Penelope Pop-Up   refugee tents

pop it up and settle – fold it, wear it and walk – weave your path through life

The tent is set up in one move, it Pops Up to its final shape. When it gets folded it becomes so small, that it can be carried on a person’s back, without limiting the range of its body’s motion.

It has the Inner, the Middle and the Outer Skin, three different fabric layers. Each layer has its own properties, responding to different weather conditions and to different surrounding situations and landscapes (ex. dense or sparse tent setting in camps – beach, mountain, trees, town). Using the layers in the appropriate way, the ideal microclimate is created inside the tent.  

The Outer Skin, that protects against weather conditions, detaches totally from the frame of the tent and becomes Coats for two adults and two children. This way the burden of the tent is shared between the members of the family and it still protects them while carrying it.

In Odyssey, Penelope while waiting for Odysseus to return to Ithaca, wove her web every day and unraveled it every night, it was her strategy to delay time… The refugees are often trapped in places, waiting for a situation to change, without knowing how to spend this waiting time. The frame of the tent can be turned into a loom, they can weave on it using the garbage they find on their way. The woven textiles can be spread in and out of the tent, giving it extra comfort and its own identity.