Every year in the United States, it’s estimated that nearly 700 people living on the streets die from hypothermia. In fact, hypothermia is the leading cause of death for people experiencing homelessness. 

To meet the needs of unsheltered neighbors, churches and libraries turn into warming shelters during the coldest months of the year — and many have recently expanded their capacity as overflowing homeless shelters are forced to turn people away. 

One solution to emergency housing includes Wheelly — a giant, one-wheeled cart that pops open to make a foldable, slinky-shaped shelter. 

Although permanent and supportive housing — and recovery-centered transitional housing — are the ideal solutions to chronic homelessness, there are unhoused people who need emergency shelter today — and need to live long enough to get the long-term help they deserve. 

“Wheelly [is] not meant to be the final solution to the problem, but to focus attention to the issue,” the product description for Wheelly reads. 

Other emergency shelter provisions have popped up in recent years, including igloo-shaped shelters from the Czech Republic, and foldable origami-inspired shelters from the University of Maine. 

However, unlike the rigid materials employed by other inventors, Wheelly is unique in that it can be converted into a moving storage cart, a sun-protected seat, or a working stall that can be used to sell crafts, wares, or food. 

The creators said that its flexible design was informed by “a city language.”

“Its thickness of 40 cm allows the cart even to pass every door,” the product description reads. “When needed — thanks to two folding tents — the cart becomes a protected and intimate shelter with an insulated sleeping space.” 

Each Wheelly also boasts a corporate logo on the side, with the founders reasoning that the advertising space makes the cart “less expensive” or even completely “free” to manufacture. 

When the ZO_loft creative team was interviewed by Best Design Projects and asked to choose a “favorite project” from their repertoire, they said that “Wheelly” outranked the rest. 

Recognizing that it was the team’s first design work, the founders said it was the best representation of the way they continue to approach projects.

“In architecture, as in the design, it doesn’t matter the scale you are working but the approach you have, the way you choose to solve the problems or requests,” they said. 

“Nowadays, when most of the time it’s economically difficult to live with your work and it is not easy not to compromise, we think it is important to keep recognizing oneself in a thought, in a trajectory and never miss [the] joy of what you do.”

‍

Header images by ZO_loft / Paolo Emilio Bellisario