The speed and ease with which portable shelters can be erected are often two of their key attributes. One recently designed portable shelter promises to be not only quick to erect, but nigh on effortless. The Pneumad folds out from a car trailer and inflates automatically.
This is one of a number of similar portable shelters that can be towed by a car. Others include the very basic Taku-Tanku made from two water tanks, and the build-it-yourself Teal trailer. Unlike these examples, however, the Pneumad isn't towed in its usable form. The structure is inflatable, and is stored in a special trailer during transport.
The trailer is made from steel and aluminum, while the inflatable itself is made from polyethylene and rip-stop nylon. When the user is ready to set up camp, the Pneumad is unpacked from the trailer, along with the the furniture to be used either inside or out, and laid out on the ground. The user then switches on the air pump, which inflates the structure in under a minute without any further input required. The user, meanwhile, is free to tend to other jobs.
Architecture firm Min | Day, which created the Pneumad, says it is aimed at the nomadic traveler. Its name is derived from the pneumatic means of inflating it and this potential use for nomadic travel. The Pneumad was designed for the Truck-A-Tecture show at the Kaneko gallery in Omaha. The exhibition, which ran this summer, explored concepts of mobile architecture.
Development of the Pneumad continues. Min | Day has received interest from a disaster relief housing manufacturer and from a public advocacy agency interested in its potential use as a mobile information center.
The video below provides an introduction to the Truck-A-Tecture exhibition.
