Planning and Designing the Absent City: Campsites as Temporary Settlements

This book concerns the study of open-air accommodation facilities. The market evolutions allow us to look at these structures as temporary settlements characterised by a low-density dwelling and a close connection with natural elements and the landscape.

This new and different point of view is sustained by the tendency of outdoor tourism to go in the direction of temporary villages, and this tendency is directly related to ＂time＂ and ＂landscape＂. The landscape is the reason why the campsite is settled. The time is linked to the holiday season timing. Today, both are greatly influenced by introducing the ＂maxi-caravan＂. This removable living unit can be placed on the empty pitch, occupying the landscape without ruing the soil. By the settlement of maxi-caravans, the campsite is transformed from an empty landscape with tents to a temporary settlement, whose timing is divided between the seasonal timing of the campsite and the ＂timing＂ of the product and whose landscape is organised by the relation with the prevalent landscape and the internal one. The book’s core defines the outdoor facility structure, using Italy as the main case study. To identify design strategies, the book analyses temporary settlement examples (quick time) and projects from historic outdoor tourism (medium time). Finally, the last chapter reflects on open-air accommodation facilities by showing their applicability in the different contexts of the Refugee camps (long time).

The aim of this research is to enhance the theme of open-air accommodation facilities, highlighting the need to equalise the study of temporary settlements with that of permanent settlements. It will be of interest to researchers and students of planning, landscape and tourism.

Luca Trabattoni is an Associate professor at the University of Technology in Opole (Poland), belonging to the Department of Architecture and Planning since 2018 where he teaches landscape and interior design. He is on contract professor for the courses of Architectural Composition at the Polytechnic of Milan and at the University of Pavia, Faculty of Engineering and Architecture and for the course of Materials Technology at the NABA (New Academy of Fine Arts) in Milan. He is a freelancer and co-founder of ＂ARCò architecture and cooperation＂ that study the approach to emergency architecture in relation to the theme of sustainability, realizing building all over the world. ARCò’s work has been published in various international journals and has received numerous awards. He collaborates with the AUDE research laboratory of the University of Pavia co-coordinating the research project on Mobile Homes. He found ＂Camp Design and Architecture＂ to develop the theme of landscape design for campsites.