This modular, nomadic weekend dwelling for Cal Poly’s 2007 Design Village competition responds to the year’s “Living Machine” theme. Competition rules stipulate that the structure be carried by hand one mile from a campus staging area through Poly Canyon to the Village and erected in an afternoon.

Design Village is an annual invitational competition hosted by Cal Poly. Teams from as far as Massachusetts bring their ambitious structures to see who best responds to the year's theme. That of 2007 is Living Machine.

Our six-person team of architecture students sought a low-impact, repeatable modulating frame designed for a hillside. The functional aspect would be stowing the cot frames to free up social space during the day.

We considered materials as 'found objects of the technosphere'whose collective lightness could attest to an achievement in material conservation. At the same time this principle was extremely suitable to the mild Central Coast climate.

The Puppeteers spent two weeks testing and constructing the scheme. The morning of the competition we walked the units from the architecture building down to the staging zone (not shown) and through the canyon. It is not permitted to use a vehicle for this transit.

The day of judging was pleasant. A mild breeze carried voices up from the village to where we invited visitors relax and chat after the climb. It rained one night, when we broke out triangular side panels and stayed pretty dry. We took no awards, maybe because we set up beyond the village boundary, but we enjoyed the fruits of our labor.