Urban Camping
designers:
Import Export Architecten
client:
Import Export Architecture
location:
different locations
general contractor:
Victor Buyck Steel Construction
status:
completed in 2009
Urban Camping is a mobile, stacked camping construction in the public realm. It is inspired by the urban way of life and experience. Four camping platforms are like treehouses supported in the air by steel columns so that their elevated positions offer various views, exposure to the sun and experiences, as well as encourage social contact between the campers.
In some regards, the steel construction of Urban Camping can be regarded as a further research effort on the structural efficiency of the wind bracing used on Fragile Lab. The entire structure/construction was designed as a fully three-dimensional hinged unit. This allows the columns to be designed as very fine sticks. To link two or more floor slabs, six columns are needed to achieve a static structure. One less produces a mechanism that moves and turns, while one more results in a hyper static construction. The oblique columns create a dynamic architectural gesture but at the same time allow a rigid structure resisting wind forces. As in Fragile Lab, the wind bracing can be eliminated. The floor slabs have also been designed as a rigid frame, but this time made purely out of steel. The columns are attached by using special hinged connections. The undersides of the platforms are reinforced with fins for additional rigidity.
What started out as a structural necessity immediately became an architectural intervention: in this organically shaped steel structure the platforms were designed as the steel leaves of a tree with veins on the underside, and create a fictitious constellation above the heads of the campers.
client:
Import Export Architecture
location:
different locations
general contractor:
Victor Buyck Steel Construction
status:
completed in 2009
