Expert chassis manufacturer AL-KO has teamed up with start-up tiny house builder WoodenValley to help it create sustainable units to be used as mobile education spaces.
German company WoodenValley is the brainchild of Robert Böker and Kamila Pasko, who came up with the idea of creating tiny houses that can serve as places where people can learn more about sustainability, the circular economy, and the role tiny houses play in both topics.
The models it has designed are built on the AL-KO low-loader chassis and also use AL-KO’s stabiliser coupling system, which ensures they are easy to transport by greatly reducing swaying between the towing vehicle and the tiny house when it’s being moved.
WoodenValley plans to build up to 16 of these tiny houses to travel around Germany and spread the message of sustainable construction, with one of its existing models having already travelled more than 5,000km around the country.
The message of sustainability
Robert and Kamila reconnected their friendship at a school reunion and quickly realised they had a common goal.
Kamila had an idea to create a small building that could be used as a learning space for young people to experience the circular economy. Robert, who studied automotive mechatronics at the TU Dresden, was immediately enthusiastic, and the pair founded WoodenValley GmbH in December 2021.
“The building [the WoodenValley tiny house] demonstrates how essential cycles – such as water, electricity, and heat – can be directly experienced and understood within the tiny house,” explains Robert.
“This hands-on knowledge helps make such cycles easier to comprehend. And that goes for all age ranges.”
The first-hand experience of how the circular economy and climate-positive construction work is best understood by being inside a product of it – something WoodenValley have experienced with both young people and adults. They tour the mobile learning space around different companies and schools to communicate their message.
The perfect partner
AL-KO Vehicle Technology got involved in this project in an unusual way: Robert’s father was a big fan of the company’s products due to his passion for camping. He recommended them to Robert once they began work on the first tiny house, and AL-KO’s chassis quickly emerged as ideal for a tiny house on wheels that required a stable foundation.
Not only was AL-KO’s low-loader chassis a perfect match in terms of its performance, but it also met many of the sustainability requirements that tiny houses like this should have.
The ethos behind tiny houses such as this is that everything should be made as sustainably as possible, using materials that can be separated and recycled at the end of the product’s lifespan and also being screwed and nailed together for that same reason, so no glue should be used.
Al-KO utilises production processes that reduce energy consumption in the supply chain, and it also has specialism in many different materials, deciding on steel as the best construction option thanks to it having the best carbon footprint in terms of production and recycling.
“We are proud to support sustainability through our chassis solutions,” says Mircan Ünsal, Product Manager at AL-KO.
Images: © WoodenValley & MzH – Mark Meyer zur Heide
