A cabin designed by Cal Poly Pomona students and being displayed at the L.A. County Fair provides a glimpse of the future of camping in California.
As part of the work by the state Parks Forward initiative, architecture graduate students were asked to design cabins that would generate interest in the state park system and appeal to groups that don’t typically go camping, such as millennials and minorities.
A prototype of the 145-square-foot Wedge cabin will be shown in the Wilderness Ridge area of the fair. An exhibit in Exposition Hall 4 on the fairgrounds in Pomona will provide additional information on the Wedge as well as the other designs created in Associate Professor Juintow Lin’s spring studio.
Architecture students were given the opportunity in the fallout of the 2011 state budget crisis in which 70 parks were targeted to be shuttered. Although the closures did not occur, the independent Parks Forward commission was created to come up with proposals to address financial, operational and cultural issues facing the California Department of Parks and Recreation. The panel especially wanted to re-create the look of a traditional cabin to jumpstart interest in camping. Lin’s studio received the assignment earlier this year.
Lin’s students balanced issues of culture, sustainability, mobility and construction. Their designs all aimed to be inventive, low-cost and eco-friendly alternatives to traditional lodging.
Parks Forward members said at least one of the students’ designs will be located in a state park by 2015, but the hope is that the designs will be so well-received that they will be mass-produced and located throughout the more than 280 state parks.
The Wedge incorporates wood and glass for a more modern look, can fit one full-sized bed and a twin-sized bunk bed, and also has plenty of seating. The cabin offers a 60-square-foot porch where occupants can get some shade on a sunny day. The cabin also meets Americans with Disabilities Act requirements.
The most prominent feature of Wedge is that its 4:12 pitch is also reflected on the porch, which accentuates the drama of the point, and provides for changing perspective views.
A prototype of the Wedge showcased in July at the California State Fair in Sacramento.
The L.A. County Fair, which is located at Fairplex, 1101 W. McKinley Ave., Pomona, runs through Sept. 28.
For more information, visit www.revampthecamp.com