It’s a Porta-Potty. It’s an Off-Grid Charger. It’s Klumpen.

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The promise of off-grid living can often be found in the satisfaction of self-reliance. Why depend on city utilities when you could operate independently? And why let anyone, including large developers, determine when, where, and how you build?

These are questions Stockholm design firm Himmelfahrtskommando has been asking, and in response, has developed an off-grid prefab structure meant to empower small builders to create homes at their own pace. Klumpen is essentially a movable power source with utilities, including a kitchen, Wi-Fi, a shower, and a toilet. Ahead of its official launch in September of 2026, firm cofounder Pelle Backman shares more about how the 75-square-foot unit is designed for what he and his firm partner, Ebba Hallin, call "primitive urbanization."

Tell us a little more about your studio.

Himmelfahrtskommando is a Swedish utopia-driven art, architecture, and invention practice. We’re kind of antimodernist in the sense that we almost never design anything as a solution. Most architects are taught to base a design on a set program, but that always seemed so limited and undemanding. Architecture should bewilder more than clarify! We cherish open ends.

How did the Klumpen come about?

Klumpen began as a part of an artistic research project called "Visioner i Norr." We wanted to accommodate smaller developers and made a suggestion to allocate small lots of land before any major infrastructure investments were made.

Klumpen is a catalyst for boosting slow but immediate growth. Instead of 10 years of planning everything in detail and having a big company build it all in one go, we were looking for constant, slow, and specialized growth. Urban off-grid building will give us more resilient societies. We want to boost "primitive urbanism," which will make future cities more local in every way.

What are its features, and what advantages does it provide to someone interested in off-grid living?

Klumpen enables you to cook, wash, shower, and use the bathroom while also charging batteries and accessing Wi-Fi. It also provides heat and enables connection to other units so you can focus on building a living space without worrying about technical infrastructure. Think of Klumpen like a cupboard of utilities and the only real room, at its center, is the shower. The structure is built around a tech core which is clad by the upper structure that carries the solar panels and water collecting surface.

Why a pyramid?

The pyramid idea came from our kids who wanted something to poke a hole in the sky with. Since that is also our aim, we borrowed their idea.

Also, we saw its potential in off-grid situations, and we wanted a strong visual presence somewhere between very primal and high-tech. So our main inspirations have been seeds, eggs, and rocks, but we also looked at early religious architectures like ziggurats as well as lunar exploration vehicles. We wanted a timeless body, and to us, it looks like a rock with a cell membrane.