The latest innovation in mobile homes presented by Crippaconcept is called Helios. As is now becoming tradition, the stage for the official debut was the Milan Design Week, where the new proposal from the Italian company was exhibited for a few days at the ADI Design Museum. The culmination of the event was reached last April 18, when Crippaconceptbrought together numerous exponents of the world of Italian and European open-air tourism to discover the role and environmental, economic, and cultural impacts of the sector in the country.
On the occasion, the Honorable Barbara Mazzali, Lombardy Tourism Councilor, underlined how her region expresses 30% of all Italian design and how tourism closed 2023 with 51 million overnight stays and 19 million presences, with a growth of 17 percent compared to 2019. “Tourist flows need to get out of the iconic streets and try new experiences”, she commented when speaking of open-air tourism.
Alberto Granzotto, President of FAITA FederCamping Nazionale, instead remarked how “tourism is a complex job, but it is clear that the development of an innovative product is one of the elements that allow us to attract an audience that does not know us“. For Luciano Galimberti, President of the Industrial Design Association, “design is a strategic and intelligent lever for development linked to sustainability which has always had particular attention in the open-air world“.
The tourist living of the future
The Helios living module, developed over about 40 square meters, was created in collaboration with Matteo Thun & Partners, recreating an inspirational open-air context dedicated to the (tourist) living of the future. With the architecture studio, Crippaconcept has started a new path of reflection and design: from the subtraction of spaces to the demand for flexibility in the needs of those who live there; from the chameleon-like ability to change, to the co-presence of well-being at work and balance in private life. Helios by its nature is removable and can therefore be relocated in the camping village landscape without ever losing its peculiar characteristic: the dialogue with nature.
“We started this adventure 13 years ago and being in this museum today is a point of arrival, given that we have worked on two aspects in particular: emotions and design,” said Sergio Redaelli, CEO of Crippaconcept. “A mobile home like Helios expresses a new concept of hospitality and welcome. I consider the collaboration with Matteo Thun and Benedetto Fasciana a goal and a starting point for our activity dedicated to the diffusion of architectural culture throughout our sector. Designing temporary housing solutions has no less value than designing permanent domestic solutions, and the fact that they are intended for experiences for a limited time must guarantee quality even more and must not result in a hasty search for spartan and banal solutions“.
The connection with nature
“Helios is not just a project, but a vision of living on the go,” explained architect Benedetto Fasciana, Associated Director of Matteo Thun. “It is a nomadic architecture that reflects, with natural materials, its insertion into an open-air context. We have optimized the internal spaces in 40 square meters. We wanted a large veranda to experience the house externally and therefore we created a very large window structure to create this connection. The materials are all linked to the context, they are in relation with nature. We have created a system in which we can change materials and finishes based on where the mobile home is placed.”
“The meeting with Crippa was exceptional, but also difficult”, concluded Matteo Thun, Founder of Matteo Thun. “Keep the bones change the dress: with this philosophy we have declined Crippaconcept products in three different versions. Helios offers conscious luxury in a mobile structure: it is a flexible and modular living space that simplifies the complexities of building, taking the idea of microarchitecture even further.”
A perfect place
The meeting in Milan, moderated by Simona Tedesco (director of Dove magazine) also saw the presence of numerous operators in the sector: Professor Carlo Berizzi, Architectural & Urban Design, Coordinator AUDe, University of Pavia; Francesco Giondi, CEO of Club Del Sole; Elisa Arnetoli, Commercial Director of Human Company; the architect Rossana Pellegrino, Operations Director of Laghi Nabi; Valentina Rappoldi, Administrator of Lago Maggiore Camping; Umberto Maccario, CEO of Zoom; Sarah Dittmann, Marketing Manager at PiNCAMP; Alessandro Mallo, Head of Minibond and Basket Bond Unicredit; and Giuseppe Serra, Innovation Process Manager Crippaconcept. Thanks to their testimonies, the presentation of Helios found a perfect place in the broader scenario of the open-air world, above all for the benefit of the public of guests and observers of the sector.
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