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BMW's Designworks studio, and adventure clothing company The North Face, have shown off a camping concept at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES). If your idea of camping is a pop-up tent, baked beans, and some guitar strumming, then have we got news for you...
For a start, the 'lightweight camper concept' as co-designed by the two teams features The North Face's new 'FutureLight' material, which it claims is "the world's most advanced, breathable, waterproof material."
Secondly, and because this is the CES and not the ideal camping show, there's a tech element to the design process. "We combined both physical and digital worlds to showcase this material, ensuring the holistic vision of the brand was clearly communicated, while giving people a real 'hands-on' experience," said Laura Robin, Designworks LA Studio Director. "Thinking about extreme performance in new and unexpected ways from our experience of working across multiple industries, helped us to provide consumers with a unique and never before seen insight into the very heart of the material and its key attributes."
Inspiration came from the original 2008 BMW 'Gina' concept - a Z4-esque sports car that actually used braced fabric to create moving, changing bodyshape. Like the Gina, the FutureLight camper uses a fabric-over-frame construction, but in this case it's a geodesic frame, renowned in physics as being one of the best combinations of light weight and strength.
The FutureLight material actually has nano-holes in the fabric, which allows air to circulate through the tent, while still keeping it totally watertight while inside there's a clever double-deck sleeping layout.
It's not the first time that BMW has branched into tent design - you can buy a factory fit pop-up tent which fixes to the roof of your MINI Countryman, and we've actually slept in one. Verdict? Pretty comfy really. Expect to see similar collaborations between BMW and The North Face in the future.