though, the Octopouse comes across as the perfect home: it's highly mobile, it's spacious though with a small footprint when traveling, it generates its own power, and it ships fully furnished and ready to move in. Even better, the Octopouse is all these things at a very low entry price. Call it a unicorn, and you wouldn't be wrong because right now, the Octopouse is as real as one.