RCA graduate Daniel Durnin has designed a boat that allows visitors to the capital to ‘camp’ on its canals and rivers. The wooden-framed boat features two bicycle-style wheels at the back and a smaller wheel at the bow to enable easy manoeuvring on land. A canvas cover reflects the tents from which the design draws its inspiration.
“The project positions itself between the convenience of a hostel and the mobility of a tent, allowing the user to choose where they stay by allowing them to set the scene in which they want to spend time,” says Daniel, who has first-hand experience of living on a narrow boat in the city.
Seeking overlooked parts of London in response to the city’s growing population, the designer hit upon the idea of creating temporary accommodation that utilised the canal network originally developed as transport during the industrial revolution.
“We know the Thames and London’s parks but canals are often overlooked as a place of nature and tranquillity,” he told coadg. “I wanted to celebrate the nature and beauty that is within everyone’s reach.”
Daniel is not alone in seeking temporary accommodation solutions that enable people to reconnect with nature in the heart of major cities. Thomas Stevenson’s ‘Bivouac’ comprises six lean-to tents on a New York rooftop and comes with an invitation to bring sleeping bags and food to share, along with a request to leave electronics behind.
The project, which draws on the design language of traditional barges and could be made in recycled aluminium if produced on a larger scale, was developed to appeal to the 1.2 million people camping regularly in the UK, but the designer concedes that it could also be a useful solution for young people struggling to get on the housing ladder, those who commute long distances for low paid jobs in London and the homeless: “The London housing crisis is a huge issue that is affected by many factors, [and] I can see how the Waterbed could be adapted to cater for other uses,” he says. A 36{ff546b69e23b1524d799f96c6ba7a638e1f677053b0a2a1568b05315fd5f8fc7} increase of Londoners living aboard boats in the last five years suggests he might be onto something.
But beyond practical issues, he also hopes the projects will prompt people to review their surroundings. “Hopefully people will at least take away a thought about how to revaluate their own surroundings in everyday life, and to find the beauty and value in what they have around them,” he says, explaining that the project might encourage people to make better use of the waterways that many global cities are built around.
Daniel’s Waterbed is on show at Sustain RCA until 02 October 2015.
Further reading for the especially geeky:
- interview :: made by michael
- interview :: nordvink
- interview :: james molkenthin
- interview :: richard hardy
