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French firm La Maison Qui Chemine has built a travelling bookstore and living space that is set to tour around France. The bookstore, known as a Tiny House, is based on a 5.4m (17.7ft)-long trailer, and is 2.5m (8f.2ft) wide and 4m (13ft) tall, filled with whole-wall shelves of books and seating areas like a normal bookstore. A moveable wooden ladder allows access to books high up and also to living quarters, which include a double bed, a small kitchen and a dry toilet.

The company’s debut build was created for bookseller Jean-Jacques, who will take books to villages and towns across France that do not have easy access to stores that sell them. The finished construction cost EUR 38,000 (USD 43,000) and has no plumbing at the request of the bookseller. As in a conventional dwelling, the electricity of a Tiny House operates with an electrical panel and can be connected to a battery, which has the option to be recharged by solar panels or connected to the network. This means a water heater such as a balloon can be installed.

We have covered a number of transportation projects that aim to assist communities, including a crowdfunded rail service in Germany that offered tickets at half of the rate of the national rail provider, and wireless road technology that charges electric vehicles as they travel, encouraging greener transport. What other business types could benefit from a travelling outlet like the tiny bookstore?

Image source: La Maison Qui Chemine