A very particular house can be found on a steep hill overlooking the Côte d’Azur, between Menton and Monaco: we are speaking of the Cabanon, a pioneering construction dedicated to “stylish camping”, designed in 1951 by the visionary maestro Le Corbusier as a sign of love for his wife.
Therefore the intuition of inserting a holiday-friendly refuge in such an uncontaminated place, yet without renouncing comfort and aesthetic quality, dates back quite a few decades. When transported to our times, this challenge must inevitably include environmental sustainability needs, cutting edge technology and material transformation, to achieve a new mobile house model for glamping (the marriage of “glamour” and “camping”), the Queenslander [Zn30].
The project prepared by the LEV-ARCH studio, designed by the architect Luca Colombo in collaboration with Crippaconcept and Zintek, is the perfect synthesis for an experience that has nothing to envy luxury hotels in the Mediterranean bush or on the peaks of the Alps.
The apparent simplicity of this project hides a complete and autonomous organism guaranteeing a one-of-a-kind en plein air holiday experience in a specific and particular environment.
The scrupulous engineering project and the use of recyclable materials ensure a drastic reduction of waste levels during the construction stage and facilitate in loco transportation operations. A further element rising to the sustainability challenge is the roof-garden, sowed a sedum: the lawn provides inner heat balance for the building, avoiding overheating and ensuring the absorption of rainwaters, while also facilitating a harmonious insertion of the construction in the surrounding landscape.
The interior spaces of the Queenslander [Zn30] cluster evoke those of a luxury yacht, thanks to the use of fine woods for the boiserie. The chroming of the metal details are delightful for the eye, while the natural colors used for the fabrics forge the luminous spectrum of the environment. We are speaking of a special nest, protected by precious zintek® zinc-copper-titanium cladding: thanks to its non-deformable and long-lasting properties, zintek® gives the “mobile suite” a modern look.
A clean design, connecting the interior areas to the outside by means of a large window, ensures the dynamic nature and contemporary taste of the environment, which the aesthetic look of the cladding solutions leads to a subtle balance in the language of forms, simple and refined.
The clusters can be inserted in the landscape singularly or aggregated in a masterplan entailing the creation of shared fitness or wellness areas: the principle of sharing, typical of outdoor holidays, doesn’t have to mean renouncing the need for privacy or the opportunity to enjoy a luxury suite.
The project signed by the architect Colombo took on the challenge of the apparent simplicity imagined by Le Corbusier, reasserting the beauty of holidays in close contact with nature: these Mobile Homes allow tourists of the new millennium to enjoy a relaxing experience, where the material envelope becomes a medium ensuring protection and close contact with the natural surroundings, elevating the paradigm of glamping to new heights.
Materials of the future for future camping.
