Have you ever seen a semi truck carrying a large container, and wondered what was inside? Unless the box was plastered with bright colors, catchy slogans, or the logo of your favorite beer company, most of us simply tune them out and keep driving. The plain white 18-wheeler that you just passed could be packed floor-to-ceiling with industrial scrap or nuclear warheads, and you'd never know the difference without looking inside.

The inconspicuous nature of unmarked semi truck cargo boxes provides an interesting opportunity: what if that cargo container concealed your survival shelter and bug-out gear? Better yet, what if the container was your survival shelter? In the early stages of an emergency bug-out situation, driving around a high-end RV or motorhome will probably draw some unwanted attention, but an old semi truck hauling an ordinary-looking box might appear less conspicuous.

UK-based company Ten Fold Engineering has developed a quick-deploy mobile building design that travels on a standard semi truck. These Ten Fold structures self-deploy from the parked truck, expanding into spacious and versatile buildings without a need for builders, tools, or even a foundation.

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The expansion process is fast, uses minimal power, and reveals storage spaces where furniture and gear can be carried in transit. The 689-square-foot (64-square-meter) prototype seen in the video above is said to open and close in 10 minutes using only a hand-held battery-powered drill. The Ten Fold Engineering site says, “Everything you see in the unit at the end of the film was already inside it at the start, with room to spare.”

These relocatable buildings are adaptable to a number of purposes, from emergency response centers to mobile homes. They can be equipped with solar panels, additional rooms, or can even be stacked and joined to create larger structures.

As you might expect, the Ten Fold Engineering structures come at a substantial price. The only pricing information on the company's site is the phrase “from £100,000” — that means the basic models start at around $130,000 for those of us across the pond. Still, it's an interesting concept, and one we could see becoming more widespread in the future as the cost of this technology diminishes.

Written by Patrick McCarthy