The Danish company Vipp has a 75-year tradition of making what are quite possibly the world’s most covetable pedal bins. Recently, the family-run enterprise has expanded its product line, with full kitchens and bathrooms. But nothing marks as dramatic a departure from its origins as the new Vipp shelter. The 55-square-metre all-inclusive getaway has been tailored to a T by the company’s chief designer, Morton Bo Jensen, who sees the shelter foremost as a product in line with most everything else he’s designed for the brand. “The shelter is built on a steel frame with a facade of painted steel – a material we have 75 years of experience in processing,” he says.
Constructed from two large modules and two smaller ones, the shelter is fully assembled in the facilities of Vipp’s manufacturing partners. It’s then shipped to wherever its new owner wants it (the company’s first client requested it be brought to his property in South Hampton, New York) and bolted together. Based on the location, the company will customize the foundation and the hookup to water, electricity and sewage.
Yet, the home is designed with passive strategies in mind. “If you are cold, you heat up the fireplace, centrally positioned in the shelter for an equal distribution of heat; if you are warm you slide open the parallel windows to create natural air-conditioning,” explains Jensen. “By locating the house in the deep deciduous woods,” – the prototype went up in southern Sweden – “we are able to take advantage of the leaves as sun shading. In the winter, when the trees lose their leaves, the building’s black exterior absorbs sunlight and, with the fireplace, there is a reduction in fuel consumption.”
Finished with a cladding of waterproof Protan, the shelter comes with everything you need – a full kitchen with fireplace, a bedroom loft, a sleek bathroom, and all the accoutrements and accessories for vacationing comfortably – in an über-stylish monochromatic palette. Think: lots of black and charcoal grey.
While it’s being sold as a getaway shelter – a “human recharging station” – the prefab structure is also a savvy way to show off Vipp’s products. Kaspar Egelund, the company’s CEO, explains, “There is no evident link between pedal bins, kitchens and shelters but enter the shelter and the philosophy is omnipresent, embodied in every item you see; the coherence in all objects is evident through the use of materials, subtle functional and aesthetic details and a common design language….Basically, we were contemplating how to stage our kitchen, bathroom furniture and accessories in the very best and unexpected way.”
Turning your product line into a plug-and-play environment that customers can use to escape the city – it’s not a bad way to promote your company.