January 20, 2020 – A collaboration between AML, Architectural Maker Lab of the Department of Civil Engineering-Architecture of the University of Pavia, and CrippaConcept has produced the very first book in Italy that tells the story of the glamorous camping phenomenon and mobile homes for outdoor tourism, from the origins to future prospects.
Mobile Home per il turismo all’aria aperta. Storia evolutiva (Mobile Homes for open air tourism. An evolutionary history). This book is the result of research conducted by Professors Carlo Berizzi and Luca Trabattoni, and it marks an important moment in their activities of analysis, development and communication of the concept of open air tourism in Italy, using scientific results to show how architecture dedicated to open-air holidays, such as mobile homes, was born. The book also points out a mobile home’s connection with the lifestyle habits of those who choose it. This publication is an authoritative and academic contribution to our industry. It speaks not only to experts but opens up to other curious and receptive readers who would like to know about the meaning behind the term “glamping” or “glamorous camping”, which has been covered in the media in recent years.
After more than a year of analysis, cataloguing stories, images and suggestions, the research was published by Il Vicolo del Pavone in Alessandria, and it defines what mobile homes are. They are examined from a more technical and construction point of view. The book features an in-depth and interesting historical excursus focussed on the stages that led up to the concept of glamorous open air tourism as we know it today. This is a story that talks about life’s habits that are innate to mankind, such as the need to move and migrate. At the same time, the book depicts mobile as well as immobile structures where we may choose to spend our holidays.
This publication does not fail to emphasize history; as the world left behind the two world conflicts, we experienced economic stability and peace, and as a consequence holidays and outdoor life had an influx of constructive creativity and new habits. The authors bring us to the present day, in which the need for open air is more and more important but it does also go hand in hand with an environmental sensitivity that raises the issue of safeguarding our planet Earth. A mobile home is able to satisfy this need without land consumption, and it can be sustainable by choosing certain materials and furnishings.
The book in detail
The book is divided into three sections. The first is a didactic and technical section on the mobile home concept. A second section is historical-architectural. The third focuses on the theme of eco-sustainability in terms of respect for land and new architectural and material applications, in order to continue to experience outdoor tourism at higher quality levels.
The important work of Carlo Berizzi, Associate Professor in Architecture and Urban Design-Department of Civil Engineering and Architecture at the University of Pavia, was emphasised by Luca Trabattoni, Associate Professor of Architecture Design at the Opole University of Technology (Poland) and Professor of Architectural Composition at the University of Pavia. In 2018 Trabattoni started and still directs an academic research project on mobile homes in collaboration with CrippaConcept.
This research resulted in the book Mobile Homes for open air tourism. Evolutionary history. The book has allowed us to get to the root of the what mobile homes are, both from a technical as well as a historical point of view, focussing on the issues of sustainability, non-soil consumption and applications that are addressed and delved into, as they are key issues in the design of spaces for living, meeting and landscaping. This is because through design we must of course raise current quality standards, above all to promote the specific potential of places that increasingly attract evolved tourists who are sensitive to their vacation footprint.
THE BOOK
Mobile Home per il turismo all’aria aperta. Storia evolutiva
(Mobile Homes for open air tourism. An evolutionary history)
Authors: Carlo Berizzi, Luca Trabattoni
With contributors: Sonia Luisi, Salvatore Nirta, Gaia Terlicher, Antonio Nuccio, Alessandro La Terza
Published December 2019
Published by: Il vicolo del Pavone, Alessandria, Italy
Cover price: 20 Euros
For sale in paperback format, in the main digital bookstores and in bookshops
Book cover © VitamineD. Milano
