A modern Bulgarian project gives people a chance to take their holidays wherever they choose to, away from the clamor and commotion of big resorts while enjoying all the comforts of their own home. Architect Hristina Hristova is author of Coleliba (derived from two words, hut and wheels) – a holiday home on wheels. It is built on a car platform hitched onto an automobile. Hristina describes its parameters and what makes it different from all other houses on wheels:

“There is a sofa bed, a kitchen, a bathroom and room for storing your personal belongings. The aim is to have everything you need with you, not more, that is why it is just 9 square meters. The idea of a house on wheels is nothing new, it was born in USA but took a very different turn. There, houses like this are used as a legal loophole – there are no taxes on mobile homes, so one doesn’t need to take out a mortgage. My idea is to use them as a holiday home. That is something different because the homes on wheels in other countries are built so as to save as much room as possible, so everything is cramped. What was important to me was to have room, to feel at home, not to be confined. There is nothing miniature-sized in the home, everything is standard size.”

Over time new ideas emerged, the project evolved and left the bounds of mere living space – an ecological diversity bio-museum, a mobile classroom… Hristina designed her Coleliba so as to offer a high quality of life:

“It is energy efficient because it leaves no environmental footprint whatsoever and that is a really good thing. Because that is the biggest problem in construction – having to cover a terrain in concrete - there is nothing like that in our house on wheels. Off-the-grid mobile homes have become all the rage, but that is not how my house is constructed. It is plugged into the central grids and can be used all the year round. It has thermal and hydro insulation and is micro-climatized for use in any season.”

To be able to use one’s mobile home in Bulgaria involves a lot of red tape. There are several different ways to do so, but Hristina and her husband have chosen to register the platform – the house is transported on top of it as cargo. The difficulty is in registering the houses and that involves what is known as a techno-test, applied to all non-standard vehicles. The problem is that it is usually applied to cars and other vehicles not registered in Bulgaria or makes of cars not imported in this country. Moreover, as it is individual, each house has to go through this complicated procedure. But Hristina is optimistic and says she believes that she

English version: Milena Daynova