Urban Camping

The Urban Camping installation, which import.export developed in collaboration with Mouton, is a mobile, stacked camping initiative, offering shelter on four platforms that are positioned one above the other like tree houses. The elevated decks offer various views, exposures and experiences while also encouraging social contact amongst the users of this urban biotope.

The project sprang from research that import.export Architecture conducted in the context of an exhibition at the Designcenter De Winkelhaak in Antwerp. This explored how the burgeoning demand for city trips and the boom in low-budget travel might provide a catalyst for alternative models of accommodation. The Urban Camping was recently installed on the old military site of the Hoge Rielen. Here, campers and visitors can enjoy sleeping with a view over the sweeping forest. The Urban Camping project not only offers views across a city or landscape, but also generates a performance by the users. For passers-by, it is almost like viewing a living sculpture.

This text is based on the essay of Petra Pferdmenges, which has been published in the Flanders Architectural Review N°14. When Attitudes Take Form